JohnK

Short story: 2:59.12 on a perfect marathon morning weather-wise. So I'm rather pleased although thinking I could have gone a minute or so faster but it's not a big deal.

I hardly slept Friday night -- maybe got 3 hours -- as I just couldn't relax and had a really bad headache for a while. But I think I was pretty well rested from the previous week so it probably didn't hurt me, just made for a long night and some really poor television viewing.

I felt good from the gun and started just a bit fast (6:40) but that wasn't as bad as a lot of folks. I was probably not even top 30 at the mile and began passing people fairly soon and finished 17th OA. (During the entire race only one person passed me!) I went 6:40, 6:45, 6:42, 6:40, 6:44 to hit 5 in 33:31. Feeling great. Next 5 were 6:40, 6:43, 6:44, 6:43, 6:53 (#10 had to be a long mile) for 1:07.14 at 10. By this time I was very gradually catching a guy in neon yellow shorts and shirt and still feeling good but had been on my own for several miles. Next 5 were 6:51, 6:47, 6:50 (13.1 in 1:28. 26),6:48, 6:50 for 1:41.20 at 15.

I caught Mr. Neon right after the half and he stayed with me for a few miles which was nice as we chatted a bit. This was his first marathon and I could tell he was laboring so wasn't surprised when he dropped off after 16. That mile (6:57) worried me but then 17 was a 6:41, so those were almost certainly marked wrong. I saw a woman up ahead and closed in on her and then we worked together a while. Next three 6:52, 6:44, 6:48 to hit 20 in 2:15.22. I had pulled away from the woman by 20 and no one was in sight up ahead, which was too bad as some company would have helped, but I was feeling okay and figured I'd hold on for sub-3:00, maybe around 2:58.

Mile 21 was 6:54 then a 7:00 and my left foot began cramping a little. This was really not what I wanted -- it never got bad enough to make me stop but I was very worried that would happen. And the last 4 miles all kinds of turns which made it feel slow, but perhaps those turns helped keep the cramp at bay. A really young guy passed me at 23 and raced off -- he ended up just under 2:56 so had a great finish. Anyway, I lost focus on pace somewhat and slowed to 7:04, 7:07, 7:05 (25 in 2:50.32) and right after finishing mile 25 crossed a busy street and was almost mowed down by a motorcycle! I came to a full stop to avoid an accident so lost several second stopping and getting started up again. Thus I didn't enjoy the final mile too much and it was slow (7:11), but I was certainly happy finishing -- never hit the wall, just felt the sort of gradual fatigue I had expected to feel if I paced it pretty well. I won the 45-49 division. My 5 mile segments were 33:31, 33:43, 34:06, 34:02, 35:10 and I'm especially pleased with miles 16-20. I think w/o the slight cramp I'd have focused on finishing as strongly as possible (rather than just holding it together and  hoping the cramp didn't get bad), so might have been :30-:60 faster but who knows.

The woman I ran with a little turned out to be Valerie Gortmaker from Nebraska who already has a qualifier (2:46 from Tallahassee last spring) but has been injured and she said she was using this race to determine whether to run the Trials. I think she was disappointed and may wait for 2012. She's 32 but didn't start running until 4-5 years ago. I talked with her prior to awards -- nice person, played rugby in college then tore her ACL and switched to cycling and running, so no early background in the sport but some real talent. (Sounds like someone I know!) I felt sorry from Georgia's Beth Old, a previous Trials participant (2:39 PR) who missed the B standard by less than a minute in third place. A Kenyan woman won in 2:37 and a Cheryl Murphy of Victoria, BC, Canada was 2nd in 2:40 -- haven't seen online results yet. Simon Sawe won men's in 2:26 and Andy Martin of Oregon was 2nd (2:27) with a Kenyan from Mobile, AL 3rd in 2:29, I think. Top master was a Canadian in 2:38, possibly the husband of the 2nd place woman. The $3000/$2000/$1000 prize money in men's and women's open brought in some pretty good talent and the race more than doubled in size from last year's inagural running (1100 in full + half, still small but not bad for Albany, GA).

