That fact left my reeling for what to do next. Over the next two weeks I went back and forth about what to do but ultimately I decided on limited rest/recovery I would race Monumental and just see what
happens. I adjusted my goals. 2:45 was out the window. I truly believe that I am in 2:45 shape but given the circumstances going into IMM was going to be happy with a PR and running a “good” race. I was not happy with how I raced in Chicago. Regardless of time, I did not have it together in Chicago and I wanted to right that wrong.

Race Day:

Sean picked me up around 7 and we drove down to the start line, found an awesome street spot, and
were inside the Convention Center meeting up with Collin by 7:30. Thank you small city racing!!! Collin and I headed to the start around 7:45 or so and found Josh and Michael with Sean joining us a little later after checking his bag. We discussed times and Collin’s awesome throw away sweater that Josh gave him. It was straight out of Mr. Roger’s. Sean was targeting 2:45, Josh and Michael about 2:55 and Collin and I, 2:50. If everything came together it was going to be a great day of racing.

Since I was running with Collin I decided to let him set the pace and not have my watch set on the pace. I would run with him and see how things went. We settled into the first couple miles running by Lucas Oil, Eli Lilly Corporate Center, and heading to Mass Ave in a quick pace…at least it felt quick to me. Looking at Collin, he was looking smooth and fluid and knew pretty early it wasn’t going to be my day to stick with him and I should let him go up the road. Probably somewhere around mile 5 I started to drop back a bit and told him I was going to sit behind him as long I was could. I didn’t see his face again until the finish line. We hit the 10K 39:04. I slowed it down a bit over the next couple of miles trying to find something that felt comfortable. I never really felt comfortable to be honest.

I dumped onto 38th St. by the Indiana State Fairgrounds feeling sorry for myself and my legs were tired. At this point, I am 8 miles into the race and am thinking I made a really bad decision to run another marathon so soon after Chicago. It was at this point that I had a decision to make: I can feel sorry for myself and shut it down when I see Lindsey at 16, cut the course and just run home, or I can focus on racing “hard” and giving it everything I had and just see what happens. Luckily before too long, the course turns north onto Washington Blvd and I see our friend Choy out cheering. He gives me some encouragement. It helped. I decided I needed to keep on running and just see what happens. Before too long, I am through Meridian Kessler and onto College Ave. headed toward Broad Ripple around mile 12…just get to the halfway point. I get to 13.1 just north of Broad Ripple in 1:23:36. At this point, I see Sean’s wife, Whitney, and his family. They give some more encouragement so I keep on running. My legs hurt…this was a bad idea, etc. just a couple more miles to 16 and I can stop when I see Lindsey.

I am now running south on Meridian toward 46th. I have already had two gels and don’t really like the idea of another one so I take a pack of Clif Shot Bloks from one of the aid stations and chomp on those for a bit. It really seemed to help my mood. It felt good to chew something. I continue on. My legs feel really awesome at this point. I make it to 46th  and Meridian and make the right hand turn to go up the small hill toward Butler. Lindsey and Choy are there! Lindsey is as crazy as ever. If you could make a living as a marathon spectator she’d be a pro’s pro. I don’t really acknowledge her and power. Despite how I felt, she told me that I looked 1000 times better then I did in Chicago at more or less the same point. More Running. Run through Butler and over to the IMA. See my buddy JBakeIndy outside the IMA…things are really starting to hurt now and I am having trouble not slowing down. I keep pushing on.

Mile 16

I come out of the IMA and head toward the White River Parkway and the 30K spilt. I hit the 30K in
2:00:29. Only 12K or so to go….I can hold on. Its going to be tough but I can do it. As we head down the on ramp to the Parkway Jackie Dikos, Lucie Mays-Sulewski and crew come flying past. I saw them early on in the race and figured I would see them again…just not sure when. Looking back, based on their finish times, I should have started with their pack.

