Miles of driving, no medal

I drove up to Pine Mountain, GA, last Saturday and met some friends for a nice dinner Saturday evening. I got up Sunday morning to run the Callaway Gardens Marathon. I was in the hotel dining room for oatmeal and coffee by six o'clock, and planned to drive to the race site by 6:30. The drive time was only five minutes, and since it's a small race, I didn't want to stand in the cold for long before the 7:00 early start.  Back in my room after breakfast, I started to feel a bit lightheaded and my stomach was unsettled.

What to do?  I had to make a quick decision because 7:00 was fast approaching.  I just couldn't imagine running, or even walking, feeling the way I did.  I decided I'd lie down for a few minutes and see if felt better in time for the regular 8:00 start.  Of course, if I did that, I'd have the pressure of making the six hour cutoff.

I woke up again at 8:30, so that decision was made.  I went back to sleep for another hour, waking up around 9:30.  This after having gone to bed very early the night before.  I still don't know what it was, but it must have been some minor bug to make me sleep that much.  So, another 8-hour drive home with no medal.

The curious thing is that this has happened twice before in the last couple of years.  As I was driving, I wondered if it could have been some emotional, psychosomatic thing. But with the early start, I would have had seven hours to complete the event, and the weather seemed nice. Good friends were there to provide great company.  So, I ruled that out.

I still don't know it was, but I hope it doesn't happen again. Being somewhat of a miser, I hate spending the entry fee, hotel room, and gasoline and not do the marathon.  Hope this week goes better in Tallahassee.

Toe socks worked great

After power-walking First Light in Mobile on Jan. 13, I had sore muscles so bad, and also bad blisters--AGAIN!

So, the next week in Ocala, I did two things different than in Mobile.  I tried Injinji toe socks for the first time.  I have had these for about a year, but kept hesitating to actually run in them.  I put them on first, then my regular Balega's on top of the thin, toe socks.  No blisters!  My feel overall didn't hurt nearly as much as they usually do.

Second, I went back to the alternating walk/run segments.  My beeper was set at 40/40, but it's battery was dead. I used my watch, which happened to be set at 40/30.  That ratio worked very well.  So well that I stayed steady during the second half and even had a negative split.  Two out of my three potty stops were in the first half, so that could account for the negative split. But I did maintain a steady pace, and felt as if I speeded up for the last three miles.

I'm doing Callaway Gardens, GA, this weekend and I plan to repeat the same plan as Ocala.  Meanwhile, if you're troubled by blisters, I suggest you give toe socks a try.

Still working on 2nd read

Even though I haven't posted here in a long time, I have been working.  I've published an SAT vocabulary book, SAT Words--Prioritized. and I'm working on an SAT grammar workbook and an SAT math workbook.  I'm still running, up to 153 marathons to date.

In addition to all that, I'm still working on my memoir about my running life.  I'm currently reading it for the second time to my critique group.  I'm about half way now, and I hope to get it published by May.

My two running goals are: 1) finish the states for the 2nd time, and 2) complete 200 marathons. During the last year, my knees have bothered me for the first time.  I'm starting to walk more, run less, and I've decided to avoid doubles, all in an effort to get my knees through more miles.  These days, I'm looking for marathons with generous time limits.

And I seem to be unable to avoid blisters. Every time a method seems to work for several runs in a row, and I think I've found the answer, I have blisters again.  I'm currently nursing three bad blisters that developed during First Light Marathon in Mobile, AL, this last weekend.  Perhaps I'm just doomed.

Here at the beginning of a new year, I'm going to make another commitment to post to this blog more often.  We'll see how that works out.