Haight's Hangout: December 2007

Well, there we are....the day before the Tuscon Marathon. Willie, Alex, Nicole, Megan, Lora, me and Anu. What a bunch of happy campers!!!

The weather was perfect. About 45º when the race started. Alex, Nicole, Anu and I were doing the 13.1, while Megan, Willie and Lora were BROC by doing the 26.2.

Here we are just before the start. Just a little chilly, but hey, we're in Arizona having left a snowstorm in Chicago the day before. So no complaints.

For me, I'm just happy to be there and 'able' to participate. If any of you have been following my so called 'running journey' (or lack there of) over the last year, you've noticed it was basically nonexistant. I attribute it evenly between laziness, nasty shin splints, actually not being a 'runner' and did I mention laziness?

At any rate, I did conquor on aspect of those elements. Shin splints. After all this time dealing with new different shoes, different insoles, various stretches. I figured, why not start from scratch. Maybe i should go back to how I started back in 2005 where I had absolutely no injuries and was able to my first marathon. i went back to the first brand of shoes i used - Brooks Addictions 7. And presto!!! Shin splints disappeared after TWO runs.

OK, this doesn't mean Big Daddy is ready for Boston, but at least it's a start. So since about October-ish, I've been back at it. OK OK OK.....let's make this relative to me. Longish runs on Saturdays and about 8-12 miles during the weekdays up to the Tuscon Half. This big boy has a long way to go.

Coming down to Arizona I did have a goal of breaking 3 hours. Last March, I finished the Sarasota Half with a very smoooooooooth 3:20ish. But at that time, my goal was just to finish. The only race since then was the Bucktown 5K in September, which was fun but still not a true indicator of what was ahead of me.

If your not familiar with the Tucson Marathon, it starts about 4800ft elevation and ends up around 3000ft. The Half starts around 3900ft. Sure, sounds easy. All downhill. Piece of cake. No problem. Well, think again Cha Cha, if you're not used to this, your quads are gonna feel like they're going to explode if you start off too fast. Luckily, 'fast' is not in my running vocabulary. Along with that, I actually have pretty strong quads like most big fellas (one thing we possess over you skinny runners). So my game plan was this....run/walk at a 'very' easy pace until about the halfway mark. It worked. Yes, I wasn't making any landspeed records, but I was feeling pretty good at about the 7 mile mark. And considering my longest run during this stretch of training was only 9 miles....I was feeling good.

So here is where I drank some nitrous oxide and blew past the people I was going back and forth with for the first half of the race. My only walking was during some slight uphills and ocassional flat areas. But downhill I was cruising. Anyone remember John Candy when he got off course during his army training run and went down the hill in 'Stripes'? OK, there's your visual...ha!

The scenery was fantastic. Mountains were glorious. This was the polar opposite of the Chicago Marathon. 100,000 fans with skyscrapers vs. maybe 100 fans with cactus and schrubery. Awesome. The last couple miles weren't too scenic since we had to finish near civilization, but the finishline was insight and that was the sight that put a smile and this big boy's mug. Under 3 hours - 2:53:25. In my best 'Puddy' impersonation, "High five."