A Marathon Adventure: Final Installment

After a nice day in Philly and an easy drive to the Jersey shore, I settled in for a good night's rest in Long Branch, New Jersey. Prior to this little experiment, the shortest rest I had ever had between marathons was one month. I pushed that limit the other week when I ran Chicago with Cindy and then ran Delaware with only 10 days rest. And there I was...pushing it even harder...with only one day of rest in between my marathons.

Saturday morning was bright, sunny, and chilly. My sister, Stephanie, and her friend Alex came to eat sausage, pancakes, and ice cream watch me run, and I have them to thank for these pictures. The race started right on the boardwalk with a short pep talk and group picture with Dean.



Then we dug in for another 26.2 miles and I was surprised at how well I felt. I was a bit tired, but no soreness. Maybe this wouldn't be so bad after all? The course was a flat and simple double-loop course. Everything went fine, except our rolling police escort kept telling us to stop and slow down. Dean was running a bit slower that day in anticipation of his 50th marathon the following day in New York City and the police wanted all of us to stick together. Even with all the forced stops from the police we still finished in 4:15 and wrapped ourselves in these lovely mylar blankets.



The whole race went really well for me until the last quarter mile when I got really tired and light-headed. I didn't drink as much sports drink or eat as much Gu as usual, which is a mistake I'll try to not repeat. I was pretty tired afterward, but once I got a bit of food in me (bag of cereal, energy bar, two energy drinks, one piece of pizza, one large sandwich, one coke, one sprite) I felt great! I still had a two-hour drive back to the airport and then a two-hour flight to Chicago, so I'm glad I still had a little somethin' left.



Thanks to Steph and Alex for "crewing" me on this run. If I ever try an ultramarathon, I want them on my support team!



PS: The most amazing part about this little adventure? I had no soreness at all when I woke up on Sunday morning. In fact, I got up early and ran a few miles before church and it was a great way to speed up my recovery. Next up? Rock-n-Roll Arizona on January 14, 2007!