Starting Anew

After months of intense training for the Detroit Marathon, I took the last week of October off to recover from the race. Then another week. Then another.

Then I had a plantar wart removed from the bottom of my foot which, by the way, is incredibly painful. It meant a couple more weeks off.

Then it was the holidays.

And then… and then… and then…

And now, nearly eight months have passed with only negligible training (see nearby chart). The fitness I’d built up is gone.

Time to start anew, methinks.

“So what do we do? Anything. Something. So long as we just don't sit there. If we screw it up, start over. Try something else. If we wait until we've satisfied all the uncertainties, it may be too late."
- Lee Iacocca”

Long Awaited Detroit Marathon Post

"It would seem I've got at least one more in me."

This sentence from my last post seem to have taken on some additional meaning. It's been about ten months sense I posted that entry and roughly nine months since I ran the Detroit Marathon.

If you're interested... It went great. My official time was 3:44:52. That's a 8:35/mile pace and a whopping 8 seconds under my goal time of three hours and forty-five minutes. A few highlights from the race include:

• Running over the Ambassador Bridge at sunrise
• Crossing over into Canada
• Running back to the United States via the Windsor Tunnel (runners actually stopped to take photos in the tunnel at the boarder between the US and Canada)
• Running through Belle Isle

The low point of the race was while shuffling through Chene Park along the Detroit River. Sure, it's nice running along the river, but the course takes some awkward twists and turns in the park and along the marina. Making matters worse, this section of the race you're hitting mile 22, 23, and 24, when most runners (myself included) are crashing into the wall.

Once over the hump, and with the finish near at hand, things started looking up again. The last couple miles were tough but rewarding. I'd trained hard for 18 weeks, missing only a single workout, in preparation. Crossing the finish line right on time, with family watching (and with +Cabe Morphew  running behind me) was awesome.

It was also redeeming after really disappointing Austin Marathon. 

 "To admit you want to have a comeback means you have to admit you weren't what you were supposed to be. You dropped below your own standard."

-Marilyn Manson