There’s not a lot to analyze from my run in the Train 4 Autism Marathon Series, Race #2 from Saturday, because very early into the race, I picked a simple strategy and stuck to it. I aimed to have fun, and that’s exactly what I did.

If you’ve been following along, you know I’ve been struggling with how I’m running lately. For my previous five marathons, I’ve struggled with lack of motivation, a slow pacing assignment (3:50), extremely hot weather, then two challenging courses. As would be expected, my times haven’t been good and I’ve been unnecessarily beating myself up over it.

Saturday’s race was the second in a series of three low-key races I’m putting on with a local race promoter named Charlie Alewine and there were a few people who came out to support the cause. I ran with one of them right at the start and immediately decided that rather than push the pace and go all-out, I’d spend the day running with people who were out there because of Operation Jack.

The course was six loops of a 4.38-mile course. We also added on a bit extra because my friend Sally, who I ran the first loop with, led us astray a tiny bit. No worries, I was out for a fun run.

I ran the first loop with Sally and my friend Ben. I run with Sally’s running group sometimes in the morning when I’m training, although that hasn’t been the case too much this year because my mid-week miles are way down. Ben, who was running the half-marathon, is one of my best friends. I used to have lunch with him every week, but he has a new job and a new work schedule and I haven’t seen him more than once or twice over the past three months or so. The three of us ran the first loop together and had a good time.

After that first loop, I waited for about three minutes for a runner named Lori who was running the half-marathon to finish the loop so I could run with her. I’d communicated with her online in the past, but aside from a two-minute conversation before the start of the race, I had never met her. I ran the second and third loops with her and had a good time. She’s really nice and fun to run with.

She’s a pretty good runner and picked up the pace a little bit as we were going along. We ran down Sally and Ben midway through the third lap and Ben switched over and ran with us. We all chatted and they finished strong, hitting the half in right around 1:45. I waited again for Sally and she came by about a minute later, but she was insistent that I keep on going at my own pace, so I did.

A few minutes later, I caught up with my friend Jeff, who was out to run the half. He won the race in 1:32 or 1:33 and was in the middle of running 6.9 miles afterwards to get 20 in for the day. We ran together for most of the fourth loop, and finally he told me to take off because he wanted to back off a bit. So, I ran the the last 2+ loops on my own. I was at about 16 or 17 miles before I even thought about the fact that I was running a marathon. I had just been out running, talking with friends, having a good time.

I had been running at roughly an 8:05 pace or so for most of the time and when you’re locked into a groove for that long, it’s tough to really step it up at that point. I ran a few miles down closer to 7:30 or so, but my legs weren’t having it. I fatigued a bit (I swear, I’m human!) and kept working on the final two loops at about an 8:30 pace.

I had no idea what time range I was in, but I checked with about a mile to go and I could see I was looking at about a 3:35 if I didn’t step it up. I wanted at least a 3:34 so I started to move at about a 7:10 pace and could tell with about a 1/2 mile to go that I could get a 3:33 if I found another gear. I got it down to about a 6:40 pace and finished in 3:33:47. Due to the small field (there were only about 30 people in the half and full), that was good for first overall, but that wasn’t any kind of big deal. I call it “first finisher” a whole lot more than I call it “winner”.

From a straight-up running perspective, I can look at this and see that I went 3:33 with about four minutes of stop time and about 2/10 of a mile out of the way and know that it could have been an effortless 3:27 or 3:28. So, to know that I can do that right now is good. The legs still work a little bit.

All-in-all, the best part is that I went out and had fun. I really needed a day like this. And of course, with no travel for this race, I was home and on my weekend by noon on Saturday. Does it get any better than this?

It’s getting tough to write race reports lately. I find it difficult to find positives in my declining performance, but at the same time, nobody is going to want to read what I have to say if it’s always bitter. I had another tough run at the Grizzly Marathon in Choteau, Montana Saturday, but I’ll regroup and give it my all again next weekend.

The Grizzly Marathon course is actually pretty challenging. It’s a pretty quick, flat start for a couple of miles, but it’s an out-and-back and about 22 of the miles are run on a gravel road. There are a lot of rolling hills, including a few nice climbs early that add to the challenge. I wouldn’t totally call it a road course, although I certainly wouldn’t call it a trail run. I’d just call it challenging. Overall, I’d say the hills were a little more challenging than San Francisco last week. The footing wasn’t terrible, but it sure wasn’t a quick asphalt track.

