What a journey

Hey to the one or two people who follow my blog... :) (Tim, Amy and maybe a few stragglers).

Well, let's see...what has happened since my last post...hmmm...I completed my second marathon! No where near my time goal though. Going into this year's Snickers Marathon I honestly believed I was ready. I had logged the mileage...I had mentally prepared for my second attempt at the 26.2 mile monster. However, sometime in January I started having some shin problems with my left leg. At first it was a nagging pain that went away after a mile or two. As I approached the middle of February the pain had begun to linger during runs and sometimes hurt while just walking around. I began stretching more and tried some things that I'd read about. Nothing seemed to help. So, I chose to follow the wisdom I bestow on my cross-country team and track team at Central Fellowship Christian Academy...'Shutup and run!' :)

Raceday Eve:
We drove to Albany on Friday (March 6th) to setup a table for the runner's expo (for PeachSports, my photography company). The expo and packet pickup were fun. Let me back up a tad...I had contacted one of the pacers (Pacer Jim to be specific) and asked a few questions about pacing strategy, etc. When I picked up my packet I introduced myself to Pacer Jim. He said to join them at the starting line and give a pacing group a try. As I walked back to our table a small siren was going off in my head (meaning 'do not do this Tommy!'). I shook off the idea of using the pacing group. In the room I made sure all of my gear was ready. I decided to go with two gels and hit the first one at mile 10 and the second at mile 19. Why? Easy, on my training runs leading up to Snickers I tried to find the right time to take them...and i found that every 10 miles worked best for me.

Raceday:
I woke up at 5am and took a shower. Then, I went downstairs and made some toast with peanut butter. Also, had a cup of coffee. I went back to the room and got my running gear on and headed out for a jog to warmup. The air temp was brisk but felt good. But, the problem was the fog. It was a very thick fog...heavy...you could feel the moisture in the air. I ran into my buddy Tim Cook. We jogged to the end of the Civic Center parking lot together and back. He shared that he might try to run with the 5:00:00 pace group but wasn't sure. I had totally forgotten about the 4:30:00 group from the night before. As we walked up to the groups beginning to form I saw the 4:30:00 sign being held high by Pacer Jim. His hair was dyed a bright red color. I stayed back a little ways because I had made up my mind not to run with them. A lady standing to my left asked 'hey...are you running with this group?' I said 'no...just here...' The guy to my right said he was running with them. I figured 'ok...i'll start off with them....see how it goes...' The siren in my head went off again..this time with flashing red lights though. The one thing that Pacer Jim had told me was we would go out slow and stay close to the time goal pace (10:18 per mile).

I was chatting with some of the folks around me and all of the sudden we heard the gun go off. We were about 50 yds from the start so it took about a minute before we began to move. As I crossed the timing mat I hit the Start button on my Garmin. The race had begun! I saw my wife and some of my photographers clicking away at the crowd as we ran by. On several of my long training runs (10+ milers) I had been practing the starting pace I wanted. The first two miles of the Snickers involves some slow uphill grades and then a rather steep one as you leave Albany State's campus. So, I had physically and mentally prepared to do 10:40s the first two miles and then slowly make up that deficit over the first 8 miles. As we crossed the bridge I looked down at my Garmin and saw 9:45 as the current pace. It felt fast but I didn't think it was that fast. Now the siren and redlights were going off bigtime. I thought 'surely we'll slow down when the group leader realizes we're going out too fast...' We hit mile 1 at 9:47. Rather than back off I showed my ignornance and stuck with the group.

I felt fine but knew I should back off the pace group eventually. By the time we passed back over the Flint River bridge we were almost 2 minutes ahead of schedule. That may not sound like much but at my pacing its almost a quarter mile (actually around 300m). Several of us joked loudly about being well ahead of schedule....no comment from the pace leader. As we neared mile 7 we were approaching Darton College. It was then that I decided to let the pacing group go ahead. 7 miles is 19.2 miles short of the finish line and I felt it was time to get back on my plan. The pace group disappeared into the foggy mist ahead of me as we left the college campus. I backed down my pace to around 10:45 miles. When I crossed the timing mat at mile 10 I was 9 seconds late....that is not too darn bad. It showed me just how fast the group had gone out.

