I hadn’t realized its been almost a month since I posted in my blog, just goes to show you that blogging isn’t my priority right now. Lots has happened since the last update, I finished the Outer Banks marathon and have started my winter conditioning program which you can read about at my other site, so I won’t bore the marathon runners who come here with the details.

The Outer Banks marathon was fabulous, seriously. I had never been to the Outer Banks before, so the whole trip was a new adventure for me and my family. I guess I forgot back in May when I booked the hotel that I got an ocean-front room, and wow was it ocean-front. With the weather the way it was last weekend, the surf was high, which meant it was close to the sand dunes which then meant it was close to the hotel. After I got over the view, it was time to prep..

We arrived on Friday, spent Saturday taking in the sights and everything that OBX has to offer. I went to bed about normal time after having a good luck Subway turkey and cheese hoagie and some ice cream (my favorite). I didn’t sleep too great as my back was bothering me the whole weekend and I was quite concerned for how it would effect me in the race, thankfully it didn’t.

I had made the decision to drive to the start in Manteo and catch a shuttle to the start instead of the other way around. I needed to get on the road to get home as soon as I could after the race and didn’t want to get held up with shuttles (which i’m glad I did, it was quite crowded for the shuttles). The only issue was that I had NO clue where to park or where I was going, I failed to check it out the day before (my bad). Anyway, after finding a place on a side street to park and actually jogging to the shuttle, I made the long ride to the start line. I unfortunately broke one of the pins on my Garmin trainer when rushing, which meant it was just flapping around on my wrist on the bus, I wasn’t sure what i was going to do because I didn’t think I could run like that

The weather at the start was kind of chilly, but manageable. My back was still sore, it was so bad I couldn’t even sit down on a sidewalk without it aching, I thought it was going to be a tough day. The information desk was nice enough to let me doctor up my Garmin with medical tape and scotch tape to keep it together for the race. It wasn’t pretty, but it worked.

I decided to pull off my sweatshirt right at the start and go out with just my short sleeve shirt on. As expected it was cool to start, but I warmed up quick..

Start to Mile 13

I headed out at a pretty easy pace (around 9:20/mile) just to ensure my back was going to hold up. About 2 miles in it finally loosened up and it didn’t bother me again (of course until after the race).. The scenery was cool as we ran along the bay area looking at the huge houses and the water. There were quite a bit of residential areas that I didn’t even realize were there. The crowd support was surprisingly good, there were lots of people out cheering us on. My ipod decided to die around mile 4, just had a malfunction from what i determined, so I had to finish the race with no music (which really wasn’t a problem), but I wasn’t expecting it.

About mile 5 I got the pace down to about a 9:05/mile because it felt like where I should be. There were not too many hills up until this point and not too many expected down the road .. or so I thought. We looped around a few times and headed through the Wright Brothers national park and saw the monument at the top of the hill. I had already seen it the day before, but running past it was pretty cool. As we exited the park, somebody had the bright idea of putting mulch down as a gateway from the park to the road, NOT GOOD! i would have rather ran on the grass because it was so deep that I could barely run on it. It was only a small 20 yard section, but it was enough to throw me off pace.

As we went into more residential areas and turned into mile 10, we headed out on a dead-end road which ultimately took us up a hill and into the woods. I remember somebody posting that there were some trail portions to this race, and they were right. The trail portion was a sand trail (which I never ran on before) with rolling hills .. some of them being tough. It was towards the end of the trail portion at mile 12 where we hit the biggest hill, and wow, did it suck. I slowed my pace as to not beat up my legs since I still had a lot of miles to go, and I survived.

Thankfully as we headed to the halfway point, we came off the trail and went back on to the road. The only good thing about the trail is that we were out of the sun for about 35 minutes, so I wasn’t dying of the heat (because the sun was hot).

Mile 13 to Mile 20

This portion of the race was pretty uneventful as we headed down the main road through the Outer Banks, it was flat and straight. We did loop off on some side roads and did some more smaller developments, but ultimately at mile 20, we got back to the main road and I knew that the turn in the road to head to the bridge was coming up. By mile 20 I was starting to feel winded, but still felt strong and able to keep going.

Mile 21 to Finish

As we made the turn at around mile 21, I knew we were on the final stretch. I remember from the shuttle ride earlier in the day that I had a ways to go until the bridge. There was a smaller bridge, then the larger bridge, then some straight running until we make a turn. After the turn its a mile and half down the road… but getting there was the challenge.

I think i’ve written several times about how running flat and straight courses can be more difficult than running winding courses, this was a great example of that. It was just straight from here and as i got to the first bridge, I could see the steep incline of the second bridge about a mile up the road. This was not what i wanted to see as I was starting to get worn out, but I pushed ahead. My goal was to RUN the bridge and not stop because it was only mile 23. If i let it defeat me and walk it, i’d never get my pace back..

The next thing I knew, I was heading up the big bridge … my head was down, pace slowed but consistent and i was determined to keep going. Just about everyone else was walking up the hill except for a few troopers like me .. It was amazing the people who cheered me on as I ran up that hill, even people in cars were cheering my pace as i went up the hill. It was great.

Eventually I got to the top and it was downhill from here, but I was careful not to go too fast so i didn’t beat up my quads. I managed my pace down the hill and healed the best I could as I headed back into flat and straight course waiting for that last turn. Soon enough, I saw the turn and knew I was almost there.

My Garmin was still hanging on with the tape I put on it .. my pace was still at around 9:25/mile at this point.. surprisingly but it started to drop a bit by now. I was just happy that i was still moving at a decent pace at this point in the race.

As I headed down the final stretch, I actually felt myself getting a fourth wind.. I had made a mental note of a Pizza Hut on this stretch of road knowing it was basically at the finish, and next thing I knew, I was there. We had one more turn to make before I could see the finish but sure enough, there it was. I had run the last half mile or so with a woman who speeded up at the same time I did when we saw the finish. I let her finish before me, but we both finished really strong, with smiles on our faces and at an elevated pace.

I did it. 4:06. No complaints from me .. and a great way to wrap up the season.

I was disappointed by the finish line food though, just bananas and bagels (and lots of beer) .. thankfully I bring my own.

So thats 2011, probably some of the best running i’ve done in years. I didn’t PR this year, but didn’t need to. I did 6 marathons this year, quite a feat.

I’ve decided that I will run marathons again, but maybe one in the spring followed by my first triathlon and then a second in the fall after a late summer triathlon. I intend to still try to accomplish running a marathon in all 50 states, but I don’t want to kill myself doing it. I really think doing that many marathons in one year is just too much on my body and my life, so its time to make a change.

Thats it for now …