First Light Marathon (Alabama)

I didn't sign up for the First Light Marathon until 31 Dec and the only reason I signed up for it was I needed to use a NWA coupon and it gave me a chance to check out my condo in Tallahassee.

I'll spare everyone the boring details and skip right to the starting gun. At 7:30 the starting gun went off followed by the PA system spitting out one of the classic hip-hop songs of all time: 69 Boyz - Tootsee Roll.

My goal for this race as with most races is 3:15 but I had a more realistic goal of less than 3:30 but closer to 3:20. I hit the 11 mile mark at 1:17 and change. Why is mile 11 significant? I ran 11 miles last week in 1:18 and change and that training run gave me a little hope that I could get a PR in this race.

At the half way point I was 1:33 and change. For some reason I thought this race was flat but from mile 10 through mile 22 it was (up) hill after (up) hill.

I crossed mile 17 at exactly 2 hours. If you are doing the pace math in your head I'm starting to slow down a bit but the hills were starting to take a toll on my pace.

At mile 21, I can begin to feel my legs turning into lead pipes. The next four miles would be all about gutting it out. As I approached mile 24 I noticed someone in front of me that I would not expect to see on the course at this point - normally I'd see him chilling at the finish line - Chuck Engle. Chuck was walking off some cramps or so it looked like cramps.

I was starting to do some math in my head and I figured I would finish in 3:11 to 3:13. Well at mile 25 the thought of even running a 3:15 was in jeopardy as my left hamstring knotted into a ball. I tried to keep running but at a much slower pace but eventually I came to a stop. I must have stopped for close to a minute but then I decided you can either stand here and let 25 miles go down the drain or you can suck it up and start running again.

That last 1.2 miles seemed like 3 miles. It wasn't until I saw the finish line clock (3:13:02, 3:13:03, 04, 05) that I was able to relax knowing that I was gonna break my marathon PR and was heading back to Boston*.

3:13:21 (unofficial), 15th overall, and 3rd in my age group.

Previous PR 3:15:02

* - I doubt I will run Boston again but just qualifying again and this time w/in my age bracket was a huge accomplishment.

B&A Marathon (Maryland)

Given what happened this week at work and what I put in my body since Wednesday (10 pints of beer, 2 glasses of wine, Long John Silvers, Taco Bell, Red, Hot & Blue, and Nachos) I was not prepared mentally and to a lesser degree physically for this marathon.

Last time I was not mentally prepared for a race was after my Grandmother's death back in Aug and I had my worst performance in a marathon.

It was a cold (upper 20s/low 30s) but sunny morning with temps expected to climb into the low 50 so I decided to run in shorts (which is very unusual for me because I like to be warm when I run).

I'll skip to mile 13.1 - 1:36:16 - three minutes off my First Light Marathon pace. At mile 17 I was 7 minutes off the previous pace - I lost a few minutes getting a rock out of my shoe and fighting the Clif Shot (couldn't get it open and had to stop and take off my gloves - but it was the first time that I didn't get my face covered in chocolate Clif Shot).

At mile 19 I was done. I just couldn't continue running so in essence I quit - that was the first time that has happened in a race. My legs felt fine - everything felt fine but my mind was so overwhelmed I think it just shut everything else down.

For the next 7 miles I did a combination of walk and painfully slow jogging. I'd say it was 70% shuffle, 30% walk. I was somewhere around 20th place when I "quit" and after that I lost count of the number of people who passed.

At mile 25.2 (approx) I said to myself lets try and run the last mile w/o stopping. I did and in the end I crossed the line (chip time) in less than 3:37. It is frustrating to know that 2nd place in my age was 3:17 and 3rd was 3:25. If I could have held on past 19 - I might have had another age award but today was just not my day.

Next few races: Cherry Blossom, Boston Marathon followed by Oklahoma City Memorial Marathon six days later.

