Cowboy Hazel

I managed to finish 12th overall in a marathon for the second day in a row (yesterday's Mississippi Blues Marathon was the first). Today's race in Mobile, Alabama was much slower; but it was a much smaller race and without the prize money. My final time was 3:16:40. Normally, I could hit that time without an all-out effort, but today was brutal. I'm thrilled with the result and think it was just about the best performance I could have put together.

We started with a prayer again today and then were off through the streets of Mobile. I wasn't sure what to expect from my legs so I decided to just find out what was comfortable. The excitement of the start sent me out with two 7:10 miles, but I quickly realized that wasn't sustainable and slowed down to about 7:35/mile. I had to stop and pee at mile 5 and started up right around 7:30's again.

Shortly after, a local high school girl running the half asked if she could run next to me, that I was holding her pace. "Sure." After the solitary nature of yesterday's run, it was nice to be around other people. In the end, we both sped up a bit, running 7:25's until her course turned off after mile 8.

After that, I was behind a big clump of runners and tried to catch them so that I wouldn't have to run by myself, but by the time I did catch them, they had slowed down so I had to move on. We started getting into some serious hills around mile 10 – bigger than anything we'd seen yesterday. The hills only lasted until mile 17.5, though, and then the course was back to being flat as a pancake. We toured through some beautiful neighborhoods and a park as the sun kept rising higher and making it warmer. My singlet and shorts were swampy with sweat and it looked like everyone else's was too. Turns out, this has been an unusually warm winter down here too.

Somewhere around 14 or so, I passed a guy in his 40's who was breathing super hard. I gave him a quick pep talk (runners on the course were super friendly and it was infectious) and he ended up hanging on my heels until almost the end. We chatted a fair amount even though he was behind me and I couldn't see him. Again, having someone with me sped me up. I kept telling him he seemed strong and should pass me, but he'd say no, that he was struggling to keep up and so I ran faster, trying not to slow him down. Finally, at around mile 25, I convinced him to run ahead and chase his time as I was fading pretty bad. He finished 11th, about twenty seconds in front of me.

Still, I had run a negative split, which seemed especially impressive with how warm it was; I hit the half at 1:39:something. My legs were super sore from the starting line and got worse as we went. By the end, I was seriously questioning why I had signed up for back-to-back marathons. They hurt even more an hour or two after finishing. Yikes.

The rest of the day was fairly uneventful, but enjoyable. I went over to the YMCA to shower since our hotel vigorously enforced a ridiculously early checkout time. Then we hung out at the post-race for an hour or so, listening to the band and enjoying some free ice cream and beer. We found an barbecue restaurant on the way to the airport and I got to fill up on delicious pulled pork. I'm still at the airport now waiting for a flight to Atlanta, then home.

It has been a whirlwind of a weekend, but I'm glad I took the adventure, even if my legs are trashed as a result. I doubt I'll be signing up for two marathons in two days again anytime soon, but I'm glad I was able to experience it once. Even more, I'm glad I got to experience both of these races and their cities' southern hospitality.