Running Biography (Part 2)

At the time I signed up for the 1992 Galloway program, my long run in the previous month was 4 miles. The first run that year was an 8 miler. So, that Sunday, it was with some considerable trepidation that I met up with the group at 7:00 for the first run. I joined the 4:00 marathon pace group, so our long runs were supposed to be at around 11:00/mile. At that time, we were using run 7 minutes / walk 1 minute as our run/walk ratio. It turned out that the run wasn't that bad. Going twice as far as my longest run that month was pretty comfortable, with the walk breaks. And it went from there. The training went fine, as I learned the art and science of marathon training. The dynamics of training with a group helped a lot, and I did well on the weekend runs, hill repeats and mile repeats. However, I wasn't 100% compliant with the suggested weekday running schedule. Also, most of the people in the program were doing either the Atlanta marathon on Thanksgiving day or Chicago, New York, or Marine Corps marathons. I was doing White Rock in Dallas, which was at least a week or month later than everyone else. My last long run was quite a while before my race. I had a pretty good experience for that first marathon, but I was slower than I had hoped. Despite a half marathon time around 2:05, I finished the marathon in 4:36 or so. But, I learned some lessons from the experience.

After eating and drinking all day afterwards, I felt pretty good about my first race, and resolved to continue. So, I was a group leader in 1993, and kept training after White Rock. I had some good races in the spring and summer, and had a good group for 1993. I did a much better job of running during the week, and our long runs were pretty intense. That fall, I ran my second marathon at Marine Corps in Washington, D.C., which was just fantastic. The course is great, with interesting things to see while you're running, and Mary Anne was able to see me at 4 places by taking the Metro around town as I ran. On a good weather day, I ran my lifetime PR, 4:01:36. Even on that race, if I had gone out a little easier, I think I would have broken 4 hours. I slowed pretty dramatically in the second half, but otherwise, I did a good job of training for and running Marine Corps.

I kept training after that, and ran my 10 mile and half marathon lifetime PRs in the months following Marine Corps. My long runs weren't very solid after that, though, and I suffered through the Cowtown Marathon in Fort Worth in February 1994. I was once again a group leader for Galloway in 1994, and that fall ran the Atlanta marathon, which was run that year on the Olympic marathon course. It was a tough course, and my training lacked a little during the weekday runs again, so predictably, it was a slow day at the races. Another 4:45 type run.

After that, I was really out of motivation, so I dropped out of regular running for quite a while. Our second child had been born in September 1994, and those long weekend runs were taking a toll in the household. It was quite a while before I got back to regular running. I'd roll around and get ready for the Peachtree Road Race 10K each year, but other than that, I wasn't doing much. I found some great running shoes, the Nike Huarache International, but of course, they were soon discontinued by Nike. I bought about 3 pair of them and stashed them away. Those shoes lasted a long time.

Time passed, and we moved to Austin in the summer of 1999. I started running again, and tried another marathon training program here that following summer, August 2000. That program didn't use the marathon walk breaks that I was accustomed to, and partly as a result of that, I got injured during the training, and had to abandon my plan to run another marathon. After recovering from that injury (IT band again), I kept up my training at a low level, and started enjoying it again.

The marathon bug was still lurking around, though, and when I found that the Galloway program had opened here in Austin, I went to the first meeting and signed up. Our first training run was in August of 2001. I went to RunTex and sought new running shoes, and was introduced to the Mizuno Creation. It was and is a fabulous shoe for me, and I'm on my eighth pair of them as I type this history.

Kristine Williams was my group leader for Galloway Austin, and she did a great job with our group as we slogged through the early heat of September and October, into the longer runs, and so forth. By now, Galloway had changed the recommended run/walk ratio to run 5 minutes / walk 1 minute for the 4:00 pace group. The program suited me just fine, and I progressed pretty well. My goal marathon was the 2002 Birmingham Mercedes Marathon, which would allow me to visit a good friend of mine, Justin, who lived there. Since the Austin marathon was the week after Birmingham, I scheduled the Houston Marathon in January of 2002 as my last long training run.

