Indiana & Ohio Double 10/16/10 & 10/17/10

This turned out to be a pretty tough weekend. The balls of my feet got pretty tore up last weekend at Hartford and they weren't really ready for a double this weekend but I tried to stay positive and see what I could do. The first race of the weekend was in Indianapolis and it actually turned out to be a pretty good race. The weather was good, the course was isolated to prevent alot of road closures which meant we did alot of looping and out & backs. There was not alot of fan support but we passed other runners alot and we all encouraged each other. There were a few hills more in the front half but nothing that hard. My feet seemed to hold up for the first 20 miles or so before they started to get bad. I could feel the pounding was starting to cause blisters which wasn't a good sign beings I had another marathon tomorrow. I took it really easy during the race and treated it like a training run hoping to save some. Over all I think I was able to accomplish that and came out feeling ok except for the blister issue.

After the Indianapolis race Wendy and I headed out for our 3 hour drive to Columbus. This race was going to be alot bigger than what I have started to like. The race was completely full in all events which had a cap of 15,000. Some of my favorite races have been 300 or less runners. We made it to Columbus with no problems and headed straight over to the expo to pick up my packet. After that we made our way over to the hotel where I tried to work on my blisters and rest my feet. After a good night sleep we headed to the race start and was feeling pretty good, even my feet seemed to be a little better. The race started at 7:30 and as promised it was crowded. The first 5 miles went well then around mile 6 the blisters were really starting to ache. At mile 10 I felt the ones on my left foot break and then at mile 13 the same happened to my right foot. This is where things really got tough. I had just over 13 miles remaining and both feet had open blisters. Of all the marathons I have completed this had to be my toughest test. I continued to put one foot in front of the other trying to block out the pain just trying to get through 1 mile at a time. I saw Wendy just before mile 20 so I stopped and talk with her for a few minutes, ate and drank a little bit before pressing on for the final 6 miles. I was finally able to cross the finish line but it was one of my worst marathons. Even though the time wasn't good I felt a great deal of accomplishment to stick with it even though things were not going good. This one really took alot of blood, sweat, and tears to get through.

I now have a 3 week break and after completing 25 marathons in 12 months I can use the break. I have 29 states completed and 2 scheduled for next month. I am going to use this time off to rest up and heal. I will update on next months races but until then I hope everyone is doing ok.