Space Coast Marathon – Wow!! What a ride!

“Life is not a journey to the grave with the intention of arriving safely in a pretty and well-preserved body, but rather to skid in broadside, thoroughly used up, totally worn out, and loudly proclaiming: “WOW!! What a ride!”

Dean Karnazes

(quoting unknown source)

Ultra Marathon Man, Confessions of an All-Night Runner

Official time: 4:27:39 and I hit the wall – hard – around mile 23, but I finished.



It’s honestly hard to say which was more rewarding, crossing the finish line myself, or watching other friends accomplish the same feat for the first time. It’s remarkable how strong the bond is that forms between people training together for a marathon.

Someone whose opinion I respect suggested I dedicate a blog entry to what happened to me in the last 10 miles of this race. I couldn’t agree more. It was a true test of character and one of the hardest things I have done in my life.

I will take just a little time to reflect and then fill you in on the gritty details.

What's my Secret?

“What was the secret, they wanted to know; in a thousand different ways they wanted to know The Secret. And not one of them was prepared, truly prepared to believe that it had not so much to do with chemicals and zippy mental tricks as with that most unprofound and sometimes heart-rending process of removing, molecule by molecule, the very tough rubber that comprised the bottoms of his training shoes.”

This is the passage that immediately precedes the famous “Trial of Miles, Miles of Trials” quote from Once a Runner, by John L. Parker, Jr. (a great read by the way).

The character from Parker’s book was training for the mile, attempting to conquer the elusive 4:00, but the same philosophy holds true for marathon training.

I can only hope that over the course of over 500 miles of training during the past 18 weeks, my tracks contain enough of those molecules of eroded rubber.

I’ll find out in four more days.

Doppelaufer PR’s are Dropping like Flies

Two races this weekend – Two new PR’s. Congratulations Fruitfly and tg16!

Here are the latest standings:

(Click to enlarge)

As always, you can follow along with all of our nonsense in our discussion thread at Cool Running.

A Journey of 500 Miles

I officially started my marathon training 17 weeks ago on July 26. An eight mile run this morning brought my total mileage to 525 since starting this journey.



You can view my training plan, as well as the actual mileage I ran, here.

With one week left, I can honestly say that I feel ready. I had highs and lows throughout my training, but I’m happy to say I am ending on a high. I thought that I would feel beat up and run down at this point, but instead I feel better than I have in a long time. My last few long runs went extremely well and I finished each one feeling stronger, more confident, and remarkably pain free.  I know much of this success is due to the support and advice I recieved since joining the West Volusia Running Group and I owe them a huge debt of gratitude.

Next week, I expect I’ll look back and scrutinize my training to figure out what worked well and what did not.  But for now I will sit back, relax, and try to enjoy a week of rest and gluttony.

Seven more days until the Space Coast Marathon!

Doppel Racing is Blowin’ Up!

All it took was a single belated announcement that the virtual race is on again, and new entrants started coming out of the woodwork.

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We’re still getting new entrants at a fast pace, once the field gets more stable I’ll clean up this spreadsheet a bit and make it more easily readable.

Out of 13 racers in our last event, 10 set new PR’s. I hope this one is just as successful, as long as no one beats me. ;-}

I have not yet won an award for my running, but at least my excel skills are appreciated.



DoppelLaufer Turkey Bell Challenge

OK, OK we’re doing it again, you can stop the nagging now.  Yes, virtual racing is back!

We have expanded the challenge to include races of any distance (5k through marathon) through the end of the year, just in time for the holiday Turkey Trots, Gobbler Runs, Jingle Bell Runs, Candy Cane Runs, etc.

You can read the details and enter here, or just jump into our discussion thread over at Cool Running. or you can just send me your race info and 5k PR through my blog and I'll make sure you are added to the list. I will also be posting updates and results here in my blog.  

Check out my DoppelLaufer Virtual Racing page for past results and a brief history of this nonsense.

It's all Downhill from Here

I’m tired.

I just completed my highest mileage week ever, 47 miles, which immediately followed my best month ever at 173 miles.

Physically I feel great. Surprisingly I have no aches or pains, but I’m exhausted. I have to say I’m looking forward to a couple of lower mileage weeks. This week I’ll run around 32 miles with a 12 mile long run, and next week 25 miles with the longest run only 8 miles.

I can’t remember the last time I had a weekend that wasn’t completely dedicated to preparing to run, running, and recovering from running.  It sounds luxurious.

20 more days left and already I find myself wondering – What’s next?

Time to Taper

Apologies in advance to friends and family that will have to put up with me for the next few weeks.  Check out this website for some insight into what I will be going through:  Taper Madness

Yesterday I completed my final long run in preparation for the Space Coast Marathon, 23.8 miles.



I owe many thanks to the other Robert from WVR for planning this route and for coaching me through the run.  It made what could have been an agonizing experience into a very pleasant Saturday morning run.

I'm ready.

I also want to wish good luck to all of my friends running the New York Marathon today!

Daytona Beach Half Marathon Results

My head is still spinning this morning after a great race yesterday in Daytona Beach, but I thought I would put up a quick post with my results.

1:52:07

That’s an average 8:34 pace.

I placed 162nd overall and 24th in my age group.

My best mile was mile 13 at 8:05, the slowest was the first mile at 9:07.

I beat the bridge so bad that its still quivering today after the pounding my feet gave it.

I exceeded my goal for the race by a comfortable margin.

I’ll post more details soon.