I ran this once before, four years ago. Today's race was not on any calendars and I was unaware of it until five days ago. I ran the Woolley Marathon seven days ago so it will be interesting to see how today goes.
Start - Small group, but enough to qualify for a Maniac race. Light snow. It is a long 2.5 miles out and 2.5 back that will be repeated. Later in the race we can do one mile out and backs. Last time the 5 mile course was listed as 5.15. Today they are just calling it 5. Do 5x a long 5 and one short out and back and we will call it a marathon. In fact that course is about a half mile long.
I plan to hold my 10/mile pace like I did last week for as long as I can. I will incorporate many walk breaks.
Run the first half mile with Linda and then I am on my own for the rest of the day. With all the out and backing, I will wave to Linda, Monte, Rick, Stan and a few others quite often.
Mile 15 - Three laps done. With the exception of King Arthur I am in first place. He is running with a dog and way ahead of me. I am curious to know if he is planning to run the whole event. If not, I could probably do the 50K plus a mile and be the winner. Maniac Ryan is here to and I am not sure what he is up to. He started early, so I assume that he is not staying for the whole race. Both of these guys are way out of my league. I could not hope to beat them, unless they have other plans for this morning.
Mile 17 - Right quadriceps tighten up and feel sore. I often get this feeling at about this point in a race when I do marathons on consecutive weekends. Can't find my S!Caps that I know I put in a pocket. Snow has changed to rain. Still holding my pace though.
Mile 20+ - Arthur and Ryan running together finally lap me. Ryan has been running since 4AM. Neither will say how far they plan to run. When they head out for the 50K though I know that I can not run as far as they will today. I decide to do this one last 5 miles, then one more mile and finish at 26.2. My legs are tired and I am cold and wet. Yes I could shuffle and walk another 5 miles but it won't do me any good and perhaps I would be risking injury. The last long lap goes well, knowing that I am almost done.
Mile 25+ - Check in with 4:28 on the clock. I decide to shoot for a sub 4:40 finish, an 11 minute mile will do the trick and should be easy. I run most of it. Happy that I have no pains, just muscle fatigue.
Mile 26.5 - Finish in 4:38. Dry off and get some warm soup and sandwich. Uneventful day. Nice way to get in another marathon. Now I will rest and wait 4 weeks before attempting any long distances.
4:38:00
Results Pending
Marathon or Ultra #107
Race #320
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