Well, Adam survived!

Needless to say, Adam did his best on Monday at the Boston Marathon. With HORRIBLE running conditions, Adam started out the race at a pace to set a personal record. He was running into a headwind though and hit a wall at mile 15. He was feeling dizzy and light headed, and slowed down a lot to make it through "Heartbreak Hill" (should be hills because there is a total of 3). After the hills at about mile 22, he decided since he lost so much time and wouldn't qualify again with under a 3 hours 10 minute time, he would take a break and eat a few cookies some of the spectators were handing out to runners. He also took the time to enjoy a beer given to him by a group who had been drinking Bloody Marys. After a break, Adam decided to finish the rest of the race. When he started back running, he got a chill and started shivering uncontrollably. He made it to a First Aid Station where he sat with a blanket wrapped around him in front of a heater until he felt better enough to run. He called me from one of the stations to let me know what had happened. At that point I was in panic mode. He should have been done already, I kept thinking. It was such a relief to hear his voice. He talked about pulling out of the race. I told him if he could walk the rest of the way that it would be better to try to finish. He agreed and after 5 hours, my baby was done! We talked about what made this run so different than his training and thought that the cold, rainy weather with the headwind was a factor. Plus the fact, he was standing outside in it 3 hours before the race. I told him it takes energy/calories to keep your body warm and he probably lost a lot of fuel before the race began. In hind sight he also wished he had worn his heart rate monitor to ensure he was pacing himself. There were many lessons learned from this. The most important being that if you body is saying to stop, well STOP! I am so glad Adam listened and headed to the First Aid Station when he wasn't feeling right. He was disappointed, but has plans to run another marathon in the fall to try to qualify again. I think I may have talked him into joining The Running Spots training program. The couple that runs together hopefully won't run away from each other!

I am babying my ankle the last 2.5 weeks before the marathon and plan to do my long run this weekend with Crystal. The route we will be doing is the 20 miler the group did last weekend. The weather looks like it will be beautiful, and we plan to take our time. We have already talked about our jelly bean strategy and the plan is to eat a pack every hour on the dot. The last time we did a run, I waited to eat my jelly beans until after an hour and 20 minutes of running, and was feeling tired and pooped. As soon as I ate my pack, I was like a new person.

Wish us good luck this weekend. I am going to remember my philosophy from the beginning of my training. "I am a completer, not a competer"! This being my first marathon, I am going to enjoy the fact that I can run 26.2 miles. If I want to get serious and try to be a "Lance" type runner, there will be an opportunity this fall.

Is it weird even though I have a black pinkie toenail and my ankle is sore, I am already looking forward to training for my next one?

Amber