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| Urvi and I with our CIM medals photo by Mauricio Salmon |
“You’ve got to get off my back”
~ Flava Flav
“I passed the 26 mile
mark as it the clock flipped to 3:12:00. I was going to make it. I
was going to PR and BQ! Tears started welling up in my eyes; I had to be
shown how to get through the cones because I could barely see...” ~From “StripedSocks, Red Sox and Darned Sox”
2012 had been a great season for me. I had finally recovered from 18 years of
smoking – wow when you say it like that.
And as I reported at the end of 2012 – “2
and a half years of work finally placed me back in the ranks of ‘athlete.’” But
there was one thing missing.
“The monkey ain’t no joke”
~Flava Flav
I started out 2013 with a single minded 4 month goal. Cinco de Mayo was circled on my
calendar. The Pittsburgh Marathon is
where I would get the Boston qualifying monkey off my back. Those four months, I did run races but they
were neither goals nor targets. They
were merely means to an end.
I was happy and comforted to realize that while training
through both Derry and Martha’s Vineyard – I did nearly as well the year
before. Then at New Bedford, the gang
all put up amazing PRs. I did not but once again had trained through it and
still improved from New Bedford 2012 (plus my half PR from Great Bay 2012 was a
perfect storm of fitness, weather and rest).
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| Seth and I getting ready for Pittsburgh |
“He's home grown, he's the cyclone
He's the moan groan, capon, the clone”
~ Flava Flav
The single minded goal – Pittsburgh Marathon – finally came. Dan and I were putting in even pace from 1
until mile 7. At mile 7, I tried to step
over a median and BAM, twisted my ankle.
I knew my race was over.
But, I didn’t want to admit it.
So on one of my worst twisted ankles ever (and, I’ve had a lot), I presumed
to run two more miles at goal marathon pace.
“At mile 9, I knew even the
charade was over.”
I had been ready and with one slip of the foot, 1000 miles
and 5 months of training just went out the door. Limping in to finish my worst half marathon
ever, I thought I might be jinxed. Now
that monkey had grown, he’s the cyclone.
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| RaceMenu Summer Series Start - I'm "hiding" in the third row |
“We got the real Flava Flav
Gettin' down with the sound
And he's tellin' you to get off his back”
~ Flava Flav
I stepped back from the marathon for the summer (despite the
exhortations of Tommy and Anthony to run Quebec). While I didn’t end up cycling much, I ran
shorter races. I moved in with Urvi (I have a life outside of running).
The big “goal” of the Summer was the Race Menu series. Like
Gordon had argued: if for nothing else than something to keep looking toward to
stay in basic shape.
I won my age-group in the Series – with a cotton T-shirt to
show for it. And my summer finished up
with running Reach the Beach for the first time with the fantastic Fighting
Guppies team.
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| Fighting Guppies - reach the beach |
“As-salam alaykum
And that's the way we take 'em
And if we got to frisk you down
Then that's the way we shake 'em”
~ Flava Flav
Labor Day relaunched my singular goal. 14 weeks to BQ at CIM. With a couple of minor (to me) Cross-Country
races and two training races, my fall was lighter than the summer. A Personal Record at the Nahant 30K gave me
confidence if not comfort that I was on track.
Manchester was going to be a training race. In fact with 58 miles from Monday to
Saturday, I was uncertain I was going to be able to hit training paces. But, one mile led to another and then a few miles with Karen and then:
“I came across fist pumping at gun time 3:13:48 and chip
time 3:13:40 - 28 second PR and BQ minus 1:20! Robert quoted me from mile 13.5:
"yeah 'I'm going to slow down at mile 16.'”
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| Finishing Manchester City best photo ever? |
"Get off my back"
~ Flava Flav
Oddly, this left me with five weeks until my “real” marathon. I had told everyone that I was still going to run for 3:10. (Also, I wanted to try to beat Dan’s PR and his time for running two marathons in 5 weeks.) The first 13 at California International with Tim were great. Unfortunately, I was unable to keep it up for the second half. However, I did still beat my Manchester time for 2 Personal Records in the marathon in 36 days.
Personal
Records (and time faster than pre-2013):
4 Mile -
Gobble^3, 25:36 – 0:20 PR
7k - Run the
Goose, 29:35 - 0:02 PR
30K – Nahant
30K, 2:18:55 – 7:36 PR
Marathon – California
International Marathon - 3:13:31 – 0:38 PR
High
Category Finishes:
Casey’s (Jan)
– 1st, overall
Super 5k
(Feb) – 3rd, Linebackers
Martha's
Vineyard 20 Miler (Feb) – 2nd, Clydesdales
Malden
Rotary 5k (Mar) – 1st, Age Group
USATF-NE
Master’s Shotput(Jun) – 1st, Age-group
4K on the
Fourth (Jul) – 1st, Age-group
Jim Kane 5k
(Jul) – 1st, Heavyweights
Race Menu
Summer Series (May-Sept) – 1st, Age group
Manchester
City Marathon (Nov) – 4th, USATF age group
Yulefest (Dec)
– 2nd, Masters
California
International Marathon (Dec) – 3rd, Clydesdales
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