The Finish Line Is In Sight My second race, "Marathon #2" ended in a 4 hour 40 minute time of 2:08.54. I was not too concerned about the time since I had been training pretty consistently for the last six months or so, and had trained consistently longer than most of my running friends, the bulk of which generally only run for 30-40 minutes per week. I think this marathon went out at 7:05AM and returned at 6:55PM and I only went about 7 miles to stretch my legs for an hour or so. I didn't carry any fuel with me on this run, opting instead to refuel with some fruit smoothies at the end of each hour of training. There was also a brief 10 minute break where we watched some of the Boston Marathon, which was cool to see after a long day of running! During the rest of the day I was able to hang out in my living room area and enjoy a few drinks, a couple hours of television, and watch all of the marathon on the news. This race is much different. It began at 4AM and ended about an hour later. We headed out the door about 4:30AM after a little bit of coffee, which seemed to rev the engine a bit for a few minutes (I'm never fully prepared when the alarm goes off, even after so much time of running). The first leg was about a mile from home on the sidewalk near the railroad tracks, which I've ran before. This ended at the intersection and I went left towards the city of Wilmington, running along side a freeway for about a quarter mile before turning off on a sidewalk for another half mile. All in all this was about 9-10 minutes, and it was over a half mile from our house, or .25 of a mile from where I usually run. From here we started the longer (~1 mile) distance run along the water to Wilmington light rail station. This was about a mile and a half away, and there were a few people with us on this stretch of pavement, and also a few policemen looking for folks drunk at that early hour. The path went along the waterfront for about 1/2 mile, then across a street, up some steps (with some ramps), and then some stairs, and around some buildings. This was about 25 minutes, just about as long as the stretch of the road that led to the station. My heart rate was up a bit on this bit, as it was fairly flat, but still not bad for the first bit of an early morning run. The run up this particular street goes past the stadium which is pretty cool to look at and think about, and it is not too far from the harbor. About .25 of a mile after the station, I knew that we would be taking a quick left turn onto F street. I was not prepared for the intensity of the next bit. My heart rate picked up quite a bit as we zigged and zagged on this road, going down the steps again and across more ramps, then a couple more sets of stairs, and then up a huge hill, where I struggled a bit to pick it up. A quick right turn took us to another road that took us back across another street and down a set of stairs, down another small ramp and over the sidewalk to the waterfront again. This last bit was the hardest. I felt tired at this point, my legs weren't cooperating with me, and my heart was racing a little bit. We ran past some small boats and a couple marinas that I've never seen before, and then it was back to where we started on the other side. All in all I ran 10.5 miles, about half of which was in a hilly situation, and my time was 5 hours. As I looked down the street that we took, I didn't realize that I had gone up this one street and back down that other street, which is an awful lot of climbing and descending. Since I went out this time the night before (about a week after my last half marathon) the night seemed much longer, so it was not unexpected to run this time in the neighborhood of 8 hours. The big surprises here were the difficulty of the climbing and the lack of hydration. I was very, very tired, but I was mostly able to recover from my hard run over the course of the day at work and at home. There are still plenty of people to cheer on as the day races along, and the sun was just coming up as I started my journey, so it was an eventful end to a beautiful day. For now I'm relaxing and catching my breath, but looking forward to my next running adventure this evening! No comments: Post a Comment In Search of.... We have been running around the DC area since 2000, in Arlington, Fairfax, Montgomery, Howard County, Loudon, Leesburg, Annandale, Lorton, Falls Church, Alexandria, Rosslyn, Ballston, Reston, Arlington, Woodbridge, and Vienna. Lots of fun and good times had with lots of running and seeing some good friends out there.