Once off the Parkway and to the Naval Armory, I’ve got just around a 10K to go…maybe a little less. Up the road on Riverside I see what looks to be Sean…that’s not good. I shouldn’t be seeing him. I quickly approach him at 21. He’s walking. Oh no! I run past. He looks like he is having great time. I try and get him to run with me. He’s not having it and says good luck and tells me to keep going. (Side note: this was Sean’s first marathon and a lot of things can happen in your first one. He’s a 1:14 Half guy so he’ll be back and can really kick ass with more experience now.)

With any marathon…with maybe the exception of Boston all courses have a dull point and this is it for IMM. 21-23 is pretty bad. It is a bad section of the race and the area is blah. You are all alone and just trying to get back to Meridian. I keep running as best I can. The pain is pretty terrible. I am trying to keep the miles as close to 7:00 as possible. I think the worst mile was 7:15.

I make the right hand turn on Meridian and rejoin the half people. 3 miles to go. I run by the BoMF water stop and here some encouraging words from people that recognize me. I’m kind of out of it at this point so I’m not sure who said what. I keep telling myself just get to the library and then it is only 1 mile to go. I keep creeping down Meridian. I’ve been doing some math and pretty sure I can hold 7:05 and comfortably PR. I keep running. I’m looking for Lindsey. She is supposed to be at 25. As usual, I hear her before I see her and just about the same time I see her Josh Dials comes flying up on me and motions to push with him…or maybe he said it. I don’t know. I pick it up as best I can but Josh is pushing and my legs are not having it. I stick with him but let him go up the road a bit. Half mile and it will be over. Just keep running. I turn on West Street and then turn again to the finishing chute. I cross the line and nearly collapse from my legs giving out. Its over! 2:54:28. A two minute PR.

Post Race Thoughts:

I’ve debated about how to finish this blog. I could focus on how this race wasn’t the race I wanted and how Chicago was supposed to be it and “what if” and project times but I don’t want to do that. I am extremely satisfied with my race from Saturday. I came into the race knowing an “A” effort was not
possible and just wanted to race hard and leave it all out there and I did that. A PR is a PR as Heath
Dotson would say. I am satisfied but am I content? Absolutely not….I know that I am capable of so much more and I am going to keep pushing after it but for now I am going to enjoy a little downtime and be happy with my race. I’ve got all Winter to focus on chopping wood and carrying water to bring down that current PR to 2:4X:XX.

I read an article today that I thought had a great closing quote that seemed appropriate here:

“That is both the gift and the curse of the marathon,” Cass said. “When you finally get it right, it’s the product of 30 variables that you have maybe 50 percent control of. When you get it wrong, you try to analyze all 30 of those variables. It’s nearly impossible to figure out exactly what went wrong and how to make it better next time. But that’s the goal. To take a look at what happened and go back to the
drawing board. And, if it’s in the cards, to give it another go.”

Congratulations to everyone that raced and crushed some very big dreams on Saturday!! 

Sadly I wasn’t able to see everyone, but there were a LOT of accomplishments in our city on Saturday. The day was beautiful and what happened was beautiful. I believe that working hard and pushing your limits makes you a better person and not only that; it encourages and inspires others to do the same.

I couldn’t resist making a list of all of the amazingness that happened.… then I started the list and realized how many people we knew who ran and it was a little out of control. Dang, Indianapolis, you like to run.

Collin: 2:44:29 – PR

Collin at mile 16.4 trucking up a hill

Josh: 2:53:31- PR

Glenn: 2:54:28 – PR

Michael: 2:56 – PR… maybe?!

Glenn & Josh at mile 25.4

Megan: 4:27:09 – First Marathon

Nikki: 4:39:45 – First Marathon

Marty: 4:58:41 – First Marathon

A couple of local ladies I twitter stalk who are insanely fast:

Jackie Dikos: 2:48:19

Lucie Mays-Sulewski: 2:48:38

Mile 16 all packed up! These ladies are freaking tough.

