From Across the pond

I'm really not sure if I should bother blogging as I know hardly anyone reads them, but sometimes I like putting my thoughts down for me so I can look back & remember things as the memory starts to fade in my advancing years. It's just before 9am on a wet Tuesday in middle England & I'm in bed, I was up at 6.45 to help sort out my little fella for school & I'm so tired & the house is empty apart from the cats so decided on an early siesta. I have so much to do but so little get up & go to do it. I will get some work done later & I will drag myself out for a run - my longest run in the past 5 days is 5km, I'm still running every day but wondering why & what the value is of doing so, are the targets I have set myself really worth chasing ? does it really matter ? There are times I wish I wasn't so motivated to hit so many training milestones, but without goals I'd just quit. Why am I tired ? why am I in bed ? I have some great excuses honestly !!! One of which isn't that I'm in bed with Miss World & champagne George Best style !! I'm jetlagged after flying home from Atlanta over night on Thursday night / Friday morning. The first half of October was great with so many highlights, but like a rollercoaster after the continual ups come the less than joyous downs - not that Rollercoasters work that way perhaps the opposite way with the downs the thrilling part. The month started with a trip to the Portuguese capital & the chance to run with so many other English runners & socialise over a few beers whilst enjoying the fact that I had rounded off my countries count to 20, I do like round numbers so will have to do something about those 11 Capital Cities I have now run in. I do get a bit anal about numbers at times. The trip was helped logistically by my "rent a local" friend Tiago. He spends so much time in the UK but this was my first visit to him home country & I really enjoyed it. Whilst logistically the race start was a bit of a nightmare,8 miles in a cab & 40 mins on a train (bizarrely a girl chose to sit on the floor with her head 2 inches from my crotch ?!! why ????). A lack of portaloos (honey buckets) meant I left the facilities with 30 seconds to spare although the race thankfully started 2 mins late allowing me to weave through 2000 of the near 10,000 runners out there. I got to the start line 2 mins after the gun about to press start on my Garmin & it had gone into power save mode :( do i wait for a GPS signal allowing the 2000 runners to pass me & weave through them knowing my time but slowing me down or do i just go ? I decided to go, it took around 2 mins for me to get a signal & must have covered maybe 400 yards. Once I had a signal I decided to go wth the game plan of running sub 7.30 min miles the first half & allowing for 8.30's in the second half for a sub 3.30 finish, I still had to calculate in the bit at the beginning. The first half pace proved tough but I stayed on it & didn't fall away as much as anticipated, some rough maths using the timing clocks on the KM markers had me thinking I could maybe break 3.25 ? I crossed the line & stopped my watch in 3.23 amazingly with a distance of 26.31 miles (many of my friends were close to 26.5 miles) & I'd run a reasonably tight line 26.31 would be fine but of course I had to add my starting section. I grabbed a beer with some of my fellow countrymen & headed back to see my mate Karen who was supporting on the course 200 metres from the end & accompanied by a case of beer we cheered in ever single runner in the half & full marathons. We cheered 100 marathon club members, Marathons Maniacs, Swedes, Brazilians, Estonians, Poles everyone as lets race it we are all one race, one religion, one breed we are all runners & this is our church. A brief day & a half stop in the UK to unpack, wash clothes & repack before heading for yet another airport (4 different airports in 3 different countries could be a record for me ? ) late Thursday evening & Michael & myself crawled into the Holiday Inn at the airport in Atlanta after a long flight & 2 mini bus rides, time for sleep before an 8 hour drive through the Carolinas to the Bluefield on the West Virginia / Virginia border. The next 5 days would see us tackle 5 marathons across 5 states as we worked our way back to Atlanta. Day one & the Heavens opened 10 minutes before the race started, this was to set the tone for the days ahead, With 7 sub 3.30 marathons in 2014 & just 2 races beyond this series I decided to go with my usual plan of a hard first half & time in the bank for