I’m competing in 2014 as a “Blazeman Warrior.” In 2005, Jon "The Blazeman" Blais raced the big Ironman, in Hawaii, and completed it even while suffering from ALS/Lou Gehrig’s Disease. His family started the Blazeman Foundation for ALS. I’m raising money for them and in honor of Jon, I plan on rolling across the finish line in Coeur d’Alene just as Jon did when he finished. A famous quote from Jon is, "Even if I have to be rolled across the finish line, I'm finishing," so you often see Blazeman Warriors rolling across Ironman finish lines.
I also lost an Aunt to ALS so this charity is very personal to me. Any help would be appreciated.
An Ironman is 140.6 miles so even if you donated just 10 cents per mile, that would be $14.06. You can donate at the following link:
http://www.active.com/donate/teamblazeman/blazemanJJohnso
The KDF marathon was on Saturday and it had been a challenging training schedule to say the least. The weather was horrid, like most of the country, over the winter, so that meant a lot of treadmill runs, icy runs, and so on. But a few weeks ago, I had done a very hilly Run the Bluegrass in 1:56 so I was feeling pretty good. I followed that up with an 18 mile long run the following weekend and then went into taper mode.
I had tossed around the idea of trying to go for a sub 4 hour marathon. I had previously done 2 stand alone marathons, both at this same race. The first was 5:15 and the second was 4:47. I was very confident I could beat that 4:47 but wasn't sure I could go under 4. But I figured it was worth a try and I would never know my limit if I didn't go beyond it, right?
I decided to join a pace group along with my friends Scott and Susan. A 4 hour marathon pace is 9:09/mile. I set my watch to show me how I was doing in relation to that pace and off we went. The first couple miles were a bit slow as we dealt with a big crowds but then we got into a groove. It was a fast pace, but I felt ok as we got closer to Churchill Downs and ran through the track and made the split as the marathon course splits off from the half-marathon course. I looked at my watch and we were about 50-60 seconds ahead of the 9:09 pace.
The first real challenge is the lower hilly loop of Iroquois Park. I looked at my watch as we entered the park and I was 58 seconds ahead of the 4 hours pace. My goal for the loop was to break even at about the same lead exciting the park. But even though I was personally right on target throughout the park, the pace group left me and got farther and farther ahead. My pal Scott told me that he stayed with the group and he averaged 8:45/mile in the park, which explains why I couldn't keep up. I'll admit that it demoralized me. I don't expect pacers to be perfect but over 3-4 miles that's a loss of a minute or more that I couldn't make up.
I did my best to stay on pace but about mile 19, I just didn't have it in me. Not that I slowed to say 15 minute miles but was in the 11 minute range for most of the last 8 miles. I also ran into some psychological games. Once I lost the 4 hour group, with my PR being 4:47, I knew that was in the bag, even if I had to walk a lot, so I lost the will to really push it toward the end.
Final time: 4:17. A 30 minute PR, but not what I wanted. I guess that means there's next year?
Oh a good note, I did get a nice treat at the end. Because I had done both the Run the Bluegrass and KDF races, I completed something called the "Kentucky Classic" and got an extra medal. It's the one in the middle.
The next event is a half-Ironman in mid-May. Thanks for reading and stay tuned...