The weather was nice, about 60 degrees. We were exposed to the sun without shade for the entire race, but we had cloud protection for about half of the run. So, it was a challenging day, but not the most challenging day I’ve faced this year.

Normally, I’ll either go all out by heart rate from the beginning or I’ll try to keep it at a pace I know I’m physically capable of. Basically, it’s go-for-broke or try to go conservative and run a 3:10 regardless of what I could have gotten. Lately, I haven’t been able to come close to 3:10, which is incredibly frustrating. I know I ran my 36th marathon of the year on Saturday, but that doesn’t make slowing down any easier on me mentally.

So, I went out gunning for a 7:20 pace. I figured I’d just go conservative, not even try to run faster than a 3:12 pace or so, and tick off consistent splits. The pace was easy at first. Really, really easy. I was tired, having slept only about 9.5 hours the previous two nights, but I truly think I could have held onto that all day on a better course, even as beat up as I am. But when we hit those gravel roads, there were hills right away and I couldn’t hang.

I didn’t panic, because I knew I’d be getting everything back on the way in, but I wasn’t getting my legs back on the downhills on the way out. I just knew it was going to be a tough day pretty quick. I remember feeling sluggish by mile 6, which is way too early for that.

The course itself was really nice. The views were great — lots of open farmland and mountains way off in the distance. I’m not the city type — I’m pretty laid back and I like calm and open space, so the sights were extremely relaxing. For me, this was my kind of place — not much around other than a few nice people here and there. The support was pretty good, too. There were aid stations every 1.5 – 2 miles and the volunteers were pretty friendly.

Anyways, I could tell by counting runners near the turnaround that I was in fourth place, a considerable distance from third, and I could tell when I turned around that there were two or three people within a minute or so behind me. I was dragging and feeling sorry for myself because I felt so sluggish.

I started to mentally think about throwing in the towel and just going through the motions. I’m getting so sick and tired of this. I believe in what I’m doing and I really believe in the cause, but it’s so hard to do this. I’m exhausted, I’m beat up and I’m sick of always worrying about how much money I’m raising. Some people tell me I’m a machine, but I’m just a guy and I struggle to stay tough. The physical issues of this are one thing, but the mental issues are pretty demanding, too.

I was thinking about the verse at the bottom of my site a lot in the middle third of the race. I’m growing weary and I know I can’t give up. But it’s just hard right now and I still have five months of this left. I started praying for strength to get through at about mile 18, because I was really dragging physically, which was bringing me down mentally. I don’t normally pray for something like that, because I don’t think getting through a marathon is that important, but I was miserable.

Anyways, between about 14 and 18, I was leapfrogging with a guy who was a little younger than me. He took me on the uphills and I got him back on the downhills. He eventually pulled about 1,000 feet ahead of me and I was firmly back in fifth place with a runner about 50 yards behind me. There was a long downhill between around maybe 21 and 23 and I decided it was now or never if I wanted to get back into 4th. Placement like that isn’t that big of a deal in a race that only had 76 finishers, but you still want to do your best.

I passed him with authority at about 23 and did what I could to stay as strong as possible for a little while. I wanted him to lose hope of catching me and not make a late kick on me. Soon after that, I saw the third-place runner about 1/4 mile up. I kept powering to keep myself from slipping back to fifth and I started reeling in the man in third. I could tell I was going to catch him, so I set him as a target.

I went through the same thought process with him. I was passing him at around 25.5, which was kind of early to make a move like that, but I was moving well and didn’t back off. I passed him on a left turn and I could see the finish line off in the distance.

I just kept kicking as hard as I could. My shirt was flapping a little bit and I couldn’t tell if that was his footsteps or me, so I kept cruising. I was running well and felt pretty confident I had him beat, so I did the unthinkable and looked over my shoulder (well, while looking to the side — it wasn’t totally obvious). I had a football field on him with about 1/4 mile to go, so I knew I had it locked up. I went hard through the finish and went 3:35:06, good for third overall.

The time is pedestrian for me, a combination of the course and me just not having it. I’ll never know what I could have run on a different course on Saturday, but I’m not going to dwell on it. I’ll just figure out ways to adjust my training so I can start swinging my times in the right direction.

Whatever the case, Operation Jack rolls on. 36 down, 25 to go.

I headed into the San Francisco Marathon expecting a big race, and while my run didn’t go as I hoped, it was still a great day. I’ll be quick with the details about this one, because my race was fairly forgettable. What I’ll always remember about this one will be the gutsy runs of two Operation Jack supporters running their first marathons.

