5.1 at 9:37's on a beautiful, clear and still day in Dallas, not a cloud in the sky and mid 40's.  It doesn't get any better.  My wife did a 2 hour run in prep for next week's White Rock half-marathon.  We will host a couple of runners from out of town from the old CR days, good internet friends, one of whom we haven't even met yet, but a good guy.

I logged in tonight just to see how Jim did.  Just as with Ks's race, I admire a good runner going out at the pace he hopes to achieve, provided it is realistic.  I admit to being a bit condescending about the "marathon a month" people who run the same time over and over for no reason.  Jim, hope it worked out well.  Spareribs

Jim, sorry to read it was a difficult day after all of that training.  I hope all is well.

Although this one is going to take a while to get over, all the training was cetainly not for naught. I try not to forget that this has been one of the best years I've ever had. I set senior PR's at every distance except...and my 10k, HM, and 30K times were major breakthroughs. I also won three PAUSATF championhips and ran 2^nd in 2 others.

As for yesterday, there are many questions, some of which I'm not sure I know the answer to.

Training and nagging abductor problems in the weeks between Nov 9th 30k and yesterday:

Although I started feeling a lot better around Thanksgiving, it might have been too little, too late. The leg that caused most of the problem last month was a non factor yesterday. However, the one on the other side started to hurt at 14 and began to get out of hand after passing mile 15. I tried to jog a ways, but when I tried to get going again it hurt even more. After walking much of the rest of the mile I could no longer jog wihout it hurting. Finally I flagged down one of the race vehicles which phoned ahead to find out when the "sweep vehicle" would be coming by. The 10 minutes they said turned out to be more than an hour. Fortunately, after 15 minutes of standing in the freezing cold, I was able to take refuge in a restaurant located just behind the aid station.

Had there had been no leg problems it is still questionable whether I would have met my goal. Even before the leg started hurting, I was feeling worse than I had at similar points during my October and early November races. Did I peak too soon? Had I run the marathon rather than the half on one of those days would I have run better? I have to think so, but it is something I'll never know. Until I can actually run a good marathon the doubts will always be there. Several runners I beat or ran within a few seconds very recently at HM and 30k went on to run sub-3 yesterday.

Another point that I'm not that happy to admit is that I really didn't handle the stess well. I slept poorly all week, even though I resorted to taking a benadryl on 3 of those nights. I was so fatigued by Sunday morning that I wasn't even looking forward to it like I almost always am. Lack of sleep a day or 2 before a race has always been a problem for me, but rarely to the extent it was this time. Maybe I put too much pressure on myself by shooting off my mouth so much.

The weather was perfect for marathoning, and the 60-plus winner, Terry McCluskey (60) from Ohio, shattered the course record with a 2:50:40. Second went to Ron Enos (63) with a 2:57:03. Enos had run sub-3 at Boston twice in last 3 years with a win and a 2nd in 60-64 AG. He's 63 now. When you consider that Chuck McDonald ran 2:58 last year while being ranked 2nd in the U.S. it gives you an idea of how good those performances yesterday were.

Hey Jim, sometimes our body's kind enough to let us know we're doing too much during a training run, other times it waits 'til we're right in the middle of a race to sound off. At any rate, you had a great year and are in excellent shape, be proud.

ks, I don't know about Tigger or Fred, (Euph's south of here) but it's cold in NH today. 6 F. when I got up this morning and 16 when I went for a 3 mile Nordic walk this afternoon. My ol' ears reminded me they were still attached about a mile into the walk, they weren't covered and got cold... lol

I'm just burning calories lately, trying to maintain.

You just described exactly what happened to me in Tokyo last February.  I really beat myself up getting ready for that race, and had adductor and piriformis problems in both legs.  The left one was the worst, but it was the right one that gave out on me at around 26 km.  Unluckily I had put my clothes on the bus that took them to the finish, so I had to keep going.  I finished the race by running a minute and walking 5 minutes.  I am pretty much recovered, but I can still feel the adductor on the right side if I push the distance too far. 

Marathons are tough races for anyone, but more so for us oldbies.  The chances of hitting the start line in good shape are much lower, and the chances of finishing the race are even lower.  Don't feel too badly about it.  You can always do it next year.

Today was just a 10 min warmup followed by a 35 min run on the TM and a 10 min cooldown.  I may go back tonight for a short run. 

It's snowing very hard here right now.   We are expecting 12 to 18 inches today.  More tomorrow and Thursday, then 3 or 4 nice days.  I didn't go back to the gym last night as legs felt tired.  This morning they were just sore, so I managed 40 min after a good warmup.  I also bought Sweetums and I some snowshoes from Mountain Equipment in Vancouver.  I have not used SS since I was a young lad, so it will be an interesting afternoon when they arrive!

Jim, don't beat yourself up over the only off performance of the year -- you certainly had one heck of a year in spite of it! But then who am I to be giving advice to one of the true "masters" among us?

Let's see... Since my last post I've been out on my winter 6-mile loop once or twice again, and am running stronger all the time. Almost back to where I was a year ago before the injury, but not quite. But the camaraderie is good, and I've generally been faster than the guys I'm running with. The club etiquette is to run your own pace and don't feel obligated to hold back, so I usually finish the last mile or two alone at a quicker pace.

Today, though, it was 5 on the treadmill. A couple of inches of slush on the ground with a steady, hard, cold rain all day.

I thoroughly enjoy your posts Spareribs, it's great to see you doing so well.

Yesterday was registration day for the half marathon I run in Vermont in June.  The race is limited to 2300 runners and fills up fast, you have to be at your computer at 9 am when registration opens, or risk being left out.  Anyway, I was a couple minutes late to register and for an hour kept getting the message the server was experiencing higher than normal traffic and to check back in a few minutes.  Finally at 10 am, I got in and was typing as fast as I could, figuring time was running out quick.  Sure enough, the race filled up at precisely 10 am, so I was VERY close to missing out.  This is one of my favorite races, so it was nice to get a break.

Tuesday,

Our weather warmed into the 40's today so I got on the highway and took advantage.  5 miles easy, pushed a 1/2 mile 3.5 miles into the run.  My fast is still slow, but it felt good to run at a quicker pace for a change.