Running With Pepper

6 Miles with pepper in the rain after work at night. Stuck to the sidewalks since he's afraid of storm drains. Uber-busy week at work with end of the week slowly approaching.

(Asics Kayano 14 - 12.04 miles)

5 miles with pepper after work. Still busy...tired but no workie on Friday or this weekend like the last. Sweet!

(Brooks Infinitis - 381.37 miles)

Day off today to re-coup time lost last weekend and this week. Went out to the C&O Canal Trail at Great Falls and ran west. Plan was to get water along the way at the various water stations I saw on the website, but none were up and running. Needless to say, I got out 6 miles and realized that I really needed water. Unfortunately, at the same time, I noticed a nice hot spot on my left big toe. Not good...not good at all. At least the weather was nice. Stumbled my way back to the starting point and finished my 12 miles in about 1:35. Plan was to go 23 miles today, but with the massive blister I have on my toe and my lack of water, I was completely and utterly de-motivated. Picked up some anti-friction stuff at the running store on the way home. My guess is that I'll try it again on Sunday and shoot for 24 miles on routes I know. Dang...why did I try to be adventurous? Oh well, at least I got 12 miles in and felt really good while doing it. Blogging has been difficult at best this week due to work craziness. The cool thing was that I got to work at the White House and met some pretty high powered folks there. Unfortunately, the President decided against joining our work because he was dealing with the current financial crisis. Oh well...maybe next time? Still no word on Colorado. I'm now looking for a new job down in this area as I'm getting disgusted with the one I have. I do want to do the same type of work, but maybe with a non-profit. Oddly enough, they pay well in my line of work. Marathon in 23 days...should be fun. For some reason, I always seem to ramp it up at the last minute! :) Can you say, procrastinator?

(Asics Kayano 14 - 24.04 miles)

Out and about with Pepper for 2 miles than myself for another 3. Forgot to wear the watch but didn't really care. Felt good during the run and the blisters still a little sore. Wore my old shoes so I didn't kill myself too much.

(Brooks Infinitis 386.37 miles)

Easing back into my new shoes with Pepper at my side. Ran 4 miles with him around the neighborhood across the street in 35 minutes. Took plenty of pauses so Pepper could mark everything as his terrority. Felt good in the new shoes and the blisters are pretty much healed. Going to ramp up more tomorrow.

(Asics Kayano 14 - 28.04 miles)

Four miles with Pepper after I got home from the gym. Man, that doggie sure thinks everything belongs to him! Did shoulders and legs at the gym. Legs are now tired and should be sore tomorrow. My new commute is fantastic....7 minutes to work today; I even get to sleep in until 6am now.

(Brooks Infinitis 390.37 miles)

Had planned to do 22 miles today but only got to 9.5. Yeah...it's like that. I've developed some type of nasty head cold that means that I can only breath through my mouth, which has ultimately given me a sore throat and some serious drainage. Add that to the fact that once again I got some serious blisters at about mile 8 (even using bodyglide), something I never had a problem with in the past with other shoes, and I couldn't finish my run. Talk about frustrated.  I now have BIG blisters on both my feet. My plan is to still run the marathon in 2 weeks but it'll probably tougher than I wanted. I'm going to take these shoes back to the store and exchange them for some good old Brooks Infinitis since I know they are great shoes and my feet like them. The good news is that my legs aren't even sore today and I could have continue my run if I could have breathed and didn't have my blisters. Ugh.....

(Asics Kayano 14 - 37.04 miles)

Easy 3 miles with Pepper to try and tire him out before the Phillies game. It worked for once. He came in, finished his dinner, then went directly to bed (sprawled across the pillows). Went to the doctors today and found out what I figured in the first place, I have ANOTHER sinus infection. I somehow think that the first one never really went away since it was only a few weeks ago. Got some meds and some new stuff to help heal the sinuses and am totally wiped out because of them. Finally, took my Asic Kayano 14's back to the store and exchanged them for some Broooks Infinitis, which I should receive in the mail in a few days. I never should have strayed from the Brooks. I've got 1 1/2 weeks to break in the shoes before the marathon. Oh, and I'm heading up to beautiful State College, PA for the PSU/Michigan football game this weekend. I love the drive up there during this time of year because the foliage is absolutely gorgeous. Let's go Lions!

