Midsouth Marathon Recap

Another thing that you all should know about myself and Scott is that while we are both Average Joe runners, we are very different in our approach to running in general.  Scott is a very calculating and disciplined runner.  He picks a race, builds a running plan, executes the plan, and comes into the race healthy and generally the best prepared he can be.  I on the other hand sometimes pick races, sometimes build running plans, never executing the running plan very well, and come to races as a bit of a wildcard.  Scott always has a training schedule printed out and hanging on his refrigerator while I never have a printed copy taped anywhere.  BTW, Scott wins 80% of all races that we both enter, but I don’t know that he enjoys it anymore than I do.

So, crazy thing did I do this time?  Friday night at around 9PM I decided that it would be fun to run the Midsouth Marathon in Wynne on Saturday.  I checked the weather, highs in the 80s with 20MPH winds.  Not exactly the perfect running weather you would want in a marathon, but I decided to go on.  So I got up at 4am and made the trek to Wynne to run the marathon.  Not too smart, but here is the recap.

I arrived at the race in plenty of time and registered.  I didn’t get a t-shirt as they had just given away the last one to the person in front of me.  I received my bib and headed to the start line.  I was the last to register, #201, so it was my first marathon with such a small number of people.  I started at the very back of the pack and ran a nice and easy pace for the first 10K.  It seemed to be a steady climb for the first 2 miles then downhill for 3 or so.  The next section from miles 5-11 seemed to be all uphill and the temperature kicked up.  I spent more energy in this section than I should have.  Next we continued on to the turn-around point at 13.1 and made the turn back to home.  I arrived at the split at 2:23 and felt ok.  The next few miles from 13-17 I started mixing in some walk breaks and lost pace just a bit.  By mile 20 it was obvious I had no shot at a sub-5 full and decided to enjoy my race mates.  I took extended walk breaks and chatted with a lot of other runners.  It’s good that I did this as the temperature closed in on 80 and the wind was full on in my face for most of the last 5 miles.  I finished in 5:28, my personal worst, but enjoyed the race still the same.

Pros: I liked the small number of runners.  There were plenty of aid stations and they were all stocked with water, Gatorade, oranges and bananas.  The race organizers and aid station workers were all very positive.

Cons: The rolling hills are harder than you’d imagine in flat eastern Arkansas.  The course is a little boring and you run with quite a bit of traffic.

Course: Midsouth Marathon Garmin Map

New Shoes

New shoes are traditionally and stereotypically associated with women, but men that are active have learned to covet (maybe to unhealthy levels) new shoes as well.  I have running shoes, backup running shoes, trail running shoes, hiking boots, cycling shoes, river floating shoes, basketball shoes, and yes even golf shoes.  If I have an outdoor activity I probably have a pair of shoes associated with them.  I’ve hung on to shoes way after their useful life because I had a great level of success with that pair of shoes.  Those shoes and I went through some tough times together.  We trained, bonded, and succeeded together, and after all the hard miles I will ditch them for a younger model.  It just feels wrong, but that’s what I did this past weekend.

Once a year our local running store, www.thesportyrunner.com , has their annual shoe sale.  This shoe sale brings out all the running crazies.  It’s not uncommon to see someone buying five or more pairs of shoes just for themselves.  This time I was able to get there at door opening time and secured 3 pairs of shoes for myself; one pair for road running, one pair for trail running, and the last pair for just wearing around.  I was able to purchase all three for the price of one.  Scott joined me for this sale and arrived about 10 minutes late and was still able to secure two pairs of shoes.

New Shoes

It felt wrong throwing those three pairs of worn out running shoes in the trash, but it feels great slipping on these new ones.  Oh, and by the way, shop local whenever you can.  Most of the races you run have sponsors and more often than not those sponsors are your local running store, not your local big box store.

Soaring Wings Half – Race Recap(s)

So I just completed my 4^th Soaring Wings Half Marathon.  As long as they have this race and I live nearby I will continue to support their mission.  This mission has a little bit of a personal significance to me which I will share with you a bit later.