Chrissy: 3:03:20 – PR

Saw Chrissy just past mile 12 & ran with her for a bit.

• Colleen De Reuck : Age: 49 won the woman’s race in 2:39:22

Colleen De Reuck at mile 25 after she took the lead to head in for the W.

So, then we spent Sunday morning watching NYC Marathon coverage. Oh my goodness and I know you’ve probably all seen Meb’s post race video by now- but if not, make sure you watch it. I love that he finished the race. I’ve always said unless I was physically injured I will finish every race I start no matter how ugly it gets. I understand why people might decide to dropout to prevent injury or maybe save it for another day, but I very much respect what he did. How can you not.

Glenn and I have talked about this topic a lot and especially over the past few weeks after his Chicago blowup.  I asked him if he were to have started walking at mile 18 or 19 on to the finish when he knew for sure that any hope of meeting a PR (let alone his actual goal time) was out the window – would that have improved his race at IMM?

The obvious answer is “probably”. If you endure running 26.2, you are not going to be recovered in 3 weeks. Plain and simple. It’s not rocket science. It’s science, but simple science.

I know a lot of people advised Glenn against giving the 26.2 another shot so soon… but here’s the deal. He’s not an elite athlete, while he takes himself seriously, he doesn’t take himself too seriously and dang it he wanted to race again before he hung it up for the fall. There was a good chance he would blow up again. He wasn’t racing at a prime time. But, he worked his ass off and took 2 minutes off a fairly outdated PR. (The whole Ironman thing in 2012, paired with a mild injury spring 2013 delayed him giving it a go)

We’ve both set some pretty BIG goals and steps in taking times off our half and full marathons recently and while they are totally attainable, it’s important to remember to celebrate the smaller steps that get you there. Two minutes is a lot of time no matter how fast or slow you run and going from a 2:56 to 2:54 is something to celebrate.

I’m super proud. I know he gave it all he had on Saturday and this should give him some great confidence for what he can do on fresh legs in the spring.

I can’t forget to mention- IMM keeps getting better and better. Blake, Casey, Heather & whoever else is involved have done a great job. Congratulations on a great race guys! And Thank you so much to everyone in the city, including many BoMF Residential Members & volunteers who volunteered long hours!

Post Race! The amazing thing about IMM is it’s pretty darn easy to find your runner post race!!

Congratulations times a million to everyone this weekend! You all inspired me for when I can get back at training & I had an absolute blast cheering you on and watching you dig deep. Also congrats to everyone who ran NYC!!! (Hollie, Beth and all the other Oiselle gals and Patty!)

Glenn’s going to have his race recap ready tomorrow!!! YIPPIE!!

I hope I didn’t miss anyone but I’m sure I did- who else raced IMM this weekend?

Anyone else have a great racing weekend of running OR spectating? Aren’t these athletes incredible?!

After some reflecting and talking with Lindsey, I decided I don’t really want to recovery, train, taper, travel and race again at one of the many December marathons I was considering to go after 2:44:59 again. I’m just not into that…and really its the traveling that I don’t want to do.

Over the course of the last eight weeks, we have not been home as a family a single weekend and I’m over it. We had a baptism, vacation, a wedding, surgery recovery in Btown, family in town, surgery recovery in Crown Point, Chicago, and then last weekend the Columbus Marathon expo. I’m ready for some nice “down” time at home with Lindsey and Marshall and the idea of traveling to AL or DE for a race in couple of weeks after Thanksgiving was wearing me out. So with all that being said that brings me back to the IMM and I’m going to run it.

I go into this marathon with eyes wide open…I am 100% positive this is not optimal for racing but that does not really concern me. I WANT to run it with Collin and see what happens. Collin is hoping to break 2:50 so I’m going to pace it out with him and if I blow up or feel like crap…oh well. I’ll just run it in nice and easy.

