Monday, November 24, 2008
Flying Monkey 3
Yesterday was the third running of the Flying Monkey Marathon. The weather was cold at the start (39F), but it warmed up a little during the race (50F). I survived it and avoided injury, but I didn't run as good a time as I wanted to. I finished in 4:31:53, which knocked 1:47:43 off last year's time.
I ran the first 16 miles, and I ran/walked the last 10. In true inexperienced fashion, I started off way too fast yesterday. I took off at an 8:30 pace, and I held that for 14 miles. Then I slowed down in miles 15 and 16 going up the back side of "3 mile hill". I made it to mile 18 (by the stone gates in PWP) still mostly running. Then miles 19-22 were horrible! Mile 19 is all uphill, and I had to walk the whole thing. It took 18:47, which was by far my worst mile of the day. By mile 22 I'd recovered a bit, and I could run a little more, but I still took a lot of walk breaks. I was never out of breath. My problem was that my calves, ankles, and feet felt like somebody had beaten them with hammers! I actually stopped three times during miles 19-22 to sit down and massage my calves. At least I was able to run through the finish line this year.
So I'm glad that's over. My lower legs are very sore today, and the outside edge of my right foot feels bruised, but other than that I'm fine. I took two Cold-Eeze tablets yesterday afternoon and one more this morning to try to prevent the cold I usually come down with after really long runs (18+ miles). So far it seems to have worked.
It's too early to decide whether I'll be running FM4 next year, but I'm glad I could run the race uninjured this year. Racing a marathon is not in my long term plans, but if I bump my weekly mileage a little next year (up to 30+), I might attempt the Monkey again as a long "fun run".
Right now I'm just glad to have the week off and no big races looming on the horizon. I hope to run again by Wednesday (once my lower legs and feet stop hurting), and I may pace my wife in a race on Thanksgiving morning. After that I plan on running one race easy in December, so I'll have run at least one race every month this year. I have 27 races so far this year, so I'm not going to push it in December. It'll be an easy month, and then in January I'll start training hard for some spring races.
I ran the first 16 miles, and I ran/walked the last 10. In true inexperienced fashion, I started off way too fast yesterday. I took off at an 8:30 pace, and I held that for 14 miles. Then I slowed down in miles 15 and 16 going up the back side of "3 mile hill". I made it to mile 18 (by the stone gates in PWP) still mostly running. Then miles 19-22 were horrible! Mile 19 is all uphill, and I had to walk the whole thing. It took 18:47, which was by far my worst mile of the day. By mile 22 I'd recovered a bit, and I could run a little more, but I still took a lot of walk breaks. I was never out of breath. My problem was that my calves, ankles, and feet felt like somebody had beaten them with hammers! I actually stopped three times during miles 19-22 to sit down and massage my calves. At least I was able to run through the finish line this year.
So I'm glad that's over. My lower legs are very sore today, and the outside edge of my right foot feels bruised, but other than that I'm fine. I took two Cold-Eeze tablets yesterday afternoon and one more this morning to try to prevent the cold I usually come down with after really long runs (18+ miles). So far it seems to have worked.
It's too early to decide whether I'll be running FM4 next year, but I'm glad I could run the race uninjured this year. Racing a marathon is not in my long term plans, but if I bump my weekly mileage a little next year (up to 30+), I might attempt the Monkey again as a long "fun run".
Right now I'm just glad to have the week off and no big races looming on the horizon. I hope to run again by Wednesday (once my lower legs and feet stop hurting), and I may pace my wife in a race on Thanksgiving morning. After that I plan on running one race easy in December, so I'll have run at least one race every month this year. I have 27 races so far this year, so I'm not going to push it in December. It'll be an easy month, and then in January I'll start training hard for some spring races.
Labels: Running
# posted by Bill Menees @ 8:21 AM 
