Monumental Effort

Good morning to you!  It's going to be a great day in Indianapolis.  It's been rainy and cool for the past week and today it's going to be 70s and sunny.  Myles and I will definitely go on a father/son adventure later on.  It won't be the same without the centerpiece of our family, Sarah, but she returns this month from Atlanta!  Yeah!  Both of us just aren't quite right without our constant (i.e. LOST reference).. 
Training for the Monumental Marathon on November 5 continues to go well.  Hard to believe it's only one month away.  It seems like yesterday I made the decision to run it.  Actually, I made the decision on March 3.  I've run 1250 miles since making that decision and now have run 1532.3 for the year.  This week, I ran 61.2 miles.

Yesterday I embarked on a very challenging morning.  My goal was to run 20 miles total.  I picked out the Running South Race in Southport (about 5 miles from downtown Indianapolis) and made it the focal point of my 20 miles because I could run the 5K at 8:15a and then the 10K at 9a.  I love races where you can double up.  So...the plan was to run 7 miles before the 5K, run the 5K, run 2 miles between the 5K and 10K, run the 10K, and then run two miles to get to 20.  Sound crazy?  Well, the plan worked to perfection and I could not have had a better day.  I ran a 7 mile warm up and then hit the line for the 5K.  There were about 100 people running and as the gun went off there were four of us at the front.  About a mile in I was in 4th place, but the guys in 2nd and 3rd were fading.  I passed them between 1.5 and 2 miles and then did not look back.  I ran a 17:30 (5:39/mile) and finished 2nd.  Then...I ran two miles very quickly and went to the line for the 10K.  Again, there were about 100 people set to run the 10K.  I talked to a couple guys and I was sure that I would have a shot to run very well.  However, at this point I had already run 12 miles.  The gun went off and we all started running and it was just me and another guy leading the pack.  The guy in front of me was clearly faster and I was way in front of the 3rd place guy.  It became very clear that I was on my own for most of the race.  At first, I was disappointed because I wanted to have someone around me to push me.  But...then I remember the purpose of yesterday--teach my legs to run marathon pace when I was tired.  So...I garnered up all the mental concentration I could muster and I just gutted it out.  I finished the 10K in 36:48 (5:56 pace).  All in all, it was a great day.  I ran 9.3 miles of the 20.5 miles ahead of marathon pace (6 minutes), I placed well, and my legs felt strong.  But...it just gets better.  To my surprise, the 2nd place finisher in each race was awarded a $75 gift certificate to Bluemile, my favorite running store.  So...I won $150 in Bluemile gift certificates.  Yes!  It's not very often that I win anything at a race, so this was just awesome. 

This week running once again taught me that when you set a goal, have the discipline to do the work to reach the goal, and do that each day, then the results will come.  I try to carry this principle into my daily life and that tends to work for me.  And...I'm not pretending that I'm some sort of elite athlete because I'm not--my times are not even close to the top folks in running.  But...running is about getting the best out of yourself and I'm very excited about what I can get out of myself next month in the Monumental Marathon.  Have a great day and happy running to you...