Training Log Archive: Bash

I'm going to Boston, baby!

As support crew and chief photographer, that is. To summarize my race... Not. Even. Close. I tried my best in the first half, using the long downhill sections to improve my average pace. Unfortunately, a couple of urgent pit stops pushed me behind the 4-hr pace bunny by the half. I think I was 2:06 at that point, and I could tell from the pain in my quads that I wasn't going to have a miraculous negative split and achieve the necessary 4:00:59.

At that point, I quit racing. If I couldn't achieve a Boston qualifying time, then I simply wanted to finish my first (and only) marathon, and I didn't really care what my time was. Road running isn't important enough to me to risk injury at the start of winter sports season. So I switched to run-walk and admired the stunning mountain and desert scenery. If I were trail running or bike riding, I would have simply enjoyed being in such a beautiful place, but I'm not keen on the physical experience of road running, so I just wanted it to be over.

Caron had passed me at 19 miles looking good, but she'd had an asthma attack earlier in the race. At 25 miles, I ran up behind her walking and not feeling well, so I stopped to walk with her. We agreed that at this point, we would only be upset if we went over 5 hrs, and we had plenty of time. We started running when we turned the final corner, doing the final half-mile and finishing together. It wasn't the result that either of us had hoped for, but for me, it was an honour to cross the line with a friend and multiple Ironman finisher.

Am I disappointed? Honestly, not that much. It would have been cool to run Boston with 'Bent, Crash, Rocky, Superwes and the gang, but I'm looking forward to taking their photos and helping them out. It's possible that if I'd done serious marathon training for 4-6 months that I might have succeeded, but I never would have done that because I love my multi-sport life too much. So the 6-7 weeks of training I did was about all I would ever have been able to stand. Unlike 'Bent and Goose, I don't have the raw ability to pull it off without long-term specific training. I've never been a runner, and I had a comment today on my inefficient running gait. In some ways, it's a relief that I missed it by a lot because there is absolutely no temptation to try again. But hey, I had to give it a shot since our hotel room is already booked in Boston!

'Bent took an impressive 8:35 off his Toronto Marathon time, finishing in 3:10:17. We agreed that a marathon with lots of downhill sounds better on paper than it actually is. Our quads are killing us! In the first half, we looked forward to the downhill sections. In the second half, we looked forward to the uphills. Yay, different muscles!

There is some good stuff to report. No blisters or chafing. Shoes felt good, and my feet are better than some of our other friends who ran the marathon. Everything worked just fine - clothing choices (including the arm warmers that Slowrunner suggested), iPod, Garmin Forerunner, Camelbak with eLoad (turns out there were other Camelbak wearers), food that I carried. I guess that's the stuff that adventure racing prepared me for - testing my gear and taking care of myself. Best of all, my gimpy knee didn't so much as whimper during or after all that pavement pounding. That was my biggest fear, but Leanimal has obviously whipped it into decent shape.

Some really nice photos of Tucson are yet to come, but we need to get to sleep for our 7 a.m. flight!

Arrived in Tucson today. Beautiful place! Some of the mountains have weird, cool shapes, and the sunset was impressive. (Unfortunately, I was driving and couldn't take a photo.) Six of us are here from the C3 club, and we went out for a big Mexican dinner. Four more people from Caledon are arriving later. We're going for a short hike in the Catalina Hills tomorrow to remind our legs how to walk after the airplane ride, then we'll drive the marathon course and go up Mt. Lemmon. 'Bent and I are hoping to see Biosphere 2. Not sure what's there anymore.

I send out the Salomon DontGetLost.ca Adventure Running e-mails that many of you receive. It's a long story, but my new Bell e-mail service was cut off today as a result of sending out last night's e-newsletter. Yes, with my head hung in shame, I admit that I've been apprehended as a spammer. I've been worrying about this possibility for a long time, but it has never been urgent enough to divert my attention from other more pressing matters. But now they have my attention. Luckily, we hadn't cancelled our old Internet provider yet.

I phoned Bell using my best manners, but they flatly told me that once you exceed your message quota, you're toast for the rest of the month, and nobody has the power to spring you from spammer jail. After devoting 3 hrs to this issue today, and talking to Bell reps in three countries, it looks like I'll have a Bell business account activated a week from now that will allow me to spam people to my heart's content. Watch out!

I'd hoped to take my gimpy knee to Leanimal today for a final pre-marathon pain session, but there's no time now. I still need to pack and run. It's way too hard to imagine what I'll want to wear in a desert climate when the view outside our window is snow, snow, snow.

Easy run while watching the news. What a mess in Ottawa!

Tomorrow we're heading to warmer climes in the colourful southwest U.S. Ten people are going there from the C3 triathlon club, including Barrie & Caron Shepley, who have a place in Tucson. Restaurants have been selected for group dinners, and some other tourist activities are on the schedule, so it will be a nice little vacation. Most of us are participating in the same tourist activity on Sunday morning. Look at that mountain scenery!
http://www.tucsonmarathon.com

I hope the downhill course helps as much as the rumours suggest.
http://www.tucsonmarathon.com/Assets/08+TM+Elevati...

My one serious goal is to finish the marathon. After doing adventure races up to 72 hrs nonstop, I'd be mighty annoyed to DNF, and then I'd be stuck with doing another one some day. But injuries and illness are always possibilities...

If I finish without qualifying for Boston (4:00:59), that won't be nearly as big a deal. It drives some people nuts, but I honestly believe that my chances are 50/50, and I'm not being negative by saying that - just engineer-realistic. I only hope I'm not flattering myself by thinking it will be that close to the wire. If I'm nowhere near the magic time, that would be more disappointing than missing it by 3 minutes. But don't get me wrong - I'm going to try my hardest!

Regardless, it's going to be an awesome time in a beautiful place, and I know 'Bent is going to set a new marathon PB!

Just a few days till the marathon, so it's time to recharge my batteries. Not in the metaphoric sense - I really do have lots of batteries to recharge. Camera battery, extra laptop battery, iPod and Garmin Forerunner.

Finally got all the papers into the Town this week to start the ball rolling on the two separate permits for our new geothermal system. The Oak Ridges Moraine permit will trigger a full zoning review of everything on our property. Who knows if the people who owned the house for 30 years before us did everything legally, but I guess we're about to find out. Could they make it any more difficult to do the environmentally correct thing? Wait, don't answer that one. I should already know after dealing with the Ontario Power Authority and Hydro One for the past three years regarding our solar panels. Sigh.

Some helpful advice for men shopping for Christmas gifts for their partners:
http://bewareofthedoghouse.com/videoPage.aspx

Boston pace plus or minus. This time I tried using the iPod instead of TV, and it was harder to keep going. I almost stopped after 30 minutes - after all, it's too late to improve my fitness now - but forced myself to go the extra 10 minutes precisely because I didn't feel like it. I'm sure there will be moments like that in the marathon, so it's good mental training. (Four hours on pavement - yeeesh!) The national XC ski team talks about "going into the pain cave", but for me it will be the "boredom cave" or maybe the "motivation cave". But hopefully the view of the Catalina Mountains will hold my interest - not to mention the hundreds of runners out there with me.

Both 'Bent and I are starting to come down with colds. Rats.

Our winter storm wasn't as severe as expected - which is what *always* happens when we make good storm preparations. Lots of snow here anyway - hope it stays so we have a white Christmas.

Here's what the weather looked like late yesterday afternoon - an impressive start.