Liftoff

26.2 with Donna

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Location:

St. Petersburg,FL,

Member Since:

Dec 30, 2014

Gender:

Male

Goal Type:

Other

Running Accomplishments:

  • 5k - 3/8/14 - Armadillo Run - 15:58
  • 10k - 2/7/15 - BDR, Safety Harbor - 33:17
  • 15k - 2/21/15 - Gasparilla - 51:05
  • 1/2 - 12/14/14 - Holiday Halfathon - 1:13:31
  • Marathon - 10/04/15 - Twin Cities - 2:38:46

Short-Term Running Goals:

2016 Races

Clearwater Halfathon - Jan 11
Donna Hicken Marathon - Feb 14
Gasparilla 15k - Feb 20
Florida Beach Halfathon - Mar 6
??? Chicago Marathon ???

Long-Term Running Goals:

Find balance. Run with my girls. Break 15 in the 5k.

Personal:

Born in 1973 in Southern California.

Ran in high school for Arcadia. They have a famous cross-country team now. In my day, we were famous for dodging our coach during runs.

Over the next 15 years I ran very little, but life was awesome. I lived mostly in Northern California, where I met my wife. We moved back to her native state of Florida in 2005, where I gradually started running more seriously.

 

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Miles:This week: 0.00 Month: 0.00 Year: 0.00
Race: 26.2 with Donna (26.219 Miles) 03:24:54, Place overall: 41, Place in age division: 5
Easy MilesMarathon Pace MilesThreshold MilesVO2 Max MilesTotal Distance
19.008.000.000.0027.00

This race didn't go as we hoped. I ran with my wife who was shooting for about 3:37. Things clicked along very well for the first 5 miles, but we were a little ahead of schedule and running north into the wind. We were running even splits, but I fell down as a pacer by not taking the wind more seriously. Running a couple seconds faster than target pace at that point was  a bad decision - we should have gone for a negative split with the wind at our backs on the way home.

Allison started talking about dropping around mile 15, and we talked through it for a couple more miles, but by ~17.75 we pulled over to the side of the road in Jax Beach and stopped. I knew it was time - Allison has less quit in her than me by a mile. Everyone who's run for any stretch knows what it feels like on a bad day. On another day she would have run a PR, but the marathon is such a fine line anything can happen.

We borrowed a phone and called her parents, who live 3 miles away for a lift.  I asked if she'd mind if I finished. I've had enough disappointments and shortcomings in my running in the last few months, so I really did not feel like a DNF.

I felt pretty guilty when I left, but my wife had already processed it and was feeling better by the time the family reunited at the finish. She's more level-headed than me, something I can learn from. I was a little more sluggish than anticipated covering the last 8 miles. My final 10k split was 38:29, 6:11 pace or so. That should be under 6 minutes, but it's where I'm at, not where I want to be.

Despite the disappointing ending, the rest of the race was a lot of fun. We had a good time doing the race pre-rituals together and running well in the first half. So it goes.

Comments
From Bret on Mon, Feb 15, 2016 at 09:15:35 from 216.234.133.229

Sorry to hear about your wife's disappointing day - but it sounds like she's taking it all in stride so to speak. A lesson for all of us.

From jtshad on Mon, Feb 15, 2016 at 12:42:07 from 173.198.176.201

Sorry about your wife's race, you are great support and a good source of advice and motivation. I know her pain and the decision is hard but we each know when our body says enough.

Way to be there for her and for the desire to finish.

From butlerbrunning on Mon, Feb 15, 2016 at 16:59:57 from 104.52.197.67

Bummer..Hope you both recover well and get back at it soon.

From Tom K on Mon, Feb 15, 2016 at 19:40:24 from 174.58.54.215

Strong finish. I hope Allison bounces back from this quickly. That wind was a real pain.

From Jason D on Tue, Feb 16, 2016 at 22:02:22 from 68.80.27.222

Sorry that your wife's race didn't go as expected. You probably got more out of the race than you thought and it's not often we run a 10k MP tempo after 20 miles whatever the pace.

From Drew on Wed, Feb 17, 2016 at 18:55:25 from 173.171.218.92

Thanks guys, I appreciate the comments. Running isn't for the faint of heart. That's part of the fun...I think.

From SlowJoe on Wed, Feb 17, 2016 at 20:20:20 from 107.77.100.28

Valiant effort for both.

Get any funny comments from people as you went zooming past them at the end?

From Drew on Thu, Feb 18, 2016 at 11:46:21 from 24.73.66.122

Joe - not really - I was probably just paranoid but I had this impression some of them thought I ran onto the course at the 20 mile mark. :)

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