Eleven marathons down; 2 to go. So why not try something new? Seemed like a good idea at the time. There was a lot of upside, I thought. Run on a Saturday, not a Sunday...shorter drive...have connections to stay with...have an extra week to tune up for Boston... Everything seemed right and good; but then there was this whole thing about running on consecutive weekends - 6 days later, in fact. Prior to this, my closest 2 marathons were 20 days apart. So this was quite a stretch, but like I said, the upside was pretty good. I decided to go for it. So after finishing in Austin on February 18, I turned around the following Saturday, drove back to Texas, and ran at Fort Worth. It's amazing how perspective can change during a year. For example, a year ago 26.2 miles seemed like a l o n g way just to think about, let alone run. Also, I was quite happy to go and do these things by myself. A year later, 26.2 doesn't seem nearly so long (as attested to by the fact that I would even consider doing back to back weekends); and, going to this kind of event is much less exciting when going by myself. This weekend Julie was unable to go along (therefore, no action pictures) and I found myself missing her company. (I guess that's a good sign as our wedding date draws nearer!!)
As for the actual run - well, let me just say I have a whole new respect for those people who do a string of marathons like 50 in 50 days or 52 in a year; how they can that astounds me. I actually felt quite good through about mile 17, but then it got tougher. I decided to push on through 20, allowing myself to back off at that point. Did I ever back off! I hit 'the wall' like I haven't felt for a long time. The last 6 miles were slow, to say the least. However, the finish line eventually came into sight (was I ever glad for that!) and I could finally stop running. I'm not sure if it was being tired as much as just feeling like my body was out of fuel, but whatever it was at the end,
easy was not it! I'm glad, though, that I tried going back to back. I have a feeling if I were to try it again, it wouldn't feel quite so difficult. Now I have had a week off after Fort Worth, which means it's time to begin the final tuneup for Boston. I'm looking forward to that day.