That's about it. After the disappointment of Chicago's unusually hot weather last fall this was nice, running close to what I felt capable of. Not too sore this a.m. despite 4+ hours driving home but I'll not attempt running for several days and will stretch and walk a lot instead.

Rest along with some walking and watching our son play soccer. The quad soreness is there but certainly not as bad as after St. George in '06 or even Chicago last fall, I suppose because even though I had to take some walking breaks at Chicago in the terrible heat I also got dehydrated whereas yesterday it was perfect (45 at start, maybe 53 at finish, overcast, light winds). My right knee is a bit sore, I guess from the IT band and upper hamstring tightness I discovered last fall. I may get out and run a few miles easy tomorrow but won't do it unless I feel I'd enjoy a run -- no need to hurry getting back to it although I don't want more than a few days off.

4 miles easy, mostly on grass. Some quad soreness but it's far better than it's been with previous marathons.

5 miles easy. Felt good, legs less sore this a.m. although the right knee has a bit of tightness/soreness. Need to fit in a little more stretching today as I didn't do much yesterday.

5 miles easy. Felt very good and would have gone somewhat longer but my right knee is somewhat sore (probably IT band tightness I need to address). Still I'm very pleased with marathon recovery so far and don't need to be running a lot this week.

5 miles, started out easy and noticed I was feeling really good (probably due in part to having been working on a scathing letter-to-the-editor since getting up early this a.m.). So I did a gradual build-up over the next three-quarters of a mile, running the last quarter close to all-out. Was pleased that my legs are feeling pretty fresh just five days post-marathon. I then ran an easy half-mile and followed that with a full mile right at 6:00, then ran the remaining 2.5 miles relatively easy. This was just test to see how some faster running would feel. I still have a little soreness in the right knee and need to keep stretching carefully, but otherwise all is well.

Rest. Woke up with body aches and a sore throat plus it was chilly and raining, all of which was a bad combination and I didn't need convincing to take the day off.

5 miles easy. Felt really bad last night with body aches and chills but no upset stomach or congestion. Woke up feeling somewhat better so decided a short, easy run couldn't hurt. And I felt fairly good during the run but a little worse later in the day. Seemed to have a low fever by late afternoon/evening.

Felt a little better this a.m. so got in an easy 7 miler. But by mid-afternoon the body aches and fatigue had returned so I'm still fighting this, whatever it is.

7 miles easy. Felt somewhat better this morning although still definitely not 100%. I expect to improve a lot by tomorrow so am planning on a good fartlek run unless I'm not up to it. I've had enough post-marathon easy stuff and want to get back to doing some productive training!

8 miles, mostly easy but included 6 x ~150m accelerations in the final 3 miles -- got pretty close to top speed (such as it is!) on these and took long recoveries. Felt okay though am still not completely over whatever bug I've had the past five days. A good sign is that my knee was fine today so I believe the IT band problem is under control.

8 miles, first 2 easy then 6400m on UGA track in 25:45 and 2 miles cool-down. Ran the first 3200 sort of between MP and threshold pace (6:33 + 6:27) then gradually sped up over the next 1800 to hit 4800 in 19:13 (6:13) and 5,000m in 19:58 and continued to 6400m at roughly the pace I'd run the first 3200m. As I'm still not at full strength following the virus I've had I'm relatively pleased with how this went.

7 miles, mostly easy but included 6 x ~150m accelerations during final 2 miles. Felt good. Some soreness in right quad but nothing too serious.

9 miles, primarily easy although after ~3 I did a few strides then ran and out-and-back mile in 5:42 and also did a few ~150m hill repeats and several pick-ups. Felt good, finally over the virus that's lingered for a full week.

