"these miles don't run themselves"

the 2007 kentucky derby mini marathon started with a well wishing drunken phone call from the other side of the globe (from a public toilet). i was in the port-a-loo taking my final pee for several hours; talk about synchronicity. it was certainly a better option than making a dash for the woods as we had done 2 years ago.

the other difference is that i was running this baby on my own. my training buddy (well for 2 runs) had to drop out due to knee injuries at the last minute (thats what you get from running with fast boys!).

miles 1-8 were a breeze, the hills at iroquois park felt effortless. running a lap around the track at churchill downs was a nice change to the course, where in less than a week the infield would be full of semi naked, drunken co-eds (now it was just full of semi naked, sweating, panting endorphin idiots). it wasn't until the last mile and a half of absolute flat, when i was counting off the streets until market that i was ready to throw myself against "the wall", this was also the point at which an evacuation emergency (whichever orifice that gave it up first) became more apparent. on approach to the split for the mini and full marathon, i was relieved to be hanging a left to the finish, and not a right, to another 13 miles of lactic hell.

considering i decided to sign up a month ago, where the longest 'training run' was 7 miles, my goal was to finish, remain vertical and not require any kind of defibrillator services from EMS. i wonder how much training i could get away with (not doing) for a 26 miler? the sad thing is that the winner of the full marathon came in before i finished my half; guess which continent he came from (hint: the same one i was born on, but without the same superhuman running abilities)? no matter, i will consider this my training run for the 15k race i'm doing on the biltmore estate next month.