Yesterday, my brother and I went down to Bloomington, IN and ran a marathon. We woke up, opened up the blinds and saw what was the makings of a blizzard outside. On a normal day I would have looked outside and thought, "Okay, I guess I'm not going to go outside today." We had to run a marathon in that weather, it was tough. We drove to the finish line, parked our car, then boarded a bus for an hour long ride up to the start line. After the ride, that made us feel completely stiff, we got off the bus and felt the 20 mph winds and snowflakes blasting our faces. What a wake-up call! After the race started we began our march to the finish line. The reason for the word march was that we were on a trail most of the way which meant we were in a line with people most of the way. I don't think that I had the complete idea as to what this marathon would be like. First of all, I fell 6 times. None of these were big falls, but they were all times that I found myself needing to put my hands down to make sure I didn't make it all the way to the ground. Because of the snow, it made for icy conditions on the trails the whole way. Our pace was barely over a walk for most of the race. This was because: 1) it was icy and any attempt to run would have surely resulted in a hard fall. 2) There were an incredible amount of hills on the course that took a bunch of energy out of you if you decided to run them. 3) I hadn't run in 2 weeks and both my cardio and my foot were struggling to keep up. The biggest thing that I had going for me was the fact that the doctor said I couldn't do any permanent damage to my foot. That was good to know, it helped to keep me going. Plus, it didn't hurt bad enough anyway that would have taken me off the course at any point. The thing that really kept me going was the fact that I had my brother there to push me along. If he wasn't there, I think I still might be out on the course.
The ride home was tough. I'm sure Matt will comment about how I was almost asleep the whole way home. He is right, I fought sleep for the last hour and a half. He is an amazing driver and I am very happy he was behind the wheel on the way home.
What's next on the race calendar? I don't know yet. I know May 30th I've got a 5K. Before that, we'll see. Matt is trying to get me to do another marathon. I am waiting for my body to recover before I get too far ahead in making a decision about that again. I'll keep everyone (all 5 of you that read this thing) posted.
5 comments:
Bloomington eh? Nice! I saw Tecumseh and knew it had to be in the Hoosier state!
I'm reading your blog first, Eric, so I don't know yet what Matt had to say about this event. I'm glad you and Matt were together to help one another along. I admire your stick-to-it-iveness. Take it easy, Eric. Your family needs you to be healthy. I love you very much.
Eric - This is Kelly, Casey and Katie's marathon friend. Katie gave me your blog link because of the running portion with you and Matt. Well, I wanted to commiserate with you about the Tecumseh Trail because I did it last year! Seeing your picture and reading your summary sounds so very familiar to me (we also had a winter storm last year come through, but it sounds as if yours was a little tougher). I've run 12 marathons, but Tecumseh was my first trail, and it was one of my most difficult races!! Congrats to you both on finishing.
I'm reading through some of our old posts... What an amazing day that was!!!
That day sure was amazing!
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