As you can probably tell, when my running is going well, I post on a daily basis, but when it's not - There are HUGE blanks on the blog and it becomes dormant. The latter has been true in recent months, with the PF causing training to be curtailed and the running going down hill, and not with the wind behind me!
So, what have I been doing in these past weeks? Actually a surprising amount, but SLOW! April was a lean month, with only 39.2 miles run in total, but I was booked on my vacation and I was going to run something while I was away, so May 1st, we flew out to Cincinnati and the Flying Pig Marathon. I have been fortunate enough to make it to Cincy on two previous occassions, and really enjoy the friendliness that this race shows - and my good friend Jenny was there to meet us, and make us at home. On the Friday night I rekindled my affair with Hashing, taking part in the Sin City Hash which was great fun and prepared me well for Saturdays 5K race, part of the Marathon Weekend.
I had decided to run the 5K to see how I was feeling and to see that the foot would put up with racing - it also had to put up with torrential rain on the morning of the race. I took it steadily, and ran a 24:41 time, finishing 135th out of 918 participants, and 5th in my age group - If I had been actually racing this, my time from the St Patricks Day race would have had me 2nd in my age. The positive news was the foot was OK, no reaction.
With a pasta party at Jenny's on the Saturday night, I was prepared for the Race on Sunday, wisely having switched to the Half Marathon, but with no real running worth talking about in the month preceeding, I was uncertain what to expect. Cincy is a tough enough course, with a fair few hills in the 13 miles, so I set about a strategy to walk the worst hills, and jog around the rest - today was a day of testing the foot and not breaking anything :).
I was actually feeling bad after 3 Miles and almost ready to drop out of the race. The bridge you cross back into Ohio at this stage was a tougie, and my lack of training was showing dramatically. 3 Miles! And I used to run Marathons for breakfast! But I persevered, got running again, and stuck to my plan. I ran as much as I could, then when the hills came, I strolled up them, chatting to a fellow Marathon Maniac, also walking, although he had a better excuse as this was his Third Marathon in 8 days :) - We parted at Mile 9, and from there on in, it was easier. The long downhill stretch back into the City saw me picking up the pace, and almost flying along - who needs training when the road is down?
Lets just say I managed to finish the race in one piece, nothing spectacular in the last mile or so, did feel I picked up the pace, and nobody went past me, but it wasn't because of the time that I raised my arms as I crossed the finish line, it was the very fact that I had completed 13 miles with my foot feeling attached and no residual pain - maybe I could get back into running again. For the record, an all time PW of 2 hours 8 minutes and 34 seconds, which is of course my M50 PB, and something to aim at - I was 2721st finished out of 7357, so maybe not quite as bad as I thought, and I lived to fight again, go to California, enjoy a proper vacation around a pool, and start to think about Racing properly again and training hard for Philadelphia in November :)....
