Life is Good...Rocket City Marathon

That's me at the half way point on the outside in the blue hat and grey shorts

Registration for the Rocket City Marathon in Huntsville, AL occurred after weeks of wondering if I'm capable of running a marathon two weeks in a row. Although it was pretty painful and not much fun, I now know that lots of rest before a marathon is nice, but not necessary.

Friday night we attended a Christmas party with Katie's co-workers. Since most of these good, hard working folks have either been laid off or have resigned, the party was a great way for everyone to get together one last time, drink a little more than usual, and talk about how much everyone loves each other and hates Time Warner, the dreaded former employer.

I left about half way through the party to go see Colin's band, Tonal Vision, play at a local bar called Marty's. All of our friends from the Jewish Community Center were in attendance and Wess even made an appearance. The band and company were great, but not being able to drink was a bummer.

I left Marty's around 10:15 and went back to the company Christmas party, which was still going strong.

We didn't get to bed until midnight, eight hours before the start of the race in Huntsville, 109 miles from our house.

When the alarm went off at 4:30 I seriously considered skipping the race. I was exhausted and not in the best emotional state after spending much of the week with my granddad at St. Vincent's Hospital.

There weren't any familiar faces in Huntsville or any pace groups. I ran the whole race without uttering a word to anyone. I really missed my usual race friends. Running alone is terrible. The race course was not very scenic but the fan support was nice. I ran the first mile in about 8:40. and miles 2-9 between 8:00 and 8:20. I started listening to my ipod at mile 10. Miles 10-11 were run at a 7:45 pace, which was way too fast. At this point I decided that sub 3:40 was possible. I ran the first half in 1:47:30. The pain set in quickly at mile 14. I was able to maintain an 8:30 pace until mile 23. Just like last week, after running 21 miles that were flat as a pancake, the last 5 miles were mostly uphill. At mile 23, I just needed to run an 8:50 pace for 3.2 miles to break 3:40. This did not occur. I gave in and walked mile 23.5 to mile 24. Walking hurt more than running, so I jogged the last 2.2 at an 11 minute pace. I felt no relief or sense of accomplishment at the finish, just pain and confusion. I stumbled and almost fell, crossing the finish line in 3:46:17, and couldn't figure out what was going on when some kid was trying to give me my medal and finisher's hat. Amazingly this was about 2:45 better than last week I was in pretty intense pain for about 15 minutes and am still more sore than I've ever been.

I don't know if I'll run back to back marathons again, but its good to know I can if I want to.
The Huntsville half and full marathon courses are much easier than Mercedes, Memphis, or Nashville. So while this race doesn't really offer much, its well run and a good place to try and set a PR.

After partying pretty hard Friday night, Katie got up and made the trip with me. Thank goodness she was there to drive me home.

Looking forward to not racing for a few weeks. The Mountain Mist 50k (31 miles) is on Jan 24. Its a trail run, which should be cool.

http://www.martysbar.com/

http://www.huntsvilletrackclub.org/HTC_Races/MM07WEB/index.html