arc of time

i’m sitting in a hotel room in san diego and there are about 10 hours to go before the curtain comes up on marathon number six. i’m listening to where the streets have no names, which is, and always will be my marathon song.

i’ve been thinking about the other five. vegas, 2006. georgia, 2007. vermont, 2007. georgia, 2009. marine corps, 2009. each one has its own story, each had its own reason for calling me to the starting line. every training season was different, some more challenging than others, but at the heart of every one is love. love for my sport, love for the people i trained with, love for the ground and love for myself.

this year is the first time i have ever really understood that thought. and i think that is what makes tomorrow so exciting. i could set a personal record tomorrow. i’m well trained, the course is fast and the weather is going to be perfect. i probably weigh 20 pounds less than i have for any other marathon.

then again i may not.

and it doesn’t really matter.

because tomorrow i run for the love of it. and when you do that, the run is all that matters.

i can’t wait.

6 days away from marathon number 6. i ran around 7 miles yesterday; the last long run of the season. the next run longer than just a few miles will be 26.2 in san diego.

the truth is i am primed. i am in better shape than i ever have been for in my life, and QED for any of my other marathons. i weigh less, have run longer and harder and am stronger than i have ever been.

this should be a really good race. i don’t know, nor really care how fast i am going to run it. my best time, achieved at the 2009 ing georgia marathon, is just over four hours and 41 minutes. do i think i can beat that? probably. it’s not really my goal though.

deep down inside, my goal is really to finish a lot stronger. i have always struggled in the final miles. i know they are tough no matter what, but i think i can do better. and that is my real goal. running strong through the tape.

we’ll see if it happens.

i am sure primed for it though.

it’s about time for a training update for the san diego marathon. honestly, i can’t even call it training yet. someone asked me yesterday how the training was going and my basic answer was, ‘it’s fine. doesn’t feel like traning yet. talk to me when we get above 12.”

our group training session was 7 miles last weekend, and 8 this. and that’s just how it is going this year. runs that long don’t even feel like runs. something has clicked in my mind now and even runs almost two hours long just don’t seem to be much of an issue anymore.

this is great and i am loving every minute of it, but it does take some of the shine off of our weekly training runs. it makes them seem almost not worth posting about. what IS worth posting about is my team. so many great people are on our summer team raising money for the leukemia and lymphoma society. any while these distances don’t rile me up anymore, there are so many people on our team for whom this is the longest they have ever run.

it usually happens around 6 miles. people who have run up to a 10k start passing their personal bests for distance. and i love that. i love running alongside people who are experiencing the joy of mileage for the first time. it’s one of the things i absolutely love about doing team in training.

i am going to try to keep up the posting though. i am having a blast this season and i want to keep writing about it. just need to keep on keepin’ on.

speaking of which, i would love a donation if you feel so inclined. you can always do that right here at my tnt fundraising page.

at team in training, georgia chapter we had our kickoff for the summer season last night. kickoff is something i love. it’s just too much to see the mixture of people. some are nervous about running 26.2 or 13.1. some are nervous about raising money for a cure. some are cocky and know they are going to do it. and of course, there are the returning members of the tnt family, for whom the kickoff is like a reunion.

our georgia chapter run coach tommy owens always talks about a hero being an “ordinary person doing something extraordinary.” one of the reasons i love kickoff is that i see ordinary people beginning the journey of doing something extraordinary.

becoming a marathoner was one of the most extraordinary things i have ever done. doing it and raising money for a cure took *that* to another level.

as i greeted each person and i saw the ones showing up to do the san diego marathon, i thought to myself, in june, i will cross the finish line with these people. we will all share an extraordinary moment, and right now they don’t even understand how amazing it will be.

in 5 months they will though. and i will have helped get them there. and so will you. all of you who have or will support me through encouragement, donations and cheering are supporting them to.

so how about it. i can think of two ways to help. first, you can donate in support of me right here. or second, have you ever actually thought about doing it? my friends at tnt are offering a pretty sweet deal for people i refer (just to note, i am not getting anything out of this, other than the satisfaction of knowing that you are going to love me for it.) check out the details here.

let’s do this, san diego.

i still don’t have a good graphic to use for the 2010 san diego marathon. i may in the end just use the team in training logo, but not quite sure yet. this season i am ‘mentoring’ for team in training. i am pretty excited about this. it means i will get a group of runners, many of them who have never run a marathon before, and i will help guide them through their training and fundraising as we go through the season and get toward the starting line.