You could debate this topic all day long about whether or not to run the race so soon after Chicago and really feedback has been somewhat spilt. I have sought out the opinions of many very smart runners, coaches, twitter, blog people etc and everyone seems to have an opinion. I welcome all of it and am open to pretty much all of it. I am sure that I have worn Lindsey out with all the chatter but following the bad taste Chicago left in my mouth it was all consuming.

I have made peace with what happened in Chicago. I made some mistakes early, it was a bad day in general, and probably a bad time to race logistically for me. Oh well. Lesson learned.

I am looking forward to Saturday. I get to sleep in my own bed Friday night and then wake up and run the roads I know so well on Saturday. I’m going to work my ass off as best I can and let the clock stop when it stops.

You know what else I am looking forward to? Making the all important decision about what Thanksgiving Day race to do. That will be top priority after Saturday. It is between the Drumstick Dash, a huge local race here that supports Wheeler Mission and everyone loves it.  Or one back home. The Drumstick is 4.5 miles and the one at home is a 10K. It will probably come down to when do we want to travel…Wednesday night or Thursday after the DD.

Good luck to everyone racing this weekend especially Katy, Jake, Amy, Sean, Collin, Dan, Gabe and all of the Back on My Feet runners out there. There are a lot of big goals being chased Saturday! Go crush some dreams.

Get fresh this week! Race well and kick ass! I’m sure I missed some people. 

Here’s a throwback picture of Lindsey & I running IMM in 2009: We ran this untrained on a whim and squeezed in just under 4 hours. 

 There is something good about doing a workout as a group. All out there getting it done. Supporting each other. Hanging out afterwards. Its an environment that breeds success if you ask me.  I mean don’t get me wrong I still do a vast majority of my workouts alone. I like them alone but once a week its nice to have the group to push and support. It is a different mental game doing them alone and I believe there is great value in that as come race day its just you and the clock. But there is also great benefit in being to feed off the group, push yourself with group. Group suffering is also good. I guess, as just with everything else, there is a balancing act between group and solo work.

We have been doing them now for 4 weeks and I have made two them. We try and alternate who attends since apparently Marshall is unable to watch himself and it is frowned upon if we leave him alone…whatever responsibility.

Today was my turn to attend. The workout called for 3 x 1 mile repeats with 2:00-3:00 recovery and the option for a 4th for whoever wanted to flex their muscle :).

I ran up from the house to meet the group. Its about a two mile run up the Monon to our meeting place by Einstein’s. It was pretty foggy outside this morning…which is pretty strange for July in Indiana but the weather has been kind of weird lately so who knows. We had another great group out this morning ready to do work at 5:30. I love it! Its an early start but with jobs, the heat, and everything else it is just easier to get the session done early then have it hanging over your head  all day.

Amy, Jake, Gabe, Meghan, Jeff, Blake, and Sean were all ready to go when I got there. We warmed up about a mile and half and then it was time to work.

Sean is getting ready for his first marathon, the Monumental Marathon downtown, and is a heck of a runner…I mean he took 3rd in state for Cross Country, has a 1:14:xx Half PR and ran for a year or two at IU before retiring so I was glad to have him out there to do some work with me.

The Workout:
Mile 1 – 5:28
Mile 2 – 5:33
Mile 3 – 5:33
Mile 4 – 5:26

That last mile hurt.  The goal was to run them in about 5:30 – 5:34 so I was happy with the splits. The weather helped today…last time we did this workout it was obscenely hot and humid for even 5:45.

Everyone in the group was working hard up and down the Monon. Amy tweeted earlier that she took 20 secs per mile off her previous splits from the last time we did the workout. I’m telling you work works. She will kill her PR here in the fall! It will be exciting to see!!

Once everyone was done with their workout we did another group cool down about another mile and half….well it was kind of a group cool down. Jake had a false alarm with his keys. He thought they had went missing so we were up and down the trail looking for them but they never turned up. Turns out they did a little hide and seek in his compression shorts and were found once Jake changed. HAHA. I’m glad they turned up because if it was me that would have drove me crazy. Ask Lindsey, I can’t stand losing or not being able to find something. I have to look until I find it. I have to.

