Under Armour Baltimore Marathon - RunMarathon

Well I signed up for this pre-baby thinking that I would have the time and desire to run after the Ironman. Well, turns out I really didn't want to run this summer due to heat, lack of sleep, time etc., so we added up my miles and I had "trained" a total of 25 running miles since July, no quite up to anyone's training plan. Plus I've been swimming with this new group and having a blast, which contributed to the lack of running as well (but 39 swim miles since 7/1).
I knew I could gut thru any marathon, regardless of training, it would just be slow. The flu threw a whole new wrench in the situation and I think I actually re-hydrated during the race. Brad volunteered to spend the day with me "running", which was fantastic. He said the only way he would leave me was if I bitched and complained the whole time, or we saw the van on the horizon behind us sweeping up runners for the cut off. Well neither one happened and we had a fun day seeing Baltimore in a run/walk/shuffle manner. K nicknamed it the "death march of Craig", and I broke out a few times into the Star Wars death march theme song as we ran along. I don't think Brad broke a sweat all day and by the end he was still srewing around, running backwards, jumping off curbs, literally running circles around me etc. We even joked that he was the sherpa, prodding me along, throwing my trash out, forcing me to eat and drink etc. I think the people around us thought we were a little nuts, but when you run a 3:07 marathon like Weds, you have to do something for the extra 2:24 of time to entertain. Obviously a horrible time, but there was no way I was doing this under 5 with the training, motivation, and course. I have a whole new respect for Nate cranking out 4:15-4:45 marathons with little to no training. All in all, we had a ton of fun, it was like two of us hanging out for 5 1/2 hours talking, telling stories, bs'ing, making fun of people etc. It definitely wouldn't have been the same without weds so I owe him a huge Thank You!!!

Train

Walked back to the hotel, showered, got sushi, duck pin bowled, and milkshakes


Training and flu. I think I would have gotten another 3-4 miles of solid running without the flu. Either way I think without the training I would have been walk/run/shuffling by 15 at the latest. My normal marathons knee and hip aches started at mile 10 instead of 16-18. The first 13 just felt like I didn't have any energy.


I think my threshold for non-training runs that are still "reasonable" are 1/2 marathons and under... for future reference to myself.