The New River Marathon in Fleetwood, NC was a beautiful place...if you wanted to look at the spectacular scenery.  If you wanted to run a fast marathon...not so much.

Actually, I shouldn't say you can't run a fast marathon at New River because there were some pretty fast times run there on Saturday.  I just wasn't prepared.  What's one of the rules of training for any race?  Train for the conditions you're going to face.  I made no effort to throw in any hill training during my training for this race.  Part of that was, though, because I had just done Delaware at the end of April and I didn't want to go doing a bunch of hill workouts and hurt myself.  So, instead, I suffered.

The race starts with a gentle up hill for a half a mile, then goes to an extreme downhill for over a mile.  I wasn't sure how to run it.  How do you run slowly down a hill?  My first 2 miles were 6:35 and 6:33!  It leveled out after that but I think the damage had already been done.  By mile 8 my legs were toast but I found myself in 8th place overall.  They were giving awards to the top 5 men and women and 10 year age groups.  I knew 5th place was out of my reach but I still wanted to hold onto 8th and, since I didn't think there were any old guys ahead of me, I was determined to, at least win my age group.

So--I'm not sure if I have ever shared with you all my plan for when I finish my 50 states.  So far, there are 5 states that I haven't gone under 3:30.  When I have completed the 50, I want to go back and get those states under that time.  Around 20 miles, I was wondering if North Carolina was going to be added to the list.  I tried picking it up but my legs just wouldn't respond.

With 3 miles to go, a runner past me up who looked like he had just entered the race.  I didn't care.  With a mile and half to go, another guy past me--he was struggling, too--but I couldn't stay with him, either.  I didn't really care about my place at that point, anyway, I just wanted to be done and to be done in under 3:30 so I would never have to come back to this stupid state again!

Well, I managed to get to the line in 3:24:05.  Not close to the time I was hoping for but, probably, better than the time I deserved.  I convinced myself that I had still accomplished quite a feat by winning my age group...only to find out, later that, the only reason I received the 1st place age group award, was because a 53 year old had placed in the top 5.  He ran a 2:56!  He would have beaten me on a flat course!  So, for me, it takes something away from the award because I know I wasn't 1st in my age group.  I know--poor little Mikey--boo hoo.

Anyway--that's about it.  I suppose I could tell you about the party that was going on outside my door that kept me awake until I finally called the front desk at 1:00 am...but I don't I want anybody to think I am trying to use that as an excuse...because, I really don't think it had anything to do with it.  It was just poor training...but, still very annoying.

Okay--I'm done, now.  I'll follow the Hanson's plan and take a couple of weeks off then get back to training for the Harrisburg Marathon in PA on 11-11.  I'll be running that in honor of my friend, who passed away last year and is from that area.  If anybody has any suggestions on how I can do that a little more publicly, I would appreciate hearing them.  He was pretty well known in his community.

Okay--really--I'm done, now!  Thanks for listening.