Breaking Away

Good luck Mark! Hope you all have a great time this weekend, both those racing and those watching.

Good luck Mark - all that is left is the running!

Thanks, all! I did a 3-mile shakeout run with Wendy and Tim, and it felt pretty good.

I'm looking forward to our get-together tonight.

The weather looks very good. Partly cloudy, 42 degrees at the start, warming to the mid 50s.

Have fun, Mark!

Here is the quick take on Tecumseh: I set two PRs today - fastest first trail marathon, and longest workout ever! I finished in just under 7 hours.

(Gosh, that's a long time to be out there.)

Gory details later.

And you did all that even without an incessantly-vomiting running partner!!

wendy_miller wrote:And you did all that even without an incessantly-vomiting running partner!!

That might have added to the drama, but I'm glad you decided to go pass out on a sofa instead.

Mark, sorry I was unable to stick around to cheer you on at the finish. Nice job of hanging in there...seven hours is a good workout. I look forward to reading a full report.

I'm looking forward to the report as well. Saw the video of your finish that Charles posted - looked like your quads were pretty cooked (or you've just got a funny stride ), but glad to see you still had a smile on your face!

Mark B wrote:Here is the quick take on Tecumseh: I set two PRs today - fastest first trail marathon, and longest workout ever! I finished in just under 7 hours.

(Gosh, that's a long time to be out there.)

Gory details later.

Mark glad you got it done. I guess one good thing you can take away from it is you have a taste of what it will be like out running that long when you do your first 50 miler.

Jeff F wrote:Mark, sorry I was unable to stick around to cheer you on at the finish. Nice job of hanging in there...seven hours is a good workout. I look forward to reading a full report.

I can understand why you had to go. Heck, my ride could have probably driven to town, watched a movie, driven back and STILL had plenty of time to wait.

Mike MacLellan wrote:I'm looking forward to the report as well. Saw the video of your finish that Charles posted - looked like your quads were pretty cooked (or you've just got a funny stride ), but glad to see you still had a smile on your face!

My quads weren't in too bad of shape, but my feet were shot. My ankle injury of a month ago was less healed than I thought.... No comment on my funny gait.

Schuey wrote:

Mark B wrote:Here is the quick take on Tecumseh: I set two PRs today - fastest first trail marathon, and longest workout ever! I finished in just under 7 hours.

(Gosh, that's a long time to be out there.)

Gory details later.

Mark glad you got it done. I guess one good thing you can take away from it is you have a taste of what it will be like out running that long when you do your first 50 miler.

LOL! That's a scary thought... I need to be in a LOT better condition to attempt something like that. I see a lot of simply running for fun in the foreseeable future.

Scary admission: This was the first race I wasn't sure I would even be ABLE to finish. If nothing else, this proved just how stubborn I can be.

That video showed you were pretty shot there at the end. Takes some guts and mule-like stubborness to keep going there. Congrats on that?! Ha ha - I don't know whether it is a good thing or not but gutting it out to the finish on a day like that is a display of something guts-wise, right? Hope the legs are feeling even 10% alive today. I'm impressed you pushed on until and through the end. Rest up and enjoy the holidays!

Chris M wrote:That video showed you were pretty shot there at the end. Takes some guts and mule-like stubborness to keep going there. Congrats on that?! Ha ha - I don't know whether it is a good thing or not but gutting it out to the finish on a day like that is a display of something guts-wise, right? Hope the legs are feeling even 10% alive today. I'm impressed you pushed on until and through the end. Rest up and enjoy the holidays!

Thanks, Chris!

It is now the evening of Day 1 post-marathon. My feet are still somewhat sore, especially where I hurt my foot a month ago, and my lower legs are a little tender, but my quads and glutes are doing pretty well. So well that I got a dirty look from Tim earlier today.

Tomorrow's a travel day, so it'll be a little while longer until I can do a report. I can promise that, as I predicted, this turned out to be an epic adventure. Just not quite what I - or any of us - could have ever predicted...

Congrats on another finish. I read Charles' race report and saw the videos. Sounds like a killer course. Maybe I haven't spent enough time in Indiana, but I did not think it could be that hilly there. Look forward to the report.

Found this photo from someone in the Indiana Trail Runners Group.
I think it is about mile 9.

Glenn wrote:Congrats on another finish. I read Charles' race report and saw the videos. Sounds like a killer course. Maybe I haven't spent enough time in Indiana, but I did not think it could be that hilly there. Look forward to the report.

"Killer" sounds like a pretty apt description. I teased some friends about the wussy little hills they have in this part of the country, especially compared with the sky-scraping mountains of the West.

I was kidding around, of course, but those friends have the right to razz me mercilessly now. To their credit, they haven't.

charles.moman wrote:Found this photo from someone in the Indiana Trail Runners Group.
I think it is about mile 9.

Look! I actually did run part of it! By this point, I had already realized it was going to be a very long day. Thanks for finding the photo, Charles!

Edit to add: The more that I look at the photo, the more it seems like I must have been attempting some sort of pirate impersonation. Ar, matey!

7hrs? I better be in some kind of a tri event if I'm out there that long.

Congrats Mark!

