In Sturgis

Here I am sitting in my room at the Best Western in Sturgis, SD.  It is the day before the Black Hills 100.  Sergio, my pacer and crew for the run is here as well.  We had a nice, but long, drive in yesterday (about 15 and a half hours).  Had a good night's sleep and a good breakfast this morning.

Picked my race packet and found the Start/Finish as well this morning.  Definitely has us both excited.  But sitting here, I am a bit trepidatious.  Why am I doing this?  Can I finish this thing?  Am I just a little bit crazy?  It is a formadible task,  but I feel I have put in the training and I've finished three 100's before.  So I should be able to do this.  No, I know I am capable of doing this.  But with something of this magnitude, I know anything can happen.  I keep telling myself that I am ready, both physically and mentally.  But it will be the mental aspect that will be the key to this.  Having Sergio here will be such a big help.  I've only ever had a pacer once before and I remember how beneficial it was.  When I am down during hat second have, Sergio will be there to keep me focused and going.

By the way,  Sturgis is  really a nice town.  With these hills surrounding it, it really is quite beautiful. It is, however, hard to imagine over 500,000 people descending on this town in early August fot their annual Motorcycle Rally.  It turns out that this will be the 73rd year for this event.  It has to be truly incredible.

Final Prep

These last two weeks have been my tapering period.  Down to fifty miles this last week and will only do about twenty to twenty-five this coming week.  These miles will pretty much be in the early part of the week, especially with the 14-15 hour drive on Thursday.

Also met with Sergio who will be my pacer/crew.  It went very well and we have laid down the basic plans for the weekend.  I think he will be a great asset to my race.

News and Countdown

Less than two weeks to go to the Black Hills 100.  I am sitting in the St. Joe's Hospital waiting room where my wife is having shoulder surgery.  She just headed to pre-op.  She has been having pain in the shoulder for the last nine months.  After trying a lot of other things, they feel surgery is necessary.  Not totally sure what's there, but it is probably a combination of things.  Some arthritis, cartilage or tendon wear, or at the worst, rotator cuff tear.  Either way, she will be in a sling for a minimum of four weeks.  It will prove interesting.

Been back for a few days from our vacation (including the Lake Placid Marathon) and it is nice to be home.  It looks like we will be getting a new dog sometime next month.  My wife spent quite a bit of time on the Internet during the vacation searching for one.  After several false starts, we have found a female dalmation from a breeder in Waterloo, Indiana.  The puppies are only four weeks old so we have to wait a bit before we can go pick her up.  We will have the third choice out of four females.  Although it has been kind of nice not having to worry about a pet the last six months, I do miss not having a dog around since Harlie passed away in January.  A dog is such a faithful companion, I am really looking forward to our addition.

And, of course,  my daughter, Katie's C-Section scheduled for July 18th, when our new grandson will be arriving.  That will be just fantastic.

Katie and Pat will be closing on their house at the end of this month.  And the move is planned for the first week in July.  I am not sure just how much help I will be after the 100 mile on June 29th and 30th, but I'll do my best.

Had my most mileage of this training cycle last week with a 95 mile week.  This included the marathon which boosted the total.  This week and next will be my taper.  I expect about 45 to 50 miles this week and only 20 to 25 next week.  I have never been one who was comfortable with getting down to almost nothing by the race.  I need to run pretty much everyday up to race day, even if it only a little bit.  It is just my mindset.  And I find it helps to keep the old body and muscles loose with the daily run.  The hardest thing will be the drive up to Sturgis (about 14 hours).  I tend to really stiffen up when I am behind the wheel for long periods of time.  But I will mange.  By heading up on Thursday, I will have Friday to loosen up and relax.

That should do it for now.  Next time, I'll go over the weekend schedule for the 100 mile.

Wonderful Time

It's been a couple of days, but I am still feeling great about my marathon on Sunday.  It was a day for running.  Started out cloudy and cool.  Ended up partly sunny and mild.  Temperatures ranged from about 55 to 67.  The Lake Placid Marathon started at 8:00 a.m.  The start was at the bottom of a pretty good hill, but everyone moved up it at a very nice pace.  Once out of town, the course became rolling and very scenic.  Although this was a road marathon, at times we were in the middle of a forest with a bubbling stream following along beside us.  Lake Placid is beautiful area.  We also went right by the ski-jumps used in the 1980 Winter Olympics.  It was hard to believe that people actually ski down this structure and then jump to the bottom.  You really can't appreciate how these are from watching on TV.  With about 350 starters and another 800 half-marathoners, the course was never crowded.  Support was great throughout the day, with aid stations almost every mile.  It was almost overkill for me, so I pretty much just partook every other one after the first six miles since I had to go to the bathroom three times by mile eight.

Although I was running at a very conservative pace, I never really felt comfortable.  It wasn't until about mile ten that I finally felt the groove.  The first half ended up in about 2:03.  But I was feeling pretty good by the halfway point and really ran well between miles ten and twenty.  With six miles to go, I realized if I could just stay nice and steady, I would have a good shot for a sub-4 hour without killing myself.  I had to remind myself that I was still using this as a training run.  I didn't want to run myself into the ground.  But things went well and I finished in 3:57:33, including a very large hill up to the finish.  Negative splits are so satisfying to me these days.  I ended up 124th out of 327 finishers and 8th out of 29 in the 50-59 age group.  I also added another five miles afterward for a 50K day.

And I didn't overdo it since I was able to get in a very nice ten miler on Monday.

Pre-Marathon Thoughts

Here I am sitting in bed the day before the Lake Placid Marathon in New York.  This is part of a vacation for my wife and I.  We took two days driving from Chicago and arrived last night.  Weather has been cool for June and rainy almost the whole time.  It only reached a high of 58 yesterday.  The weather is supposed to be about the same today.  But tomorrow is supposed to be partly sunny with a high of about 70.  We will spend a good part of today checking out the town of Lake Placid and I think we will be taking in a movie this evening.

Just like the Chicagoland Marathon three weeks ago, I will be using this one as a supported training run.  So I will be trying to go out nice and easy and relax throughout the run.  I need to keep away from actually competing so I don't get carried away and trash my body too badly.  I really want to enjoy the scenery and the people.  It is beautiful up here.  The last hour or so of driving yesterday was through the Adirondack area of upper New York.  My goal is to run the marathon somewhere between 4:05 and 4:20 with even splits.  I also would like to put in an extra five or so miles to get to the 50K mark for the day.  But we will see how I am feeling for that.  It is not a must do.  Went for a short run last night and felt very good.  I am pretty confident things will go well.