De Mar

       Well, I think that went just about as I expected. I knew going in I had the worst preparation I have ever had for a marathon, and I never train or prepair the way I should. (next time I will, ha, ha) I knew I could run ok for 8 to 10 miles before coming unglued, it's the last 18 I was worried about.
        So, after a very restless night sleep, I was almost scared to go to the race in the morning, I made my way to Keene to catch a bus to the start. I did hydrated well the day before and morning of the race. Although I was very nervous because I knew how hard this was going to be I had a calming feeling before the race and even once we got started because I was not worried about any specific time goal, and felt confident no matter how hard it got I would still finish the race. That was all I had to do.
       At the start I got talking to Chris Rielly and Chris Berry, they were both trying to run in the 3 hour range, so I figured I would just tag on with them for as long as I could and when I fell apart, oh well. Chris B had a gps on which kept us on about a 6:50 to 7:00 minute pace right from the start. I felt very relaxed and smooth for along time. At around mile seven we slowly started reeling in some of the jackrabbit starters but kept along at our planned pace. Mile 8 I started to pull away from Chris B, I was worried I may have been starting to push harder for some reason but felt really good so didn't change anything. At mile 9 and 10 my splits were still within the same range as from the start so I kept going with it. At this point I could see myself pulling in Chris R. The dam was my first big mistake. As I started to reel in Chris R it started to feel really hard, I thought here we go, I'm probably falling off pace and starting to bonk already. To my surprise when we got to the next mile marker I realized it was so hard because we just threw down a 6:10 mile. Whoops. I don't know if Chris did this intensionally or not but it was the first nail in my coffin. Chris stopped to water a tree and that gave me an opportunity to go by, I still felt pretty good so kept pushing until the hill just after Brettwood, were I got my first real indication that I was on the way out. Chris blasted past me on this hill and I pushed hard to stay with him. Now I could really start  to feel it. We past James and Wilson on court street and their cheering helped somewhat, when Wilson said I was in the top ten that gave me a energy rush,,,,,,,, short lived. Now on  Maple Ave I was having a hard time staying with Chris. I fell of the bus around mile seventeen and a half. Up around skyline drive Chris pulled away fast as rigormortis set in to my legs. This was the norm until Arh street when I had a second wind, which lasted until the cemetary. Convenient place for the real rigormortis to take over. At one point on the first hill in the cemetary I thought I could walk faster up the hill than I was currently running so I tried, no way, much to painful to walk. How can it be that after 22 or so miles the so called running that I was doing, more like a shuffle, felt better than walking. I don't know but it hurt less to run so run is sort of what I did. Somehow, although I don't really remember most of the next couple of miles, I navigated thru Lincoln and Eastern Ave. Seriously do not remember it at all. Scary right? Oh well. It was very cool to get to Marlboro street and have so many kids cheering me on and giving me high fives. Several time I heard parents say in a surprised tone to their kids, hey there goes your soccor coach, very cool. Main street was the highlight. Ang and the boys were there to cheer me on. Ang told Jace to run me in to the finish and he did. Man can that boy run. I pushed all the way up Main street and on to Appian Way and he was right on my heal most of the way yelling for me to go. Nothing in this world could have made me push harder.
     Not surprising to worst pain was felt after the finish when I stopped, I almost wanted to run more just to not hurt. I ran a 3:16, my second to worst ever, with the worst prep ever. Not bad, just were I predicted. It was fun never the less. Congrats to every one who hit their goals on that day, and to those who had guts enough to try. better to try and fail than to never have tried. There is always another day.

          I ran a couple of days in the week following the marathon. This week I have rune every day and felt really good. If any one is interesting in running at 4:00 to 4:30 in the morning during the week, let me know. This is the only time I have to train. I will train. No matter how crazy it sounds, I just love to run. Since I can run then I will run.