Well, here we are! Hello everybody! Finally, it's marathon eve. After all the cray injuries and health scares I thought that my marathon streak might just fall this year. But, for better or worse, tomorrow at 7:30 AM I'll be towing the start line of the Empire State Marathon in Syracuse, NY.
I tried to ignore the fact that my ankle tendonitis ruined my chances to run my beloved Rochester, NY marathon this year. But, it really sucked to not run after making it every year for the last seven. It worked out in the end though. There wasn't an upstate NY snowball's chance in hell that I could've passed my department's physical fitness instructor agility test scheduled the day after if I had ran the race. Besides, sometimes going out of your comfort zone can be a good thing. New race tomorrow with lots of new things to look forward to.
Physically I'm still not anywhere near the shape that I was last year. I didn't watch what I ate this summer and accordingly put on an additional seven pounds. The injuries and work related schools put a huge dent in the quality of my training too. Only letting me complete one true long run of 16 miles in which I had to walk portions. I don't think that they'll be any surprises tomorrow. I doubt that I'll be able to finish the race in under four hours. Part of me is sad to see that progress fall away this year. I worked so hard last year and set amazing PR's in two other races distances besides the marathon. It's so addicting!
But, it's about the journey, the "long" view. Not the numbers. With the focus on the Project this year I really wanted to bring it all back home. Honestly, at the end of last year I was incredibly burnt out. All that hard work came with a price. So, tomorrow I'll just be thrilled to be healthy enough to be there, let alone hopefully finish. It's always better to get to the starting line under trained and healthy instead of injured and exhausted.
The drive over from Rochester was a straight shot on the highway and only took little over an hour to get to the expo. It was a perfect time of year for a road trip. All the Fall foliage is at almost at peak right now. Just beautiful! I was the only one who got to enjoy it though. Sara worked 12 hours through her midnight shift so we could leave on time and Ryan fell asleep after a power reading session in his chapter book. I really liked that fact that they decided to have the expo inside a local mall. With over 2,500 runners registered for the race, extra parking is always appreciated. The expo itself was small. This is only the third running. So, they have room to grow in the future. The local Fleet Feet store was there. That company is the freakin best! I love the colors and logo for this years race!
I usually try to not get suckered into all the bling for sale at these things. But, Fall is my favorite time of year and I had to have their overpriced sweatshirt. Didn't see anything else all that spectacular or that I needed to have. After running for so long, I've accumulated everything that I need. There was a company there promoting eco friendly race practices and athletes. I really like the fact that the race organizers incorporated a third of the company's "eco friendly" practices into this year's race. Very responsible. I bought one of their shirts. If we don't take care of the planet that we love so much to run on, then we'll be forced to slave away our miles on boring treadmills of death! I asked about drop bags since the weather's going to be on the chilly side tomorrow. The The race organizer didn't know what I was talking about. Yikes! Like I said, room to grow, third race. They were super friendly and when I explained to them what a drop bag was they offered to hold onto my stuff for me personally while I raced. Nice, nice people! Picked up my race bib. Which verified two things: 1. That yes, it'll be my first race being 40 years old 2. That I'm actually registered to run the full tomorrow. Both very good things! Funny thing happened, there I was walking around the expo and lo and behold I run into an investigator who works for my department! He's running the half tomorrow! What a small world!
After some minor snafus using GPS we finally found our hotel. Apparently there's a house with the same address as our hotel in the next town over as well as our home address! Weird?! The hotel's fairly decent and has a attached spa. It's been a long time since I've had a full body massage. After the race would be a perfect opportunity to relieve some of that soreness that's going to be coming with a vengeance!
We unpacked a little and headed off for an early dinner. I originally picked Dinosaur BBQ. But, just like home, the line to get in was out the door. So, we scratched that in favor of a tapas style restaurant. What a great atmosphere! The food was amazing and the owner even took Ryan into the kitchen for a tour! Much better than I expected. Couple glasses of wine helped ease some of the pre race jitters.
After 10 marathons you'd think I'd have this shit down man. But, there's something special about pinning on that race number and toeing that 26.2 mile starting line. So much can go wrong. So much can go right. There's nothing more that I can do tonight to help me tomorrow. Well, other than not staying up all night. I just have to trust in my experience and training that I could do over the summer.
I'm going to be using my iPhone's Runmeter app to post my progress on Facebook as I run the race tomorrow. Did a test run with it today and it sort of worked. I liked the Glympse app much better. But, it only broadcasts for four hours. No good for my expected finish time. I'm also going to try to take lots of pictures and video. Hopefully my overpriced, super heavy Iphone extra battery case will be worth lugging.
The little man is enjoying the hell out of the hotel's pool with a gang of other kids his age as I blog. Listening to him scream like a banshee and and watching him do "his" version of a cannonball brings a big smile to my face. To think that four months ago I was broken with my marathon hopes dashed and two months ago facing a very scary spot on my lung. Tomorrow may not be my best race, it may not be my worst race. But, it'll be my race. One of my favorite authors, George Sheehan sums up what I'm feeling with this quote, "It's very hard in the beginning to understand that the whole idea is not to beat the other runners. Eventually you learn that the competition is against the little voice inside you that wants you to quit." There's no quitting here. Tomorrow I run for my life...
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