In 2009 I ran the Marine Corps Marathon. It was my first marathon and, as such, quite special. It was also the only one I’d have my mom cheering at though I didn’t know it at the time. I wanted to return in 2010 but the organizers scheduled it for Halloween day and I can’t deny my daughter her trick-or-treating at home so I skipped it. This year, however, it’s scheduled for the 30th so I can still get us back in time for Halloween.

It’ll be a bittersweet run. I know I won’t be able to pass where I saw mom on the course without issue. Hopefully I’ll be able to keep it together, but especially at mile 18 when I’ll be a bit tired already might be awfully hard.

There’s something about the MCM that’s just perfect. Or maybe it’s everything about it. The course is memorable, the spectator crowds are impressive and the support is Marine Corps sharp. Nope, there’s nothing quite like it.

Let the training begin!

How silly am I?

We’re both scheduled to race the Inside Out Sports Classic Half Marathon in two weeks which will likely be interesting for both of us. He’s never done that distance while I’ve completed two full marathons. I’d like to PR that one which I think it imminently possible since my current PR was in the middle of a marathon — and, unlike the sadistic race directors for this race, the half marathon starts at 7:00 AM — but it’ll be interesting to see if my focus on training for shorter races has already had a negative impact on my endurance. Could be interesting.

I should really learn to check the course before flapping my gums. I’ve seen this course before. Do you know where I’ve seen it? While discussing my desire to add more hills to my training a neighbor pulled out his map of Umstead and pointed out this exact course as a wonderful one for punishing elevation changes. Fantastic! I mean, look at this.

There’s over 5 miles of serious incline on that course. Forget PRing, I just want to finish it in some non-ridiculous fashion. I’m currently trying to work more hill training in but certainly haven’t gotten enough under my belt to be undaunted in the face of this.

Sheesh, if it’s not heat it’s hills.

I was hoping to run the 10th Annual Second Empire Class 5K — touted as “one of the fastest 5K courses in the Triangle area” — but it looked as though we would be having Julia’s birthday party that day due to scheduling conflicts. A bit disappointing, but there’s no race in the world I’d skip my daughter’s birthday party for. Now the party is being held on Saturday, though, so my Sunday suddenly opened up.

I’d love to PR this race but one factor may limit my chances somewhat; 90 degrees tends to hamper the performance a bit. It’s not like this is a morning race, either. It’s held right in the perfect time for heat, 2:00PM. Sadistic race directors.

I’ll have to go out a bit conservatively and see how I feel; maybe shoot for a 7:30 split for the first mile and adjust accordingly. I’d like to think I could do better than that, but that heat is the wildcard. I know how I react during the heat: poorly. If humidity stays low it shouldn’t be completely brutal, but 90 degrees is still 90 degrees.

Keeping my fingers crossed!

I read something today that helped me along a path. I mentioned even before Shamrock that I was having trouble deciding on long-term goals.

But after that? I’m unsure. I have two goals competing in my head, both of which are substantial and separate.

• Work toward a Boston qualification. This would require a lot of work and a lot of pain. And I might not make it. Given a single marathon under my belt with a 4:30 time it seems improbable in the highest degree. But with enough work and smart training it might be possible. If I reach my relatively moderate time goals at Shamrock I’ll have a better idea of the feasibility of this.
• Shift to triathlons. Obviously the ultimate goal would be a full ironman someday but it might have to wait several years simply due to the training amount. I’d be happy starting with Olympic distances and working towards a half ironman for a more short-term long-term goal. Swimming will be the biggest hurdle though I’m not much of a cyclist either.

I completed Shamrock while not quite meeting my time goals. But I improved. However, it’s hard to go from that level of improvement to a jump to “I’m going to qualify for Boston”. Is it even possible for a 4:00-and-change runner to somehow ratchet it up enough to reach 3:20? This guy did it. Yes, he’s younger. Yes, he’s likely a better runner; he went from a 4:53 first marathon to a 3:50 second marathon in comparison. But even so there’s hope.

I know it won’t happen this year. I know it likely won’t happen next year. It’ll take the most concerted effort I’ve ever put forth toward anything. But I believe I can do it, one step at a time. It’ll require me to rethink my own limits of pain and the amount of effort I’m willing to exert. It’ll mean convincing myself not to give in when everything is screaming that I should. In short, I have to find someone inside myself that I’ve never found.

It’s scary, yes. But I think that guy is in there somewhere, and he wants to come out and run Boston. There’s only one way to do that, and that’s stop screwing off and do it.

In the meantime…

I’m not changing anything shorter term. My goals remain the same there: get faster on my 5Ks. Frankly, that’s a precursor to anything else. If I can’t get faster at shorter distances I’m not going to maintain the necessary 7:38 average pace to qualify. So still 5K-focused training — though with longer long runs to prep for my half in May — increasing my hill work, shooting for those 5K PRs. Over the course of the summer, I’ll transition back to marathon training but at faster paces.

