Marathons in the dark...

So a lot has been going on in the past week or so... most not really that important really. It was the week leading up to the Maui Oceanside marathon. Mostly I had been working a lot with subbing and Barnes and Noble. I had been feeling pretty worn out as I was going on week 3 of about 60 hours a week working. Though the subbing was not exactly hard work. Mostly babysitting. Just the getting up at 6 AM was annoying.
Well in the days leading up to the race we had a lot of people being super nice to us with food and whatnot. One of our neighbors (Lisa) who was born in Worcester and grew up in Spencer invited us to her place for dinner the Friday night with her and her friends. One of them was running the race. Lots of good food was cooked. Little did we know that we were getting into a super religious group. There was praying and blessings being thrown all over the place. Signs were made with religious quotes. But they were really nice and friendly. Lisa was also driving us to the race at 4 in the morning. Plus her friend Lindsey was super cute.

Saturday was a day of relaxing and trying not to do too much. The shin was still sore but I was doing as little as possible to irritate it. Lots of icing. Gordo came over and I cooked a sweet pasta dinner with steak tips. A beer was drank, Gatorade and water consumed. After hanging out for a couple hours Jon and I head to bed around 10 since we have to get up at 3:15. Why do I do these things again?

3:15 AM: we're up and barely functioning. I get my gear together and eat a large bowl of oatmeal with a bottle of gatorade. We trek over to Lisa's and help her pack up her truck. Then at 4:10 its off to pick up some people. This takes way too long as by the time we get to the start of the race its 5:30 and the gun goes off at 5:45. I'm annoyed but roll with it. I take a quick piss, change into my racing shorts, shoes and get to the line. No stretching. Shin is a little sore.

5:45 AM: Gun goes off, Jon and I settle right into about 6th and 7th place. We hit the first mile in 6:07, slightly downhill. By mile 2 and 3 we are right on 19:45 5k pace. At this point we're now in 3rd and 4th place. At mile 4 Jon really has to use a bathroom. Just before the 5th mile he apologizes and veers off to a stall. I'm soloing it now. At this point we have been averaging around 6:30 pace for the first 5 miles. I am feeling pretty good so start increasing the pace. Miles 6-9 are run in about 6:15 pace. I pass the guy who went out with the leader around mile 9 and roll through mile ten in 63:42 feeling really relaxed and smooth. The leader is out of site. He goes on to run 2:37 alone. Since mile 5 I've been alone as the sun slowly rises. I am in robot mode here and not even thinking. Just running. Shin is alright. No major pain. Just a little sore. Before I know it I am coming up to the hills which start at mile 11 and go til mile 17. I've ridden them a couple times so I know what’s in store. Just before the hills though a stupid police officer actually makes me slow down to almost a stop to allow a truck by. This allows a guy who had been about 70 yards behind me for the past couple miles to close in on me. As we begin attacking the hills together we chat a little bit. Then he pushes ahead of me and drops the pace down even faster as we hit the first of the hills. We roll through the half marathon point side by side in 1:23.34. I take the lead and push the pace a little harder. At this point we are going around 6:10-6:15 through hills. No more talking now. Just hard running. Neither of us are breaking our stride as we hit miles 14, 15, and 16. Between 16 and 17 is a pretty steep hill. The last real bump in the road before a long straightaway that winds for miles. I make a hard move here even though we're both tiring. I move ahead of him and push the pace again. This last for about 400 yards when I feel my left hamstring just seize up on me. It felt like someone just gave me the hardest charlie horse ever in the back of my upper left thigh. I went down to the ground instantly. The other guy looked back and slowed a bit asking if I was alright. I got back up and started running again telling him I'd be fine. Getting back into it I ran with him for another 200 yards but the quad kept twitching with minor seizures. As I was forced to slow he pulled away and that was it. I kept runin but my pace dropped to 7 minute miles, 8 minutes miles. Then I had to stop and try stretching. I couldn't figure it out. I had hydrated almost every other mile. Taken in a goo. Sports drink and water. By miles 20 I was running around 8 minute pace and Jon went by me. I tried latching onto him but no good.
Now I was in 4th place. I was still well under 3 hour pace. If I could just hold onto the 8 minute pace I would still finish around 2:55. At mile 21 pony tail guy went by me. He tried getting me to run with him. I stayed with him a quarter mile until my leg seized again and I had to stop at an aid station. One of the people there looked at it and told me I hyper-extended it? A super bad pulled that would continue to hurt and strain while I ran on it. She took a minute or two to do some light stretching (hurt like hell). Then I continued on. I had 4 miles to go at this point. I was determined to finish. With 2 miles to go I was no longer breaking 3 hours. Now it was just getting to the finish. I hobbled, jogged, walked my way to the final mile. At this point I had no idea what place I was in. I was surrounded by fat people who were walking the half marathon race. Finally the finish line was there. I stumbled across it and 2 volunteers got me through the chute. I was checked out by a trainer who said it was not super serious. Nothing torn, some narly bruising along the hamstring. It was strained pretty badly though. No running for 1-2 weeks. Try not to put too much pressure on it for a couple days (I didn't mention that I would be working on my feet for 6 hours the next day). The trainer said it was probably caused from favoring my shin splints on my right leg. I was putting too much pressure on my left leg the past couple weeks.
Well what’s done is done. Jon and I are looking at another marathon in April in Lojola, California. I've come to the realization I race much better when I am doing triathlon training and not straight running. My body just gets too broken down when I am trying to do 80 mile running weeks on top of working 40 hour weeks where I am on my feet all day. Not as young as I used to be. I did take a few positives out of this race.
1. Up until my hamstring went on me I was feeling good. I was tiring but not exhausted. I knew I had a gear left in me for the final 8 miles of that race. I was confident I could have gone to the line with that guy who got 2nd. I rolled through the half point feeling good in 1:23ish.
2. I no longer beat myself up over "bad" races. Sunday I realized what happened was beyond my control. I didn't fall apart because I was out of shape or running poorly. It was a mechanical issue. It happens.
3. I only really trained about 3 months for that marathon and the last 3 weeks coming up to it were injury prevention training. Very little mileage and I still almost pulled off a good time. I figure if I spend the next 6 months seriously training for Placid now I will have a SICK race.

So there is a minor duathlon coming up February 13th I guess. Involves an 800 swim, 800 beach run, 3 mile road run. I think I will be planning on that depending upon how my hammy is feeling.

From this point on until Placid it is time to really get into it. I am living in the perfect training environment so I really have no excuses. I don't have too many distractions out here so I can really get to it.

Survivor Update: Have heard nothing as of yet. I just emailed my agent (yup, still sounds weird saying I have one) asking for the latest update so I will let all of you out there know as soon as I do. I will definitely be going out there for the casting call no matter when it is.

Lastly: This past Wednesday I had my key stolen while subbing a behavioral class at the local high school. I didn't know I was back in Worcester. I know the id who did it I just can't prove anything. It is going to cost me 200 dollars to replace my house key because the locks have to be replaced also. Just my luck huh?
I decided I wanna bump into the kid outside of school. 16 year old punk. Not even a local either. I got stranded at the school for 3 hours while I had to wait for Jon to get out of work and bring me my spare scooter key.

Gonna wrap it up there I think. I am going for a nice relaxing bike ride now then a nice 4 1/2 hour shift at barnes and noble.