Capital City Marathon Update and Week Four Training Update

Well, well, well, I'm not sure where to begin. I guess I'll start of saying that the Capital City Marathon was a blast! I had a really great time! I ran my first full marathon in 2007 and the Capital City Marathon was my 7th since then. I had ran the half marathon at the Capital City Marathon in 2002 which is when I first got seriously back into running so it was nice to go back to where it all began.

I'm not sure what made this one such a great experience - it was no one thing just a combination of the weather, being back in Olympia where I lived for 12 years, the people, my training, frame of mind, and the beautiful course.

I had planned on running this one nice and slow as a training long run as part of the training for the Gay Games Marathon in August. I was thinking about 4 hours which is a 9:10 pace. I started out nice and slow and half way through felt pretty good and picked up my pace and completed in a time of 3:48:59. The best part is that I did not trash my legs - I felt really good at the finish line and today I could actually walk up and down the stairs at work my legs feel great and I'm ready to resume my training schedule tomorrow! I think it really helped me to slow down and start out slow - usually I start at about an 8:15 pace and keep that up for 15-16 miles and then tired out and by the end my pace is 10:00 min. miles. Although this was not my best time, it is the first time that I was able to successfully do a negative split and run faster and finish stronger in the second half of the marathon! I think the hill training really has paid off.

Kent took this picture before the start of the race - Just when I think I can pass for straight I see a picture like this and think "not with that pose"!  If you look at the picture a second time and imagine me saying to myself "take the damn picture already" I don't think I look as gay! (not that there is anything wrong with that!) :-)

I met some really incredible people throughout the course - one guy had ran the Spokane Marathon the previous day and was doing back to back marathons, another lady "Grandma Lee" had just completed her goal of running a marathon in every state and was starting on continents. Another guy had ran in the London Marathon over 20 times and was well over 500 marathons in a lifetime. I met another guy who has a blog 26point2medals.com whose goal is to provide quality pics of every medal from every event from every state in the U.S. and eventually the world. At mile 22 I met a lady who wanted to complete the course in under 3:50 and paced with her to help get her their - She called me her angel. That's one of the things I love about running is all the great supportive people you meet.

This is on a rural part of the course at about mile 18 - hard to tell but that's me!  Kent is so great about cheering me along at multiple places along the route. 

The crowd in Olympia was great - much of the course was very rural but there were still those out cheering you on! I saw Kent several places along the route - it's always encouraging to see someone you know along the way! I saw my friend Peggy and gave her a big old sweaty hug at mile 24 - I even sat in one of her chairs for a second so I could tell people I took a little rest stop along the way! Thanks Peggy for coming out! Thanks too to all the emails, phone calls, Facebook comments and blog posts with encouragement - it really helps!

Special thanks to my friend's Nancy and Paul and my two Godchildren, Emily and Will who hosted a lunch gathering after the marathon!  It was great to see you all and I appreciate your thoughtfulness!

One last thing about the marathon - usually you get a commemorative tee shirt and if you are lucky it not cotton but a quick dry tee that you can wear while running - the Capital City Marathon gave us cool light jackets - They're pretty nice and a nice change of pace from another shirt!  Down side - no medals!  They gave a trivet with the logo for the marathon that says "Marathon Finisher".  Nice for a change I guess but different.

Quick week four training update - due to the marathon it was a pretty light week of running.

Sunday - 12.22 long run

Monday - rest

Tuesday - 3.17 easy run

Wednesday - 5.39 easy run

Thursday - 6.01 speed work

Friday - 3.01 easy run

Saturday - rest

I'll return to running tomorrow - although it will be another light week (besides the marathon) and I'll return to the full schedule the following week.

Have a good one and thanks again for checking in - I appreciate it!

Jim