48 hours
alright, 47 hours and 48 minutes. that’s how much time i spent running during the month of march…and yes i am resisting the urge to gear up and run another 12 minutes before midnight.
if that wasn’t obnoxious enough, this past saturday i ran the Trailbreaker Marathon as a training run. that just sounds downright arrogant to say, am i right?
to be honest, within some circles it’s considered normal. just like everyone else, i paid my entry fee and had a chip tied onto my shoe for timing purposes.
one thing i did a bit different was to wear my race-supplied number under my jacket rather than displaying it outwardly; which is a slight breech in runner’s etiquette. to be honest, a small action like that helps to keep me from slipping into a competitive mindset.
so my “training run” began by running the first twelve miles at roughly 8:30 per mile pace on the paved glacial drumlin trail. the next four miles of the course rolls through wooded trails that were strewn with roots, rocks and awfully greasy mud. just to add to the fun, in the middle of this section we get to climb to the top of a 45 foot observation tower and ring a bell at the top.
yes, that spike in the middle of the chart is the tower and the rather long hill that we got to climb up before we even reaching the tower.
so i rang the bell and then headed back into the woods to slog my way back to the paved trail. in all honesty, my pace didn’t matter much in the woods as i was really focused on not falling on my arse. once back to the civility of the (paved) glacial drumlin trail there was roughly ten miles to the finish line.
so with ten miles left, a glance at my watch said i’d already been at it for two and a half hours. some simple math told me that if i lollygagged those last ten miles at 9 minute pace, i’d be stuck with a 4:## finishing time…which isn’t exactly what i had in mind.
did i mention the return route was downhill? if you’ve got your head and legs ready, this section of the course can be a lot of fun. three years ago, i went full on berserk through this section en route to a 3:19 finish. this year, i opted to keep my pace dialed in at a much more reasonable 7:45 per mile effort.
i rolled into the finish with an official time of 3:48:57, which got me 26th/106 overall and 3rd in M40-44. this was my sixth Trailbreaker Marathon finish (60% of the way to the “Ten Tower Club”) and 23rd marathon finish…so i’ve got that going for me.
otherwise, at the moment i can’t say that i’ve got any firm plans for racing this year. maybe one of these days when i’m surfing runningintheusa’s online race calendar i’ll decide and commit.
oh, yeah…and if you keep reading, you’ll see that i logged 325+ miles for the month; which is a personal best. previously, my best month was 300 miles back in August of 2004.
3/1 – 7 miles AM, 9 miles PM
3/2 – 6 miles
3/3 – 7 miles
3/4 – 7 miles
3/5 – 7 miles
3/6 – 6.25 miles
3/7 – 11 miles
3/8 – 7 miles AM, 13 miles PM
3/9 – 7 miles
3/10 – 7 miles
3/11 – 7 miles
3/12 – 7 miles
3/13 – 7 miles
3/14 – 11 miles AM, 9 miles PM
3/15 – 8 miles AM, 12 miles PM
3/16 – 7 miles
3/17 – 7 miles
3/18 – 7 miles
3/19 – 7 miles
3/20 – 7 miles
3/21 – 15.25 miles AM, 8 miles PM
3/22 – 15.25 miles AM, 9.25 miles PM
3/23 – 7 miles
3/24 – 7 miles
3/25 – off
3/26 – 7 miles
3/27 – 7 miles
3/28 – 26.2 miles (Trailbreaker Marathon) in 3:48:57
3/29 – 9.25 miles AM, 10.75 miles PM
3/30 – 6 miles
3/31 – 7 miles
MTD – 325.25 miles (30/31 Days, 47 Hours & 48 Minutes)
YTD – 747.5 miles (88/90 Days, 114 Hours and 37 Minutes)
Odometer – 40,903 miles