OFFICIALLY A MANIAC

Remember when I said that I hate marathons, and that I don’t see myself running another marathon without my posse?

Forget all of that; times have changed!

During the 26.2 Run With Donna last week, Pam TOLD me that I HAD to run the full marathon in Gainesville the next weekend.  The Five Points of Life is a great half marathon, but the full leaves a lot to be desired.  She said that if I did indeed complete the full, I would qualify to join Marathon Maniacs.  The criterion to join this organization includes running three marathons in the span of 90 days.  Since I had already completed Ocala, and was about to finish off Donna, it seemed like a no-brainer.  But could I physically compete in two marathons within an eight-day window?  Then Pam dropped the bombshell on me…she had not entered the race in Gainesville.  I just assumed she did, but Pam was taking a pass on this one.  I tried to convince Jennifer to run with me, but her mother was coming in from Connecticut for the weekend.

Let me get this straight…run in three marathons over a 29 day span, and…by the way…run the last one “lone-wolf” style?  REALLY???  REALLY???  I said I would seriously think about it, but of course my mind was already made up.

When I woke up on Monday morning (the day after Donna), my right foot was totally bruised and swollen on the top.  This had never happened to me before, but with a week to go before Gainesville, I wasn’t worried…yet.  My training for the week included three days of running distances of two miles, three miles and two miles.  When Wednesday rolled around, my foot was still pretty bruised, but I went out and did the two miles anyway.  My foot felt a little better on Thursday, so I put in my three mile run.  I decided to skip the run on Friday, in an effort to give the foot an extra day of healing time.

I left for Gainesville on Saturday morning with my youngest daughter Rachel.  We picked up Lindsey at her apartment, and went to the expo.  My foot was still bruised, but I “super-sized” the race anyway (I paid the difference to upgrade to the full marathon).  I figured that if my foot hurt too much, I could bail out at the halfway point.

It was 55 degrees at the start of the race.  YAY!!!  There were 213 runners participating in the full marathon, and 680 taking on the half (893 in total, not counting the 364 who participated in the 5K on Saturday morning).  My goal for this race was to finish…period!

I started very slow, and it seemed as if everyone entered in the race had passed me.  I was testing out the foot, but it didn’t seem like it would be an issue.  I started picking up speed, and was running a pretty decent pace.  Around ten miles into the race, I got the feeling that this was not going to be as difficult as I had anticipated.  After all, this was the scene of my worst finishing time for a marathon…ever!  Miles 11-13 took me through the University of Florida campus, including “The Swamp.”

The second half of the marathon could not have gone better.  I ran with a guy from Orlando for a couple of miles, but he was having difficulty keeping up.  Around mile 16, I really caught a “second wind” and never looked back.  I knew at this point, barring something unforeseen, I was going to set a new PR.  It was now about 78 degrees, and I was drinking Gatorade like nobody’s business.  I also took my creatine at mile marker seven, and never cramped up at all.  As I crossed the finish line, Lindsey and Rachel were both there cheering for me and taking pictures.  It felt great to be finished, and to have conquered this course in record-breaking fashion.  However, it did not come totally without a price.

I went to my brother’s office the next day (he is my primary care physician) at Nova Southeastern University.  He runs the Osteopathic Manipulative Medicine Clinic, and I go for treatment every two weeks to keep me running like a fine-tuned engine.  My physical therapist Yasmin told me that I was pretty dehydrated, and that I should probably take it easy on the foot this week.  I also took an acupuncture treatment on my calves, not to mention the fun of digging into my feet to break up the Planter Fasciitis.

But in the end, it was all worth it; I’m now officially a Maniac, and I’m now TOTALLY addicted to doing marathons.

KEEP TRACK OF MY RUNNING ON