Gearing Up for the Marine Corps Marathon

I went on a great run today!
I did a 7:45 mile for 15 miles with 3 months to go before the Marine Corps Marathon. I think that with this time I am definitely on track to reaching my goal of running the People's Marathon in 3:10 or less.

Thank You For Your Support

"Dear Petar,

Thank you for your generous donation of $206.00 to Children's National Medical Center.

We are deeply grateful for your generosity and support of our efforts. Your gift makes a difference — it enables us to provide vital services to the community we serve. We count on you and people like you to ensure that we can continue providing these services.

Once again, thank you for your support.

Sincerely,

Children's Hospital Foundation"

Dimtchev RAN the city

Its over. Whew. Let me tell you, running down that final stretch felt good. So let me break down the day for you.

6:45 got to about 3 blocks away from RFK and because of the road closures I had to jog over to the finish line. I then realized that I still had my sweatshirt on, and no one to give it to, so I stashed it over next to a tree.

7Am Off we went. There were a lot of people that I had to navigate through. After the first two miles I finally cleared through the rough patch and had a good pace going.

Mile 4.5: Everything was going fine...but then...my stomach starting playing games on me. Pretty soon, I became aware that I need to make a pitstop. Problem was, there were no port-a-potties. Finally after mile 5 I saw a couple of them about 100 yards off of the running route, so I made a detour. Let me tell you, that was the fastest number two that I have ever taken.

Mile 10: I was doing well and decided that it was time for a Cliff Shot. For those of you that don't know, a Cliff Shot is this goo that comes in a small plastic package that you eat. It contains elecrolytes, sugar, and some other stuff that you need for a quick source of energy. My body did not respond well to it, and -I forgot the name of what its called but- I got one of those muscle crumps on the side of my abdomen. I had to slow down a bit, but then I picked it up after a quarter Mile.

Mile 13: At the halfway point I was feeling fine. Kept up with my pace.

Mile 16: My body started to feel the impact of the course and I began slowing down the pace a little bit. It finally hit me what I had gotten myself into.

Mile 19: This is when I entered hell. It all started with the Calvert Street Hill, which is a pretty damn steep hill. From that point until North Capital Street, my body began to quickly wear down. This was evident as my pace rapidly decreased.

Mile 24: This was the longest mile that I have ever ran. It was only a mile, but it felt like a marathon...a marathon within a marathon...you can only imagine how it must have felt.

Mile 25: The Mile 25 marker was the first time since mile 13 that I felt well. Once I saw RFK in the background, I knew that I was almost done and gathered all the remaining energy that I had to push harder and pick up my pace.

Mile 26: I kicked things into high gear and sprinted through the last .2 miles. Man, it felt good.

When I got back home, I iced up, took a shower and am now currently lying in bed and resting. I checked my blood pressure and pulse, and they are both fine. Besides a big blister on my heel, I don't see signs of any injuries. Its only my muscles that are feeling tight. I am glad I did the race and that I achieved my goal. My final time was not as fast as I would have liked (about 3:50:00), but it was a good learning experience. I am thinking about running the Marine Corps marathon in October. If I decide to do it, I will alter my training schedule and make sure that I do more long runs (I don't think I did enough, and it showed). It will definately help that when I train It will be summer/fall and I wont have to worry about snow and freezing temperatures.

Thank you for reading thins and thank you for your donations! At around mile 20 I passed Children's Hospital, which reminded me about one of the good things that is coming out of this whole experience.

-Petar

Race Day!

Good Morning!
I just woke up and am getting ready for the day ahead. I cannot believe that today is finally the day of the marathon. I am hoping that all of the work that I put into training over the past few months will pay off. I plan on eating a little breakfast here, and then eating a little bit more at the starting line. I've got a couple of CLiff Shot Packs that I am going to take during the race. And that is about it.

See you at the finish line!

T Minus 19 hours

19 hours left.
I cant wait. I am anxious to just go out and do it. I just wish that the weather was going to be a little better. I am excited though. Today I am going to go and pick up my racepacket. But first I am going to go to CHipotle and have a nice big meal.
Thank you for your donations!
If you have not donated yet, I am going to keep the online donations open until 12pm tomorow.

Carb Loading and a Minor Setback

Two days to go!!
Carb-loading is in full swing in prep for race day. I am talking about pasta, rice, and a little pizza.
Unfortunately, I have minor cold. I think I got it during my Monday run. Right now I am making sure that I get plenty of rest to make sure that I recover by Saturday. I slept for about ten hours last night, and I plan on doing the same over the next two nights. We'll see what happens.

Keep Those Donations Coming

Thanks to all of you that have been donating to the cause.
If you have not done so already, please find the donation link to your left.

Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday are the only days standing in between me and marathon-day. I have started preparing myself nutritionally for the race. I started carb loading as well as drinking excessive amounts of water. The weather forecast for saturday has gotten worse, as isolated thunderstorms are now schedule to make an apperance. I ran on Friday in the rain in preparation for the upcoming miserable weather. I took Saturday off and had a great run on Sunday, which I attribute to all the "carb loading" that I did on St. Patty's Day. Today's run was a reality check. I thought I had a good pace going and was feeling good, when I was completely smoked by another runner who was running a sub-six minute mile. Just shows that I've got some ways to go in my abilities as a runner.

I will be sending an e-vite reminder to everyone with details about how you can come support me on Saturday.