So this post is about 4 months late compared to when I should have put it on here. I resolve to do better. Much better.
On Sunday, June 5th, after a week and a half of staff training @ Outlaw near Custer I attempted to run the Deadwood-Mickelson Trail Marathon which starts in the middle of nowhere and runs to Deadwood on the Mickelson Trail. My plan for the race was to run something in the area of 7:40 miles and just see where things went. Well, I was highly unprepared for a 26-mile run, especially this run in which the first 13 miles are all uphill (gradual, but still all uphill). I ended up hitting the wall in a big way around mile 18 and from mile 20 until the finish I had to walk for a considerable amount of time. My final time ended up being 4:03 which netted me 50th place overall out of around 300 runners. This race and time was a huge letdown but also a humbling and wonderful learning experience. I will most definitely be in WAY better shape and much more prepared before I embark on another marathon. A huge thank-you goes out to Megan Baker and Tyler Schultz for giving up their only morning off for 2 weeks go come along and cheer/help me during the race!!
Because I had to walk so much of the race, my legs recovered surprisingly fast; I still took 4 days off after the marathon but then I resumed training for the rest of the summer. Energy-wise was a different situation however. I felt like it took a full 2 to 3 weeks to get back to not feeling sluggish and tired all of the time. Youth camp with very limited time off (and very limited time to sleep in or get to bed before 11) is a hard time to catch up on sleep and restore energy however so it wasn't too shocking to not feel well for a while.
Other than the marathon I had my best summer of running since my junior year of high school. That was the only other summer that I trained this consistently and with this much mileage. My pace was usually slower than I would have liked but that is to be somewhat expected since camp is over 5000 feet of elevation and there is a rather large hill up the camp driveway to start each run.
Other highlights of the summer include getting up @ 6am on a day off to run up Harney Peak with Tyler Schultz (not sure how he talked me into this); competing in the Heart of the Hills 10.4 mile run in mid-July, averaging 6:56 pace for the race on a very hilly course; competing in the Spearfish Canyon Half-Marathon in late July (1 hr, 27 minutes); competing in the Custer Gold Discovery Days run the day after the half and just enjoying a summer full of beautiful and quiet (and hilly) scenic training runs. Almost all of my weekday runs were in the morning before my camp duties started so that meant waking up and being out the door by or before 6-6: 30am in most cases. This was a struggle many mornings but I never had a regret after completing an early morning run.
Since returning home after the summer I have mostly trained for and run in local 5k's for fun and to have something to look forward to on the calender. I have been able to run 3 successive PR's this fall and have lowered by 5k time to 17:28. For what's next, well hopefully I can run another 5k or two this fall and then hopefully this will be a mild winter and I can keep my training going and run some spring races, including a half or full marathon if I feel confident with my mileage.
