Day Two of the double meant a long drive to Colorado Springs to the American Discovery Trail Marathon.... 380 miles to be exact. We chatted it up all the way back, playing cell phone games between the two cars. Such nerds we are. Another early morning, another bus to catch. We were at the starting line right at sun-up. However, I was in the back of a porta-potty line as the start time neared, and taking my turn as the starting gun went off. So, as I emerged from the wonderful plastic paradise, the race was already in progress, and I was in a familiar last place before even taking a step.
No worries though....no need to hurry.
A good deal of the trail was on an old railroad bed, a nice soft surface of crushed stone.
An almost full moon was chased from the sky by a warming sun.
Several trains passed us along the way. I always seem to run better when accompanied by a speeding train.
Besides the help from the speeding trains, I had another ace up my sleeve. My blogger friends Steve and Kathleen were meeting me at around the ten mile mark and running about 8 miles with me. Having a pacer is always nice, even in a marathon.
Lisa visits with S and K before I got there. Lisa kicked my butt the day before, and was leading me early in today's race. When I got there. they were ready to rock..JPG)
I picked up my pace, and we passed quite a few people in the next 8 miles, including Lisa. Kathleen then hung back with her, while Steve and I motored on.
After Steve and Kathleen finished their pacing duties, they rode with dana and helped crew at two more locations. I hit a bad spell at mile 20 +/-. It had really warmed up, and shade was hard to come by. My water was hot, and I needed some salt. At mile 22, Dana iced my bottle up, gave me a dose of sea salt, and I actually came back to life. Although I had doubts that I was going to get through the race, I soon felt better and was ready to run. Lisa caught up with me, announcing that she had had a massive....umm....err....well, she used the bathroom. So we ran it in together, passing a few peeps, but still walking any short shady section we came to. The word for the day was "HOT!".JPG)
We finished in 6:24 or something like that. Truly, I don't even want to look up the results. It was a couple of slow races. maybe the altitude had a little affect on me. I was not gasping for air either day, but I was running really low on energy. I did not eat anything during either race....maybe that was it..JPG)
No problem eating after the race though. Rock Star Ed PR'd bigtime in the marathon this day. WTG, buddy!
This was one of the easier marathons I have run. I can see a possible PR for myself if I return with fresh legs!
No worries though....no need to hurry.
A good deal of the trail was on an old railroad bed, a nice soft surface of crushed stone.
An almost full moon was chased from the sky by a warming sun.
Several trains passed us along the way. I always seem to run better when accompanied by a speeding train.Besides the help from the speeding trains, I had another ace up my sleeve. My blogger friends Steve and Kathleen were meeting me at around the ten mile mark and running about 8 miles with me. Having a pacer is always nice, even in a marathon.
Lisa visits with S and K before I got there. Lisa kicked my butt the day before, and was leading me early in today's race. When I got there. they were ready to rock..JPG)
I picked up my pace, and we passed quite a few people in the next 8 miles, including Lisa. Kathleen then hung back with her, while Steve and I motored on.After Steve and Kathleen finished their pacing duties, they rode with dana and helped crew at two more locations. I hit a bad spell at mile 20 +/-. It had really warmed up, and shade was hard to come by. My water was hot, and I needed some salt. At mile 22, Dana iced my bottle up, gave me a dose of sea salt, and I actually came back to life. Although I had doubts that I was going to get through the race, I soon felt better and was ready to run. Lisa caught up with me, announcing that she had had a massive....umm....err....well, she used the bathroom. So we ran it in together, passing a few peeps, but still walking any short shady section we came to. The word for the day was "HOT!"
.JPG)
We finished in 6:24 or something like that. Truly, I don't even want to look up the results. It was a couple of slow races. maybe the altitude had a little affect on me. I was not gasping for air either day, but I was running really low on energy. I did not eat anything during either race....maybe that was it..JPG)
No problem eating after the race though. Rock Star Ed PR'd bigtime in the marathon this day. WTG, buddy!This was one of the easier marathons I have run. I can see a possible PR for myself if I return with fresh legs!
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