I ran Houston in a controlled 5:10, but suffered a little at the end (I got out a little fast, of course). Then, a few weeks later, I tackled Birmingham. It was fun to see Justin and some friends from North Carolina, Jeff and Andy, who came down for the half marathon at the event. I thought I was ready to go for a 4:20 marathon there, and set out at that pace. The course featured a large mountain at the 9-11 mile mark of the course, and I got up that in pretty good fashion. I reached the half marathon mark right on schedule, at about 2:10. After that, though, I faded a good bit, and started feeling a little sorry for myself. I got across the finish in 4:43:16, which was a 20 minute improvement over Houston, but a lot slower than I thought I could do. Nevertheless, I tackled my training with renewed vigor that spring, and brought my 10K time back down to 8:00/mile pace, which was nice.

My goal for the rest of 2002 was to do the New York City Marathon, as well as the local Distance Challenge series of races starting in the fall, finishing with the Motorola Marathon in February of 2003. I was a group leader for the Fall marathon group, and led that group throughout the long hot summer, where the long runs were really tough. We started a lot of the longer runs at 5:00 am, to try and duck some of the heat. I got to New York, ready, I thought, to again try for a 4:20 marathon, and arrived in New York with Mary Anne in November 2002 ready to run. The weather was absolutely perfect, in the 40's and sunny. Andy and Jeff were there, as well, with a lot of their friends from Charlotte. We had a good time prior to the race, loading up with pasta, seeing some of the sights in NYC, and woke up on race morning ready to roll. We had a van take us down to the race start, and it was sobering to roll past the World Trade Center site as we went over to Staten Island. The pre-race sights and sounds of the NYC marathon are amazing, and it was fun to hang out waiting on the 11:00 start of the race. We ate and drank, waiting for the call to the start line. When the gun went off, I was way back in the corrals. After about 15 minutes, I crossed the start line. I set out at 4:20 pace, but my body finally settled into a pace around 4:25-4:30. I was okay with that. Brooklyn was a blur of people, then Queens, and finally we crossed the massive Queensboro bridge at the 16 mile mark. I was moving along pretty well at that point. Going up First Avenue was amazing, too. When we crossed back to Manhattan from the Bronx, I started fading a bit. By the time we reached Central Park, I was walking a lot more than I had planned. But, I crossed the finish line in 4:40:22, an improvement over Birmingham. Not great, but what an experience!

Picking up right away from that, I jumped right into the remainder of training for Motorola 2003. I thought I was ready to run a pretty good race there, too. I again set a race goal of 4:20, and resolved to pace myself properly. Andy and Jeff came over to Austin for that one, and again ran the half marathon. Race day was very cold and windy, but that was okay with me. I ran a really good race that day, with just a slight slowdown at the end of the race, in 4:21:18. I was pleased with that one, since it was the first marathon since Marine Corps that I did properly.

I continued with the Galloway program, this time as program director, and set an ambitious schedule of running Chicago 2003, Honolulu 2003 (as a vacation with Mary Anne), and Motorola 2004, in addition to tackling the Distance Challenge races. Chicago was a little too hot for me, and I ran a disappointing 4:38:54, fading at the end pretty badly. Honolulu was a fun experience, which I ran really slowly as a training run in the heat, finishing in 5:18:19. The weeklong stay in Kauai was a fine place to recover from a marathon, I'm telling you the truth! And, Motorola 2004 was disappointing, as well, where I finished in 4:48:35. I actually knew I was not ready for that race, and 4:48 was exactly what I intended to run, so maybe it was a success...who knows?

After Motorola 2004, I searched for some inspiration to jumpstart my running again, and found it in the form of Gilbert Tuhabonye and his Gilbert's Gazelles training group. I tried it out with my friend Frank, and in short order, I was enjoying those early morning workouts, and seeing quick results. I've stuck with Gilbert since March 2004, and I continue to improve almost weekly. By now, I'm even doing my long runs with Gilbert's group, and will train for Freescale (nee' Motorola) Marathon in 2005.

My enthusiasm for running has returned, and I'm thinking bigger thoughts about my running goals in the near term. Long-range, I'd like to qualify for Boston when I turn 50, and maybe only do one marathon a year until then, focusing on improving my times at shorter race distances. Near term, I hope to break 4 hours at Freescale this February, and then to have a good spring racing season, getting my 10K, half marathon, and 5K times down.

It's an adventure, that's for sure.