Mark B wrote:

Chris M wrote:That video showed you were pretty shot there at the end. Takes some guts and mule-like stubborness to keep going there. Congrats on that?! Ha ha - I don't know whether it is a good thing or not but gutting it out to the finish on a day like that is a display of something guts-wise, right? Hope the legs are feeling even 10% alive today. I'm impressed you pushed on until and through the end. Rest up and enjoy the holidays!

Thanks, Chris!

It is now the evening of Day 1 post-marathon. My feet are still somewhat sore, especially where I hurt my foot a month ago, and my lower legs are a little tender, but my quads and glutes are doing pretty well. So well that I got a dirty look from Tim earlier today.

Tomorrow's a travel day, so it'll be a little while longer until I can do a report. I can promise that, as I predicted, this turned out to be an epic adventure. Just not quite what I - or any of us - could have ever predicted...

It is now Monday, and my quads and calves are trashed. It hurts everytime I get up from my desk. I am the opposite, my feet are fine

My calves are a bit tight today, but my quads are just fine - which really surprised me.

A follow-up on me, post-Tecumseh.

I wasn't nearly as sore as I thought I'd be - though my feet were pretty swollen. As for muscle aches... well, I can't rightly say.

I got sick... as did the rest of my family... on the flight back from Indiana. And it was the full meal deal. Fever, chills, splitting headache, bone-rattling nausea. I even redecorated the rear lavoratory of the airplane when I couldn't stand it any longer and just had to throw up.

The whole experience reminded me of Tecumseh, holding on through a difficult situation when the only thing to look forward to is for it to come to a merciful end. That, and making it through without throwing up on your shoes.

Charles posted the official elevation profile chart for Tecumseh in my race report, and he wasn't kidding when he said the elevation chart doesn't do Tecumseh justice. Out there on the course, I was sure the profile lied. I just downloaded my Garmin data, and it shows just how different they are:

Theirs:



Mine:



The second profile makes a LOT more sense to me. It shoes the amazing steepness of the hills and how they came at you relentlessly. I may have climbed more in some of my training runs, but the grade of the slope in those runs was far less... and the climbs went on for miles, which meant miles of decent on which you could recharge your legs as you dance over the hills.

Tecumseh is like dancing with a pile driver.

Copied from the race report:


I rooted around a bit and found the photos from Tecumseh.

If you think my form looks a little, well, funny... so do I. Geez. Dorsiflex much?



I actually felt pretty good at this point, fairly early in the race.



I risked a thumbs-up, but it ended up looking dorky, as usual.



Later in the race. I was happy to be going downhill. I like downhills. I wish there'd been more out there.



I'm laughing because I'm sharing a joke with the photographer to do some fake running for the camera.



Shelly and I crossing the line, finally.



I ought to start a contest: Fill in the thought balloon above my head in this last photo. Profanities optional.

Well, I missed two days of work this week thanks to that $#@! food poisoning, and I'm still far from 100%. I'm sure my running buddy would love to hear all the gory details, but there's no way I'll be physically ready to run this weekend.

Probably just as well, though. This will give my foot the chance to finally finish healing up from that spill a month ago.

The crazy thing is, aside from the foot injury flaring up, I wasn't very sore after Tecumseh. (Of course, there is always the possibility that I was just too sick to notice...).

Susie and I never got sick from the food and we are glad for that, but sorry for everyone else.

I have worked out some with a Bob (biggest loser) strength DVD and some walking, but no running yet.
I am waiting until Monday to start back up and get ready for a nighttime HM on January 28, at Eagle Creek Park.
I, too, was surprised to not be really sore after Tecumseh - just a little hamstring soreness.
I went to a 5K today, but not to run - I was in the running for a treadmill giveaway for that race series.
And, no, I did not win!

charles.moman wrote:Susie and I never got sick from the food and we are glad for that, but sorry for everyone else.

I have worked out some with a Bob (biggest loser) strength DVD and some walking, but no running yet.
I am waiting until Monday to start back up and get ready for a nighttime HM on January 28, at Eagle Creek Park.
I, too, was surprised to not be really sore after Tecumseh - just a little hamstring soreness.
I went to a 5K today, but not to run - I was in the running for a treadmill giveaway for that race series.
And, no, I did not win!

Hi Charles! I'm glad you and Susie escaped the reaper. We suspect that it's because you (and Jeff) had lasagna, which had probably been previously prepared and reheated and never came into contact with our toxic slop. Susie had a salad, if I remember right, so she's safe, too. I also recall that you three got your food first, and the rest of us had to wait until you were nearly done before our "food" arrived. Every. Single. One. Of. Us. got sick. The only one in our group to not get sick was little Rowan, who had the good sense to go "no-no-no!" when offered some food there. Smart kid.

Drat on the treadmill! You were robbed.

I finally felt well enough to head outside for a walk during lunch yesterday. It felt pretty good, though my left foot is still sore where I'd injured it 5 weeks ago. I suppose I delayed its complete recovery by pounding on it back on Dec. 3.

I decided that if I still felt okay, I might go for a short run on Thursday. Except I started feeling crummy again last night and this morning. Arg. Man, I'll be glad when this thing releases its hooks from me once and for all.

Last bit of this update: I had to ship back a pair of testers to Nike yesterday; the shoes were narrow in the wrong spot and killed my feet. That happens sometimes, but I always feel like a shirker when I have to throw in the towel.

I'll wind this blog down pretty soon. I'm not sure when (or even if) I'll start up another one. My running plans for next year are probably going to be fairly unexciting.