Marathon Man Journey Ends As Mine Begins

Today I received this in my Inbox from my company. They send us things to talk about on our website blogs, this one SCREAMED ANNA.

"Belgian runner Stefaan Engeles has just completed a marathon for every day of the past year. Saturday was the 49-year-old’s 365th consecutive 26.2 mile race, shattering the record of 52 consecutive marathons set by a Japanese man last year. Engeles attributed his ability to run for so long to the fact that he doesn’t run very fast. However, his average of about four hours per marathon is still 30 minutes faster than the average finishing time in the New York City marathon. Overall, Engels ran 9,569 miles."

Could you imagine? One full marathon every day for a single year? Heck when I was training last summer for my first 1/2M I was wondering when I did my long runs how people who train for fulls can do it. My long run takes 2 hours (usually 12+ miles) I couldn't even imagine doubling that just for training for a full marathon. Then after running my 1/2 I was dead to the world after and just wanted to sleep and lay around all day and that continued for a few days after even. Today I began training for 500 Festival Mini Marathon, its my next 1/2 race. This was my run today; remember I am training at the Intermediate 2 level designed to go for a PR. I did 6 miles:1 mile of an easy pace, then 800 meters (about 1/2 mile) at my normal pace then 200 meters (about .12 of a mile) at a fast pace then back off to the slow pace for about 2 minutes. I repeated the 800/200 intervals for 4 rounds with the 2 minutes of easy running in between. Then finished off what was left (till I hit 6 miles) at my normal pace. And I was EXHAUSTED. I was so tired and I was thinking, "OMG this is grueling and its only day one. I ran 6 miles Saturday and it was a cinch, I add 4 simple rounds of intervals and I get tired. I hope as training goes on I get back into my groove cuz right now groove is not in the heart!" Training continues tomorrow with a steady 3 mile run and then I teach RPM.

On a kinda bummer note...I learned that I will not be running in Peoria's Race For the Cure this year as race day is the day of my 1/2 in Indy...oh well.