A long overdue update and possibly the end?

So...I went and let my blog get away from me. I guess this sort of thing happens all of the time but I feel really bad about it. I did not want to be one of those people who start a blog and quit it with no send off (even though I have done that exact thing on previous occasions). However, the few people who actually read this thing already know the end results of my marathon experiment so it probably was not that big of deal.

Yes, I trained for and completed my first marathon injury free on December 12, 2009. No, that is not a picture of me after the first marathon, but, instead, is a picture of me after successfully completing my second one.....what???????

Yep, doing one was not enough for "this guy". I had so much fun running in the first one I decided to try it again. Okay, that second part was a lie. I did not run the second marathon because I enjoyed the first one so much. In reality, the first marathon was one of the toughest things I have ever accomplished. Finishing under four hours almost caused me to get injured because I pushed so hard in the final mile to get in under time.

The marathon started off fine and I was feeling great up until around mile eighteen. By mile twenty I swore I would never run another marathon again. By mile twenty four I seriously contemplated quitting. "Hell" I thought, "I quit that blog of mine, quitting this damn race should be a snap!!!" At mile twenty four and a half I said to myself "when the f*&k is this thing going to end?"

A weird thing happened though. Right when I reached the finish line of my first marathon in the glorious time of 3:59:19, I felt the greatest I had ever felt in my life...spiritually. Physically I was a wreck, particularly my legs, but the sense of accomplishment I felt on that day blew me away. Seeing my wife and best friend from graduate school yelling and cheering me on all the way did not hurt either.

The day after the marathon, I decided to run a second one a couple of months later with the hope of bettering my time. I learned some things from the first one that changed my training up and prepared me better for the second go around. I did more long runs over 16 miles and ran hard just about every time out. The result...a twenty one minute PR. I finished the Rock and Roll New Orleans marathon in 3:38:48 with energy to spare. The race still beat the hell out of me physically but the distance was much more manageable this time. Instead of feeling dread at mile twenty I was excited and knocking down 8:20 miles. I also made myself promise to take goofy photos at the end and update this blog so that people would know I "finished the drill" as the Georgia Bulldogs would say.

I plan on running more marathons in the future and am going to attempt the Alabama three marathons in three months challenge at the end of the year. http://www.mercedesmarathon.com/3n3.php I may try and Boston Qualify, a 3:10 marathon time, at the first marathon in December. If the three marathons go well, I will likely attempt a fifty mile ultra marathon next March. That is a big IF though. Running the approximate equivalent of two marathons in one day is a daunting endeavor. Even to someone as foolhardy (when it comes to running) as me.

I will seriously try and update this thing at least once a month. Right now I am in a recovery cycle in my training program and nothing really exciting is going on until next week. I am going to run in the Spring Fever 10k and the Azalea Trail Run 10k in the next couple of weeks so hopefully I can post some pretty good times and update this blog with them. If I do not, maybe this post can be a fitting conclusion to my dumb little blog.