Congratulations, Ace. That is an AWESOME first marathon. Broke 4 hours! And with two pee breaks, hug, and added distance (rude freakin fire). I looked at your HR performance, and that's it! At some point it gets to be like your running a 5k/10k in the last 5k/10k. Nice negative split. Smartly run race. Hope it doesn't hurt tooo much going up and down stairs today. Recover well. Thanks for the report. --Jimmy

Thanks Jimmy. It's seems crazy, but my legs are not sore at all and I am having no problems on stairs. A little bit in the quads, but maybe only 10% of the soreness I feel after a leg strengthening workout. I heard the 2nd day after a marathon is worse than the first as far as soreness, so we'll see what tomorrow brings. I have a very busy day today (including going to the Reds game tonight for Flying Pig night). I might be travelling the rest of the week and will have lots of time to read (and re-read) everyone's weekend race report. Congratulations to all!

Thanks Jimmy. It's seems crazy, but my legs are not sore at all and I am having no problems on stairs. A little bit in the quads, but maybe only 10% of the soreness I feel after a leg strengthening workout. I heard the 2nd day after a marathon is worse than the first as far as soreness, so we'll see what tomorrow brings. I have a very busy day today (including going to the Reds game tonight for Flying Pig night). I might be travelling the rest of the week and will have lots of time to read (and re-read) everyone's weekend race report. Congratulations to all!

I think the Low-HR training makes your slow-twitchers so massive, that your fast-twitchers aren't being called upon to handle the latter part of the race. I'm making that up, but it sounds really good. I ran a hard 5k on Saturday, and felt a hint of soreness the next day--gone after a 2-mile recovery run. Keep going, Ace. --Jimmy

Mark, Congratulations. Wow! You nailed your 4:30 plan, and beat it by a few minutes (in reality, if the course wasn't long) to boot! You trained well, went in with a plan, stuck with it. Saying you're going to do a 4:30 is one thing, then doing it is another. No slowing. Awesome. I read your blog as well. Great report. Thanks for the inspiration. --Jimmy P.S. Does your tongue actually reach down to your chest (watch out Gene Simmons), or did you take it off, then lick?

Great run, Mark. Wow, some impressive marathons! LOL, Jimmy....I was thinking the same thing. I usually just spit in my hand and rub underneath. (well, assuming I forget to wet it before I go outside) In warm/hot weather I rarely bother since I'm usually all set once I get warmed up a bit.

Great run, Mark. Wow, some impressive marathons! LOL, Jimmy....I was thinking the same thing. I usually just spit in my hand and rub underneath. (well, assuming I forget to wet it before I go outside) In warm/hot weather I rarely bother since I'm usually all set once I get warmed up a bit.

Thanks Doc! I actually tried that first, and it didn't work. Very strange since I was sweating like a "Pig" during the run. Might have been all the salt on the monitor. I did sweat out a lot of salt yesterday.

I think the Low-HR training makes your slow-twitchers so massive, that your fast-twitchers aren't being called upon to handle the latter part of the race. I'm making that up, but it sounds really good. I ran a hard 5k on Saturday, and felt a hint of soreness the next day--gone after a 2-mile recovery run. Keep going, Ace. --Jimmy

I like your theory . There might be some truth to it- maybe I did not use my fast twitchers all that much. Of 7 marathons, Boston a few weeks ago was the first time my wife was not sore after a marathon. We trained in similar ways the past 5 months, but she runs a lot more miles and more runs at higher intensity. We came up with the following for possible reasons for lack of soreness: * decline treadmill - we both did a bunch of this. * training runs on crazy terrain - we both trained on hills much more severe than our target marathon. If someone asked me which was harder- yesterday's marathon or last weekend's super hilly 8-miler, I'd say the 8-miler as I felt completely defeated and rubber-legged after running that course.

