Sunday Feb. 28, 2010

Out to Early

After last night Nasti party, the morning run had a good chance of being slow. After a few small beers , not enough big water and 3 cups of coffee this morning I was off to the Monon for my morning run. I was probable a hour to early as the trail had a white tint to it and was really SLICK . I only had a little over a hour and had planned to head south, loop the park and head south to 86th Street.

With my gait reduced to a shuffle, the pace suffered, as did the distance due to time had to be shortened.

No need to do anything stupid knowing that if I tried to pick up my stride and pace, a slip could affect the next month of running.

There is to much invested in massage and chiropractor to do anything crazy. I don't think I have any chance of winning the mini this year , but I do have a good chance of running and riding .

Even though the workout wasn't what I had wanted, the forecast for weather next week is awesome, warming all week and the 60's by next weekend. We all need that!

A few new things to share are , BLOGS that are good. Dougs (you need to start at beginning, it's great) Fritz's , Adams , Whitney's and Renee's.

A memory of my running:

It was the 1982 Boston Marathon, and we had a great winter of training for the race. A group of 4 of us trained from Dan's house located just outside of Ft. Harrison. None of us had a lot of extra money so off we headed to Columbus Ohio, had a round trip ticket for $60 on People Express to Boston.

Race Day was here and as we all got to the line (back then the qualifier was 2:50) Jerry# 315 and I# 428 found ourselves about 15 rows back of start line . As the gun went off we headed out of Hopkington toward Boston. Jerry had finished 10th in Louisville the earlier fall and I was 32nd, so we had pretty good numbers. Don't forget Dan.

Anyway Jerry was off in a pack and I found myself in a small pack and a motorcycle at about 5 miles.

I looked around and next to me was Allison Roe. Just the year before she had won this thing, and NYC later in the fall of '81 , and set a world record 2:25.

So here I am , stride for stride with a stud , or stud-ette, and I was floored. At this point in my road racing I hadn't had a female finish ahead of me in a race, but today if I can hang on with her, a couple things would happen. I may keep my female finish thing still going , but would more than likely have a sub 2:30 which had yet to happen.

I was on some kinda high as the miles were going by so fast. As I remember the group was 8 or 9 guys with Allison, everyone was quiet, the crowds were loud and weather was on the warm side.

We had passed 1/2 split and we were sub 1:14 , which was a PR for me . Remember that.
Still just floating toward Boston next up was Heartbreak Hill, 4 miles of NOT FUN, but still my attention was so on the fact that I was in her company I wasn't thinking of anything else.

As we crested Heartbreak I looked over, and she just STOPPED. You know I didn't know her, she wasn't a running buddy that you would stop with , she was world class and just walked off the course without any warning. No pace change , no grunting, no wobblin' from side to side, she just stopped.

I continue to go with the last hill to go , and I now begin to thing of my pace, the fact I had not been drinking alot, how did I manage to go this fast and within that 1 mile the wheels flew off.

It was ugly, Jerry was no where in sight, he was having a great run, and then I heard DAN.
Marty, are you OK? I pulled over to his side , in the survival shuffle, and said ( this is good

I ran with Allison Roe and set a PR at 30K. Dan reply was great Marty but this is a marathon.

Yep , he was right as my last 10K took a hour, Jerry finished in 2:29 totally de-hydrated, Dan ended up at 3:00 and I ended up at 3:15. Jerry and Dan ran their races, I sure didn't but I have a great story that Dan ALWAYs brings up to this day.

I still had the roar down Boylston to the finish which is a awesome feeling, and even though you crash and burn , you always smile , and make your pace look normal, cross the line get you finisher medal.

I have been lucky enough to have run in 14 Bostons, and everyone is special. Maybe I will get motivated again to run the marathon, but if not I will always have the memory