May 16th - #31 in the books

So may 15th I ran my 31st marathon, which tied me with my father. This was also my 10th marathon of the year! My expectations were hopefully a new PR or maybe sub 3. The weather was not an issue. Gun goes off and it's right to business. Hit first mile in 7:09 as planned then settled into my goal pace of 6:45/6:48. Hit first 5 in 34:16, ok so far. Next five miles in 34:04. Felt good and seemed to find a groove. The next five was 34:09, again pretty consistent
The next five is where the wheels slowly started to wobble. Split was 34:51. Fatigue seemed to be creeping in. Started to rethink goal and simply try to finish sub 3:05 giving me my 10 minutes for my Boston registration. The next 6.2 miles is where the wheels really began to come off. When I reached the 26 mile marker I realized I needed to kick to get under 3:10, so I sucked it up and gave all I had left. Crossed line in 3:09:45. A not so pretty sub 3:10. Ok so what went wrong? two things: the first was I switched my normal day off of Monday to Friday which meant by that Friday I had run 10 days in a row. I oppose any type of running streaks. No more than 6 days in a row, you need a day of rest. Why now I run 10 In a row was just a careless mistake. The second mistake was I did not carryout a proper taper. I finished the week with 83.11 miles(includes marathon). Should have run 30-35 miles less. I know better, just didn't listen. Moral of this is that I did not set myself up for success. Ran just a little to much therefore I was tired from the start. This marathon is NOT a failure. I learned a valuable lesson and therefore I won't repeat the same mistake. Live and learn. Still find great enjoyment in running 26.2 miles.

May 1st - #30

Gettysburg marathon was my 30th marathon overall, 9th of the year! Now though this was technically my slowest marathon to date (3:48), it was one of the most satisfying races. You see running is far more than just an arbitrary number, running is the bond between two runners. Today I had the pleasure of running with good friend Ricky. We had hoped go run 3:24 but by the halfway point it was evident that it just was not going to be our day. The course turned out to be hillier than expected and thus we had to adjust. The 2nd half was simply determination on my friends part to finish. Though I am sure he was disappointed, we had a great time running with each other. Once we finished, I turned around to head back out on the course to find our friend Billy who by that point I knew was also having a tough day. He had hoped for a PR of 3:35 but Ms. Marathon had other plans. I soon found him and ran him into the finish. The whole time trying to help keep his spirits up. This is only his second marathon, and though he did not run a PR, he gutted out a great race. Think positive, and use this to motivate you in the future. All marathoners know that we will gave our good and bad days, we sometimes learn more from our bad runs than we do our good runs. Being able to help two good friends today finish a tough marathon makes my 30th marathon very special. I am just glad that I have the ability to be able to help, I logged 31.25 miles today and didn't think twice. This is what friends do for one another. This is one reason why I have decided to start a new venture: personal running coach. I want to be able to pass my love and passion for running to other runners and play a role in helping them achieve their goals. Whether this venture succeeds or not I don't know, only time will tell but there is no harm in trying. Dreams never come true if you don't try! Now it is time to enjoy my SRD tomorrow then hammer out another solid week of training. Cleveland is 5/15 and another possible sub 3 attempt! Regardless running is ALWAYS fun. If it is not fun then ask yourself why even bother do it! Run strong my friends!