My buddy Molly: Her Marathon experiences and Mine

Ok, I said I would write at least one more blog before I head off for Boston, so this isn’t my last one that I said but tomorrow’s blog will be great. I’ve been working on it for the last few weeks and having it corrected and looked over by my mom and a friend to see if it’s good to go and I’ll post it tomorrow, promise. Trust me you have to read it. It gives a sense of who I am and what I’ve been through over the years I’ll keep continuing to try to be not only as a runner but as a person here on earth.

I’ve been looking at my friend and teammate from Muskingum, Molly’s wordpress the last few days describing her marathon experiences. Here’s the link http://mollyberrieshodgepodge.wordpress.com/ in her post she has taken her readers on her journey to make it to Boston which included 7 marathons just to qualify. She came close a couple times or just been hurt during which she failed the first 6 times. However, she qualified last year at Cleveland with a 3:37:04 the same race that I ran 2:34:53 and got 4th overall. She was very thrilled. This especially to her family, since her dad died of cancer 6 years ago. However, despite that she has been very active in raising funds and spreading awareness for cancer research. I respect her for how much strength. She even got her story in the Boston Globe.
http://www.boston.com/sports/marathon/articles/2011/04/14/going_the_extra_mile_in_the_boston_marathon/

Even, though we different a lot in music tastes and politics I can still call her my friend. Her, myself, and Paul Bendict, another teammate of ours from Muskingum will be on the line this Monday in Boston. Muskies running in Boston, how cool is that?
Her post on her marathon experiences got me to show you a little bit of mine. Now, I’m not going to go into full detail on each one of them, but just enough a little in this post of my marathon experiences.
The first one was the 2005 Columbus Marathon. After a successful run at Muskingum while job hunting, staying at home, working an internship in Columbus over 4 months in the summer I kind of wanted to try to do a Marathon just to see if I could do it. I looked for places all over the city to run, metro parks included. I ran road races to keep in competitive shape, and did long runs. I didn’t bumped into or got in any running groups and unfortunately I didn’t know about the Columbus Running Company since they were only a year old. After the internship with DSCC (Defense Supply Center Columbus) was over in early October I got ready for the Columbus Marathon. I ran thinking I can go under 6:00 per mile. My first 10 miles was pretty fast in 56:56. My half split was 1:15:45. I guess I got caught up in the moment the first time out. I was slowing down and ran my 20 mile at 2:03:18 and I stop once or twice before going on. I finished it though in 2:47:13. I easily qualified for Boston my first time out since the standard was still 3:10 at the time but it was a humbling experience.

In 06, I was in Dayton mostly working at DFAS there until I was able to transfer back to Columbus in November. I still trained throughout the summer and fall for Columbus again in October. Racing all over the state in the RUN OHIO Grand Prix races to earn points to place high while training again for Columbus. I still did a lot of training and long runs by myself. At the race I felt a little more relaxed knowing what I was up against from last year. I still ran the first half at 1:15:52 still feeling pretty good and was at 20 miles in 1:57:01 still on pace to run what I wanted but again the last 5 miles seemed like hell!! I ran the last 10k in 43:30 to finish in 2:40:31 for 11th place. Better time, almost 7 minutes, but I still felt I and know I could go under 6 minute pace per mile.
After I moved to Columbus, I began to run with a buddy of mine Matthew Whitis. We both were on the defunct Team Good River, before going to Columbus Running Company. However the summer of 07 we both were training for 2 different things. He was road racing all over the country while I trained again for another marathon. I wanted to go to Chicago for something different but backed out due to work being crazy due to getting Dayton’s old work, and system conversions. Training became brutal that summer and fall. I was getting a lot of training in and along with work and mandatory overtime at times it became very stressful. So I settled for Columbus again. Thank God I didn’t run Chicago since it was 80 degrees on that day there in 07. Living in C-bus made it easy to get up and go to the starting line. I started out like I did the previous C-bus marathons running the times I want. It was a little more difficult due to it not being completive with no prize money that year, next year that changed. I was in 4th but my left knee began to sore up. I tried to toughen up but it affected my right hamstring. It got to be too much and I dropped out before mile 23 and had to be driven back to my folks. It happens, the stress at work really played a part but I didn’t let it get me down.
Last year, I tried the Marathon again up in Cleveland. After racing successfully for the last couple of years in a CRC jersey I decided to go up to Cleveland since it was close and I knew the area up there. Fast first 2 miles in 11:15 but I calmed down to run my first 10k in 35:09 which was 5:40 per mile. First half was at 1:15:29 around 5:45 and 5:46 per mile and went from 6th to 5th. 30k was at 1:48:22 between 5:49 and 5:50 per mile. I recall my 20 miler was at 1:56:41 which was still 5:50 pace. I passed someone for 4th place at mile 21 and tried to put some distance the last 5 miles going back into downtown Cleveland. I finished with a 2:34:53 which was my new PR. Pretty sweet which led me till right now.

Just reading my friend Molly’s blog site and her marathon experiences and how she is going to be there was pretty cool and I thought I would give you a little bit of mine. Now, tomorrow I promise to speak from my heart of my past experiences which has made me the person I am today. You can judge tomorrow’s post for yourself, but it makes me happy about running Boston this Monday, so stay tuned!!! :)