End of the Roads for me!

 My 2016 running adventures had all been geared to my Pursuit of finishing the Eastern States 100 after my 2014 DNF. Mission accomplished and I turned my attention to running a Boston Marathon Qualifying time of 3:40 at the Columbus Marathon on October 16th.  Given my recovery and taper time between the two races I had about 5 weeks to get my body "road" ready. I ran a few good road races, including a 1:13 10 miler & a 1:39 1/2 marathon. I did notice though that my body, specifically my back, was not thrilled with the pavement pounding. It culminated at mile 16 of the marathon when it said "enough" and my marathon went from BQ pace to 10+ minute pace for the last 8 miles.
When I faced timed Mary at mile 18 to tell her my back was not happy, I was actually quite okay with knowing I was done. It was also cool that she was running at Veterans Park in Mentor when we talked.

Love my #1 fan!!

It wasn't just my body that wasn't thrilled with the pavement. Mentally, there is not much of anything I enjoy about training on asphalt and concrete. My mind does not seem at ease when running on the streets, although running some miles in Cleveland wasn't terrible! I told my running buddies that the Columbus Marathon was either going to be my second last, or last road marathon. Dena didn't believe me as I had said the same thing about 100 mile trails runs not too long ago!

 This time is different though. This past weekend I realized a couple things about road marathons. First off I love the whole atmosphere involved in fairly large marathons. It was good to see Joe, Kelly, and Kirsten at packet pick up, and going to dinner in downtown Columbus with some fellow North East Running Club members was a blast. Marathon morning was quite enjoyable and the festival-like atmosphere always gets me pumped! Seeing a few of my NERC friends again and being able to hang with CJ & Larry made the minutes leading up to the start very relaxing. Between the playing of the National Anthem and AC DC's Thunderstruck I get a bit emotional and pumped at the same time!

My epiphany, if you will, came around mile 6 or so. I love all things about road marathons except the actual running on the road part! If it weren't for seeing Lauren out there a couple times cheering us on and hearing Barb give me a shout out my enjoyment level would have been quite low. It's not so much that running a BQ time for me is hard, which it is! I have only accomplished it once out of five serious attempts. It is all of the hoopla and the crowds and the bands playing that make road marathons enjoyable for me. This is the exact opposite of how I feel on the trails. When I run trails almost all of the enjoyment I feel comes from the actual trail running itself! No hoopla necessary!

Good time smiling for the camera around 10 miles in

 My running future will be mostly on the trails, however I do love the buzz at road races and supporting good causes so I will continue to be a part of the road running community! Mostly though, I just see a few 5k's to 1/2 marathon distance as being my yearly norm. 

Next up, 5 months of training for The Georgia Death Race and its 40,000 feet of elevation change starts in two weeks at The Conquer The Castle 100K on the trails of North Chagrin Reservation!