Sunday, March 11, 2007

I'm Back


After running in the 2006 New York City Marathon in early November, I took two months off from racing due to burn-out. (Above: Crossing the finish line in Central Park at New York. I'm to the left under the clock in the yellow shirt with blue sleeves.)

I only raced two 3Ks (13:16 & 13:09) for the rest of 2006. I have been struggling to get back into racing shape this year. I am considering doing a marathon in two weeks but feel woefully out of shape. In a marathon relay I did last month, I ran a 9.2 mile leg and struggled to do an 8:26 pace. I finished the race not being able to hold off any late challengers.

Today I did this Marathon Relay in lower MD with Bex to test my readiness. I did the first leg, 14.6 miles, the flat, scenic part down by the Potomac River where it flows into the Chesapeake past St. George Island. Bex did the hills, 11.6 miles of rolling highway peaks and valleys. After doing the Inaugural National Marathon last year, she laughs at hills.

I'm a low-tech guy but I have a new toy. A Timex Ironman watch that records 100 laps. After watching Bex run the MCM last year I was intrigued with her steady pacing. Like clockwork, she recorded the miles on her Ironman watch and made sure they were between 8:40 and 8:50 miles. Result--she broke through the 4-hour barrier in only her second marathon, something which took me twelve tries.

So after six years of racing, I ditched my trusty Armitron, which only told stopwatch time. This morning I was hitting my new Timex watch each mile. Here are the splits--7:40, 7:38, 7:44, 7:51, 7:51, 7:46, 7:56, 7:57, 8:13, 8:02, 8:07, 8:19, 8:13, 8:15, and 5:02 for the last 6/10ths of a mile. I passed the half-marathon point in 1:44:09, which would be a nine second PR for me. I exchanged the baton at 1:56:41. My average pace for the distance was 7:59.5 per mile. It was a good run for me, but boy, was I glad to hand off. Bex motored off down the highway, ran relay people down whose counterparts had run away from me and hid during my leg, and... Aww, I'll let her tell you how we did.

I ran the inaugural running of this race as a marathon in 2005 in 4:19:24. At the time, it was my second best marathon time. In the first photo below, I am running by the water in 2005 in the scenic first part of the race. The views were just as gorgeous today. If you blow the photo up, you can see the Runner's ID tag, about which I spoke a couple of posts ago, hanging off the shoelace of my right shoe. The second photo shows me in 2005 sprinting to the finish line, having only 18 seconds to spare in order to be able to eclipse my then-second best marathon time.

8 comments:

susie said...

Hi Peter! You ARE back. I checked your earlier times, and wow--what a run. You are in great shape for the marathon. You and Bex together? I can't imagine a stronger team.

Rhea said...

Congratulations again on running a great race! You are ready for National. Thanks for being my partner in the marathon relay. We totally kicked ass.

jeanne said...

I'll say you're back! I wasn't aware you had left! Those are some pretty splits. You TOTALLY KICKED ASS! I especially liked the part where Bex smoked that guy.
:)

peter said...

Yeah, Bex, You da man, no, I mean Ida man, no, I mean We da man, no, I mean you're totally right! And yes Jeanne, we totally kicked some serious ass and Bex smoked that guy and I saw it!

Rich said...

Hi Peter! It's Rich. We met last year before MCM. I didn't know you had this blog going. I liked your post about the Runners ID. That would be me lying on the sidewalk completely ID-less.

Congrats on the marathon relay. That was a smokin' performance!

Thomas said...

Congratulations on a win. I'm jealous - I never win anything!

BOB!! said...

Send in your entry already! You & Bex kicked butt, and next weekend you can kick a little more. See you at the starting line...

Bill G said...

Hi Peter- thanks for the comment on my newly created blog! Congratulations on the great running you've been doing lately. I think a marathon in Iceland would be an incredible experience! Or maybe you should run the Dublin Marathon.