Praying and Running

Saturday, March 19th, 2016 I ran the Sam Costa half-marathon. This was 1 week after running the 2016 Land Between the Lakes Trail Marathon . My quads were shredded from the descents and the trails and felt bad through Thursday. Also, at some point on Monday I noticed a flare up of my peroneal tendon that resulted in my right foot becoming very painful. I started loading up on Ibuprofen on the Thursday prior. I know this isn't probably the smartest thing in the world but right now it is worth it to me to get some consistent running back in my training. My oldest daughter Kasey was running the quarter marathon so she rode down with me. There is a lot to like about this race and 1 of the best things is a very efficient race morning check in so there is no need for a separate trip to "packet pickup and expo", no need to get there super early either as there is ample close parking in the Northview Church parking lot. Saturday morning came and my foot was a little tender bu...

The weekend, March 12, 2016 I ran the Land Between the Lakes Trail Marathon. This marathon is run along with options for 50 miles, 60k, and 24k (a little over a half marathon) at the Land Between the Lakes National Recreation Area in Kentucky which is a little over a 5 hour drive from my house. I ran, and won, this marathon last year but due to heavy snow and rain in the weeks proceeding it last year it was moved to the roads. So, while I ran it last year, this year was truly my first "trail' marathon and I had no idea what I was in for. As with last year, the purpose of this race was "marathon-as-a-training-run" for Carmel Marathon in April. The goal was to finish the distance and need as little recovery as possible after. Meaning I wasn't planning on going into this and trying to win. I knew I wanted to run slow enough to keep the damage to a minimum. So my plan was maybe 7:30 for the first half and 7:15 for the second if I felt good. That is a minute sl...

The marathon is cruel. Training for it will beat you up and it will wear you down. It holds out to you the hope of glory but with that hope comes the risk of heart break. While I have been blessed and usually win the glory, I experienced this heartbreak first hand Saturday 11/7/2015 at the 2015 Indianapolis Monumental Marathon. I have gone back and forth about writing this and after a few people have inquired I decided to go ahead and put it out there in case anyone else was wondering. As you all are probably aware, I have been training for the Indianapolis Monumental Marathon for the last 18 weeks. I had a rough time starting out and mentally and physically committing fully to another marathon training cycle but got that put behind me after several weeks and I dove in. The goal was to run the 2015 Indianapolis Monumental in under 2 hours and 48 minutes. My previous PR was 2 hours 49 minutes and 46 seconds. This was the same goal I had and missed for the 2015 Carmel Marathon back...

This was my big tune-up race for the Indianapolis Monumental Marathon. I always run a half-marathon at this point in the build up to the Monumental to get a final big fitness boost, a reality check on where I am at fitness-wise and, if all goes well, probably the most important aspect is the confidence boost that I get. I got one heck of a confidence boost yesterday, 10/25/2015, at the Valpohalf Half-marathon in Valparaiso IN. Valparaiso is about 2 hours from home which is kind of right there on the line of driving on race morning or staying in a hotel the night before. This time we decided to get up and drive. Valparaiso is on central time which puts it an hour behind us. Meaning the 8:30 AM start was really a 9:30 AM start for me.  Making the decision to drive that much easier. I have been dealing with some issues on the top of my right foot, which is probably extensor tendinitis, for the last couple of weeks. I saw my soft-tissue guy last Friday. He worked on it some and got...

Last Saturday, 10/17/2015, I ran the Indianapolis Marathon as a training run in my build to the Indianapolis Monumental Marathon. I have run the half marathon at this race for the last several years and have used it as a tune-up race and final fitness gauge for what has always been my "A" marathon, the Monumental. This year, the calendar proved a little challenging. This race is usually at the end of my first week of taper. So, I can use it to gauge where I truly am and I am rested enough to run a PR effort which usually results in an actual PR. The way it worked out this year though it was at the end of my biggest block of training both in quality and quantity. Leaving it a full 3 Saturday's out from the Monumental. I have come to rely on my wife as a manager/coach and when I pointed this out to her she had a solution as usual. She suggested I run the full marathon as a final strength workout and find a half-marathon the next week to run as a tune-up race. 21 days is...

