I found an intersting article on ABC news website talking about how humans have evolved into good long distance runners. The arguement seems to make lots of sense to me…

Humans Built for Distance Running  ABC News

3:18:48 (7:35 pace)
Underwater mile split 7:02
274th place overall (out of 3876), 33rd place in age group (out of 341)

Ok, I know, thats not fast for me (hey, I was still in the top 10%!), but this was my last ‘training run’ before my 50 mile ultra in 13 days. I desperately tried to start out slow, I did I did. It seemed the first 10 miles I was saying to myself ’slow down, slow down’ and I would back down. After 21 miles, I decided to treat this like a training run, so I picked up the pace for the last 5 miles, running them about 7:15 pace. Passing people was kindof fun actually. Here, 5 hours after my finish, I feel pretty darn good. One blister on the side of one toe, and a blister over where my ankle brace touches the top of my foot.
My lovely wife and daughter were my ‘crew’ giving me encouragement, hugs and some ‘different’ marathon food. I wanted to test a few ‘new’ things for my ultra. This time I tried potato chips to go along with my peanut butter sandwich and ‘flat’ coke. Yummy yummy. I also took along my cell phone to communicate with Val and SJ, but also to call my parents around mile 10. I tried using my cell phone’s ‘hands-free’ microphone/earplug combo but it didn’t work out so hot, so I had to resort to using it the old fashioned way, holding it up to my ear. That worked OK, since I was still sort of jogging.

The weather was OK, the temp was nice at ~43 for the majority of the race, but the wind was brutal in some spots (gusts over 20 mph) That was probably good practice for Chicago, now that I think about it…
I learned a lot, this last test drive before the chicago ultra, namely:
1. Go out slow, force yourself. Tell yourself ‘If I still feel this great at mile 30, then I can pick it up’. I will have my heart rate monitor with me (I forgot it this time) so that will help.
2. Eat more. After my PB sandwich at mile 13 I didn’t get hungry again, but I should have eaten some more. I had plenty of water and gatorade, drinking some at every other station it seemed.
3. As soon as it feels like a blister, stop and correct it. I pushed on today because I knew I could survive until the finish. If I get another one in mile 20 in Chicago, I WILL stop.
4. Sunglasses! I forgot mine and had to steal my wifes at mile 8.5, the first time I saw her.

Well, now my taper REALLY begins for Chicago. 13 days to go, I will be easy on myself, with gentle runs of 7:45 pace. I can’t don’t anything now that will make me faster, but I can screw up and make me slower. I hope I remember that these last days…

This image should say it all…

7Oct06
1:28:13 (6:44/mi pace)

There is a podcast that I religiosuly listen too, called Phedippidations. It is done by a self-professed ‘middle of the pack runner’ who, once a week, sends out a 45-60 minute podcast on running. Some portion of each weekly episode is recorded while he is actually out for his long runs. The shows topics vary all over the board, ranging from running form and proper hydration, to stories of running legends, to the history of the Boston Marathon. It is very fun to listen too, especially when you are running yourself.

So anyways, this guy Steve decides to help organize the first annual Phedippidations World Wide Half Marathon. The idea is that a bunch of runners all over the world (>520 at the time of this posting) all run a half marathon somewhere near where they live on the same weekend (Oct 7&8, 2006) Everything else is sortof like a normal race. You register (free), get a number, pick a route, then run it. Post your results, share stories, blah blah blah.

Its a pretty cool idea I think. Steve had people record personal shoutouts and put them together as a motivational podcast for people to listen to as they actually ran their half. I listened to it while I ran mine and it was kindof fun, hearing people cheer me on, even though I was all alone running along a dirt road outside of town.

With the Detroit marathon only weeks away and my 50 miler in about a month, I couldn’t train for this race by itself. As such, I ran 12.5 miles two days ago and 10 miles yesterday and will be running 20+ miles tommorow. Just a training run I guess