First things First :Congrats to Ace, great job on a tough course and defeating that injury. Congrats to Mark (CFkid) on meeting your goal and finding a great running partner. Congrats to Jimmy Nice PR !! Congrats to the Boston runners You guys are fast ! & Gregw on a great time ! and beating Jesse My Race Results finally got posted so I can now write a full report: The Short version : Clock Time : 3:33:38 Chip Time : 1:49:16 at the Half 3:32:49 at the Finish 217/1001 Male finishers 52/174 Age Group 40/44 The Extended Version : I fell asleep Saturday night around 12:30 & woke up a little before the alarm went off at 4:30 .Drank a 16oz bottle of water and tried to take care of business ,if you catch my drift I didn't want a repeat of my last 20 miler where I had to stop several times .This was a non- issue Thank God yesterday. I drove the 45 minutes or so down to Long Branch in the fog and got there around 6:00 am .I pretty much milled about for a while ,checked my bag and rested in the Host hotel hallway until I figured it was near time to line up. You could hardly make out the High Rise hotel through the fog . It was nice and cool 48F I finally saw my niece and my buddy who I tried to call earlier. My niece lined up with the 3:30 pace group and I tried to talk her in to going out with the 3:40 group like me but she said she would rather start faster and slow later. My buddy was running the half and started out with Me. At this point I believe the gun must have miss fired because the announcer yelled go , then said go about twice more before people started to move. The first mile was quite congested and I think the clock read 9:20 something ,so our pacer took off when we were clear to try and regain some of the lost time . I think this hurt my friend as he faded after around 3 miles . He finished his half in just under 2 hrs. after cramping in mile 12. My niece's pacer tried to regain all the lost time in the 2nd mile and ran her group to a just over 7 minute pace causing her to drop from the 3:30 group after only 2 miles. She later said she saw him standing by the side of the road , He may have given up ! Ok ,back to me. Miles 1-4 were just a case of bobbing and weaving and following my pacer. I drank water at nearly every stop which were plentiful . At mile 5 there was a relay transition set up and the crowd support was great there. You ran through almost a chute of spectators. It gave me a chill. Miles 6-11 were uneventful except that you run past some Mansions and President Garfield's tomb. I missed Garfield's tomb on the 1st. loop but saw it later. Oh yeah I ate a GU at mile 7. At mile 11 I went in front of the 3:40 pacer and never saw him again until the finish line. Mile 12 I started running along side a guy named Tom from New Hampshire and finished the first half feeling great except for a blister growing on my left foot that was annoying ,but not painful. we were glad to be clear of the Half Marathon finish as it's a bit depressing knowing you have to run the loop again. I eat another GU at 14 .I'm still running with Tom from NH when I come upon my niece at about mile 16 . She tells me about the pacer and says to go on without her . She says she got her second wind after mile 19 and would finish in 3:45. !! At mile 18 just after the rank odor of the Sewage Treatment Plant I'm joined by my buddy's brother in law. He's run a couple of marathons and says He'll run with me for a while. The next few miles are good but I'm feeling some tightness in my glutes .I notice my Heart rate is still fairly low around 172 I figure let me get this over with as soon as possible. Ate my last GU at 21. Miles 23 - 25 I'm starting to fatigue so I zone out and just run I think I lost Tom around 25. At 25 to the finish you are running down along the boardwalk and people are calling my name off my bib and shouting encouragement ,but it's kind of a blur. I see the clock says 3:33:?? so I give it all I have to get under 3:34 and pull it off. I got the HR up to 183 at the end. In conclusion ,if you are still reading this ,I felt like I ran within myself. I probably could have run a bit faster but I'm not sure if my legs could have put up with it. I had a deep soreness in them yesterday and had considerable trouble with stairs even this morning. I'm fine now though. I'll probably even run easy tomorrow. Thanks to everyone for your well wishes and advice, Greg

Glad to here you let yourself heal. Maybe your new age group has brought some wisdom I'm definitely real freakin' close. If we got to do the first half again in the same conditions (temp, wind), I think I'd have run 3:17 or so with the same effort and will might have got me the other 2 minutes. I ran 1:38:39 on the first half with my normal even-effort heart rate and I remember thinking I was probably in BQ shape on another day/course. I've already been thinking about the Fall of course! Some options * 12 Oct - Steamtown. Can't beat -955', but it can be hot and I might have to asterisk my BQ with the net drop. It's early enough though that I could run it and a backup race in late Nov. * 15 Nov - Richmond. I understand it's supposed to be a pretty fair course. It was really hot a few years ago though and the route is exposed. Avg high 60. Record high 86! * 23 Nov - Philadelphia. Supposed to be a pretty fast course. Couldn't be too hot. Avg high 51. Record for the day is 62. Record low of 21 might suck. * 29 Nov - NCR marathon. Easy course. Last 2 are a bitch, but the first 24 are very easy. Pretty sheltered from sun and wind. Very unlikely to be hot. My only worry is rain/snow. Rain could cause trouble on parts of the course. Very convenient to home. Drive up that morning. * 21 Jan - Carlsbad marathon. We're going to be in San Diego on vacation and I could run this. It looks beautiful. The weather should be good: avg low 46, avg high 61. It's San Diego, so the record high is only 73. The SD weather variance is very low. The course is supposed to be pretty difficult though. I'm thinking of doing either a Steamtown/Nov backup marathon or a Nov marathon/Carlsbad backup. I'm leaning towards Steamtown/NCR. There's also the Jesse method of running them all!

