Today I went out for my planned 20 mile run. About 1 mile into it, I caught up with a spry elderly gentleman who started running with me. We ran together for about 5-10 minutes. He asked how far I was going today, and when I told him 20 miles, he asked which marathon I was training for. (You know you're running with a runner when they assume you're training for a marathon when you mention you are doing a 20-miler.) I came to find out that several years ago (I'm going to guess about 15) he had run a 3:05 marathon at the age of 60! So now I can either say I ran with a 75-80 year old guy on my training run, or I can say that I hung with a 3:05 marathoner on my training run. I think I'll go with the second choice :)
However, I didn't make it to 20 miles, I called it quits after 17. The legs were fine, but I got a late start and the temperature got up to near 80 by the time I quit. I could have probably gutted it out for another 3 miles, but I didn't really see the point. I've already decided that a PR is out of the question for this marathon. There were two reasons I signed up for it; I want to be there to help my brother celebrate his first sub 3 hour marathon, and I want to be a Marathon Maniac. In order to do that, all I have to do is cross the finish line before they turn the clock off which is six hours. If I do my ultra pace vs my marathon pace, I should be able to finish in 5:15 to 5:30. I'm considering running with the 5:30 pace group if they are going to do walk breaks. Maybe I can help encourage some first time marathoners to keep going and cross the finish line.
Oh, and a PS to DavidRay. I am entered in the 8 Hour Hot to Trot in August! See you there.
Grandma's Marathon - Number 10!
9 months ago
5 comments:
Cool! Looking forward to running with you at HotToTrot.
Sounds like a great plan for the marathon. It's always fun helping first timers finish.
I'm not the most social person with strangers, but occasionally, you run across someone that is genuinly interesting. It's funny how we remember these people who we only knew for minutes.
smart move, everyone knows you are capable of 20--but it takes lots of runs to know when to pull the plug!
Very cool to be able to run with him for a few minutes. Most runners will wave or say hey, but very few will run with a total stranger even for a few minutes in just a training run - kudos to both you and him!
Only had a stranger run with me once it was pretty cool. I think mostly I manage to scare other runners away. :-)
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