the second as i chased a round 10 sub 3.30's & in the process my 50th lifetime sub 3.45. All was going well until 18 miles & i lead the race by over quarter of a mile at one point. Having never won a marathon my mind started getting ahead of me & I started thinking of how cool a win would be, I should have been focussing on running a marathon, at 18 miles the wheels fell off & I was forced to walk in places until I was finally swept up by Jesse & Daniel two brothers from Minnesota (dubbed the "Fargo boys" by Michael as he had been watching the TV series of the same name). Both Michael & another guy called David (also from Minnesota - is the stare so bad that everyone wants to get out ?!!!) past me too & I settled for 5th spot but at least i could add another run to my list of Sub 4 marathons. Day two was a day i was dreading. The day two course would be the same as the day one course due to the fact that the course crossed the state line. I knew what was coming & that didn't help mentally,the course was littered with multiple short sharp climbs nothing major but with the 12 laps course they were just relentless & were grinding me down, the first 6 miles was good the final 20 less so. I really didn't have much fun & barely broke 5 hours, but the beer afterwards went down well, before we hit the road South to Morganton, NC. I went into day three with a much more positive outlook, I had a mission a desire & thankfully a new unknown course to tackle. North Carolina was my nemesis state. I had started 199 races of marathon distance or longer & finished 198, the one blot on that copy book was the Graveyard 100 along the the Outer Banks of the state. I made it to 72 miles but like a well hit fly ball it was long but I didn't hit it over the green monster. I had a point to prove, not that there is any comparison between a marathon & a 100 miler. I went out conservativley with the goal of running under 9 minutes per mile & many were closer to 8.30 minutes per mile. I just kept ticking off the miles one by one & I was done finishing second behind Jesse.I actually didn't realise that his brother was a lap down so I finished a pleasing second but this was about some kind of redemption, a return to the times I am capable of in a state that had given me the most heartbreak in my running career (I'll never forget the feeling of failure whilst sat on the steps of a bank at 11pm in Kitty Hawk shivering with a pulled groin in 2013.) Now the question was with all I had put in physically & emotionally in Morganton what would SC hold for me ? Thinking it couldn't be wetter than the first 3 days I proved emphatically wrong, we were warned of lightning strikes & just over an hour into the race the heavy rain became torrential & within 30 mins there were 6 inch deep rivers running across the course. After a solid first 4 miles I just gave up mentally but luckily found some wonderful folks to tag along with & enjoy the ride. I ran with Tim, the Bladerunner, Tim had one leg & an Oscar Pistorius style blade (thankfully his similarity with the South African ended there as I

exitted an on course bathroom still alive !) Not one to shy away from the obvious questions I asked how he's lost the leg & recounted his story as a crazy kid on a motorcycle having a harsh disagreement with a garbage truck in his youth, but he had a wonderful sense of humour as he told me of his rehab & hot nurses speeding up his recovery. After a lap with Tim I ran a bit with Steve Boone, a smart guy from Texas (some would argue smart & Texas don't belong in the same sentence !! LOL !!) Steve is the head honcho of the US 50 states club for those who have completed a marathon in all 50 states, by this point I had dragged myself through halfway with no idea of how long I was taking & for once I really didn't care I was getting to know some fantastic folks. Steve had wondered why I was running with him when there were so many pretty girls on the course & you know what he had a point !!!! There was the lovely blondes Nicole & Chavet, Maria from Portugal who ironically had a British boyfriend Saul team GB member number 3, Christina the lovely sports therapist from New York, Patricia who had dressed as Miss America with stars & stripes everywhere & Emily from Georgia. It was Emily that drew the short straw & got stuck with me !! we had a few laughs & I learned a whole new language & I'm now fluent in "South Georgian Y'all ;) I actually thought we must be on the same lap but with 200 yards to go Emily sped up to finish or to get away from me ? probably