Boston Marathon (2008)

It has been a while since I have posted a blog - so it is about time I recap Boston, OKC Memorial City, and Sunburst Marathons.

For this blog, it will focus on the title: Boston Marathon. 21 Apr 08

For the second consecutive year, I got to run Boston. I thought after getting a 3:15:02 when I was 34 y/o (2006) and "cheating" to get into Boston I would never qualify again. Well, miracles do happen and after getting a BQ (3:13) in Jan 08 at 36 y/o, I just had to run Boston again.

This year Katharine joined me and that was a nice bonus to the weekend. Too bad, we didn't get a chance to meet up with everyone I thought we would meet up with but oh well.

Onto the race, after the rain and wind of last year's race, this year's weather was nearly perfect. So perfect that I overdressed (I knew the clouds were gonna break and it was gonna warm up but sometimes I don't listen to the weather weenie inside of me) and didn't take in enough fluids.

Through mile 22/23 or so I was on a pace for 3:08 which would have been a PR. But since I didn't take in enough fluids, I cramped and cramped bad finishing in a very disappointing 3:25.

Since I can run again next year, I'm determined to break either 3:15:59 or 3:13:25 next year. I just didn't run a smart race wrt to fluid intake.

OKC Memorial Marathon (Oklahoma)

I ran this marathon one week after Boston - 6 days to be exact. I had never run a marathon on back to back weekends. I was sore all week from Boston (soreness from cramping) and could barely walk on Wednesday (hadn't felt like this after a marathon since I can't remember). Thursday is hockey night and Sat was traveling day. So I didn't have much time to get ready for the race.

My goal was just to finish and take it easy.

As part of my 50 state goal is to run marathons with special theme/meaning. This race matches that - it is a sad/somber theme but also a race for hope and moving on.

I had never been to OKC before so that meant I had never visited the Murrah Federal Building/Memorial. I arrived into OKC Sat morning, checked in to the hotel, stopped by the expo and then made my way to the memorial. It is a touching memorial. It was there that I was reading the mementos family members left on the fence that I saw a poster/poem for Julie Welch. I didn't know nor do I have a connection to her but what got me was our birthdays were four days apart. I read the poem for her, found her chair and then decided to run the race for her. There was a table at the expo that one could go through the list of people who perished during the blast and run in the race in their honor. So after visiting the museum (that was tough/emotional at times viewing some of the personal effects) I made my way back to the expo and got a name tag for Julie Welch.

Race day came around and I awoke to temps in the low 50 with rain. I knew it was gonna rain so it came as no surprise.
The organization at the start was abysmal. There were family members in the corral holding umbrellas to keep (family member) runners dry and the only way into the corrals were from the back of the pack so when the gun went off people pushed the fences out of the way and entered from the sides.

Off we went on a rainy (decreasing) and windy (picking up) day. At about the 3/4 mile point, this older gentleman (Jay) asks me what pace I'm gonna run and I say 3:30 to 3:45. So to make a long story short, I run the next 22.25 miles with Jay. Jay started to feel the effects of the pace we were on and I lost him at mile 23 (but meet up with at the finish line party).

Good thing I ran with Jay because after I lost him, I got this crazy notion to run fast the last 3.1 miles and I was doing fine with that pace until 25.8 when I could feel my legs begin to cramp so I pulled it back (which is hard to do) and finished in 3:41. Not a bad time considering that walking was literally a pain 72 hours earlier.

Off to South Bend but this time, I'm giving myself a month to rest up.

Sunburst Marathon (Indiana)

Once again, a themed type race. This one is all about college football and Notre Dame. I'm not a ND fan but I love college football so it balances out. The selling point of this race is that you get to run through the tunnel at ND Stadium and onto the field where you finish at the 50 yard line.

