Sunday, October 12, 2008

Perfection is Expected…Excellence will be Tolerated

Yesterday, I had the privilege to join 45 of my friends and pace the Baltimore Marathon. The GEICO pace team is an elite collection of experienced marathon pacers. We are charged with hitting each mile within seconds of the pace time and must bring our assigned pace groups over the line within 1 minute of their assigned time. Over the past 6 years the GEICO pacers have hit the mark 62 out of 63 times! The 5 hour pace group is 6 for 6 capping our performance with our 4: 59:51. Once again we lived up to our commitment to our fellow runners. Congratulation to all the runners in the 5 hour pace group you did great!

The second half of the marathon was hot and many of the runners paid a toll for running in the heat. In the last 10 miles we passed a lot of the walking wounded suffering from the heat. I think this shows the true spirit of the marathon where average guys and gal set a goal and endure pain to press on and reach their goal. They may be slower, but in a few hours they achieved what they set out to do. Experienced marathoners sometimes think that slower runners tarnish the status of being a marathoner. To them I say try joining a 5 or 6 hour pace group and see how much harder these athletes work to make it to the finish line.

Being a pacer gives you some special perks … while GEICO sponsors and supports the group, Baltimore based Under Amour the race sponsor likes to take care of the pacers too. This year we got the opportunity to test pilot their new running shoes. In a few words THEY ROCK! Extremely comfortable, great support and best of all no blisters! They have what they call a "Footsleve" I think both ultra runners and triathletes are going to like the smooth lining of these shoes.

I am happy to report that my knee came through the marathon pain free. Hard to believe that this is only 2 months post surgery.

My training is entering a higher intensity phase. This week I start to add in swimming to my daily routine. I think I am going to lay off the upper body weights for 2-3 weeks until I get into the swimming routine. In preparation for the Angle and Rocky Raccoon I need to start increasing up the running mileage too. Looks like I need to get up an hour earlier every morning – oh crap!

I am considering hiring a Tri Coach to prepare me for next year's Triathlon season. More on this to follow.

1 comment:

Laura said...

Glad to hear your knee is doing better! Pacing sounds fun - I'd love to try that sometime.