lukesoliver.com

To start off…This is a shout out to everybody who came to cheer and give me high-fives: Erin, Carolyn, Ian, Scott and his kids, Jaber, Jaala, Justin, John and Kristin and Lydia and Justice, Sean and Shannon, and the whole crowd of students who showed up at the finish line (albeit after I had crossed the line…it’s the thought that counts)…and a GIANT shout out, thank you, and tip o’ the hat to John and Kristin for half an apple and to the nice lady who’s name I didn’t get for giving me half her granola bar!  Thanks folks!

Well, I ran the Kenai River Marathon yesterday…and I finished.  But not much more.  Ok, ok, so I actually won the race by about twenty minutes which sounds pretty amazing until you hear that I finished in about 3 hours 12 minutes and that there were about twenty people running the race…not exactly London 2008.  But I did make the front page of the Kenai Peninsula newspaper! (That headline to the left is not about me…yet…)

Yeah so anyway, it was a rather cold day…about 45 degrees for the high.  I was in long sleeves and gloves for the whole race which normally would drive me nuts, but I eventually reached some equilibrium and it worked.  I took the lead in the race at about the third step away from the starting line and after about a mile and a half I never saw anyone again.  So it was a rather lonely race…really more of just a long run.

The strange thing was that this was the first distance race I’ve been in (I mean of a significant distance) that did not have Gatorade or some sort of sugar/electrolyte replacement/energy at the aid stations.  So, after about 20 miles, my legs started to feel quite depleted and I for the first time in my life had to actually stop and walk for part of the race…I actually physically could not continue running.  Crazy.

Fortunately, John (and his family) came to my rescue.  John is my boss…the Academic Vice President at ACC and he and his family were nice enough to come out and cheer me on at about 21 miles.  So when I came stumbling past him and frantically asked if he had any food at all, he managed to produce an apple…SAVED!   It (along with the half a granola bar from the above mentioned nice lady) gave me the sugars I needed to make it the last few miles.  After a few minutes, it started to kick in and I was able to pick it up to a slightly faster than jog pace to get in to the finish line in about 3:12.

Not my fastest race ever, but it’ll do.  I’ve got 2009 under my belt.  I estimate I now have eight years left to break 2:30 before I hit my peak.  Time to start training.