mentors were a huge part of my success with the program last year, and it is pretty cool to have been selected to help out with the san diego team in training group in this way.

we are starting our training this coming saturday so things have been ramping up for sure. our big rah-rah kickoff meeting is tuesday, and the of course the big group training session saturday morning.

i spoke for a few minutes yesterday at an informational meeting. i talked about being successful raising money for the leukemia society as part of the program. it is definitely a challenging thing to wrap your mind around when you consider doing tnt. i know for me at least, i had no issues with the training, having climbed the ladder to 26.2 multiple times. the fundraising, not so much.

anyway, get ready for maps, and run reports and all the fun stuff that shows up on this blog when i start training for a marathon.

oh and speaking of fundraising, my fundraising page is up now, so how about stopping by and donating $10?

well, it’s official. marathon number six will be the 2010 san diego rock ‘n roll marathon. wow. i am pretty excited about it. i will be doing this marathon again with the georgia chapter of team in training.

after two successful seasons with tnt ga, i am going to be a mentor for this race, which means i will be helping first time participants with their training and their fundraising. i am pretty damn excited about that too, as it will give me a chance to give back to tnt, which has meant so much to me.

so here is the thing. if you have ever considered trying a marathon, why not think about signing up for san diego with us? the fundraising minimum is insanely low, less that i raised for the marine corps marathon by a wide margin and easily obtainable. it’s SAN DIEGO in june and training with team in training is absolutely one of the most rewarding things in the world. if you are interested let me know or attend an info meeting (schedule here.)

oh, don’t forget you get to train with me, which i hope for at least some of you, might actually be a benefit.

and just for fun….

i have been trying to figure out how i am going to write this race report. the marine corps marathon i just ran was one of the best experiences i have had with the sport of distance running. but i don’t know where to begin.

i guess i could start with the time. officially it is at 4:41:55. 9 seconds higher than my personal record set in georgia this year. i should be disappointed by that. i ran my strongest race ever, but i am in fact not. there are several reasons i could give for why i slowed down at the end, the trade show is spent three days on my feet at being one of them, but what’s the point? i am not winning anyway, and it’s the experience that matters. and in this run the experience was perfect.

to start with, this was the first run i had done with team in training georgia where i actually traveled with a team. what a great time that was. by the time i got in from vegas and the nacs show friday evening most of the team was already there. mom dropped me off in rosslyn at the marriot at the key bridge and i joined up with the rest of the team for dinner that night. we went to filomena’s, a great italian restaurant in georgetown.

the next day was filled with team meetings, an inspiration lunch and then early dinner and bed.

sunday morning i got up and realized the weather was going to be absolutely perfect. i walked over from rosslyn to the start line with my team and was blown away. i have never run a race with this kind of organizaiton. the marines had tents set up all over the place, there were massive amounts of people walking everywhere with a purpose. we walked past the marine corps war memorial and i thought, “that’s where i will be finishing.”

i was going to write a mile-by-mile summary, but it has been soooooo long now, and i just cannot seem to bring to force enough will to capture it. i am going to say this, some of the running was hard. i had been in vegas three days on a trade show and around mile 16 on haynes point, my legs began to feel it BAD and i slowed down dramatically.

and then at 18 i ran in front of the us capitol and that compelled me to the finish. the next 8 miles are a blur. i know physically they were tough, but i still loved it. every minute of it.

this one was the best. it was the best for the people and the setting and the team and all of that.

i love 26.2.

i’ll be back. san diego 2010.

total monthly mileage – 52.27
# of runs – 17
longest run – 3.56 miles
cumulative mcm training miles – 84.31
shoes: brooks glycerin 6’s
total shoe miles – 105.72

don’t forget to donate to the cause on my team in training page.

this weekend was intense. i stayed up much later than usual, owing to a conference taking place in town that i helped coordinate, and i ended up running three miles twice on saturday.

the first one was a downtown jaunt that i led for people at the conference who apparently decided getting up at 7 am and running was more fun that what everyone else was doing, which was either smoking some cigarettes or sleeping. then i bolted off to the river for my three mile team in training group training session.

i’m running good, considering how much i struggle initially with humidity and the grass pollen. i think this is going to be a strong season for sure. the trick will be reminding myself that starting at the bottom and building a base form scratch, even if i am in marathon shape, which i am, is a good thing, and not pushing the mileage or the speed too much.