Finished the run off with another two miles back to house. It feels good to have about 11 miles with some speed done before 7:30.

With it being 4th of July this week, I ended up taking today and Friday off…so that is nice. Just hanging with Marsh and Lindsey today and then I think we are going to head up to CP for the 4th to see my family and best friend, who just had a baby.

Also Lindsey is allegedly running the Firecracker 6 tomorrow downtown. She’s already nervous. Weather should be good. We’ll see how she can hammer. 6 miles is hard. Its long enough to be into endurance but short enough to really push. Its a tough distance. Next up for me after some easy runs tomorrow and Friday is 16 steady state miles @ 6:35. I’ll be doing this alone.

Oh and I think we might go check out the new Earth Fare in Carmel later. We like to keep it hippie and organic.

Have  a great 4th! Happy birthday America! Come run with us next week!

Questions: Do you like running with a group? What about tough sessions alone? Racing any 4th of July events?

Immediately following IMWI, I remember telling Lindsey and my family that I was never going to do anything like that again….but I also said that after we ran our first marathon together in 2008. I am currently on number 12. Slowly but surely in the days following the race my mind began to wonder. What if I do this? What if I buy that? Maybe I could try this? If only? Blah Blah Blah….it could go on and on. In the week following Wisconsin I kind of had a strong urge to race another one in 2013 but man I am glad now at this point that I did not pull the trigger and go sign up for one.

I do have a strong desire to race another Ironman in the future just not anytime soon. Maybe 3-5 years from now? All those questions in my head about what if I do believe I have the answer for them and can make big jumps in my performance (I’d like to crack the Top 10 in my Age Group and depending on the course flirt with breaking 10:00:00 hours) but alas that will have wait for another day and I am okay with that.

Ironman training is hard. Really hard actually and not just on the athlete. If you are not single this means getting a huge buy-in from your wife, girlfriend, SO, partner, whatever because if you are racing an Ironman they essentially are as well. Throw a pregnancy and a newborn 10 weeks out from the race and you  reach a whole new stratosphere of buy-in/commitment. Because when you are training, everything you do revolves around the training. I mean everything! You are consumed by it. It was all that I thought about. Day and night. It would not be fair to Lindsey and Marshall for me to jump back into that sort of thing and frankly I don’t think I have the mental horepower to jump back on the horse in 2013. I will live to fight another day.

I will never fully understand what Lindsey had to go through with Marshall and everything while my training block was at its pinnacle. I can only begin to imagine what it was like. I am and will be forever grateful for her sacrifice. Thank you Lindsey!

Moving forward my focus is shifting back to running. As that is what I really love to do. I believe running is a great test of mental and physical strength and endurance. I look forward to lacing them up again and really getting after it.

My current plan is to ride the wave of fitness from Wisconsin into a the Indianapolis Monumental Half Marathon in early November. I raced the Indianapolis Mini Marathon on May and really enjoyed racing that distance so I am going to take another crack at it. My goal for the race is break 1:20:00. That will be hard but I believe I can do it. In May, I ran in the low 1:24’s in some god awful conditions. Sunny and unbearable humid. So I am thinking in November race conditions should be a little more favorable. We will see how it goes.

After that I am going to do nothing! NOTHING! I mean nothing!!! I am planning on unplugging and recharging the mind and body for a few weeks in November. Probably until after Thanksgiving. I know so many people that go, go, go all the time. They never step back and recharge. 2012 has been a huge year for me both personally (Marshall…hello!) and training volume wise so I want to use the month of November as a   rest period and pivot point to mark the end of one year and the beginning of a new year because come December 1 its Marathon season.

In April 2013, I will run 2:45:00 at the Carmel Marathon.

-Be Consistent.

Glenn