I arrived into South Bend at 11:30pm - race start is 6am. I'm gonna be working on 9 hours of sleep over the last two days (late hockey game on Thursday). Good thing the hotel was 50 yards from the packet pickup and 75 yards from the start line. So I get up at 5, shower, get my packet at the College Football Hall of Fame, go back to the room to drop off the t-shirt, etc and then get to the start line at 5:40. I guess I could have slept in for a few extra minutes.

5:55am roles around and the race director decides to become a weather man and tell us that the temperate is 70F! 70F with humidity that is probably over 90% (it is usually more humid in the morning before the sun rises). Great and the forecast calls for warming conditions until the cold air moves in behind the front. But at least we have overcast conditions through most of the race (the sun finally comes out about mile 19/20).

So off we go, at mile 3 this woman (forget her name - she called me Mark later in the race so I guess that make us even) asks me how my Garmin is doing - apparently she has the new one and wanted to see if it was on with the old one. Since we were on about the same pace we started to run together until mile 15 were she went for a bathroom break. After she dropped off and since we were already past mile 13 I made my move (the point in the race were I see how many people I can pass). By mile 19 I had passed 12 people and I was feeling good and was hoping to finish in about 3:23-3:25 but then by mile 20 I was zapped of energy.

At mile 20 I was up to 17 passed with only 5 repassers. After about a 1-minute walk break I got back to running. Around mile 22, there was a procession of geese with their goslings crossing the street/course in front of me. (most of the course was run along the St Joesph River). As I approach this procession, I'm thinking this is gonna be fun. After a little hissing and neck bobbing they clear the road and I pass them by.

By mile 24, I'm up to 21 people passed with still only 5 repassers. Not bad - I stopped counting because at mile 24 the 1/2 marathoners merged with us and I couldn't keep track of who was who but I know I wasn't passed.

At mile 25 we enter ND campus and there is the golden dome in front of us and the stadium to the right. I don't see Touchdown Jesus. We make the turn into the stadium and then into the tunnel (with the ND fight song playing) and exit the tunnel back into the sunlight and onto the field where you have probably about a thousand spectators (other runners (1/2 and 5K) and family members) cheering everyone on.

As I approach the finish line, I start doing the FSU tomahawk chop and the announcer notices and asks if that was a tomahawk chop over the PA system and then he sees my shirt (FSU) and says yes it was Michael Mills from Arlington, VA with a 3:27.

Hatfield McCoy Marathon (Weat Virginia)

On Friday, 13 Jun, Katharine and I got in the car and made our way to Williamson, WV, a short 8-9 hour drive from the DC metro area. Along the way, we stopped at what appeared to be the only normal restaurant in Covington, VA, Cucci's. After a "delicious" meal and some more driving; we arrived at our B&B shortly after midnight. After a short nap, I was up at 5:45 and out the door at 6:15 to catch the shuttle van over to the starting area. I can say that I've never started a race in the parking lot of a grocery store but this is a small race in a small town and you have to use what places are available to you. I got to the race start and was all decked out and ready to go by 6:44. I also talked with Chuck Engle for a few seconds before the race and he gave me a few "pointers" about the course and the hill around mile 8 and then how it was all pretty good from there on out.

At 6:52, I felt a huge rumbling in my gut and I looked at the port-a-potty and thought there is no way I can get in there and make the start of the race so I darted into Food City and made my way to the bathroom where there was no waiting/no line. That rock in my gut turned out to be an explosive BM. Now, I don't normally write about such events but mentally I was not feeling too well about what just happened and thinking it might happen again at some point over the next 26.2 miles. (I could only have imagined what would have happened if I would have had the "Sloppy Cucci" the night before.) After I cleaned up I got back to the start at 6:58 and at 7am we were off.

The course was rolling hills through neighborhoods with lots of scenery but not your typical southern front yard with cars up on concrete blocks. Somewhere around mile 2/3 I started running with Lisa who was from the northern VA area. She was running her 37ish marathon and just had a child 9 months earlier. We ran together through mile 17 when she slowed down a bit to work out a cramp.