Real quick, I felt fairly good heading into this one. I really thought I was ready to break through with a sub-3:10 for the first time since May. Even if I didn’t hit that, I knew I’d be disappointed with worse than a 3:15. I wanted to run well on this course, I was more-or-less ready mentally and physically and I felt fairly decent.

The course is pretty hilly the whole way through, but especially the first half. There were a three or four steep climbs that’ll beat you up. However, there were also some nice declines to get your wheels turning. I ran the race with perfect balance between aggressive and conservative for the first 12 miles. I felt comfortable, I was turning miles in the 7:10 range consistently and I resisted every urge to go any quicker than 6:45 or so during the first five or six miles.

My average pace for the race fluctuated considerably with the inclines and declines and through 12, I was pretty close to on target for a 3:10. On paper, the second half looked quicker than the first and I thought I could negative split. However, I started to fatigue from the hills and a little bit before the half, I knew my day was done. There was a decline, and for the grade it was, I would normally turn at a 6:30 or so pace without much trouble. But all I was getting was 7:20 and I knew it was going to be a long second half.

Sure enough, I fell apart and had a rough go the rest of the way. I went through the half at 1:37 and change and finished in 3:21. I’m kind of frustrated because I’m running too many races up in this time zone. I know nobody cares but me, but it’s frustrating for me when I’m used to much faster times. Mentally, I just need to accept the fact that my times are going to be off. This is one of my biggest struggles this year and since I’m pretty competitive, I’ll probably battle with this the rest of the way.

The course was great. We got to run across the Golden Gate Bridge and I thought the course did a nice job highlighting the city. We ran down a street called Haight that was exactly what I think of when I think of San Francisco. One nice thing about this year is I get to see a lot of America, and that street ranks right up there with some of the cooler places I’ve seen. Probably not where I’d hang out, but it was pretty cool nonetheless.

Anyways, enough about me and my race. I really want to talk about Heather and Sarah and I want you to read this!

Heather is somebody I’ve known from an online running community for a few years. We’ve communicated for a while, I’ve given her a lot of advice about running over the years behind the scenes, and oh yeah, she’s a huge Operation Jack supporter. She’s from San Francisco and chose this race as her first marathon. I think she was going to run the race last year, but an injury got in the way. So she ran this one for Operation Jack, raising money in the process and making me grateful for people like her who believe in what I’m trying to do.

Her training went great. She worked hard and trained smart. I saw her numbers and she was really whipping herself into pretty good shape. Her times were getting good, she lost some weight and she was really ready to go. A year ago, she probably would have been somewhere in the mid-4s, but a few weeks ago, she started talking about going after a 4:05. I don’t think you need to shoot for the moon in a first marathon, but you should at least chase a decent goal. I told her that I really thought she could go sub-3:50, but I figured she should chase sub-4 as a decent goal.

She was ready for that sub-4, and I had no doubt she had the ability to pull it off. But you never know how the body is going to react in that first marathon over the final 10K. I saw her on the bridge on an out-and-back portion and she was cruising. I could tell she was right in the 3:50 range. I didn’t know how she would hold, but I was glad she wasn’t struggling early. The plan was I was going to finish and then run back on the course, find her and run her in. I had some motivational tricks up my sleeve just in case.

After I finished, I was cramping pretty bad, but I sucked it up and ran back to find her. No way could I go soft and miss this one-time experience. I thought I’d get about two miles out and then find her, but she caught my attention about 1.3 miles out or so. I was totally shocked. She was KILLING the course. I asked her what her time for the race was, because I needed to do the math to make sure she could get in sub-4. She said 3:37! I told her forget sub-4, let’s go get Boston! I did the math pretty quick and realized that she was actually a bit too far out and I told her that, but still — I was crazy impressed. She just needed to stay steady to bring home a sub-3:50!

I told I was proud of her for doing such a great job on the course and I could tell pretty quick that she couldn’t talk and she needed to stay focused, so I just kept on working on bringing her in. I asked her a few minutes later if she wanted to finish hard and pick people off and she told me no, she was already going as hard as she could. So I stayed steady and tried to push it a tiny bit to see how she’d respond. She didn’t have a ton left, but she had a little bit here and there and I stayed in front of her to keep her chasing me. She finished in 3:48:58. I can’t really come up with the words to explain how proud I am. It was awesome, definitely more than making up for my run.

