Thanks for all the kind and constructive words about my marathon DNF. Monday morning I woke up feeling like I’d just gone several losing rounds in the octagon. Instead of going for a run, I took my surprised but happy dogs out for a short walk in the morning, then did a brief gym workout in the afternoon including 10 minutes on the rowing machine to get my heart rate up a little. Today I spun the bike trainer easy for an hour in the morning and then walked briskly home from work, about 3.5 miles, trying out my new hiking boots. Tomorrow morning I may try running a little…or not.
Charlie, I did record an official half-marathon split although by that point I’d started taking walking breaks and had given up on finishing, but the easiest way to get back to my car was to follow the race route up to about 16 miles. My splits at 3 and 5.8 miles were 8:55 and 8:57 per mile, which should not have been too fast.
dhaaga, I never bought onto biorhythms but I certainly agree with the general idea that some days you’re just “off”. Your 8 hours of running last weekend sounds grueling, but probably a good idea when training for an ultra!
Allen1959, I bet you can still do way under 25 minutes for 5K at this point, but I hope you just get out there and enjoy running it.
Muddy Girl, I also have this problem with running out of time to do the distance I want to do because I’m now so much slower. I used to run 10 miles easily in 70-75 minutes but now it takes me over 90 minutes if I’m going easy. I have to keep getting up earlier in order to leave for work at the same time…
old guy II, you make an interesting observation about being less consistent as you get older. I used to be an extremely consistent runner, and that was still true into my 50s although I had slowed down a lot. But for the past couple of years it seems I never know which runner will show up to any given race. Frustrating.
Grandpaboy, nearly five hours of moving is one heck of a long workout! Maybe I should try occasionally training beyond the marathon distance. Although my problem seems to be not the last few miles of the race, but getting beyond the first 10.
Mike Lundgren, I’m sorry to hear your back is still giving you trouble. Skipping the 5K was probably wise given the conditions.
RF reader, I agree that my marathon-paced run the week before the marathon was not encouraging. Perhaps I had some leftovers from the sinus infection, although I seemed to be completely over it by the Monday before the race. Perhaps the antibiotic that I had to take to get rid of the sinus infection did me in, as I kept taking it through the Tuesday before the race. Perhaps 71 miles the next-to-last week was too much. I never used to do big tapers but what worked for me in my 30s may not work for me in my 60s. For what it’s worth, my husband thinks I tapered too much and came up flat on race day, but my husband is a bike racer and those guys are nuts.
Coyote, so sorry to hear of your season-ending injury when you were running so great. I have a lot of confidence that you’ll come back strong.
65, that’s a lot of mileage in your comeback!
Mopac, good grief, that’s almost as crazy as those cycling stage races. You are one tough dude.