Day 292 & 293

Friday: Drove to Indy, picked up my friend Big Al from the airport (flew in from outside of El Paso). We went to the expo, had great thai food for dinner. Great to see him, I ran 3 marathons with him in 2008-09 the first time I lived there. Went back to the hotel and I waited for Jenn & her friends to arrive.

Day 292: Indianapolis Marathon! Woke up and it was cold and raining. Horrible marathon weather. My shoes were SOAKED before I even got to the race site. It was windy. And cold. The only thing that made it tolerable was having friends to run with. Al and I hadn’t run a marathon since Bataan ’09, our paths have come close, but haven’t passed since. Our marathon times are usually in the 4:30-5:30 range depending on difficulty, but I knew I was going to be slow today since I was sick. I told him to go on by mile 1. I hung with Jenn, Shawn, & Alex for a while. For the first half we all kind of flip-flopped, me and Alex for a while. I ran with Halbert & Peter (Maniac friends) for a little bit. Then Alex & Jenn made a CVS pit-stop so Shawn and I continued for a while. Then someone else went to the bathroom, etc. etc. I kept feeling worse and worse. Our group pace was slowing and it was hurting me more. Finally at mile 16 when it had stopped raining and the sun was peeking out, Shawn and me left our pack and forged ahead. At mile 19 I needed a big porta-potty stop, so I told Shawn to go ahead. I was actually looking forward to the last miles alone, at my pace. I did some sort of 3-4:1 interval and got it done.
5:27:48. Definitely not a good showing for me, but I was conservative with being sick and having another marathon the next day. Nothing really ‘hurt’ though. I was just tired and BEAT UP from the bad weather the first half of the race.

^ I really don’t know what I’m doing with my arm here. Also, not a real smile. (Got this pic from Jenn)

POST RACE: I dropped Al off at his airport hotel so he could catch his Sunday flight back to ELP. I drove on down to Louisville, about 1hr 45min.
I took Halbert’s advice and ate ALL of the post race fare (3 pieces pizza, 1 hamburger, beans, cookie), then had another big meal for dinner (hamburger & fries & beer) at Kentucky BBC brewery in downtown Louisville.
I got to my hotel, took an ice bath, laid in bed with ice cream and medicine to knock me out of my misery.

SAT NIGHT

(I was really worried about getting enough calories in, for real) The Aquaphor is for my nose and lips, which are raw from 3 days of constant drainage.

Day 293: Louisville Marathon!
Another poor night of sleep. My cold had gotten worse. I woke up in cold sweats at midnight and 0130. Woke up again at 0200, 3 and finally for good at 4. I was preparing for a miserably long day.
Got to the race, got my packet, and stayed extremely overdressed: tech shirt, long sleeve t-shirt & fleece jacket.
I had a plan and I was going to stick with it. If I could focus on the ‘plan’, it would give my mind something to worry about rather than how I felt (bad) or my legs (heavy!). 2:1. Run 2, walk 1. For the whole 26.2 miles. I had done this Galloway method with my friend Denis at St. Louis marathon 2 weeks ago (it was his plan) and it worked really well. So, I was glad to have this distraction. I usually walk aid stations in races, but not this often. My legs didn’t feel ‘good’ until almost mile 6. Took a while to warm up and shake out yesterday’s marathon. I kept my jacket on until mile 14! I knew my body wasn’t responding well to being sick, but I wasn’t having trouble breathing, so I wasn’t worried. 2:1, 2:1 for hours and hours…hahaha. Bathroom at mile 4 & 12. Again at mile 16. At least I was hydrated. The aid stations were every 2.5mi so I’m glad I had my handheld bottle.

I never got down. I never got lonely. It was a gorgeous fall day. Many times it was like I wasn’t even running a marathon, I was just a person running along a path. Sure, it’s much more fun running with friends, but when it counts, I know I can dig it out. There were no spectators, no one cheering me on. Definitely no friends to fill the miles with laughter. Just me and a gorgeous fall day. And my runny ass nose.
Misery.

I leapfrogged with a woman, running about a 11:45 pace. She NEVER took a walk break (that I saw). She never wanted to chat, but I told her I was run/walking and eventually she would drop me (haha, not). At mile 17ish, I passed her and never saw her again. I stopped the 2:1 at mile 25.5ish. I didn’t want to push too hard since I was sick.

I could not be more pleased with how it went. I went into this weekend with the only goal of, “survive.” After Indy’s 5:27, I wanted to keep Louisville at 5:30 or under, as close to even split as possible. I figured being sick that this was a big enough goal. My “secret”, “if everything goes perfect” goal was to run 5:25, a small negative split.

Indianapolis: 2:40 half, 5:27
Louisville: 2:39:39 half, 5:07:32 TWENTY MINUTES FASTER!! HOLYSHIT!!
I’m not putting all my splits, because no one cares, not even me.
I am very pleased I negative split the second marathon, and even more pleased I negative split the weekend. AND, while sick. Sure, I’m paying for it now, but dang, that’s a confidence booster.

Then this happened.
I went to Whole Foods after the race and had a big bowl of chicken noodle soup & salad. Stocked up on veggies for the week. And this is all I wanted for dinner. See that kale? It was on sale and I washed it. Sat right there on the counter while I ate my ice cream.
2 marathons = 2 beers.