Wrapping up 2016

It's strange to think that it has been fall for several months now and another autumn running season is nearing a close. With temperatures still in the 70's, and even 80's, there have been times it hasn't felt like fall at all and yet here we are three weeks removed from Halloween and one week from Thanksgiving.

I remember how I used to wait excitedly all year for the fall running season to do my favorite races; the JFK 50, Mountain Masochist and the Marine Corps Marathon. However, with the price increases and politics of JFK, the price increase of Masochist and not being able to train in the mountains, and the logistical craziness and crowds of Marine Corps, I haven't had the desire to do any of the big three races that were typically the defining highlights of my year.

Things do change. My move to central NC has given me the wonderful opportunity to try many new events, but I've also realized I've been running much more than I had planned. The mileage and lack of any real training finally caught up to me in late October and forced an executive decision to pull back on several races in order to relax and rest my body. I also realized that in a two month span from September through late October I was essentially running an ultra or marathon every other week, or every third week. And though most of these races were done as casual efforts, there was no denying that doing an "easy" 103 miles at A Race for the Ages, followed by "only" 63 easy miles Hinson Lake taxed my legs more than I thought. Flashbacks to 2008 and 2009 when I severely over raced and hurt the potential of doing better at bigger goal races.

The misleading crux, and albeit also a pleasant surprise, came when I got 2nd place overall at the Medoc Trail Marathon, again on minimal recovery time. Granted, the field is typically not competitive, but I did run a 7 minute PR for the event, despite running an extra 3 minutes off course. This, of course, gave me the false confidence to proceed with the idea of trying to run a BQ at the fast downhill Peak to Creek marathon. Well, this is where I learned that a 4th straight race on minimal recovery, while running only 45 miles per week, was going to seriously backfire. Needless to say, I had all the signs of poor recovery and fitness that was okay, but not great. Quads were sore early, glutes were sore early, and typically comfortable marathon pace was far too laborious. I fought through it, slogging into the halfway mark in 1:33:40, but conceded at mile 15 that this was just going to have to be a pretty day in the mountains. No 3:05, no BQ, just a 3:19 long training run. I also had to remind myself how crazy it is that several years ago I would have only dreamed about running a 3:19, and now I was considering it a epic failure from a performance stand point.

Thankfully, the fall running season did not end on that sour note and I successfully paced a very strategically accurate 3:45 pace group for the 3rd straight year at the Richmond Marathon. We came in at 3:44:58, and for the second time were the closest pace group to goal time. Now time to rest up and maybe get in some actual training sans interruption by over racing. Who knows, there might even be a semi secret goal race in December I plan to run. But, who knows?