I'm looking at Kiawah (early December) as well. It's silly flat, and it will definitely not be hot. I'd like to run sub 3:08 there with any luck. I'd like to do an ultra or two before then, preferably in the southeast (already have a lot of expensive travel this year).

RR: Frederick Marathon 08 Time: 3:22:24 Place: 52/929 Gender Place: 45/603 Division Place: 8/106 Last week I finally felt fully recovered and fully revived after my pounding at Bull Run Run 50 and my subsquent Clyde's 10k-Boston marathon double. On Saturday I had a nice, peaceful 25 mile ride on the Columbia tri course followed by a 10 mile run and all felt great. I was hyped up for the Frederick Marathon except I was concerned about it getting warm, which I still was not ready for, and the prospect of high winds as experienced last year. At least with a 6:30 am start, there was a potential to beat the heat and the wind. With the new course and new start, the traffic situation was a mess and with my "don't get there too early" philosophy, I was going to be cutting it close. Nonetheless, I got there on time with 15-20 minutes to spare. Alas, getting out of the car, the temperature was perfect for standing around, which means that it's not perfect for running a marathon. I had gotten the word that with the changes of the course, the second half would be pretty hilly and with wind predicted later in the morning, the second half was bound to be tough. While I felt great this week, I wasn't sure if I'd have the same feeling as at the beginning of Boston, with legs not wanting to move fast. I would soon find out. My general philosophy in races where the conditions would deteriorate in the second half is to bank as much as I can at first and tough it out later. That would be the plan for this race without a doubt. I would follow roughly my typical heart rate plan, which involves 140s for the first mile, 150s-160s for the next 2-3, then around 170 for the rest. I hit the first mile in 6:47 at the very comfortable avg heart rate of 147, about typical for my marathons, but most importantly, my legs felt just fine for the sub-7 pace and breathing was doing well. Given that the legs were feeling good, I would go with my usual approach on a good day and hold a sub-7 pace as long as possible, and then sustain a comfortably challenging pace for the rest. In this case, I held it through 11 miles until some of the challenges of the day started creeping in. Somehow before 8 in the morning, I started to feel overly warm and the winds started picking up just a touch. Also, we started a mild uphill climb just after mile 11, preparing for the second half. I hit the halfway point in the 1:32s according to GPS and the marked point on the course around 1:33. I was still feeling quite good, but the temperature was rising and the winds were building, so I had to cut back just slightly, but I stayed right around my target HR of about 170. Only at this point 170 didn't buy me the same thing it had bought me earlier, due to the conditions. Fortunately, I do know that while staying below 170 may slow me down a bit, I will not blow up. Almost continuously from mile 11 to mile 20 is a sustained climb with a couple of short, steep drops, followed again by steep climbs. After mile 17, the hills became nothing short of nasty, slowing me to a 10:30 minute mile putter at times. I was so tempted to walk a couple of times, but I just won't let myself walk in a road marathon. The hills in this race are second only to Lake Tahoe and they are my demise today, so bad that I really couldn't make up for the time lost on the subsequent downs. After mile 20 is a series of a few more steep ups and steep downs, with a sharp down until about mile 23, where I was finally beaten to a pulp. Most of the hills are over by now, but the damage has been done. At this point, I hit an out and back section and as I was approaching the large mile 24 wooden sign, just before the turnaround, the wind blows the huge sign over, right in front of me. Not a good sign as moments later I would be running right into it. No wonder all the runners coming in the other direction looked as they did! The next 2 miles or so would be into about a 20 mph headwind, delivering me one final blow. Please take me to the end! This race would hand me my worst marathon splits I've experienced in four years, with 9 of my miles over 8, and four of them in the 8:40s. How happy was I when I crossed the finish line of this one - glad I have no more marathons scheduled for a while!