This is my first post since New Years eve, so it might run a tad long. Here we go...
First off, congratulations to us all for surviving this snarling hell-bitch of a Winter. I never thought I would actually get sick of snow days, but lo and behold, here I am, telling Winter to her unfeeling, dead-eyed, fat fucking face that she can stay right the hell in Bob Ross paintings where she belongs.
"Actually, Jeff, I say she can fuck off too. From now on, titanium white will only be used on clouds."
Since, as I said in my last entry, my training during the week this Winter/Spring would be done exclusively in the morning before work, there were a lot of excruciatingly cold morning runs (and a commensurate amount of swearing). On a positive note, this probably did help toughen me up mentally for the race.
It also led to my invention of the snow-hawk.
Anyway, I did have a bit of a training setback in January. I had a little achilles tendon trouble, which is really annoying because it temporarily compromised my ability to run on hills, and running on hills is kind of my thing. Fortunately, I was smart about it, and I kept a small injury from becoming a big injury. I think at most I took off three consecutive days, and I was back up to full speed by mid-February. I have been working with Coach Mike again this season, and while I don't think I have the same number of miles or obsessive hill repeats under my belt that I had at this time last year, I am definitely a lot faster and have done a lot more race-specific long runs.
I have only raced once this season, the Rumspringa 13.1 in Adamstown, Pennsylvania, on April 6th. It starts and finishes in the Stoudtsburg Village, right next to the Stoudts Brewery, and I have historically run well in races where I know there is a brewery at the finish. I had originally planned on running the Caesar Rodney Half Marathon on March 23rd in Wilmington, Delaware, but I wanted a little more training time before I tried to race again, and the Rumspringa 13.1 also seemed a bit more Blue Ridge Marathon-relevant, since it is a very hilly course. I wasn't really sure what to expect from myself, fitness-wise, going into it, so I was really surprised when I went through the first mile in what I thought would be around 5:30, but ended up being 4:55. Granted, there was some downhill in the first mile, but it still definitely didn't feel like I was moving that fast. I was also by myself by that point, so the rest of the race became about simply trying to maintain a constant effort over constantly changing inclines. Incidentally, this race (if you couldn't tell by the name) took place in Amish country, and it took place while a lot of the Amish were on their way to church, so I got to run against some very heavy horse-and-buggy traffic. They all seemed just as amused as we were at the sight of a bunch of people in short shorts running at them. There was a lot of smiling and waving from the people in the buggies, as well as the kids on bicycles. The race director apologized about it afterward, but I thought it made it more fun, and I told him he should use it as a selling point in the future (with the Amish community's consent, of course). Anyway, I went through ten miles in 54:35 without feeling especially taxed, and then I felt really strong over the last, mostly uphill, 5K to finish in 1:12:30, which was a course record by just under eight minutes. On a flat course, I think this would probably have been at or under 1:09:00. At the finish line, there was freshly-made bratwurst ("awesome sausage," as the lady serving me called it) and German potato salad. Then the party moved across the parking lot to the Stoudts Brewery. There, we of course had sweet, sweet post-race beer. There was also a lot of traditional German dancing, followed by the awards ceremony. It was here that I received the most epic, non-bear-related, trophy I have ever received: an authentic, hand-made German cuckoo clock.
I can't wait to hang it on the wall and watch it scare the shit out of the beagle when it chimes.
It also has a godmother named Jen, who lives in Redbank, New Jersey. This was because she was standing behind me at the awards ceremony, and after I received the clock, I put my hand on her shoulder, looked her in the eye and said, "Can I trust you to watch my cuckoo clock while I get another beer?" She said yes, did so successfully, and I told her that she was now the godmother of my cuckoo clock. So that happened.
Anyway, upon reporting the race results to Coach Mike, he said that before the race he thought I was in PR shape, and the race confirmed it. I was pleasantly surprised to hear this, as I really didn't feel like I was as fast as I was in November, especially since I had been training for a full marathon instead of a half. This gave me a huge boost in confidence over my last couple weeks of training. My long runs and tempo runs have gone really well, and I think I'm definitely in shape to run BRM faster than I ran it last year. I am of course tapering now, so there is the usual, probably obnoxious, level of hyperactivity that goes along with it. The number of beagle-related songs I make up and sing around the house per day is up by around 60%.
"Oh, for fuck's sake."
Ultimately, I'm really excited to head to Roanoke next weekend. I think after another week of rest (relatively speaking, since I'm still running every day between now and then), I will really be ready to run well. Also, since Jeannine and I are getting married in December, and our families have never met before, we thought this would be a good opportunity for them to meet, since her parents live in Delaware and the race takes place in Southwestern Virginia, just a couple of hours from where my family lives. Her dad signed up for the Blue Ridge Half Marathon, so her parents will be making the trek to Roanoke, as will some of my family, which will be cool since many of them have never seen me run before.
So I suppose the next entry I write will be my race report for the Blue Ridge Marathon weekend. Good luck to everyone running Blue Ridge next weekend, as well as Boston this coming Monday (this year's Boston Marathon will have 9,000 more runners than last year, because fuck you, terrorists). See you guys on the other side.
And if someone asks you if you're a god, you say YES!
Cheers,
Jeff
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