THANK YOU

This was lucky number 13 for me: 13th marathon. 13th year of running. 3:10 backwards is 13 (thanks Pat). I stayed in 13th place for most of the first half of the race...plus it was "Year of the Moose" - as in my marathons this year were in moose country (Alaska & New Hampshire). Finally getting that BQ was a long, difficult journey full of hard work, ups and downs - and there are a lot of people to thank that have helped me along the way. So here's my Oscars speech:

I'd like to thank...

God, for giving me the tools to make this happen and providing a beautiful day for a run. My family for all their support and encouragement. Uncle Bill for hosting us. Aunt Jeanne for shouting at me as I made the final turn. Ethan for being there on this great day. Eva for lending me her room (as she's not in NH after all). My friends for their support, encouragement and inspiration - especially Molly & Becki, Karen, Randy, Sze, Alan, Stephanie, and all you LVMers. The medical team at the marathon, and the rest of the Clarence DeMar crew. Pre. My legs for hanging on for me. The Boston Athletic Association for providing the quintessential marathoner's goal. And, reluctantly, my 3:11:03 finish at Vegas last year... **music plays**


If you're interested in my splits... (let me know if the link doesn't work)

Next stop, Houston (1/30/11). State number 13. Then on 4/18/11...

I think I'll go to Boston....

Done!

I looked up ahead to the finish clock and saw 3:10:43. At this point I was past running on fumes. I had nothing left. So I gave more.

I rode a personal-best 1:24 for the last 385 yards into the finish, crossing the line at 3:10:54 on my watch and 3:10:56 officially. I did it! I qualified for Boston!!!

Out of pure exhaustion, I stumbled through the finish chute, nearly into the guy ahead of me getting his medal. Luckily two people on the medical staff caught me and helped me over to the medical tent. Needless to say, I didn't provide much of the walking power to get there. They took some vitals and brought me food and drink to refuel, and were really helpful. Once I had the energy to stand and walk around a little, I gave my mom a hug and headed over to the finish area to see my dad finish and celebrate with my cousin, aunt and uncle (and family friends who happened to be in NH also showed up a little later too).

Little medal, big significance

My dad came in at 4:26:38, his best time in roughly 3 years. When I told him my time he got really excited, hugged me, poured his water over my head and cramped :)

I finished 17th overall out of 305, but only 12th in my age group, since the age group was 39 and Under. 39 and Under? Haha, oh well. At that point, I didn't much care. It was, however, the first time I was counting places in my head as I was running a marathon.

I thought for a second I had accidentally erased the splits on my watch, which upset me until I realized they were really still there. We showered up at the Keene State College gym and headed out to celebrate with nice, big juicy burgers!

Mmmm

Overall, I thought the course was pretty good, though not nearly as easy as I expected. The fall colors made the first half beautiful, and most of the town wasn't too bad. Small race and small town meant very little spectators until the last turn. That made some stretches VERY tough mentally and, frankly, a little boring. We did forget to pick up our bags that we left at the start... but it was a nice, small-town marathon without many frills, good organization and friendly people. The weather was a few degrees warmer than perfect (51 at the start, 65 by finish), and less cloud cover than we had hoped, but we can't ask for too much now can we?

I ended up with several PRs: Full and Half marathon times, overall finish, time spent in the medical tent...

I also hit 9,000 miles for my running career somewhere in the first half of the race.

Back For Seconds

I woke up at 5:45 AM. Slept a total of about 5.5 hours, which is pretty good for the night before a marathon. I was relaxed and ready to go. When we got there, it was a little chilly (compared to the 90 degrees I was seeing during the week in Baltimore), a nice cool 50 degrees. We made a quick stop at the port-a-potties before a short warm-up. The start I had been waiting for, for nearly 10 months, was just minutes away.

We could have slept right at the starting line.

I was a little concerned that I would go out too fast due to the small size of the race and quick drop in times. Based on past results, the winner was generally in the 2:30s and by 15th place, times were already around my goal (3:10). Not to mention the downhill start. I was also a little concerned that the early mile markers would mess with me mentally. They had construction before mile 13 and had to re-route it a little, and to compensate moved the starting line up 65 yards. They didn't, however, move the mile markers at all. In the end, the fact that they announced it made it all okay. Since there were no chips, I started in the second row.

Soon after the gun went off and we turned the first corner, I settled into a comfortable pace and a solid 14th place. I came through the mile at 6:43 (I added 20 seconds for the 65 yards) - rather fast, but considering the downhill and how I felt, I kept going. The first half was mostly downhill, making it a fast half - I PR'd with a 1:30:40. It was also quite pretty. Fall colors filled the tree-lined country roads, some along the river. A few rolling hills were thrown in the first half to keep us honest. My mom and Ethan surprised me with a visit around the 9.5-mile mark and I was feeling great. I didn't have a split above 7:00 until Mile 11. There was a big hill in Mile 12 (7:23) and I bounced back with a 6:53, my last sub-7:00 mile. At the halfway point we started weaving our way around the city.

Some scenery along the course (taken Saturday). Notice the cracked, uneven pavement?

Then the second half of the race started. I knew with the downhill first half and tougher second half I had to "bank" some time, even though I don't like doing that too much. It was inevitable, really. Overall I think elevation profile is a little misleading, and now I know that it is actually similar to Boston's. A few hidden hills were in there and we didn't get to drive Mile 20, since it was on a park path. Now it was just a matter of if I banked the right amount.

(1) CDM, (2) Boston, and (3) my log's mapped version of CDM.