So anyway, I hit the hill at mile 8 which in reality started at mile 2. By the time I got to the top of the hill, I was running a 10:30 pace. After cresting the hill it was down hill and the few folks that I had gained on during the hill took off and before you knew it we were alone on the course.

By Mile 13 (about a 1:44 split), we passed one runner in front of us and then caught up to Lisa's friend around Mile 14 and then we got passed by a runner who ran by us like we were standing still around 14.5. About this same time, it started to rain which was a nice bonus since I like running in the rain. By mile 17, Lisa dropped back and then we hit the part of the course where the road turns to gravel. After walking a short distance because I didn't really want to fight small rocks and slippery conditions going up a short hill I crested the hill and was off to running a again. Around mile 18, I was looking around not paying attention to the sides of the road when I hear a commotion to my right. I look over a see something big in the woods and then I realized after a few seconds this large animal (I thought it was an animal - what else could be that big making that much noise in the woods be?) was a guy just finishing a BM and was wiping himself. He yells out in his Scottish accent, "I'm not a bear."

Shortly thereafter, he catches up to me just as we go over the swinging bridge. What an experience that was running across the bridge with someone else (bouncing and swaying) but he put a little distance between us and soon the bouncing motion of the bridges settled down and it is a nice smooth run over the remainder of the bridge. At mile 19, I grab a gel from the aid station and I'm off again. By this time, I have passed three runners (since 13) and I see a few others in front of me to include the guy who blew by me around 14.5. So I set off to catch them and by mile 22/23, I catch the guy (the guy who blew by me) just as we encounter a pretty step hill at mile 23. I know I'm stronger on the uphills and I would put some distance between us on the hill and sure enough I put a huge amount of time between us.

Around mile 25, the course begins to flatten out and I spot another guy in front of me but this time, he is "wounded" in the sense that he is stopping to take short walk breaks (about 5-7 seconds) and I realize I'm gonna catch him too. He is wearing headphones and has no idea I'm gaining on him until he turns around during one of his walk breaks and sees me 30 feet back and decides to start to running again only to have me pass/blow by him with ease. And to make it worse for him, I pick up my pace just a tad to make it appear I'm running just that much faster than he is. He tried to stay with me as I went by but his burst of speed didn't quite last too long and he fell back.

Just after 25.5 I made the turn onto Hwy 119 and the final stretch. I did a quick peak behind me and I saw nothing but cars and fast food restaurants behind me. I make the turn off of Hwy 119, cross the bridge and see Katharine waiting for me at the end of the street. She finally sees me and I then I see her struggling to get the camera out all the while, while holding a phone to her ear. She manages to get a few pictures off as I run by and wave. No time for kisses in this race.

I continue towards the finish line, give the Hatfield and McCoy re-enactors a high five and cross the finish line in 3:27:55. The volunteers clip off my chip, give me a wet towel and then another volunteer asks me how old I am and I almost said 37 but then realized I have a few more months to go before 37 and finally spit out 36. She then hands me a 1st place trophy for my age group! It was a total surprise considering how slow I ran (wasn't going out to run fast - just take it easy) and how I stopped at four historical markers to read about the Hatfield & McCoy feud. I finished 10th overall and 1st in my age. Not a bad day's run considering the warm, semi humid and rainy conditions.

Little Grand Canyon

Finding marathons to run in the fall months are very difficult because of college football. I managed to find a marathon on a weekend where FSU was playing a weaker team thus freeing me up to run versus taking a trip to TLH to see the game (but seeing it on TV is always nice). The marathon -- The Little Grand Canyon Marathon located near Huntington, UT.

Where is Huntington, UT you may ask? Kinda in the middle of nowhere. Sometimes getting to the middle of nowhere can be a problem. I was "lucky" enough to use miles to get out SLC for only $10 but I had to put up with an arrival into SLC at 11:30pm and red-eye return to DC at 9am the day after the race. Now getting in at 11:30pm is normally not too bad even with a 6:30am start but having to drive 2.5 hours to get "near" the race start is another story. Even from my hotel in Price, UT, I still had another 20 minute ride to the bib-pick-up area.

