Wednesday, October 10, 2007

DIFFERENT BREED

Thanks to Dale for sending me this “When Marathons go Wrong” article. The more I read about Chicago, the more impressed I am with Kim’s performance. One of my Saturday training partners, she ran 3:06. Unfortunately, the results are pretty messed up and she has no idea what place she finished in her age-group.

Thinking about all the people that ran hot marathons over the weekend makes me think that these runners must be a different breed than me. Frankly, I'm concerned about racing and running a fast time. Simply running through miserable conditions (where there's no hope of a fast time) to "push my limits" isn't worth it for me. Seeing that a local 2:40 marathoner ran the second half in 2:46 just scares me. “Running” the last 10K in 97 minutes has no appeal to me whatsoever. I’ll take a DNF or DNS over that any day.

I had another nice run this morning, 10 miles on the trails. The 43 breezy degrees called for pants, gloves and a hat. I guess global warming has ended.

With running going much better, I was thinking about jumping in the Monster Dash Half Marathon on the 27th. I actually didn’t even know they had a half marathon until yesterday. I thought it was just a 5K. I was “this close” to registering last night. They almost had me with their cool shirt of a skeleton running and their cute photo of Angie and Erin dressed up as salt and pepper.

You almost had me Monster Dash. However, seeing the $55 entry fee turned me off. Yes, the Garry Bjorklund Half Marathon and the TC 10-miler can charge that much due to their popularity and the popularity surrounding their parent events, Grandma’s and TCM, respectively. However, for me, $55 for a low-key half marathon is way too much. Maybe I’ll run the local trail half marathon next weekend instead. It’s only $25 and includes hot soup afterwards, along with a chance to win door prizes.

Quote of the day;

“I don't think anybody was prepared for what happened. I don't blame anybody — I was mad I didn't get to finish, but I think it was maybe the best decision, given everything I was hearing. I don't know what else they could have done other than maybe call if off before it started.” – Brian Hayes, who first noticed something was wrong when he was “too late” for water at mile number four

3 comments:

  1. Chad: You should check out the Grey Ghost 5k in Anoka. It's run on a flat, fast, certified course.
    The gun goes off ten minutes before the Halloween parade so the streets are lined three deep with people. The cost is fifteen bucks, you get a long sleeve shirt and I think a beer ticket to Billy's for after the race. 19:00 was like 37th place last year

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  2. it was kind of hard NOT to run once there (flight, hotel, etc) but i can't say i was looking forward to it.

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  3. Bill, I've heard good things about Grey Ghost, but don't really have any desire to do a 5K right now.

    Brent, yeah if it were my first or second marathon, I'd probably feel differently. Nice job finishing.

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