Vermont Checked Off the List

I completed the KeyBank Vermont Marathon up in Burlington yesterday. It may go down as one of my best marathon experiences.

I was nervous going into the race. I hadn't raced in about 11 months (at any distance) and hadn't done a marathon in over a year. I was quite concerned that I wouldn't be able to compete or even finish. I was still nursing my tendonitis and was dealing with the return of my IT Band issues.

But strangely enough, everything worked out! I didn't have any pain during the race (just a trace of the usual muscle aches that go along with 20+ miles). The air was dry and cool and I felt like i was running too fast the entire race. The funny thing was, I couldn't slow down. Or to be more precise, slowing down to run slower than I was was not providing any benefit. And it stayed that way for about 25 miles! Even the last mile wasn't all that bad.

I rarely RUN the entire marathon. Usually, i'll stop and stretch and get several glasses of water, etc. Especially if i'm not in the best of shape. But i think my slowest mile was 25 and that was about a 7:45 or so.

So now its on to decide which marathon is next and which races are possible during the usually slow June-August stretch. I've already decided against shorter distance because I'm convinced it was the rapid decrease/increase in mileage that contributed to my tendonitis that lasted almost 10 months. I feel especially energized after speaking with a couple of marathon experts. One guy I spoke with has done 143 marathons! I swear he said he did one last weekend (the weekend before Burlington yesterday). The other guy I spoke with started running when he retired in 1998. He is on the verge of meeting his goal; doing his 100th on the 10th anniversay he did his first. After he retired!!!

Truly Inspiring.