Finally got my new shoes in the mail, just in time for the Marathon on Sunday. Plan is to put about 20 miles on them from running and then another few from walking. Out on a nice 4 mile run where for the first 3 miles I pushed it to 7 minute miles and then backed off to an 8 minute on mile 4. Total runtime was 29 minutes. Afterwards, took Pepper for a nice 1.5 miles of walking/trotting which was interrupted by multiple pee breaks and one longer break where he did other business. New shoes felt fantastic, just as I expected. I should have never moved away from Brooks. Legs were killing me today since I helped a friend sod at 3500 sq foot yard on Friday. Wow....talk about some muscles you don't use all that much.

(Brooks Infinitis - 5.5 miles) 

Ran 5 miles tonight around the neighborhood across the street. Total run time was 40:16 for an average of 8:03 miles. Exactly the pace I wanted to run. Weather is beautiful as it was in the upper 40s for once. I absolutely love the fall weather out here since it's much cooler and humidity is pretty much non-existent. One more run this week which will probably be a short one, probably on Friday, then I'm taking off Saturday. Carb load begins tomorrow for the ract on Sunday...mmmmmm....pasta. :-) Legs are still a little sore from the mad sodding incident. I figure they will be fine by Friday and completely good by Sunday morning...I hope.

Shout out to my buddy Lucia...glad to see you're ok and beginning the healing process. Looking good! I'll drop you a line to see if you want to meet up in your hood on Friday.

 Rest of the night will be spent watching my beloved Philadelphia Phillies beat the Rays in World Series Game 1. Go Phils!!!!!!!

(Brooks Infinitis - 10.5 miles)

Here's what everbody was waiting for....I know it. To start, I've learned some valuable lessons from this race and I'll share them with everyone.

1. If you are going to run a marathon, make sure you actually run more than 15 miles prior to the race.

2. Don't start out too fast thinking that you'll be able to carry the pace throughout the race.

3. I'm able to finish a race, with minimal training, and meet my goals. That said, maybe I need to consistently train and actually run something like a 3 hours next time.

4. Injinji socks are AWESOME. I had blister problems on all my long runs prior to the marathon, lubed my feet up with some glide, put the Injinji socks on, and my feel only have one small blister. El Perfecto.

5. Do not, I repeat NOT help someone sod a 3500 sq ft yard one week prior to a marathon.

Total run time was 3:40:59.

I was able to mosey my way to the front 10th of the people in the start, so I didn't have to navigate through too many people like I did last year. First mile I clocked in at 8:15 mile and I continued on. From there, I began to loosen up and felt great, which is probably why I blazed a trail. Up and down the hills of Georgetown, no problems there, and then down to Hains Point. At the halfway mark, my time was just over 1:38 and I felt really good. I figured that if I stayed with the 3:20 pacer/group, I would be fine. Well....not so fast my friend. At mile 16, I began to hit some bumps in my personal running road. I thought it was lack of fuel, so I continued to eat goo's and drink water/sports drink at the stations. Right after mile 18, my day was made when my brother, Greg (non-runner unless he has to) hollared my name he was holding my neice, the Maeve. I ran back to them, where he said I was going to wrong way, then popped a quick kiss on the little tyke. Seeing them really energized me and I probably continued to run for another mile before I really broke down. From there on out, I would run, at a really slow pace for a while, then walk for a minute or two. I did this until the end of the Marathon. The worst part about the whole race was just after mile 24 when both my quads seized up, I mean, totally seized up. I walked for about three minutes then until they were loose again, stretching and massaging them as I went, and finally got going again. This was probably a combination of me not running far enough prior to the race and the mad sodding event. Oh well, from there, I hit the home stretch, at a very slow pace and felt total relief that the end was in sight. It was my assumption that I would have to go a little further than I did, based on last years course, but we made an immediate left and headed up the final .2 mile hill to the Iwo Jima Memorial.

Overall, I really did learn some valuable lessons during this race. The one salient point that bothered me at the end of the race was the fact that I wasn't meeting anyone there. Last year, I did, but this year, things are different....it's a long story. I'm happy with my performance to some extent, given the fact that my "really tough" goal was to run a 3:30 but my realistic goal was to run a 3:45. Well, I beat my realistic goal but have a long way to go. Training....it does the body good. I feel good about myself, now my legs....they are a different story. If anyone wants to run a fantastic race, with great fan support, I highly suggest heading towards DC and hitting the MCM up. My sense of pride as U.S. Marine in finishing our marathon is nothing but amazing...although I'm no longer in my beloved corps, I will always love everything about it and I honestly feel re-connected to more than many of my brethren ever will.

Semper Fi - Aaron

(Brooks Infinitis - 36.7 miles)