First I’ll recap this year’s race.  I left my house in plenty of time to pick up Scott and easily make it to the start line.  After driving the 15 minutes to Conway I realized I had forgotten my Garmin.  I must run with my Garmin as I’m incredibly addicted to analyzing my races after the fact.  I simply must be able to look back out how I did during different parts of the race.  It’s an odd addiction, but one I know that isn’t peculiar to just me.  So I turned around and headed home, texted Scott to tell him to go on.  I got stuck behind a Blue Ford Truck in Conway that seemed to have misplaced its accelerator pedal.  I parked, jogged to the start line, Scott saw me, I jumped in line and literally went from my walk up to the race to a run in the race in one step.  No standing around at all.  Long story short, I got a PR by 10 minutes finishing in 2:09:48 and running the entire race with Scott while enjoying most of it with conversation.  

This year’s race was a great race for me.  I have now run the SWHalf four times with the previous three not going as planned.  In 2009, my first year and my first race distance longer than a 5K, I way over hydrated and overGUed and finished just over my goal of 2:30.  In 2011, my third year running Soaring Wings, I trained poorly and got a much deserved 2:19 finish (though this was my SW PR until this year).  In 2010 I trained really well, but things went terribly wrong the week leading up to the race and I finished with a time of 2:34.  That year, the one with a 2:34 finish, my worst finish at Soaring Wings ever, was my most rewarding.

First a quick little back story on me that you’ll need to know.  I’m a youth soccer coach.  I never played soccer and didn’t know a thing about it until I enrolled my son to play when he was four and I agreed to coach.  He’s never quit and we are still doing it.  Over the years I’ve coached his older sister’s team as well.  I believe in God and am a follower of Jesus Christ.  (What follows is an excerpt from thoughts I’ve previously shared on FaceBook with friends)

As the 2010 Fall soccer season started my Soaring Wings training was well underway and was going great.  About our third practice a new girl joined the team and it was clear that her skills were a bit behind the other girls, I’m not even sure she had ever played soccer.  She also needed a bit more attention than most of the other girls on the team.  She was a sweet as can be, but you could tell she was wired just a little bit different.  I knew my work was cut out for me with the new girl.  If my team was going to be as competitive as I wanted them to be I was going to have to find a way to get her up to speed more quickly or find a way to hide her on the field.

I didn’t know the whole picture, I didn’t get it.

About 3 games into the season I became aware that she was a Soaring Wings Ranch kid. (If you don't know about Soaring Wings Ranch, go check them out. http://www.soaringwingsranch.com/ ) This explained a bit about why she appeared wired a little different.  I had shared with the team that I was going to be running the SW Half Marathon and she was super excited and shared with me that she would be handing out the medals at the end of the race and wanted to personally hand me mine.  I was excited to be able to "do this for her". 

“Do this for her”, like I’m so great.  I still didn't get it.

As the soccer season progressed we were not winning any games.  I had become frustrated and didn't know how to make us better.  I had become convinced that some of my “players” were holding us back. 

Wow, my thoughts were ugly. I really didn’t get it.  I didn’t get what I was here to do.

On the flip side my Half Marathon training was going great, I posted one of my best training runs for a half marathon at 2:05 and I was feeling great.  I was the lightest I’d ever been while running and poised to shoot for breaking the 2 hour barrier. 

I thought I was awesome, I still didn’t get it.

The Tuesday prior to the race I awoke with a fever and some sort of illness.  I was sick the entire week leading up to the race, not eating much and my energy was drained.  I could not believe my luck. I spent a lot of time in self pity that week and not much time thinking about the girl waiting at the finish line for me. 

God was like “Wake Up!”, I couldn’t hear him over my whining, I still wasn’t getting it.

Race day I decided to go on.  I told myself, my friends, my family that I was “doing” this race for her.  How noble of me.  Deep inside I still knew I was doing it for me, I knew I was going for sub 2:00.  As I started the race I went out and ran the first mile on my own, blistering the pace I’d been training with.  Something happened at mile 1.5.  I was done.  I had nothing left in me.  I started to walk.  I had time to think.  I thought about the girl at the finish line, about 1 Tim 4:8 (one of my favorites if you know me), about how I had trained for running good but not trained for being good, I started to pray, repented of my selfishness, and I started to run again.

I still didn’t quite get it, but I was slowly beginning to get it.

I crossed the finish line that day, searched for that young girl and she gave me that medal.  God didn’t give me that sub 2 half marathon that day.  In fact, I’m certain he made sure I was going to do my worst.  But I know he carried me to the finish for something bigger. 

I was slowly getting it.