The runners became more spaced out. I was passing more people than were passing me. By the time I reached the 13.1 timing mat I realized i was slowing down so I picked up the pace just a tad. I felt strong, hydrated and excited about finishing my second marathon....especially after the debacle of last year's Snickers. Even though I was behind schedule I was still on track to finish well below 5:00:00 and that was a good feeling.

As I approached my 17 I felt my left ham tighten up. This was quite odd. In all my years of sports I've never had hamstring problems...ever! The furter I went into mile 17 the tighter it became. For those who run these distances you know the mental checklist you start going through when something starts to happen such as this....'is my stride correct?' 'am i favoring one side over the other?' 'is this one of those things that comes up and goes away during a long run?' At mile 17.8 on my Garmin my left leg totally seized up....i mean stiff legged to the point I had to stop. I spent about a minute stretching. Man it was tight! I continued but could tell something wasn't right.

Each mile went by slower and slower because I was having to stop more frequently to stretch my ham so that I could continue running. I hit the timing mat at mile 20 at 3:46:28. At this point I'm thinking 'OK...click off 11 min miles from here and you still have a sub 5hr marathon....'

When I got to mile 22 my ham was seizing up about every 400m. I tried to keep my stretching time to 20 seconds and balance out the running pace so that i'd hit the 11 min mile pace. I borrowed someone's cell phone so that I could call Carol and tell her to have the girls wait by the train station for me and that I would be late. My girls wanted to run in with me.

Somewhere around mile 23 I heard someone coming up from behind me as I walked a little bit after stretching. It was Tim Cook. He passed right on by and I hollered out his name. He turned and had this shocked look on his face...'what the heck are you doing here?' He thought I had already finished I guess. He came back and asked me what was wrong and said he'd go with me. I knew he was trying for 5:00:00 so I told him to go on. He said 'nope...i'll hang back with you'. He shuffled along with me for about a half mile and I told him to just go. I was walking more than I was running by this point. He continued on.

A lot of the people I had passed earlier were now passing me. As I approached mile 24 I was so depressed. I realized that the 4:30:00 goal was out the window and that the sub 5hr goal was also out the window. Major disappointment. I shuffled through the last 2 miles though. Stopping every 100m to stretch and trying to accept the fact that all my training for the last 16 weeks resulted in a failure to complete the desired goal. I began to wonder if the marathon distance was more than my 46 yr old body could handle....or, that my training methods were not working for me.

When the train station came into view I knew my girls would be there to run in with me. As I turned down the cobblestone road leading to the train station I saw my lovely bride standing with my girls. Unfortunately, I had to stop twice before I got to them to stretch my ham. My wife has been a major part of my training for this marathon attempt. So many weekends where she'd drive ahead of me as I ran on base for my 10+ mile training runs. She'd wait with water in one hand and G2 in the other...and a gel pack hanging from her teeth....whatever I needed she was there with it. We ran in as a family. As I entered the shoot Carol and Julie peeled off but Kathryn ran with me through the finish. Carol placed my medal around my neck and gave me a kiss. It was bitter sweet. So glad to cross the finish line...but, majorly disappointed in my time.

After a week of sulking, analyzing and questioning things I accepted the fact that my training method was probably to blame for the performance. However, the stupid decision to go out with the pace group might've had a little to do with it. Not placing blame...i'm a big boy...and I should've said 'see ya' when i first looked at my Garmin going across the bridge (at mile 0.3).

I took a week off. Met with my new running coach (RC as he's called). I have continued to battle this shin issue....i say 'issue' because i'm not sure I have a splint or a stress fracture. It's going to be an interesting few more weeks...part of me wants to run 12 miles...but, the shin says 'sorry...not yet....'