There's something about going out for a jog on a clear, cold, Minnesota night that makes you really feel like you're training. Like you could just blast by anybody in a footrace. It's a feeling of invincibility and I loved that feeling last night. I hope it's there on the Vegas Strip on Sunday evening.
Another week down in the cycle. 6 weeks from Saturday...day of destiny - do or die.
I had a lovely time this past Wed, Thurs, and Fri in Manchester, CT. I once again was fortunate enough to have the Kilpatrick family as my hosts for the Manchester Road Race. This was Thanksgiving number 2 with them and it was a nice celebration. I was sad to not be with Julie, though. We made the jaunt to Dubuque County Friday, straight from the airport. That was a long travel day.
The race experience this time around in Manchester was different than the last here as I was extremely pleased with my race overall rather than dejected. I remember running about 50 seconds slower back in either '07 or '09 and getting beat by some fat guy wearing a letsrun.com singlet who I had never heard of. 2009 at Manchester was just demoralizing all around.
The 2011 version was different. I was competitive the entire way and felt like my old self out on the road which has not happened too many times out recently. I wished I had dug a little deeper the last 300 or so, but alas the legs were truly marathon legs at that point in the race. I've put in 120-130 mile weeks the previous month so I made myself let the buzz happen after finishing 4th here and running 4:34 per mile for 4.748 miles. 21:42 on that course is very solid and in previous years would have pushed for the win. Major, major props to Father Olinger who ran one of the fastest times on the course in its 75 year history. And to the young Landon Peacock: you have many great years ahead of you. Stay the course...you have one of the best coaches out there in Peter Rea. AC ran tough as always, and earned the 3rd spot. Deservedly so.
Today was 4 x a deuce over on a different Edgecumbe course in St. Paul. I think I went something like 9:37, 9:35, 9:30, 9:21. This was a bit of a struggle as I ran 24 miles on Saturday and the legs felt it. I felt fantastic on that Saturday run though out in the rain on the Heritage Trail in Dubuque County, just dreaming and hoping out there on the crushed limestone. Thank God I put band-aids on the nipples that day - 0 chafage.
And so we will have one more test this coming Saturday evening with the Rock and Roll Half Marathon in Vegas. The cool thing is the course is entirely on the Strip. There are some gents in the race who I would love to beat and I will dig as deep as I have to. It's a red-eye outta there on Sunday at 1am and then time to put the hard hat on and grab the lunch pail.
Just a little something to get the morning started off the way it should...
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