Below is a picture of her and me at the finish, this was the last time I’d see this young girl.  I don’t know the specifics, but she left the Ranch that week and never made another practice or game.  You never know the time frame you’re going to have to impact someone's life.  You never know when that person will be taken out of your life, so you must do your best by them each day.  I still pray for her.  The 2010 Soaring Wings Half Marathon will always be my most rewarding as I learned more about who I need to be as a person that day than I’ll ever learn from a race about who I am as a runner.

I think I finally get it, and I hope I continue to live it.

Finish Line at Soaring Wings Half 2010

I'm an Average Joe Runner

Hi, my name is Kevin and I’m an Average Joe Runner.  That sounds almost like the start of an addiction meeting doesn’t it?

ad·dic·tion [uh-dik-shuhn] noun

The state of being enslaved to a habit or practice or to something that is psychologically or physically habit-forming, as narcotics, to such an extent that its cessation causes severe trauma.

I wouldn’t say that I’m an addict, but most addicts wouldn’t say that they are addicts either.  I know that I have to run.  If I go too long without a run I start to get irritable and cranky and physically start to feel bad.  Too many days in a row without a run and I start to enter a serious funk where I’m just not happy.  At this point you’re probably thinking I’m one of those hard core want to run all the time guys, but that is not the case.

I put runners into 3 categories, and while it may seem that they are aligned based on results, they are actually aligned based on life emphasis on running.  There are the Super-Elites, the Mebs and Shalanes of the world.  Running is their life and for them running commonly takes first priority over all other aspects of their life.  Then there are the Elites, these are the people winning or placing at the top your local races.  Running is a huge part of their life and for them running is the top of all their hobbies.  And then there is us, the Average Joe Runners.  We fill up the bulk of all the race entrants and for us running is a part of our life.  It’s not who we are, but we wouldn’t be who we are without it.  There are many articles from the Super-Elites, and many Elites have blogs, but finding a blog from an AJR is very difficult to do, thus Scott started this blog and I’ve agreed to pen an article or two.

We pause this article for a running break.  [Kevin exits for a run]  Ok, I’m back now.  All this running talk got me to where I wanted to run so I just darted out the door and got in a 5K.  It wasn’t fast, it wasn’t on my training plan, but I just wanted to do it.  It gave me some time to think about what I’d write about next.

When I go on vacation I check out the locations to get in a run.  I love checking off running in a new state.  I’m currently up to 13 different states.  I love running on trails, beaches, pavement, urban and rural.  I’ve run up mountains in the Rockies and along beaches on the Gulf and the inner streets of large cities.  I’ve run in sun, rain, sleet, snow, but not yet hail.  I don’t plan to check that one off either.  I read about a runner that got caught in a hail storm, sounded painful.  I run mostly in the morning as I like a good sunrise, but I’ve run at sunset and at night as well.  I run with music, I run without music.  I run mostly alone, but enjoy company when I get a chance.  I’ve run more with Scott than anyone else and we still only run about 1 out of every 50 runs together.  That’s about to change with our running plan for our next adventure, the 50Mile stage of 3 Days of Syllamo.  This next adventure is another reason for this blog.  We plan to chronicle our training, lessons learned, and race reports leading up to the big race on March 16^th, 2013.

So, how’d we get here?  Let me back the story up a bit. I started running after Labor Day of 2008.  I was at a family cookout eating and getting even fatter when the whole family discussed running a 5K that Christmas.  My Wife, Sister-In-Law (Scott’s wife Jenni), Father-In-Law, Aunt-In-Law (is that a word?), and Cousin-In-Law (again, word?) all decided to do it.  Scott was out, he wasn’t running any further than the fridge and he let us know it.  Then 10 months later Jenni and I were running our first Half Marathon and Scott was there cheering us on.  It wouldn’t be much longer and Scott would be joining us.  Fast forward 4 years later and I’ve never quit.  Somewhere along the way I switched from dreading to run to wanting to run.  I switched from worrying about running to reading about running to now writing about running.

This has been your introduction to me.  Scott and I are preparing our journey to running our first 50Mile trail race next March.  We invite you to come along for the journey.  We’ll be blogging about our training runs, lessons learned, race profiles, and pretty much everything else that enters our heads.  Hi, My name is Kevin and I'm an Average Joe Runner.

 

Myself (left) and Scott after the 2012 LR Marathon.