the latter ? The clock said 4.45 & so I though can I run around 8 in miles for about 1.8 miles ? I thought why not give it a go so off I went like a greyhound (The dog rather than the shiny bus that stops everywhere & banned me getting on with beer back in May !!) I even ran the hills but I got in under 5 hours so a small success. It was now time to have Georgia on my mind as we headed towards Helen, GA. I' really not sure if i loved it's Oktoberfest feel with German/ Alpine housing or found it rather manufactured & fake however I did appreciate the entrepreneurs who had put the place on the tourist map & made a few bucks along the way I'm sure ? The change of scenery was a welcome one too. We checked into our lodge at the Unicoi state park before showering & heading for dinner in a great roadhouse style bar & grill. The group dinners had been a great part if the 5 days & between 20 & 30 had come out to dine together & share "war stories" of races & travels, dreams & goals & the odd beverage. I had experimented with some great local ales over the course of the trip plus a Mojito (I think that had to google how to make one in SC it took so long ?!) as well as managing to work my way through an 18 pack of sodas (or Bud Light as it says on the label) I did have to recount my Monty Python joke, please forgive the language Q :"what does having sex in a kayak with a hole in it have in common with American beer ? A : They are both F***ing close to water !! Day 5 dawned & guess what ? it wasn't raining, however the 4 days prior had taken it's toll on the planned route so a rain route was enforced as we headed out on a soggy grass course & it was like school cross country but much warmer & without Mr Giles yelling "get a bloody move on Bayley" Patricia,Christina & myself had decided day 5 would be Superhero day - I thought it was rather appropriate given that the London Marathon rejection magazine featured Ironman on the cover & 5 marathons in 5 days in running terms is a pretty heroic undertaking - not many folks do 5 marathons in a lifetime & even less do it in under a week. There were 4 of us as batman / batgirl, Robin, Christina as Iron(wo)man, Patricia as Wonder Woman, Kevin was Spiderman, Ila & Edna were Wonder Woman too. I did debate with Tim Michael Keaton style that "I'm Batman" before admitting he was the better Michael Keaton so settled for being Val Kilmer (despite some folks in the UK suggesting that at my age I should be Adam West !!!) Karen my Enigma Running PA/RD & Driver had very kindly bought me a snug fitting Batman compression top which was very kind of her but still not sure I measured up as well as the Iceman. Today was all about having fun & we did, everyone was supportive of each other from those at the front of the pack, to those at the back. For every "Good Jawb" I got I returned the sentiment with a shout of "top Drawer" or "Splendid" & did discuss reclaiming the land for the Queen before deciding we didn't need anymore uncivilised savages as we'd retained Scotland the month before - LOL !!! With a lap to go I found myself in the same situation as the day before, I had run with another pretty girl - Patricia this time the unfortunate recipient for my company for a handful of miles & found I need to accelerate to get under 5 hours so i did. With 200 yards to finish i couldn't help but shed a tear, Why ? for a variety of reasons, I had met some great folks, had a wonderful holiday, finished a tough 5 days in awful weather & I had made it to 200 marathons in total, but maybe the biggest reason was the relief that it was over ? Chris handed me a bottle of Full Nelson Pale Ale from Virginia to balance my body with the Bud Light in my other hand as we chatted & waited for more of our buddies to finish. Patricia finished in tears too & we hugged, I know it had taken alot out of her & i also knew how proud she was of what she had achieved & indeed what we all had achieved. Chavet twisted my arm to join her & a handful of others to Fireball ? I had no idea what this was or what I had agreed to do ? was I going to be set on fire & left in the woods ? thankfully not, it turns out it's a cinnamon whisky & we were doing shots of it, who was I to argue ?!! Clint the race director very kindly presented me with a plaque & a note to commemorate my 200th marathon & i wa pleased to get a second 100 done to prove the first 100 weren't just lucky !! Anyway enough of my ramblings, I'm sure most of you got bored before this point & went out for coffee ?! A most memorable week :) keep on running Foxy