Wish me luck.

Packet pickup day is always fun. A mixture of excitement and trepidation as the race is almost there.

I picked up my packet for the St. Timothy’s Sprint Sprint 5K yesterday for the race Saturday morning. It’s a smallish local race for a good cause. I’m hoping to set a PR tomorrow — which would be anything under 23:42 — but I don’t know how challenging the course is. It’s likely at least moderately rolling given it’s in the center of Raleigh so I might be out of luck. Being such a small race it’s not out of the realm of possibility for me to actually place in the top 3 of my age group. Depends on who shows up and how good of a run I have. Frankly it would have to be a stellar effort above my plan for me to accomplish that given last year’s results, but it’s still possible! Here’s last year’s results:

                      MALE AGE GROUP: 35 - 39

Place Bib   Name                     Ag City               St Time    Pace  
===== ===== ======================== == ================== == ======= ===== 
1   189 JERRY WILLIAMSON         35 RALEIGH            NC   21:27  6:54 
2   214 COLIN MULDOON            36 RALEIGH            NC   21:55  7:04 
3     5 CHRISTOPHER BARNHART     36 RALEIGH            NC   22:15  7:10 
4   125 ZACH SLOANE              35 RALEIGH            NC   22:40  7:18 
5   148 LEX HARRIS               38 RALEIGH            NC   23:21  7:31 

Damn it! So close to my target pace. Look at the previous year!

                      MALE AGE GROUP: 35 - 39

Place Bib   Name                     Ag City               St Time    Pace  
===== ===== ======================== == ================== == ======= ===== 
1   179 RODRICK JONES            37 CARY               NC   20:43  6:41 
2   251 MATTHEW POWERS           37 RALEIGH            NC   23:13  7:29 
3   545 JOE NUSS                 38 RALEIGH            NC   23:34  7:35 

So I’ll just have to run as best I can and see what happens. Channel my inner Kenyan.

Speaking of Kenyans

I decided to get a new shirt to run in to try to show some support for my mom given what’s going on. For the front I went with something a bit shorter and less self-serving and to the point. I assume that the crowds for my next several races will be smaller, so I went with (hopefully) funny.

It’s a bit odd that I had just talked about how long I would continue to leave the “running in honor of my father” on the back of my shirt. I had answered “until there’s someone else that should be there.” With my mother battling cancer, it seemed like the right time.

The “steroids” thing was one of 4 things I came up with and tried out. When I asked Cat which one I should do, that was the only one that made her laugh out loud so obviously I had to go there. We’ll see if it works tomorrow.

After over a year of constant marathon training I’ve decided to spice things up this spring and summer. It’s not that I’m in a rut, it’s just that if I switch gears a bit I think it’ll help me both mentally and physically for any future marathon training I do.

For one thing I want to improve my speed and leg strength. To that end I have two 5k races and a possible half marathon scheduled out to May. I’m also working in some resistance leg workouts which I haven’t done since running as well as hill repeats. I’ve never been particularly fast but I’d like to be faster. I’ve switched over to the FIRST 5K training plan which incorporates faster paces and fewer overall miles than the marathon plan which only makes sense. The dates for my events don’t really fall perfectly so I’m really using the training plan as an overall plan that’ll have races sandwiched within it in place of weekend “long” runs. The half marathon is kind of an outlier in relation to the 5K training plan so I’ll likely up the long runs on a few of the planned runs to better prep for that. 13 miles doesn’t worry me. 13 miles was my shortest long run in my marathon training plan! I looked forward to the 13 mile days, so a half is not daunting.

In terms of goals I just want to improve my PRs. My unofficial 5K PR is 23:20 which just happened during a training run one day last summer. I started out on a typical day and realized I was moving at a decent clip. I just kept going until I’d hit the 5K mark and clocked in at that time. My current goal is beating 23 minutes which I think is attainable. I’d like to keep chipping away at it and ideally would love to beat 20 minutes eventually, but that’s going to take a lot of work over the summer. That’s not necessarily bad and is, in fact, precisely what I want. But 3 minutes over 5K is pretty substantial and I’m not underestimating the difficulty.

My unofficial half marathon PR is from the Shamrock Marathon at 1:58:44. It’s possible I’ve done better in a training run but I don’t recall right now. I know I can beat that with ease but by how much is a better question. Go out too fast and blow my energy on the first 10K or go out too slow and wind up with time left on the clock and energy left in the tank. Tough call. I imagine I’ll shoot for a 1:45 time to start with which calls for a relatively reasonable 8:00/mile pace. Doable? We’ll see.