At last Thursday night has arrived. I'm reminded each time I take a day off work or a vacation as to why I don't do either very much. It's always such a hassle to set things up at work. This time was no different. I'll probably make an appearance at work in the morning and I'm not sure about taking Monday off after the race.
This will be my 5th Disney marathon (3:37, 3:43, 3:28, 4:18. . .ok I ran half of that one and walked the other). A good number of people that run in my area that have a pretty healthy degree of disdain for Disney and the Disney marathon. "It is expensive", some say. At a little over 100 bucks, maybe so but for me it is a 2 hour drive and a single night stay if I want the condensed experience. As bad as I feel about not being in good running form right now, I'd feel 10 times worse knowing that I'm flying somewhere to race poorly. I'll suck close to home, thank you very much.
"It's too early". The 3 o'clock bus shuttle and 6 am start time is a bit early but how many times have we all gotten up at 4 am on a Sunday morning for our long run? Yeah, the cattle staging areas and 1/2 mile walk to the corrals are not optimal. But the support on the course far outweighs any of the lows points.
It is a big field but not too big. . . just right, I think, You will always be passing someone (or being passed, I suppose) and unless you are in the top 50 folks, you won't be left to work the run alone.
My family likes coming over and we have established a nice tradition of a marathon eve dinner. My old running buddies usually meet in the lobby and ride the bus and survive the wait in the field. The more foul the weather, the more fun we seem to have. We shop the thrift stores for disposable warm clothing and crack each other up with the "tear-away" features of our get ups, usually held together with duct tape. Dudes like duct tape.
We generally line up a respectable distance from the line and get separated pretty quickly once the cannon fires. It's one of my favorite aspects of the race. . . the fact that we seem to get swept up in the current of legs and bibs and lose contact as if we have no control.
At this point, my old guys are happy to run around the 4 hour mark. Two of them have the distinction of running every Disney marathon to date. One has the distinction of being a 2:23 marathoner in his day. He has nothing left to prove. He has run under 3 hours on this course long after his prime and has also run over 5 hours with a cane during a particularly bad case of P. F. that threatened to end his streak. The high mileage of his early years and his recent knee scopes left him bowlegged and his running is propelled more by swinging his arms than his legs.
I still like to finish near the 3:30 area if possible.
We meet afterward for a beer and some war talk. It's over in a flash and before I know it, I'm back at home, registering online for Disney next January, and vowing that this year I will stay healthy, up my mileage, and break 3 hours.
I spend the summer wondering why I committed to another marathon with this body.
It's probably a good way to go about it. Without Disney every January to show up for, I might be tempted to admit my decline and say "screw it", I'll take up biking or canoeing.
Monday I felt compelled to cross train on the elliptical (the LIP) for some reason. 45 minutes steady. I felt good that my heart rate did not creep up above 92 and I ran an easy 6 miles Tuesday but I felt very slow.
Yesterday my hip was bad again and I blame it on the LIP. Today it is screaming bloody murder and I've popped my 1st anti inflammatory in over a year. Bummer.
I'll keep good thoughts and distract myself by buying some crap I don't need at the expo tomorrow and enjoying the company of my friends until the time comes to pony up and see how it plays out.
I know enough now to not bemoan the sluggishness or trust the springiness before race day.
I'm happy to have had another year of running and I'm already looking forward to breaking 3 hours at Disney 09 . . .
No comments:
Post a Comment