But wait, there’s more! Another Operation Jack supporter, Sarah Loy from Massachusetts, also chose this as her first marathon. She found Operation Jack through the San Francisco Marathon website and really believed in what I’m doing, just like Heather. She did an incredible job fundraising and, like Heather, is someone I’m grateful to have in my corner this year.

She trained well and was primed to go after a BQ (3:40), but suffered a foot injury a few weeks ago and wasn’t even sure if she’d be able to run the race. I saw her before the race and she was telling me that she had a short training run earlier this week and her foot hurt so bad, she had to quit the run. She said she was going to try to run the marathon, but she wasn’t sure if she’d be able to finish.

I didn’t think she had a chance of finishing, although I certainly didn’t tell her that. When I was doing the back portion on the bridge, I said a prayer for her because I was hoping she’d be OK and that I’d see her in passing while she was on the out. I saw her pretty close to the end of that portion (just in the nick of time!) and she seemed pretty upbeat. I was pretty surprised and happy and slapped her a high-five.

She made it the whole way and finished her first marathon in 3:54. After the race, she told me it was a miracle and I agreed. I really couldn’t believe she finished the race. For the past few weeks, she missed a lot of runs and suffered through a lot of pain. To go out and nail a 3:54 in a debut under these circumstances on a difficult course was pretty amazing. I was really happy for her.

So, that’s San Francisco. Wasn’t thrilled with my race, but I was beyond thrilled with how Heather and Sarah ran, so all-in-all, it was a great day.

35 down, 26 to go. Next up, Choteau, Montana.

The dog days of summer continued for me Saturday at the University of Okoboji Marathon in Okoboji, Iowa. With high humidity and temps crawling from the low 70s at the start to the high 80s by the finish, I had a rough day on a rough day.

Mentally, I wanted to run well. When I woke up, I knew it was going to be a long, miserable day, but I still wanted to turn in a respectable effort. I suspected the weather would be similar to when I ran the Med-City Marathon in late May, and I wanted to do considerably better than I did that day when I struggled to a 3:57.

My plan for today was to keep things fairly under control early and hopefully have enough left to keep moving through the later miles. In the Med-City Marathon, I tried to take everything I could get early, then hang on as well as I could while it heated up. That didn’t work, and I ended up taking six walk breaks (the first six I had ever taken in 55 marathons to that point).

Today, I stayed fairly under control, moving well and not panicking when I couldn’t go as fast as I typically do. It was not a PR day, so I didn’t try to PR. There weren’t a lot of aid stations early, so I was concerned I was going to overheat too early. I can always tell how humid it is by how much I sweat. Sometimes, my clothing stays fairly dry. But I was completely soaked by about mile 5.

The sun started to come out fairly early, and after mile 7 or 8, we were exposed for the majority of the time. It got warmer and warmer, so I got slower and slower because I kept running by heart rate. I hit the half in 1:42, which is probably the slowest first 13.1 I’ve done this year, aside from Catalina and the three times I’ve been an official pacer.

By about mile 14, I just wanted the race to be over. I don’t normally hit that point until well past 20. It was hot, I was breaking down and I knew the second half was going to take forever, because I knew my miles were going to slow down considerably. I was so hot and sweating so bad that my shoes were soaked. I checked at one point and I was leaving light footprints on the asphalt from my wet shoes.

I really don’t remember a ton about the race, other than it was hot and I was beating myself up pretty badly. I knew heading into the race it was going to be a miserable experience and I was right. I didn’t pay much attention to my time — only my heart rate — but I could feel my body taking a beating. I was feeling very warm, my arms were feeling pretty heavy and my legs were getting pretty stiff.

I could tell that I was out of energy. I kept thinking to myself that my time was going to be terrible, but I didn’t care — I knew in my heart that I wrecked myself out there. I feel like part of what makes people jump on the Operation Jack bandwagon is that what I’m doing isn’t easy — it’s supposed to be tough. Well, on days like today, I really feel like I earned my money (well, Train 4 Autism’s money, but you know what I mean). This was truly a marathon and I left it all out there in the Iowa sun.

My finish time was 3:42:33. I’m embarrassed by the time, but I’m not embarrassed by my effort. I’ve had some good races this year. This wasn’t one of them, but I certainly executed better than Med City. As for the course, it was OK, but not great. Okoboji is a lake area in Iowa that people go to as a getaway vacation. There’s cool lake houses and lots of docks and people on weekend vacations. The scenery is decent with the lake and plenty of green, but it’s not spectacular. The race itself was on an open course. I wouldn’t recommend traveling to this race just to run it, but if you went to Okoboji for a vacation at the time of the race, it’s pretty low-key and aside from the heat, it was a fairly nice run.

