Sweet Victory

After running the Boston Marathon together last month, Ben Semeyn and I found ourselves together again, this time in Cleveland. As Ben moves his focus to triathlons, he was signed up for the half marathon. For my part, I decided to add another full to my resume. My plan for a PR in Boston had been derailed by record heat and though I knew I wasn't complely recovered, i hoped the marathon gods might smile on me a little in Ohio. Race day morning came early and I woke up with a blood sugar of 120, which i considered perfect since I wasn't planning on eating for some time. Ben was in the 60's, which was where he spent quite a bit of the weekend. In fact, we joked that he had given me some more of "his" diabetes because he tended to out-low me on every test through our time together. Ben, intent on putting together a fast half marathon did just that, finishing in 1:24, 4th place in his age group, and in the top 1% of his age group. The weather at Cleveland, howe...

So the Cleveland Marathon is this weekend, and I am... well truth is, I don't really know how I am. Since getting baked in Boston , I pretty much got back on the training horse, including some speed work and 3 weeks in a row with long runs of 18-20 miles. But even so, I'd be lying if I didn't admit that my legs still don't have the pop they had a month ago. I'd planned to peak for Boston, and well, there's a good chance I did. Unfortunately, I may have peaked on a day with record high temps. The good news? I'm still fit. Heck, I'm on pace to run 190+ miles this month, and it's been a taper month. The chances that I won't at least run a 3:20 marathon are fairly slim. That said, what I'd like to do is run a sub 3:17:30, and at least get a PR out of this build. Given my blah-ness, I have decided to approach this race a bit different. I'm not going after a 3:10, though I truly think I was in that kind of shape a month ago. Instead, I...

I recently had the opportunity to check out a copy of Finding Ultra , a soon-to-be released memoir from ultra-athlete Rich Roll . If you're not familiar with Rich (I wasn't, prior to the reading) he successfully completed the Ultraman a few years back (which makes Ironman look like a warm-up), and followed that up by completing 5 Ironman courses over 7 days. So to call him extreme would be to put it mildly. Because the canon of literature on ultra-distance athletics is so slim, it makes sense for you to check out the book. As someone doing my second 50 mile race later this year, I find it's always good to see people who are well beyond where I am in terms of stupidity and perseverance, and Rich is firmly in that category. The book isn't flawless; it's so rare that a book like Born to Run or Strides comes out, and this book won't be compared to either. But if it's a lifestyle that you're curious about, it will do more than satisfy you. As someone ...