So if one can't do the math, I'll do it for you. I arrived at 11:20pm, got my rental car, departed the airport around 11:45pm and headed towards Price, UT. Thank goodness, SLC has some good radio stations. I arrive at my luxurious hotel – the Super 8 – at 1:45am where I'm greeted with a sign "No Vacancy unless you have a reservation." I go to the counter, ring the bell, once, twice, three, four, five times, finally the guys comes out and gives me my key. He is not looking happy. So when I ask to check out at 12:30 he says "No, 11:30!" I get kinda pissed and say I'm not paying you $60 for 2.5 hours. He responded that he needs time to clean the room for future guests. I tell him the only reason your hotel is full is because of the marathon. So off I go, pissed that I need to take my stuff with me when I leave for the race in the morning.

4:45am comes pretty early for me and once again I'm greeted with darkness, I'm beginning to wonder if the sun shines in Utah since I haven't seen it since I arrived. By 5:15am I'm off to the bib-pick-up area and I arrive a little after 5:30am (I sped the whole way).

I get my bib and go back to my rental to stay warm (its cold in the high desert). As 6am approaches, I go to the bathroom, and while waiting in line, this woman would not shutup on how long it is taking people to use the facilities. "When I take a poop, I'm done in two minutes!", "What are these people doing in there?" Blah, blah, cackle, cackle, for what seemed like 10 minutes. It was probably closer to 5 minutes but still…

The buses that were to take us to the start were supposed to depart at 6am but didn't arrive until 6:15am. It was the first running of this race so it is understandable. The first bus pulls up and not everyone can get on. At this point I'm about 5 people from the front of the line when the second bus pulls right in behind the first bus. I made a comment to this woman in front of me, "I bet everyone behind us (end of the line) gets on the bus first." Well, I should probably look at changing careers. The second bus doesn't fill-up by the time I get on.

After a short bus ride, we are dropped off this time in the middle of nowhere.

View Course Map

After using the toilet on the bus (against the wishes of the bus driver), I go outside to look for Dane. I don't see Dane right away but instead I'm standing next to the race director from the E.T. Full Moon Midnight Marathon. I exchanged a few words with her about the race and then I spot Dane. We exchanged greetings and was introduced to a few of his friends. At this point, I see this woman milling around near us and I say to myself "she looks familiar" but then again I do that with a lot of people. Finally I go up to her and it was Miriam from the Sunburst Marathon (we ran Sunburst together for about 15 miles). She would go onto to win the woman's marathon later that day.

After a few words from the race director, he points out that they do things a little different with the mile makers. While most marathons start out with mile 1, this particular race started out at mile 26.2 and counted down. The first mile marker we come across is "26 more miles to go", meaning we got the .2 miles out of the way first. I think for some people these mile markers are hard to get over. I kinda liked that since I do a countdown at mile 17 of every marathon. That is the first point in the race that there are single digit miles left in the marathon (unless for those of you technicality people who think that once you cross mile 16 then it is single digits).

So finally, on a crystal clear morning with calm winds, temperature of 55F (the low that morning was 48F), and a rising sun in our faces, the marathon gets underway. I run the first .2 miles in 1:17. Not a bad pace but something tells me to slow down a little and I eventually do, running at the same pace of one of the guys that I was introduced to at the starting line – Bryan. I ran with Bryan for the next 13 miles, swapping the occasional marathon story. Come to find out, we both ran the First Light Marathon, both PRed but I outdueled him by 20 seconds. The problem is Bryan is 13 years older than I am. J However, for this race we both agree a time of under 3:30 is just fine. For me, I had not run anything over 10 miles since the last marathon in June, was working on 2.5 hours of sleep and I had my camera with me to take pictures.

