Anybody run?

Been a while since I posted. Training was going really well into early Feb. I was finishing a 15 mile run on the 7th, when the phone rang.

It was Mom, and something was off. I was only a half mile from home when she called, so I hurried up home, and got to her house. Had to break down the back door to get in, and found Mom in her bedroom floor. She had had a stroke.

I was in the hospital with her for the next week, so no training there. She then went to rehab for 10 days closer to home, so I was able to get 10 more days of training in.

It's kind of been a roller coaster since. Home for a bit, back in the hospital, and now about to finish another rehab.

I got in 7 total miles in March, and that was in the last week. I had pretty well decided not to even try to run the marathon today, but I just hate being that guy that quits. I didn't want to have to call myself a *****, and even though my kids are grown, I still think they look up to how their parents react in hard times, and take something positive from that.

Honestly, it wasn't as hard as I expected. Pace was way slower than I would have preferred, and heart rate higher, especially later when the sun came out.

There was a challenge in the middle that you could choose to do or not. I went ahead and did it. It added a series of pretty steep hill climbs, and another mile.

I was feeling pretty good, but dry. I had run the entire race, never stopping. I crossed the 26mm sign, literally 2 tenths from the finish line, the small muscle above and to the inside of the the knee, cramped on both legs.

I had to stop running, walked it out about twenty seconds, and continued to the finish line.

My #'s aren't impressive by any means, but here they are.

 

Honestly, feeling pretty good. I stayed pretty active the rest of Sunday, played with the grandkid Monday and ran a bit, got 5 miles in Tuesday, and bench press/squats Wednesday.

Moms doing good. We'll work through it. Yeah, I'm hoping to pick the running mileage back up next week, and gonna try to get in a 50 mile hike Sunday or Monday.

 

Wanting to hike faster is part of what got me into running. I really like those big mileage days. Like, as in Type 2 kinda fun.

I don't do it as much now with the grandkid here, but I got to hike and mountain bike some pretty cool places out west. Find somewhere I wanted to hang out, and just take the weekend off there.

It was interesting to see how the marathon I ran worked. I ran with 36oz of Gatorade, and 40oz of Tailwind. I wasn't expecting aid stations every 2 or 3 miles.

Then the last 4 miles, I coulda got drunk if I was a drinker. About mile 22 was an old man and his wife had an aid station with beers and wine, mile 23 station was Tequila shots, and mile 25 was Red Bull and FireBall.

The paces really surprised me too. I started and stayed slow, and thought I did it okay given the circumstances. I heard another runner at the finish talking about how tough it was that day.

Later I pulled up the paces online, expecting to see some 2.5hr-2.75 hr runs. I'm not certain if maybe it just a slow course, or the temps and humidity, but the winner was over 3 hrs. Here's the top finishers. Good luck at the end of the month. I'm interested to see how it goes for you.