The MS Runner

I won’t be doing the Detroit Marathon after all. My son Jason is going to do the OBX Marathon and I will be doing it also. I think that he may only do the half, but he may try and do the full. This is in The Outer Banks of North Carolina along the coast. We are going to try and talk my other son Michael into running also, but I’m sure he will only be doing the half. He seems to have a lot going on lately, including just recently getting engaged to his girlfriend Heather. I’m assuming that she’s not pregnant because the wedding is not until next spring. But then again she could be I guess. She can have the kid in like February or March, and still get married in May or June and no one would know. Mmmm. Anyways, the marathon is November 9th which actually gives me a couple more weeks of training. Yahoo.

This past week was my first full week of training and I actually felt good. I’m running in the morning (5:00 a.m. for god’s sake!) which is good because it’s much cooler than at 6:00 after work. This whole week it’s supposed to be in the 90’s, so the early morning runs are looking good to me.

My gym closed down already, after being open for only about 6 months. Can you say embezzlement? Now I’m not sure what to do about a gym. I don’t use it that much but it’s nice to have when I do use it.

Has anybody done the OBX Marathon? I’d like to hear from you if you have and get your opinion.

The Colfax Marathon is over, and I wonder if it will be around next year. There was only 488 marathoners that ran, which seems really lame. I’m not sure of the half marathon or the relay teams, but the total number of people was way down. Plus, they just don’t seem like they know what’s going on. At the Expo the day before, I went to pick up my bib and they had me listed in the half marathon. And they even ran out of shirts for the marathoners. How could you run out? There wasn’t even 500 of us.

I went into the day hoping to hit about 3:50, but the weather forecast made me adjust my prediction. I knew the 2nd half of the marathon was going to be hot, so I was hoping to at least get under the 4 hour mark. The heat is the worst enemy for people with MS. There are a lot of people that can’t even go outside in this type of weather if they are infected with this disease. I know that by the time I finished, it was in the 80’s and no clouds.

My first 18 miles weren’t too bad. I was hitting my times that I wanted to and still feeling okay. At about 2 1/2 miles, the run took us right in front of The Irish Snug Pub, and Frank, the owner, had a Guiness waiting for me! How many runners can say that they had a beer at any point during that run? Maybe I should of had one more towards the end. At mile 10, my quad was hurting, but not to the point where it was affecting my run. We hit the halfway point and turned around and headed east right into the sun. The good thing was that it was mostly downhill. I was feeling good and confident. But then at mile 18, I had to go to the bathroom, and yes, it was THE dreaded bathroom break. I lost 4 minutes at that point, and for some reason, I lost my energy. The run from there took us into downtown Denver and as you know, it’s always hotter downtown. There was also a couple of nasty “hills” to deal with which is always a challenge at any point of a race. I decided on one incline that I better save my energy so I walked up and that was even hard to do! With 3 miles to go, I knew that I wasn’t going to break 4 hours, so I think that at that instance, I kind of gave up. I still ran, but not as hard as I should have, because I figured, “what’s the point?” I look back now and I realize that you should never give up. Those last few miles of the marathon are very important to whatever level you are at, and if you can dig deep within yourself, that will just make you that much stronger for your next marathon or at whatever run that you do. Anyways, I finished at 4:09:56, which was a PR for me by 5 minutes. Here are my “stats”;

Overall - 177 out of 488

Age Division - 20 out of 50

Gender - 136 out of 307

10K - 55:11

15K - 1:23:04

25K - 2:16:48

30K - 2:47:41

From this point, I’m not sure what I want to do. I’ve talked about taking a break from marathon training and maybe just running some half marathons. Maybe when my brain gets un-fried, I’ll be able to think better and make a rational decision. We shall see.

Well now it’s time to get serious again.  I’m going to be running The Colfax Marathon which is about 16 short weeks away.  Although I have been running every week, I haven’t put in too many quality runs, and my diet and exercise regime has been pretty sad.  So time to eat right, get more exercise, start my running program.

It looks like my hip problems are more about not stretching enough than anything else, so I will concentrate on stretching more and maybe even join a yoga class.

I also need to concentrate on exercising to build strength in my abs and my back.  From all that I’ve read, building that core will help a runner significantly.

My diet is not all that bad, but I guess it could be better.  I tend to eat way too much crap on the weekend, and then try and make up for it during the week.  I think that once football season is over with, I’ll be better.

I went running the other night and the wind was so bad that at one point a gust of wind hit me and almost knocked me over.  And it actually blew out one of the lenses from my brand new glasses!  The wind must have blown it far away, because I could not even find it.  Luckily, the eyeglass place replaced it for free.

I know that I will get in a few races before my marathon.  Here’s a couple that I’m looking at;

Runnin’ of the Green Lucky 7K – March 16 – Downtown

Greenland Trail Run – 25K – April 19 -

All of us that have run a marathon can appreciate this.  Make sure you watch it ’till the end.