February 19, 2006 – Ft. Lauderdale’s A1A Marathon is a study in patience!

The A1A Marathon in Ft. Lauderdale, Florida was originally scheduled for this past fall, but was postponed because of Hurricane Wilma to February 19th. Since I was going to be in Naples anyway that weekend, I decided to run it. Truth be told, I like warm weather races rather than cold weather races, so Ft. Lauderdale in February sounded about perfect.

As usual, my preparation was pitiful. Linda and I had a pretty full schedule that weekend in Naples, attending a few fundraisers for Cincinnati organizations on Friday night and having dinner with friends on Saturday night. I kept it to one glass of wine, since I knew I had to get up at 3:30am and drive the two hours to Ft. Lauderdale and then find my friend Rich Williams who was a consultant on the race and get my registration from him – all this and I had no clue where I was going. Oh, and the race started at 6:30am.

I made it on time, found Rich, got my number, peed a thousand times, and the race began, albeit a few minutes late.

The first few miles were spectacular as we ran along the beach on A1A with a huge red sun rising over the Atlantic Ocean. I smiled to myself when I realized I’d be watching that same sun set over the Gulf in about 11 hours, and with a cold glass of pinot grigio in hand!

I plodded along the coastline, stopping for sips of water, with the dawning realization that’s struck me recently that I’m not getting any faster and it’s my own darn fault. Bottom line: I train incorrectly. Every morning I go out for an hour run and the marathon per month has become my long run. That’s NOT the way to get faster! Faster comes from repeats, from staggering your workouts, from cross-training, from rest occasionally – not from the same routine day in and day out. My own fault and it’s come home to haunt me. My 3+ hour marathons have become 4+ hour marathons. I need to make a fundamental decision about whether or not that’s acceptable to me. It makes me mad when I look back at my finish times these past few years. I refuse to use age as an excuse. Develop a new workout routine and stick to it if I really want to get faster. Sorry – enough personal rumination about age and speed and workouts. My problem = my solution. I’ll keep you posted…..

Anyway, the race was fine. The sun rose. It got hotter, and hotter, and hotter. There was plenty of water on the course, but very little entertainment other than a lot of old people shuffling out of their condos for the Sunday paper. We moved away from the coast into more residential areas along the coast, which provided some interesting diversions if you’re interested in south Florida architecture. At about mile 22 we entered a botanical garden along A1A which was a welcome green relief from all the development. And then finally, there was the finish line ahead, and I stumbled across, only to learn they’d run out of medals! Huh!?! No medal after finishing a marathon? Some nice volunteer said they’d send me one, although no one seemed to get my name. I drank some water, ate an unpeeled orange (very little food distributed at the finish), and then went to wait for the shuttle to take me back to the start……….and it never arrived. Soooooo, I WALKED the 3 ½ miles back to the start line, AFTER finishing a 26.2 mile marathon. And then DROVE the two hours back to Naples, and couldn’t WAIT for my ice cold glass of pinot grigio sitting in a lounge chair watching the sun set over the Gulf of Mexico. I had that wonderful feeling of satisfaction, of accomplishment, that comes with finishing a marathon. It is a feeling I cherish, I relish, and one that makes me feel proud. And just like what I’ve heard about childbirth – I don’t want to run a marathon again right away, but within a few days I’ve largely forgotten the pain and remember that wonderful feeling that comes with finishing…

What’s next? Stay tuned…….