Making Some Progress

While I have professionally enjoyed the challenges of the year-long assignment in California that I'm three weeks away from wrapping up, it - as well as some other issues in my life - have really sapped my motivation to run and workout regularly.

1/ 7/12 - Mississippi Blues Marathon (Jackson, MS) - 5:38:12
1/15/12 - Chevron Houston Marathon (Houston, TX) - 5:42:37

When I finished my seventh Houston Marathon, I was physically broken down. I swore off marathons, but with two weeks until the gun went off in Huntsville State Park I figured that it wouldn't have been wise to waste a $100 entry fee.

2/ 2/12 - Rocky Raccoon 100 (Huntsville, TX) - 52-54 miles; DNF

I made a pretty good effort at #RR100, especially given that I didn't run a step between January 15 and February 2. I could have gotten to 80 and missed the 24-hour cutoff, but that really wouldn't have proven anything. It was best to save it for another day.

4/21/12 - Garmin Marathon in the Land of Oz (Olathe, KS) - 5:54:49
4/28/12 - Kentucky Derby Festival Marathon (Louisville, KY) - DNF

I thought that I could just turn it on like I have in the past and put down a back-to-back and get to state no. 27. Well, no. 26 happened, and technically it was better than starting from scratch last summer when I went plus-6 in Kona, but it wasn't really satisfying.

Greenville, South Carolina last October and getting back under 5 hours? THAT was satisfying.

In Louisville, I was emotionally beat down (personal and family), hit the marathon/half marathon split at mile 9 and decide to walk it to mile 12.5 and straight to the car -- and subsequently, the hotel.

5/12/12 - El Chupacabra de Houston 10K (New Caney, TX) - 1:16:58

I needed to make another effort to overcome some personal hurdles and this was a start. I knew that a couple of friends were going to be there so I went just to socialize with them because I knew that they would provide a pick-me-up. It worked a little bit.

The trail wasn't that challenging, but I wasn't there yet. Certainly trail races are going to be a little bit slower, but I didn't expect it to be THAT much.

5/26/12 - Astros Race for the Pennant 5K (Houston, TX) - 38:50.3 (with Waverly)

Waverly and I had signed up for this a couple of weeks before and it was just for the two of us to do something. I had started to come out of this "personal fog" that I had been in, but most importantly I just enjoyed running - and spending time - with my daughter.

5/28/12 - Patriot Half Marathon (Rockwall, TX) - 2:35:23

Heat. Hills. Well, rollers. And a little bit of a long drive on short sleep. I figure that all of those will pay off in some way down the road a little bit. Long way from a cool weather 2:08:45 PR, but it is a benchmark for improvement throughout 2012.

6/ 2/12 - Heights 5K (Houston, TX) - 32:31.7 (10:29/M)

Boy o boy, this was a wakeup call. It has been a long, long time since I've seen a 32-minute 5K, but that was the impetus this past week to start to push a little bit -- and knowing that I was also going to be doing a duathlon on Sunday.

6/ 9/12 - Funfest By The Bay 10K (Texas City, TX) - 1:03:55.6 (10:19/M)

My 10K PR is 58-and low change. Long, long time ago. As you can see, I'm more focused on working on events instead of working on my running as well as I do the former. But it isn't life and death. When I pass away, there isn't going to be anybody that is going to remember how many marathons that I finished or what my times were. Of course, they're going to remember who I was as a person.

Actually, for where I'm at right now (and for running 45 minutes Friday morning in California and another 50 minutes last evening here in town), this was actually pretty good. Notice the 10-second per mile improvement over double the distance. Plus, from the one marked turnaround, I passed four more runners than those who passed me.

So, we'll see where things will go from here. In the meantime, I'm just going to try to have some fun - and as one runner said today, "Work on getting their mojo back".

And, here's the tentative marathon schedule for the fall:

9/1/12 - Marquette (Michigan) Marathon
9/23/12 - Jackson Hole (Wyoming) Marathon
10/7/12 - Towpath (Ohio) Marathon
10/28/12 - Cape Cod (Massachusetts) Marathon
11/17/12 - Mesquite (Nevada) Marathon
12/8/12 - Rehoboth Beach (Delaware) Marathon
1/13/13 - Chevron Houston Marathon

Thanks for reading.