This is it. This is the last week. The next thing that comes out of this blog will my Flying Pig Marathon Race Report. May The Fourth Be With Us All!
| Mon | Tue | Wed | Thu | Fri | Sat | Sun |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 3 mi + 7 strides | 4 miles | 2 mi + 7 strides | Rest | Little Kings Mile | Rest | Flying Pig Marathon |
Monday: With the Suspension Bridge being reopened Friday, I decided to run across it. The plan was form drills, 3 miles, and 7 strides. It was nice finally getting to cross the bridge again. The weather was a little chilly, but that is expected to change. 4 miles in 32:46 (8:12 pace). I was not sprinting, honest!
Tuesday: With the Suspension Bridge being reopened Friday, I decided to run across it (this time, I ran the opposite direction of the route I did Monday). It’s usually a little bit slower this direction because I start uphill on the Purple People Bridge and I’m going up the handicap ramp up the Newport Floodwall. 4 miles in 33:17 (8:19 pace).
Wednesday: Form drills, two miles, and 7 strides. I just ran down to the Bengals practice field and back and rounded off to 3.01 miles, which was really a response to Strava cutting off the last 0.01 of every run. 3 miles in 24:05 (8:00 pace)
Thursday: Thursday is a rest day. Since I got to the office at 6:30 and I don’t get credit for working before 7:00 AND a storm was in the forecast for later in the day, I decided to make sure I got my 3,000 intensity steps in on my health insurance fitness tracker. I walked in Friendship Park on what was a very nice morning.
Friday: RACE DAY! I walked up to the expo at around noon to get my race materials. I browsed around the expo for a little bit, which started off with getting race numbers for the marathon and the Little Kings Mile. As soon as the marathon envelope touched my hand, it sent a chill down my spine (seriously, I’m not embellishing!). It took 364 days, but it finally sunk in.
The crowd in the expo was larger than I’ve seen in the past 5 years. I only took a few free things – some granola bars (which came in handy later – I forgot to bring some pretzels with my salad), some lube (he was very insistent that I take some), and a pound of spaghetti noodles (score! and no wait!). I also got a free shirt from Buckeye Running Club for being a first time marathoner (they also gave me an extra bib that said “first time marathoner”, but I’m treating that like The Scarlet Letter). I talked to a few people – the RDs for The Honor Run Half and the Urban Bourbon Half, and a volunteer for The Beast of the East Fork, which looks like a new trail obstacle race near my home.
The walk back to the office was brutal. The humidity hit 9000.
When I was back in the office for the second part of my day, I actually looked at my corral assignments. I expected B for Friday night and C for Sunday. I got E for Friday night and B for Sunday. Looks like I’m going to be one of ‘those’ people that are going to run with the incorrect corral, because I’m running in whatever corral leaves second on Friday night.
Later in the evening, I left my office (just under 2 miles away from the Little Kings Mile start) around 6:30 and jogged to the start line. I talked to the race director (I know him from volunteering with another race that he also directs) who gave a vexed look at the “E” on my bib, and the MC joked that it was “just a suggestion”. I also got the chance to meet a few twitter #runChat and #bibChat friends both before and after the race.
The race went without a hitch. I cruised the first half and kicked it in with about 0.2 miles left. Final time 6:39, which is a 15 second improvement over last year. I’ll take it!
Totals for the week: 12 miles, 90 minutes spent running. A major change from when I was hitting 47 miles in a week! Next up: 26.2 miles!
Marathon Race Strategy in a nutshell:
- Gu at 15′ before and every 45 min (roughly 5, 10, 15, and 20 miles)
- Gatorade every 2 miles
- Don’t go out too fast
Cheers!