At about "20 miles to go" we are passed by 4 runners and Bryan and I ask each other are we slowing down? The answer was no, these guys were obviously in a hurry to get somewhere. As we approached mile 13, I told Bryan about my "pass but don't be passed rule" and that I would press it up a bit once we got to 13. I hit the halfway point at 1:43:51 and after a pit-stop, I was off to catch the pack in front of me.

I started using fixtures on the side of the road to time how far I was back. The first time hack had me back 1:50. That is a long time in running but with 13 miles to go that is manageable. By "11 miles to go" I had caught two of the four people I could see and I had my sites set on the third runner. At "10 miles to go", I caught the third runner. As I caught up next to him, he asks "How old are you?", I reply I'll be 37 on Tuesday. His reply, I'm 52 and that guy up there is 57. My reply, "Well then you are in perfect place because you have a guy who is 50 right on your tail."

Also, at "10 miles to go" we entered the area around the "Little Grand Canyon" and the camera came out. I must be somewhat demoralizing when someone passes you and that person has a camera out taking pictures every few seconds/minutes.

While this is not the Grand Canyon, it was still impressive.

So impressive that I would put it right up there next to Antarctica and Egypt as far as scenery goes in a marathon. I think looking around took my attention away from running because the mile markers just seemed to fly by. I did manage to close within 20 seconds of the fourth guy but then we rounded a bend and there just 30 feet off the course were the BuckHorn Wash Panel Pictographs. The main pictograph panel was painted over 2,000 years ago by the Barrier Canyon culture (Fremont Indians).

Can you spot the runner? Kinda grainy but look for a blue speck on the road

I must have stayed at this spot for almost a minute taking pictures, it is not every day that you get to see something like this. After being a tourist, it was time to become a runner again. The guy in front of me who I'd been chasing was no where to been seen. I had "3 miles to go" to catch him. When I finally spotted him again, I was about 1:50 behind him again. At this point of the course, while still overall downhill as it had been since "20 miles to go", there were a few more dips which meant there were a few areas where we had to run "uphill" a bit.

With about 1 mile to go, I passed the last aide station and asked for a beer and the college freshmen volunteers looked stunned but then I hear from the side of the road about 100 feet away, "We have beer over here!" It was some campers who obviously heard me but they were a little too far away from the course to go over and have a cool refreshing beverage. I still had a runner catch. With about .5 mile to go I pass some half-marathoners or 10Kers who mentioned that the runner in front of me appeared to be slowing down. In deed he was or I was speeding up. I was closing but I think I realized that this point with less than .5 mile to go I would not catch him.

As I approached the finish line, I could feel my foot begin to cramp which is usually a warning sign that a leg cramp is about to happen (70% of the time this happens). Well after tip-toeing across the last cattle crossing (which didn't have a plank to run across), my left hamstring/calf cramped up on me. With about 75 yards to go the cramp was manageable and I came across the line in 3:24:41. Good enough for 3^rd in my age and 9^th overall but 20 seconds behind the guy I had been chasing for 13 miles.

Looking pretty bloated for some reason

Overall, a great race. 2^nd fastest marathon of the year (out of 8 marathons). My median time for marathons this year is down by almost 10 minutes/ average time is down by 14 minutes from 2007. It was more of a return to running long distances. I think it gives me a bit of confidence heading into the later fall races. First race that I have ever run that was primarily downhill. I'm one who prefers hilly races and have excelled on hilly courses. Some of my flat course times have been slower or the same as some of the hilly courses that I have run (i.e. Sunburst vs. Hatfield McCoy vs Flying Monkey) Even my PR came on a somewhat hilly First Light course. So eventually I'll need to turn it up a notch on flat/down hill courses in the future (and if a boring course, leave the camera at home).

Up next Crazy Horse/Mount Rushmore.

PS, the hotel, I went back there and because I bitched at him, he didn't bother the room – I left my room after taking a shower at 12:30pm.