Gobbler Grind

Yesterday was the Gobbler Grind Marathon in Overland Park. I finished in 3:38, a little slower than my ultimate goal, but I am still happy with the time and a place of 35th out of 202 runners. At 16 miles, I was still on pace for a 3:30, but ended up hitting the dreaded wall somewhere around mile 21 and slowed down significantly. I was able to pull it back together for the last mile and a half, but that stretch immediately preceeding seemed to take forever.

At the finish area I caught up with a friend of mine, an experienced marathoner, who came in just slightly behind me and had set a new personal time record. The competitive side in me was happy to come in ahead of him, but I was truly glad he got the time he was after, and I could see on his face when he crossed the line that he was too.

As we talked and waited for our wives to finish, one of Mendy's friends who had come down to cheer her on found me and told me she had saw Mendy on the course and she wasn't doing well - her ankle was giving her a lot of trouble, and not to expect her too soon. We waited for awhile and eventually I decided to start walking the course backwards to find her and help her in. After walking 2 miles, I found her walking along with another girl. I was relieved that she had somebody to walk with because the course had really thinned out by this point. As it turns out, she had been walking for about 6 miles to that point, and we walked the final 2 miles in together. Obviously, she was upset to have had the troubles, but I was very proud of her for sticking it out and completing the entire distance, regardless of the her time.

It was while I walked the course in reverse for those couple miles and then in again with Mendy, that I gained a newfound respect for the folks in the back of the pack. I've always respected people for simply finishing their event regardless of distance or time, but I had never considered the extra efforts some people go through to get this done. Whether they were injured, elderly, out of shape, or just simply slow, these people were trying and they were trying hard. There were some that were obviously content and had planned on walking from the start, but ultimately they had set out on a mission and completed it, regardless of their circumstances. In many cases, they had more obstacles to overcome and had put in more effort in than the front runners. Not everyone can be the prototypical "runner", but they can put forth the effort to achieve something great.

Somewhere along the course I remember a spectator holding up a sign that read, "only 1% of people ever complete a marathon". I don't know if that's true, but I thought back to that as I witnessed these people pushing through the end of 26.2 long miles. They (Mendy and myself included) were in the processing of completing a task that very few people will ever have the courage to even embark on training for, let alone stick to the plan and ultimately complete. It is this kind of personal drive and motivation that I am happy to be associated with and love to see in people. It is something that transcends money, fame, or even climbing the career ladder. Nobody got a promotion or a prize for doing what they did, but we are all better for it.

Preparations

This past Friday morning was my last true training run before the marathon this coming weekend. I ran my typical route for that day of 7 rolling miles from my front door to the highway and back averaging 7:33 per mile. The weekend before I ran 15 miles at an easy 7:55 pace. Overall, I'm pleased with the pace I've been running over the past several weeks, as I have been taking deliberate training efforts to get it down, but I'm a little uncertain of my overall preparations for the race this coming weekend.
I would have preferred to get a 20+ miler in between the Dogwood 50K and this weekend, but time just didn't allow to safely get that kind of mileage in. Oh well, it's not the distance that I'm worrying about covering, it's a silly little obsession with time - I would be thrilled to run 3:30. I'll be happy with a solid finish, but I have that nagging time goal in the back of mind. Judging by my shorter distance runs, the time is attainable, but is certainly not a given or necessarily even likely. My fear is that I start too fast in hopes of hitting it, and then die off in the final miles and come limping in. But if I don't start out right, chances of picking up the required time with a major negative split could prove difficult. Oh well, I'll just run hard by feel this weekend and see what happens.

Running for Love

Mendy and I had Saturday evening and Sunday to spend alone together without kids this weekend - they went to Meemaw and Peepaw's house. Saturday night we went out for sushi then to see the movie Fireproof (which is a great movie once you look past some not-so-great acting). Sunday morning we decided to run together, which we rarely get the chance to do. She typically runs on Saturday mornings with a group of other girls, and I run long on Sunday mornings. This schedule actually works really well for the boys and our lives, as I'm typically home prior to time to go to church.

She needed to run about 18 miles to keep up with her training for an upcoming marathon we're doing. Due to last weekend's race, I wasn't originally planning on going quite that far, but figured I'd might as well. Although we run at substantially different paces when not together, we stayed side by side throughout the entire run until we hit the college track at the end. It's kinda tough to run slower than what you're used to for an extended period, but I really enjoyed the time together with her this morning. I'm thankful that we can share an interest in running, and that she is who she is. I'm thrilled that we can spend time doing something like this and support each other in our goals - whether they be running or otherwise. It's a great place to be, when selfishness is set aside and loving each other takes priority.