Most likely my final post for 2011 considering my dedication to this blog these past few months so I’ll recap what I can.
Riding home after spending Christmas up north (Kristin’s driving, I’m letting her). It’s always fun up there with family, but there’s always something missing when I don’t have my boys. They’re with Lindsay this year. Arrived Friday evening, had burgers at the VFW and then proceeded to eat all weekend. Definite post-holiday purge is in order! Sunday was the fun day with gift opening, de-decorating and the annual bonfire. Everyone celebrates Christmas by packing up all the decorations and taking down their tree, right? In years past the bonfire has been more of a New Year’s Eve bonfire, but with Mom and Dad wintering in AZ now they take off shortly after Christmas so they can arrive in AZ as close to Jan. 1st as possible. Can’t blame ‘em for that!

Prior to this I finished up my athletic year with a marathon in Huntsville, AL. Went into it with lofty, but unknown expectations. With all the training I did this past year I definitely wanted to PR (4:07 or faster) and would’ve been disappointed had I not. Beyond that I wasn’t sure what sort of time I would get. I’ve never gone sub-4:00 so despite my good training year I didn’t know how realistic that was for me. My training lately had been in the 8:10/mile range which equates to about a 3:35 marathon, but I didn’t know if I’d be able to sustain that over 26 miles. My next goal level was 3:45ish and then if everything went perfectly and the stars aligned I thought maybe a 3:30ish was doable.
Arrived in AL and got settled at my hotel, hit the small expo and went to dinner. The weather prediction was for a cool start (low 30s) and warming into the upper 40s, but windy. The big dilemma at the start was if it would be warm enough to just run in shorts of if I would have to wear my tights. It was 33 so it got a little nippy, but I figured I was there to “race” it and shorts would provide the best results there. Bared the legs and took off!
I started with the 3:45 pacer and stuck with him for the first mile. The 3:40 pacer started a little further back (Alabama math?) so I latched onto him once he caught up at that first mile. Got warmed up over the next couple of miles and was feeling good. At mile 3 I told myself to just run my race, but remember that I was “racing” so I slowly sped up and separated from that pacer. I was hitting my watch every mile and was consistently in the 8:03-8:09 range. Gradually I started reeling in the 3:35 pacer and caught them at mile 10. Stayed stride for stride with that group, but once we turned into the wind at mile 16 I ended up dropping. I couldn’t sustain it and with no one to draft with/off of I slowly started to fade. I maintained 8:30ish/mile for the next few, but then around mile 19 McBlister made its presence known on the ball of my foot. The final 7 miles became more of a struggle dealing with that, altering my stride, but by then I knew I was going to at a very minimum PR and go sub-4, it was just a matter of how much under I could get.
With about a mile and half left the 3:45 pacer passed me back and I knew I wouldn’t be able to keep up. Damn it, wasn’t going to hit that mark. Settled into a pace I could maintain the rest of the way, as much as my blister allowed, and trudged across the line at 3:49. Pretty happy with the overall time, but not ecstatic. I knew I left a few minutes out there and even with it being a PR knew it wasn’t my “perfect race”. I guess that’s part of what keeps me coming back.
Alabama was state #11 (#14 marathon overall) and a PR at 43 years old. Can’t complain too much and feel blessed that I’m physically able to continue to do this!

So, in recap, all the training this year paid off. Even though the times below didn’t win me any age-group awards, I’m just happy it shows that I can still improve at my advanced age.

May: PR ½ marathon 1:48
June: PR Olympic distance tri 2:33
July: PR ½ Iron distance tri 5:10 and PR the ½ marathon run portion 1:46
September: Finished (and PRed cuz it’s my first) the Ironman 13:32
December: PR full marathon 3:49
Remainder of 2011: recover from a mentally draining training year, as much as physically.

Up next, Nashville in April. Should be a fun with a fun group of people going (11 as of now). I’ll try to post more often and before that though. Happy New Year, Everyone!