Race Stats Date 1/18/2015 (7:05 AM) Gun Time: 3:40:50 Chip Time: 3:40:45 Overall 1/136 Male 1/63 For Christmas this year I received a trip to Florida and entry into the Clearwater Distance Classic 50k from my wife and daughters. I had been looking for a couple of 50ks to include as extra-long long runs in my training for the Carmel Marathon this year. In the past I have just done these as self-supported runs but that is a very daunting way to go about it. I figured with a fully supported race and plenty of other runners it wouldn't be such a mental task. My wife and I left for Florida on Thursday afternoon. We flew out of Indianapolis and into Tampa Bay. It was great to get away from the single digit temperatures for a few days. The race wasn't until Sunday so the plan was to spend a few nights at our favorite Disney resort and then drive down to Clearwater on Saturday Morning and check into our hotel for a couple of nights on the beach. I slept remarkably well Satur...

Training Details 18 Weeks Total 8 weeks with more than 80 running miles 2 week in a row at 100 running miles 10 runs of 20 miles or more 2 runs of full marathon distance Race Details Finish Time 2:49:46 62nd/3725 52nd/2163 5th/354 Age Group (40-45 male) Negative Split (My first in a marathon) 1st half 1:25:15 2nd half 1:24:31 The best short description of this race would have to be the perfect end to the perfect training cycle. The long description follows. My goal for this race was simple. Crush my PR by running under 2:50 and show the marathon who's boss. Based on my training and tune up races everything looked to be set. All I had to do was go out and execute. Then the weather forecast stared coming in. Cold and windy. In fact the forecasted winds were 15 to 20 MPH and the wind chill a cold 18* for the start and it wasn't going to warm up much. At first I was a bit disheartened but then I decided I had worked way too hard to sacrifice my goal and the fir...

This half marathon was less than 2 weeks out from the Boston Marathon. When I got my entry for Boston I knew this wasn't going to be a half that I would PR in but past that I wasn't really sure how I would do so I held off on setting any goals for this race until late last week. If you read my Boston race report you know it took a lot out of me. Honestly, I am usually way more recovered by now. I think it was Wednesday or Thursday before the race that I even attempted to set some vague goals. I was still feeling pretty beat up and on top of that I had gone to a couple of CrossFit classes earlier in the week and was suffering from a bad case of DOMS. So, I settled for the goals of sneaking in under 1:30 and getting a top 500 finish (special "500 club" medal for that). Even these goals were based mostly on vanity and not really on what I was confident that I could go out and do and as such they actually caused me a great deal of anxiety. This race has become a fami...

It took a long time to get to Boston. This is true both of the training and the actual trip. I have been preparing for this race for 2 and a half years and on Friday the 18th we left home and began the journey to Boston. Because there are no direct flights from Indianapolis to Boston we drove to my parents who live about 45 minutes from the Detroit airport and stayed the night. At 3:00 AM we we "outta bed, clothes on and out the door" and headed the airport to catch a 6:30 AM flight. We arrived in Boston around 8:00 AM and got a cab to our hotel. Checked into the hotel but of course that early there were no rooms available. My wife and I changed into running clothes in the bathroom, stowed our luggage and headed out for an easy run. We ran up and around Boston Commons where I would need to load up on the bus on race morning to head to the start line. First hour in Boston and I already had an easy 4 in the books. The remaining time between our Saturday arrival and the Mond...

I originally signed up for the full marathon way back last May for half price. I knew at the time that there was a very good chance that I would switch to the half because if I got into the Boston marathon I would be running that 10 days later. That is exactly how it played out. Little did I know back in May that I would be battling a pulled groin muscle. But I was/am and this was the hardest I have run in over 6 weeks. Picked up my packet Friday over a long lunch and headed back to work. On the way home my wife was looking though and saw that my bib had the name "Brittney" printed on it. I contacted the RD and arranged to pick up a blank bib in the morning before the race. Got up Saturday morning and headed to the race. By the time we got there, picked up my new bib and stoped at the port-a-pots it was about 5 minutes to race time. As such I couldn't get up past corral C. I met an older guy, probably late 50's, who was running his 25th full here and his 26th next w...