About Mile 14 things started to hurt. My ankles were sore, perhaps from the uneven footing (some canted roads and a few bad spots paving-wise). My right heel began to blister, as I had feared. I focused on staying strong mentally - and physically - and worked through the pain. It's rare not to have any pain in a marathon, after all.

There were a few tough little hills before 19, and Mile 20 in the park surprised us with a couple tough hills of its own. About then I started to struggle a little bit. Some dude named Paul, a high school coach from Connecticut, helped drag me along through the first part of the park. The next 4 miles were the toughest on me, time-wise. I hit near 8:00 for Mile 21 and Mile 22, and then we hit the biggest hill on the course in Mile 23 (8:39, my slowest). I walked about half of it and at that point, even the downhills after that started getting difficult. I hit the 24-mile only 10 seconds ahead of my Vegas time and knew that I had to pick it up. I had to break 8:00 for the last 2 miles to have a good shot at a BQ.

I managed to run sub-8:00s for the next two miles and turned the corner and hit the 26-mile mark two seconds behind my Vegas time despite running a faster 26th mile. I knew I had to go. I wasn't going to let it happen again. I got to the last corner and heard my aunt yell "20 SECONDS!"

Gotta go, Mike. Gotta go now.

The Motivation

The date: December 6th, 2009
The place: Las Vegas, Nevada
The event: Las Vegas Rock N' Roll Marathon
The result: Ultimate motivation

My training for this year's Clarence DeMar Marathon in Keene, New Hampshire began shortly after finishing last year's Las Vegas Marathon, where I ran a 3:11:03. Four seconds - count them: 4 seconds - shy of qualifying for the Boston Marathon, the Mecca of marathon running. While being quite happy about running so well, and feeling like I couldn't have given anything more, I was understandably crushed. I knew that race would be my motivation for my next attempt.

I started feeling good about a month ago (near the end of August) when I ran a Half Marathon up in PA. It was a tougher course than the Half I ran last year and was pouring rain most of the way so that all considered, I was feeling good about my 1:32:55. Most of my runs, especially the weekend long runs went really well. I don't usually get that excited about a marathon so far in advance. I was anxious to get my chance.

I had a long week of work before flying out to NH after work on Friday, but I made darn certain that I still got some decent sleep. Saturday I woke up after a good 9 hours of sleep and we had brunch in downtown Peterborough.

The Fall colors were starting to change, making the scenery rather beautiful.

Brunch at Nonies (right)

Dad and I watched Prefontaine before heading out to Keene. We drove the first 19 of the course (can't drive 19-20) and headed over to pick up our packets. We checked the board for our numbers - and for some reason they didn't list the people alphabetically, but by race number - and couldn't find our name! It should be easy, right? Look for the longest name? We went over to the registration table and told them we couldn't find our names. After checking the list as well, they had us just fill out forms for new numbers (no extra charge) - which was super nice of them. With one last check before they handed us numbers, the guy came over and said he found us in the database. Apparently our last name was too long and they listed us under "Ski" - why wouldn't you abbreviate it from the beginning!? Well, bags (number and shirt) finally in hand, we headed out to drive the rest of the course and then dinner at Olive Garden.

After a rousing game of Mexican Train Dominoes - I won the 3rd game, though tainted by Dad's misplay - we got everything ready for the race and headed to bed.

Summer Aftershock

It was absolutely disgusting outside today. 90 degrees and muggy and buggy. Today and the next two are hot remnants of summer.

Then I head north to New Hampshire for the marathon! Latest weather? 64/44 mostly cloudy - perfect! :) I've been excited for like 4 weeks now. These last two days of work are annoying and in the way!

After recently watching Evita, I took an immediate liking to "High, Flying Adored" and now I can play it on guitar! Woot! Tonight I also learned to play Coldplay's "The Scientist" and sort of learned "Breakeven" by The Script. Hooray for the growing binder of music!

More ESPN

More from ESPN the Magazine...

Their MLB preview for the year had the Red Sox winning it all and Joey Votto having a down year. Haha...

Best NHL franchise as voted by the players? Red Wings. Darn right! Smartest coach? Babcock.

Apparently if you catch a fly ball intentionally with your hat in baseball, the batter is awarded three bases. Weird.

Number of hot dogs sold in a typical MLB season? 21,733,839

Sports Technology

I've spent a little time today going through some magazines I never got around to reading. ESPN the Magazine published (1/25/10 issue) a poll of "which sport has benefited the most from (legal) technological improvements to its gear?"

I was surprised to see Track and Field came in at 5th behind Golf, Motorsports (obvious), Football and Tennis. What, shoes?

America's Got Talent

...and apparently more smarts this year after making Chicken Boy (Kevin Skinner) last year's winner. This year's dude is a good singer (and his name is Michael), and I've never seen a girl Jackie's age that can sing anywhere near that. Fighting Gravity will probably be in Vegas anyway. Hopefully anyway!

In other news, I heard Cake's version of "I Will Survive" on the way home from work today. Yuck. I like me some Cake, but nobody should re-do that song. You just can't. Doesn't work.

Never Forget

Do You Remember?

Happy September everyone!

The parentals are coming to town for the Labor Day weekend. Looking forward to that :) 4-day weekend + family = yay! Definitely ready for the work week to be over. Still a bit slow.

Work has been pretty slow again, but running has been good! A good half and then a good 20-miler last weekend. Yesterday I ran with some really fast people at the track. I averaged 6:13 for 5 1-mile repeats, with only 90 seconds rest. Oof. Sweet. I'm feeling pretty good about NH...3 1/2 weeks...can't wait!!!