So there you have it. 34 down, 27 to go. Next up, San Francisco!

I was nervous heading into Sunday’s Missoula Marathon with my assignment of pacing the first half of the 3:10 group. I don’t doubt my ability to hit 13.1 in 1:35, but it’s not easy work and I put a lot of pressure on myself when it comes to pacing for other runners. I found out a little more than seven hours before the start of the race that my assignment was switched to pacing the 3:50 group for the entire race. Believe it or not, that made me even more nervous!

A 3:50 marathon is an 8:46 pace, definitely not too fast for me to do. However, I was concerned that it was actually too slow. I run my recovery runs quicker than that, so when I’m fresh, which I was, it would be very easy for me to accidentally bump the pace 30 seconds faster and not even realize it. I was concerned that I would wear out my group if I didn’t pay very close attention to my pace.

When I pace, which I had done three times prior to Missoula, I keep an eye on the tangents I’m running an try to keep my pace locked on to what I’ll need based on what how far I think my Garmin will end up reading. I can tell how I’m doing as I go along. If I though I was going to run 26.3 with the tangents, I needed to run 8:44s. For 26.4, 8:42s. 26.5, 8:40s.

I wanted to start off taking it slightly easy early and run the first half about a minute fast, because there was a decent hill early in the second half that would take back time. Negative splits are one thing, but you also need to run the course correctly.

I started off well, running a pair of 8:48s to open, but right away, I could tell the mile markers were off and I was concerned that I was running bad tangents. There was a lot more traffic than I’m normally used to. I stepped it up a tiny bit, because one thing I definitely didn’t want to do was get my group there late. I took several miles to drop the average pace from 8:46 to 8:39, which is where I thought I needed to be.

Then, all of a sudden, the mile markers were right on track and I realized I was a bit fast. I hit the half in 1:53:57 on my Garmin when 1:55:00 is exactly half of 3:50, so that actually worked out perfectly. I gave some time back up the hill and locked into a groove the rest of the way.

I thought I was maybe 30 seconds fast for the race with about 9 to go, so I tried to slow down about 3 seconds a mile to let people reel me in. I tried my best to motivate those who needed motivating and I kept on moving to the finish.

At mile marker 24, I was only four seconds fast for the race, which I was happy about. I came up on a woman who had a friend pacing her. She really wanted that sub-3:50, but she was falling apart. They kept looking back at me as I approached and I felt bad, because I was the bad guy and I couldn’t slow down. But I tried to motivate her. She said she’d been training for six months for the race, and I told her to give me just one mile and she’d have it made. I didn’t tell her what I was going to tell her at 25, but I wanted to keep her moving.

I pushed a tiny bit that mile and she stayed with me and we were seven seconds fast for the race at 25. At that point, I told her that all she had was one lousy mile to go, and that she couldn’t let 25 awesome miles go down the drain with one mile. She was really pushing herself and didn’t have a lot left. I pushed a little bit that mile, dropping the pace to about 8:30 to build her a cushion as we chipped away at that final 1.2.

She fell about a half-step behind me, but I told her to just stay on my shoulder and run me down with .3 to go — she had the luxury of kicking. I can’t do that as a pacer. And that’s exactly what she did. She pulled ahead and got it done, finishing about 20 seconds ahead of me. She was exhausted and needed assistance, but she was fine and she got her time. It was a pretty cool experience.

There was another woman who ran the race on a whim and I kept her going with the “don’t let 24 good miles go to waste” line, and she took off at 24 and finished in 3:48, a 10-minute PR.

I got a lot of thank yous from my group afterwards. That’s probably the most rewarding part. It’s fun to really push in a race, but it’s fun to help others, too. So the run was a lot of fun.

Oh, and the course … the course is absolutely beautiful. You run a point-to-point course from Frenchtown, Montana to Missoula, Montana. There’s a lot of farms, trees, a river and eventually you end up right in the heart of town. It ranks way up there for scenic courses I’ve run this year. I really liked Catalina, Charlottesville (Va.) and Portland/Suavie Island (Oreg.), and I think this one is right up there with those.

Aside from the fact that I went to the wrong airport in Spokane and missed my flight, getting me stuck away from home an extra night, it was a great day.

33 down, 27 to go!