Monday, October 11, 2010

Negative split/positive result

This old coach ran yet another marathon to add to my growing list of 26.2-mile finishes. Sunday, it was the Mohawk Hudson River Marathon, one of my favorites. I've completed this race many times.

On Sunday, it was a perfect weather day. I ran a negative-split effort of 4:16:49 (2:12:38, first half; 2:04:55, second half). It was hard work, every step of the way. I'm much slower than I once was, but I ran it as hard as I could.

Huge thanks to Zak Smetana's mom, Kim, and Zak's sister, who took care of me after the race and drove me back to my car at the starting line. They even fetched me a much-needed, post-race Dr Pepper! Seriously, they were a huge help.

This marathon finish helps me continue a streak of at least one marathon finish every year since 1987. They get harder and slower, but we're still getting there.

5 comments:

peter said...

Pete, you've had a lot of "distractions" these past few weeks with your teams...runner sprawled on the ground in the woods with heatstroke, opening the doors of the bus and letting the varsity athletes dash out and jog to the starting line...

how you can handle coaching AND training for your own race is amazing, so your ability to finish is commendable, no matter what the time.

peter said...

forgot to add this- do you happen to know how Gil Anderson did?

Steve said...

I find it remarkable that with all your daddy, teaching and coaching responsibilities you can even get to the starting line of a marathon, much less a finish line. In my 17 years of high school coaching I never ran one marathon.

Pete said...

Thanks for the kind words, men! Peter, I am pretty certain Gil did not run this event. He generally does not do longer races. Still sore, but getting better every day. Back to normal "training" next week maybe ...

Barry @ Placid Quake said...

Pete,
Congratulations on finishing the Mohawk. That's a great accomplishment. I ran Steamtown on Sunday...finishing an hour and 11 minutes behind Mr. Rolek. Still, it was my PR. Missed Boston by 3 minutes and 3 seconds.

Run hard, brother.