Week One: Success

MS shirt

Mississippi Blues marathon shirt. We haven’t quite found the right time to wear them yet

We made it and we all completed our first round of back-to-back marathons this weekend by completing the First Light Marathon in Mobile Alabama this morning one day after completing the Mississippi Blues Marathon in Jackson, MS. I’ll give a quick recap from my point of view and Julie will follow it up with her own recap tomorrow.

I’ll cut to the chase: I am really happy with how it all panned out and I did about as well as I could have imagined. I finished in 4thplace today with a time of 2:47.26, a little over a minute faster than my run yesterday in Mississippi. I felt smooth and under control throughout the race and never hit the wall or did my standard death march to the finish line. Instead, I remained calm, relaxed, and positive throughout, only logging one slow 6:48 mile when we hit the hilly middle section of the race.

Today we thankfully again avoided the chance of rain and thunderstorms just like yesterday in Mississippi. There was at least a 30 percent chance and we were being sprinkled on at the start line but it never hit and it stayed overcast for my entire race. It was humid and in the 60’s but I thought it was comfortable. I hydrated well and though I sweat a ton, it never seemed like a problem for me.

The chaffage on my armpits and nipples was a problem though. I came through yesterday pretty unscathed but midway through the race today, I could definitely feel my skin rubbing off and knew the subsequent pain I would experience as a result. There wasn’t anything to do about it mid-race though so I pushed on. As soon as I finished I got rid of the shirt and headed to the YMCA for a shower. It was too late and I will have some scabbing armpits and a scabbed right nipple for the next week; probably healing just in time to do it all over again next weekend.

Other than the chaffage, I came away with only a couple little blisters on my feet and some really, really sore quads. They hurt at the start today but didn’t slow me, only altered my gait a little. But the thought of running a marathon tomorrow is a devastating thought knowing how much more sore my legs are today. I can’t even stand up right now from a sitting or laying down position without the use of my arms to push me up. But it’s all worth it because of how well the race went for me.

Jeff and Julie both made it too, Julie with a smile on her face today and Jeff hanging on for dear life. Jeff went out at a pretty good pace while Julie was close to 4 hour pace for the first half. While Jeff faded some, Julie closed the gap and finished almost within a minute of Jeff at 3:54.59. We were all simply glad to be finished with this first weekend. The hills from yesterday worked us all and while we didn’t look too much into the course elevation charts before these races, we’ve already checked out next weekend’s marathons in hopes they’re not as tough as this weekend. So far, it seems like we’ll be a little flatter for the next round.

So it’s time to recover and get ready for the next round. We are very anxious to have our friend Chris Reis down for the races next weekend as he takes his first stab at the back to back marathons. He’s a stud runner and will likely make my accomplishments look a little less impressive, but it will be totally worth it to have someone else to share this unique experience with.

So in conclusion: Week 1, success! I hope we can carry this over into next weekend’s runs and maybe even get some more press coverage as we did in the Jackson Clarion Ledger this morning (we’re mentioned midway through the article).

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