Despite having a partially-swollen ankle, I tried the Tucson Marathon this weekend (Sunday, December 7). My buddy Josh was a bit unsure about his ankle too. Josh and I (like the geniuses that we are) thought it would be a good idea to do an easy 11-miler in the hills (Phone Line Trail in the Sabino Canyon area) the day prior to "see if we could make it through the full" the next morning. Everything went well--so we both agreed we were good to go. I went into this race the following morning short of sleep (had to get up at 4 AM after going to bed not much earlier than midnight) and without the appropriate nutrition. Partying it up the night prior probably wasn't a good idea either. I broke down shortly over halfway through (~14 miles)--having to walk most of the remaining distance. This put me across the finish line in ~5 hours (too pathetic a time to commit it to memory). Josh suffered a bit--but still managed to rock it with a ~3:15:00 time. I had no preconceived expectations for this race and went into it just to complete it--considering it nothing more than a training run. In hindsight, I learned a few more things about myself by attempting this race under the circumstances. The marathon course (see below) was not that exciting IMHO. I enjoyed our 11-miler of trail running much more the day prior.
The weather was nice (maybe mid 40's in the morning and warming up to ~70 when the sun came up). It was nice to throw on the flip-flops in December! I wasn't ready to come back to Colorado after that!
Next up is the Rome marathon on March 22, 2009 (also my birthday). I'm coming back with a vengeance and gonna rock this one! Hoping to have a Boston Qualifier by the end of 2009 and running Boston with the rest of the crew in 2010.
From the finish line:
The starting line is on the left:
