Sunday, October 28th, 2012

21 miles. Cape Cod Marathon.
Those are two things I never thought I'd see written next to each other.
I went into this in as weird and optimistic a sense of denial as I've ever known, and for a good 5 miles, I felt like I was getting away with it.
I've written way too much about the race in messages and on boards as it is, so I'll just put the nitty gritty here.
Too few long runs, too little real training over the last two months (too much really easy stuff making up my low miles) and a cold to cap it all off.
I couldn't keep things below 5:55 without and effort and I just never had it. Tried to hang for too long with Ben Ndaya even at that pace and by 13, I felt like I usually do at 18. Went through the 1/2 in 1:18+, which should tell me something (and does.)
By 16, I was still thinking I could bull my way through, but by 19, I was in a lot of pain and by 21, I was just plain done. Energy was OK, but the legs simply seized.
I feel like I did at 25 of a bad marathon, much less a decent one.
The team pulled it out and not only did we end up in tie with CMS for the year-end overall Masters title, but when all the time from all the races is added up, we actually ended up winning (well, not in an official sense, but to know it personally helps me feel better) by 3:10 (out of over 30+ hours over 7 races with 5 scoring in each. Man, talk about every second counting.)
Huge props to Somerville for winning the Masters at the race again and also being just the coolest motherfuckers on the planet (well, next to our guys, of course.)
Really, I neither am able to believe nor do I deserve the incredible support and sympathy I received from all these guys, when I didn't even finish and they just ran through a hell of tough day.
Truly amazing.
I'm bummed, to say the least, but I know what I did wrong and I think this lesson needed to be learned in a way that was going to stick, and buy, this sure makes it do that.
On to Boston, where I will not tie the line unprepared.

M- 6.5
T- 0
W- 5
Th- 0
F- 4.5
Sa- 0
Su- 21

week- 37 miles