we’ll see.

either way the six miles this weekend didn’t kill me, which we will take as a positive sign.

don’t forget to donate a dollar or two to my effort, which you can do right here.

you keep rockin’ and i will keep running.

wow.

i have been delaying writing this post, because i am not sure if i can put this run into words. if you follow me anywhere (twitter, facebook, god forbid in real life) then you already know the outcome. i ran the ing georgia marathon in a record time for me; 4:41:46. it was my best marathon ever by a long shot.

the morning started out great. i learned one of the benefits of raising money for and running with team in training…a heated tent to hang out in at the start. it was really pretty awesome to get there and be with a group that i had been training with for so long. it took a lot of the edge off of the start line and turned it into one of muted excitement.

we all headed over to the start corral around 6:30 and i noticed right away how much more though had gone into the race this time. the start corral was so much better stretching down marietta street than being scrunched onto peachtree at underground. with more room to stretch out there was much less running over people in the start.

the first few miles flew by for me. coming through sweet auburn i got the first sense that i was running an actual marathon again; that all the training and sweat and worry about the foot was coming down to this. i had stopped to pee on a wall somewhere downtown (sorry georgia state) and i had sprinted to finally catch back up with the people i was running with. i caught them on rennasaince parkway and we stuck with each other until decatur when i had to go to the bathroom again.

i will say this, i loved the new start of the course. moving the freedom parkway portion to the beginning of the race was great and the run through candler park was very nice. kudos by the way to candler park and poncey-highlands for the great cheering sections replete with costumes and in the case of poncey-highlands, a band.

it was in poncey-highlands that i first noticed a problem, um, “brewing” that probably ended up costing me the chance to crack 4:40. namely, i had to go. poop. bad. the next several miles were very difficult as mile after mile i felt my need to go get worse and worse and i passed up porta-potty after porta-potty trying to find one without a line. by this time i knew in my mind that there was no way if i got behind i could catch up with the people i was running with and i did not want to get behind.

by mile 11 or so i couldn’t stand it any more and i jumped in line for a porta-john just passed the water stop on college ave. honestly the pain of having to go was so great that i couldn’t even focus on the race. i lost my running partners at that point. i caught back up with another at agnes scott by lost her in decatur as she started running faster again.

sure enough just passed decatur i had to go again. and it was painful. i couldn’t even think about the race. finally i ducked into an academic building on north decatur at emory and went. these bathroom shenanigans cost me at least 6 minutes.

and then came the druid hills section. the dreaded hills on lullwater, oakdale, springdale and the by way. and a weird thing happened. despite the fact that i hate these hills and they were situated at miles 17-20 i started running stronger. amazing, i know, but these were the best miles of my race. i saw several of my twitter friends turning onto lullwater and then again on oakdale and my family a few times. my tnt coach caught up with me on springdale.

my sister and her bf and my daughter saw me five times on the course. a truly amazing feat that i am still not sure how they accomplished, so i have to give them a shout.

coming into vahi was the best. for some reason, maybe because it’s later, that neighborhood feels great. i saw ben at mile 21 and he ran with me for a bit.

i did hit the wall around 23 and the last 5k was tough, but not as tough as any of my other marathons. when i hit the finish i knew, KNEW, it had been my best race. it felt different. i was a veteran at that point so the awe of the first few wasn’t there, but there was an amazing sense of accomplishment. i had stayed strong well past mile 20 and had my best race ever.

i can’t rave enough about the course. i already posted about it over on the metblog, but great job ga marathon. everything was outstanding, course, water stops, crowd support.

two other things i want to mention. first, it was my first marathon in a pair of brooks shoes. what great shoes. the ride over that distance was incredible, lots of cushioning, lots of support and a great bounce on the strike. i am sold on brooks footwear.

and finally team in training. an amazing experience. i loved every minute of being with tnt. i had no real personal connection with blood cancer before i did this race, but now i sure feel like i do. it felt great to run for a cause. everything about the tnt experience was incredible, the training, the friends i made, the coaches, the fun. i loved it.

thanks to everyone who donated money, supported me, ran with me, encouraged me. i never knew if i could come back from the foot injury. i wanted to try but until somewhere along the way toward mile 19 i didn’t KNOW. i had a moment then when i did, but until then all of you kept me going.

stay tuned, the drive for 50 marathons in 50 states is on again and my next adventure with tnt will be up shortly.