In late July, less than two weeks after the 40 mile GRT effort, Rachel and I spent the weekend back in God's country, starting at pictured rocks in Munising, MI. Together we raced the Grand Island Trail half marathon in perfect weather conditions. The fatigue of my legs didn't catch up with me until pacing through the first 4 miles in just over 24:30 and from there I had some bad middle miles. Mile 5 was along the bay running on the beach and that took its toll on me. I managed to finish strong in the last few miles, coming in at 1:28:33 for the 13.33 mile course and in 4th place overall. I was pleased with the effort as I didn't give up when I started to struggle, but it was clear that I needed a few more weeks to get back.
Just a week later back in Iron Mountain (Michigan), I raced the Lake Antoine Classic 5 miler. I had won this race the last time I ran it back in 2008. My plan was to take the field out hard and see if anyone would go with me and then settle into a sustainable pace. My first two miles were in 5:35 and 5:40 and not seeing anyone even close, I eased up and cruised to the overall win in 29:25. Turns out that I would have probably won the 15km trail race too, but I was happy to have ran the shorter road course as I knew after having spent a few days on work travel, that I could hold on for at least that far.
In the last few weeks I also ran back to back 5km races in Decatur, clocking a 17:32 at Brooke Hill on a hilly course (and windy day) and then a 17:34 at Brothers for Life 5km on a brutal day where the humidity was soaring above 90%. I finished 2nd overall in both races and used them mostly as faster workouts trying to benchmark where I was at with my fitness.
In the last week of the Cross Country Races in Huntsville, I ran the mile hard chasing Andrew Hodges and posted a 5:36 and then later raced the 2-miler, coming in just under 12 minutes with an 11:59. I was pretty happy with the few times I ran out there this summer, having logged the fastest 2-mile race time of the season (11:24) although not many people race that distance and pal Rob Youngren probably crushed that time in one of his 3-mile race times he posted in the mid 17's.
Moving forward I just finished writing my fall training plan and race schedule. The goals look to be a sub 5 mile, a sub 16:45 5km, a half marathon in the 1:16's and a sub 2:50 marathon at Rocket City. Beyond that I have toyed with the notion of running all three marathon majors next year (Boston, Chicago and New York) in times under 3 hours. At a minimum I will run Chicago, as I have already posted sub 3-hour times at Boston (2:56 in 2009) and New York (2:54 in 2011). Running all three next year might be a bit ambitious, but goals are good, right?
For now I am getting back into a routine of training, including regular and structured VO2max workouts, tempo runs and long runs with miles at marathon goal pace. Other than that, just enjoying life and the feel blessed to be exercising the gifts that I have been bestowed with, and thankful everyday for them.