Back-to-Back races complete!

I'm two days post completing a half marathon and full marathon back-to-back this past weekend. Alicia and I first signed up for the Cincinnati Flying Pig full-marathon earlier in the year, and later, when we learned the Derby Mini Marathon route was changed, and that it would be completely flat, we talked ourselves into completing both races...... in the same weekend!

Alicia's foot had been giving her some trouble during our training runs, as had my knees, so we were both a little concerned about the mileage. The first race was the Derby Mini on Saturday. After many weeks of rain, we were happy to see that the morning sun was shining through, and it was going to be a great day for a race. I felt WONDERFUL to start off, but could tell that Alicia either wasn't feeling it, or was having some trouble elsewhere. She had been struggling with a chest cold earlier in the week, and it hadn't quite let up. About 2.5 miles in, we had to walk longer than we normally would because her foot had started hurting. This concerned us both with 11 miles left to go, not to mention the marathon the next day. We ended up walking a lot more than we originally intended, but this turned out to be a good thing because it really forced us to take it easy and save something for Sunday's race. I was feeling so good though, and would have probably PR'd if I'd gone all out, that it was hard to hold back. Needless to say, we crossed the finish line at 2:48, which was a really decent time considering how much we walked, and was surprising to me especially, since this was the same finishing time I had during the half marathon in Miami - where I only walked the scheduled walk-breaks we normally take.

After the race we stuck around town long enough to get showers, grab some food, and then headed to Cincinnati. Unfortunately, there was some lovely construction going on and what should have been an hour and a half long drive turned into over a three hour trip. We picked up our gear from the expo, checked into the hotel, and went to Carrabba's for some Italian food. We wanted to take it as easy as possible for the next morning's race, so we went back to the hotel right after dinner, each took an Epsom salt bath, and were in bed with the lights out at 8:30 p.m. I slept horribly, as I normally do the night before a big race, and 4:00 a.m. came pretty early Sunday morning.

We made our way to the parking lot and had plenty of time to relax and finish our pre-race meals before heading to the porta-pot and the start line. The weather for this race wasn't nearly as cooperative as the day before, and it was a breezy, slightly-chilly, and rainy morning. The worst was over within the first few miles of the race however, and the breeze and cool air were a Godsend for the remainder of the race.

I felt pretty decent for most of the race, and nothing from the day before hampered my physical abilities along the way for the first 20 miles or so. Alicia and I started with the normal 4:1 intervals, but decided early on that we wanted to take this race easy as well, as finishing was our only goal. The mental part didn't really start to hit until about mile 18 or so. Even then, it wasn't too terribly bad. Alicia and I still had our senses of humor, and were still talking and cracking jokes along the way - even after I had to re-bandage some gnarly blisters about 16 miles in. It wasn't until the 20 mile mark that I really had to take it "one mile at a time." Thinking of the six additional miles we had to go was way too daunting for me, and Alicia and I were starting to argue about really stupid things - "This is an incline, Alicia! We're going uphill!" "No we're not, you don't know what you're talking about, it's downhill!" My feet were REALLY starting to hurt at this point. Luckily, my knees and Alicia's foot had held out, but the 39+ total miles we would spend upright were getting to us both. We both had blisters, and the continuous pounding of the pavement was making for some pretty sore dogs. Still, we kept at it, and I focused solely on making it to the next mile ahead.

Soon, we had one more mile to go and were so happy to crest the last hill and see the finish line in the distance. Alicia, wanting to get it over with, moved ahead of me. My body felt shot at this point, however, and knowing that I would at least finish was enough for me, so I kept my slow pace through the end. My unofficial finishing time was 6:25 - approximately 5 minutes faster than my Memphis Marathon-From-Hell race from December.

Crossing the finish line, I was so happy to have accomplished such a wonderful goal. And surprisingly enough, we met many people along the way who were also completing back-to-back races, many of them finishing two FULL marathons - I could not imagine. Two days later, I'm so glad that I did it. My knees are definitely more sore than they have ever been after a race, and my feet are itchy as they heal from all the blisters and asphault pounding, and I'm not quite ready to say that I'll ever do it again - but I am happy to be a part of that small percentage of people that have completed back-to-back long distance races. Next on the list - Buffalo Trails Olympic Tri in less than a month, and the beginning of Half Ironman training in less than one week!