Mission Accomplished

I know you've all been waiting with bated breath for the results. First a little background. You all know that I have been training for the Whistlestop Marathon since Jan 2009. The seed for the race was planted at Whistlestop 2008. At that event, I, and 2 other members of my bowling team ran the half marathon distance. Yep, not your typical bowling team. Anyway, after the run we were a little bored, so we went golfing.

A couple weeks later we were discussing how fun it was and we decided that we should run the full Marathon the following (2009) year. And we should golf again. And somehow we decided to turn it into a screwball triathalon. Run, Golf, Bowl. At this point Tad (former college sprinter) had run 2 marathons previously. Bob and I had run zero (0) marathons combined.

The problem of how to score such diverse events l00med. Finally I had the storming brain. First, overall low score wins. The winner of a given event gets zero(0) points for that event and the other two get points based on how far he is behind the winner. Thus.
Marathon: One(1) point for each minute behind winner.
Golf: One(1) point for each stroke behind winner.
Bowling: One(1) point for pin behind winner.

If you think about this puts a heavy weight on bowling. Which is as it should be. It is the event we are the most equally matched in, it comes last, and has the most potential for someone to make up ground.

Well the Marathon is not to be taken lightly. I really wanted to run in under 4 hrs. so developed a plan. Run the first ten miles in 1:25 mins, next ten miles in 1:35 (3hrs total), run 6.2 miles in under an hour. Actual results....... first ten miles in 1:24, next ten miles in 1:31 (2:55 total), last 6.2 in 59 mins. My official time 3:54:58.1 and yes the last 6.2 miles reeeeeaaaaalllly sucked. I thot I trained for everything. Legs were tired but strong. Heart/Lungs not even working hard. But about mile 21 my core musckles started to give way. Thats right. My abs, back, and rib muscles started to ache so bad, I couldn't hold myself upright and my form broke down. I hadn't read about that anywhere and hadn't prepared for it. I'll have to werk on that for my next one.

Anyway Tad ran in 3:11 which put me 43 points behind.
Golf put me further behind (I suck at golf).
We all stunk at bowling that day (unfamiliar lanes/fatigue/etc) but Bob stunk least enuff to make a huge comback and win the triathalon.

Saturday was 1 Marathon (my first), 18 holes of golf (my second round of the year), 4 games of bowling(not publishing our scores, they were bad), 7 beers, 2 shots Wild Turkey. Congrats to Bob for winning the triathalon, to Tad for qualifying for Boston Marathon. All in all a great day even tho I lost.

Mumblingsages did well in the 10k and is thinking about entering the triathalon next year. How about you?

Ummmmmm......Now what?

Ok its 6(six) days away from the Whistlestop Marathon (WSM). Last week Tuesday was a rest day on the training calendar. That felt odd since Tuesdays are normally my 'long' run days. So I flipped back through the calendar and realized that it was only the 2nd Tuesday in 2009 without a run. I have a 'special' calendar that I use only for scheduling races. I've found it helpful to keep training separate from all the other clutter on the official "Golden Calendar" that Lisa uses to keep track of family d00ties.
I looked back at my training calendar and was shocked to find out that I have been preparing for WSM since January 6th and I have no idea what I'm doing or what to expect on race day. The olde saw "the more you learn, the more you realize you don't know" is bearing itself out.
When I started this regimen, I knew I needed to train hard and follow a schedule built by someone who knows what they are doing. I believe I have done so. I assumed that over the course of 10(ten) months I would get a feel for what to expect on race day. Boy, was I wrong. Even following a proper schedule I still have g00d days and bad days. There are days I run like the wind. There are days I run like a park bench. These extremes happen over short and long distances alike. I have felt great after 18 mile runs. I have felt like death 8 miles into a 20 mile run.

Not knowing what to expect makes race strategy hard to develop. I want very much to finish in under 4(four) hours. That means I need to be just under a 9:09 minute pace. So, do I try to peg that pace each mile? Do I log a bunch of 8:30's to put some time in the 'bank'? I know I'll likely fade at the end, especially after the greatly feared mile 20(twenty) where so many hit the wall. How much will I fade?? Should I start slowly and finish strong? Every thing I read says that the best thing to do is to start slowly and pick up speed as you approach the finish line. I also read that 90% of ppl don't do this. If I start at 9:30 pace, will I be able to pick up the time later after I've already run 10+ miles?

Who knows?? I sure don't.