10 miles, first 1.5 easy then 5 x 800/300 on UGA track w/ 300m recoveries after each 800 and 600m recoveries after the 300s. Was basically wanting to run ~5K race pace on the 800s and close to mile race pace on the 300s, and I went 2:54/1:00, 2:55/1:00, 2:54/1:00, 2:57/1:01, 2:56/1:00. So I wasn't exactly tearing up the track, but considering I've been marathon training this winter and raced a marathon just two weeks ago this isn't so bad. (I suspect 18:15 is about the best I could do for 5K at present.) And this workout is something to build from, I hope. (2.25 mile cool-down.)

11 miles relatively easy in 1:20. Felt good. Right knee got a little sore over the last few miles.

A.M.:  7 miles easy. Felt pretty good, knee no problem.

P.M.:  2 miles easy getting the dog some exercise.

9 miles, doing fartlek the first 4.5 miles (some strides and then 3 x 5 minutes at threshold w/ 1:00 recoveries) then a mile in 5:40, easy half mile jog, mile in 5:37 (same out-and-back road course) and 2 miles cool-down with a couple accelerations. Felt good, pleased with how the two faster miles went.

9 miles, mostly easy but included a few light strides and accelerations. Felt good. Looking forward to racing a 5K this Saturday. It might be a rude awakening as I've not raced shorter than 10K in 10 monthes, but if I can avoid too fast a start I should be okay.

7 miles, mostly easy except for a few strides and light accelerations. Felt good.

6 miles easy. Racing 5K tomorrow -- not too sure what to expect but want to avoid too quick a start because I'm not really in shape for such a short race.

This was not a great performance with miles going something like 5:52, 12:06 (6:14), 18:14 (6:08), 18:52 (:38). It was a rolling course and I did get 2nd overall but it was quite a small race, maybe 100 runners. I did talk with someone afterward who said his Garmin got the distance as 3.3 miles but I really don't believe it could have been a full 0.2 long -- that would bring my time down into the 17:40s and I'm definitely not in sub-18:00 shape for 5K. One tenth of a mile long I'd believe but not more than that.

15 miles in rural, fairly hilly Oconee County with Kevin in 1:43. Might have been a bit farther and the pace felt kind of stiff (especially as I'd raced, though poorly, yesterday) and headwind the last several miles made the going kind of hard. But a very enjoyable run. This was actually fairly close to marathon pace for me at 6:52/mile average.

7 miles mostly easy but I included 4 x :45 fairly steep uphill repeats in mile #6. Left quad is rather sore today for some reason.

10 miles, first ~1.5 easy then 30 minutes of fartlek (2 x :30, 2 x 1:00, 2 x 2:00, 2 x 3:00, 2 x 2:00, 2 x 1:00, all with 1:00 jog recoveries) then immediately ran 3,000m on UGA track in 11:07 and finally ~2 miles cool-down. I was pleased with the 3K -- was just wanting to keep each 400 at 90 seconds or below and I managed to do that. I was still feeling just a bit tired from the weekend but actually pretty good.

9 miles, easy except for several ~:45 hill repeats. Felt good.

9 miles, similar to yesterday in that it was primarily an easy run but I threw in a few pretty hard :45 to :60 uphills. Felt good.

11 miles, first 1.5 easy warm-up then a solo 10K on UGA track in 39:31 followed by 3.25 cool-down. Ran the 10K mostly as a threshold effort, aiming to hit 5K at ~20:00 (and was 19:58) then see if I could go a bit faster then second 5K (19:33). 1600s were 6:25, 6:25, 6:21, 6:20, 6:19, 6:12 with a final 400 in :89. This felt maybe a bit harder than I'd have liked but it was under control, and obviously if I was able to gradually speed up throughout that's a good sign.

8 miles easy. Felt pretty good, not noticeably tired from yesterday although I've got a small sore spot near the right kneecap. It actually improved after a few miles so I hope to get in at least 15 tomorrow.

16 miles in 1:50 with my friend Kevin. Started with a fairly easy first mile but quickly dropped the pace to ~6:45-6:50 and kept that up until we'd finished 15 then I ran a slow 16th mile on my own. So it was close to marathon pace and a good run -- felt very strong. Damp with a stiff breeze, mid 40s, just the sort of conditions I like for long runs.

8 miles easy with a few strides. Felt good.