2009 North Olympic Discovery Marathon

Ok, this is getting out of control.... I just ran the North Olympic Discovery Marathon. That is 3 full marathons in 5 weeks. Well this one kicked my butt. I guess I should have listened to my friends saying that maybe this is too much and give it a rest. Well for one it was a 3 hour drive and I had to go by myself. But I really wanted to beat my last time of 3:33 to get the Boston qualifier of 3:32. So in thinking I was doing everything right I ate spaghetti for lunch and dinner I drank cytromax energy drink for a couple of days and drank about 64 oz of the stuff that morning because I woke up at 3:30am and didn't race until 9am. Plus I had breakfast at 5:00am then had to catch the bus at 6:30 to get to the start. Then waited for 2 hours before the start of the race. I think I made about 5 trips to the restroom.

The race started off very well. I actually made 13.1 miles at 1:39 which was the best time out of the 3. But then at about mile 20 I ran out of gas and my calf started locking up and so I slowed down. Then when I realized I wasn't going to get 3:32 I thought about the long drive home and so I walked the last 2 miles. Then about .75 miles from the finish a friend comes walking down the path and I was surprised they drove all that ways for me. What friends!!! So he walked with me until the last .1 miles and I ran up to and across the finish line just to look good for my other friend at the finish line. Anyways my final time was 4:05. The slowest of the 3. Oh well. Then get this we went and had dinner and he drove me home in my car.... Such awesome friends!!!!

What I learned from this one is to test out the head phones before a run... I used the iPhone headphones so I can take a call while running... Well they didn't fit my ear right so they kept falling out. Maybe not run so many marathons in a row. Maybe not drink so much energy drink before a race. Don't drive 3 hours alone thinking you can drive back after a run. It was a beautiful course though. The last 5 miles was right along the ocean.