Sunday, January 16, 2011

Arizona Rock 'N' Roll Marathon

I bumped into a fellow Marathon Maniac at the Arizona Rock ‘N’ Roll Marathon expo and he said to me, “So, two weeks ago you ran 40 miles around a lagoon for 12 hours, last weekend you ran Goofy, and tomorrow you will be running only a marathon?  Slacker.”  I couldn’t help but laugh. “Only” a marathon.

I am still on the Titanium track!  We are officially into the third week of 2011 and I have completed two marathons, one half marathon, and an ultra marathon. I just have to keep up this pace and I will be able to reach 52 marathons by the end of this year.  Titantification!

I was definitely excited about running this marathon.  Arizona officially marks my first Rock ‘N’ Roll 26.2 miler.  It’s no secret that I am a big fan of this series.  Some people may even call me a groupie.  What I love about the Competitor Group is that they put on fun events.  I love all the bands.  I love all the cheerleaders.  I love the bling.  I’ve also had the good fortune of getting to know a lot of the folks behind the scenes.  I only have good things to say about Rock ‘N’ Roll, and I will continue to run these races as long as I can afford to.  With that said, imagine how excited I was going to the expo.  Seriously, I’m like a kid in a candy store.  I schmooze with all the vendors, I take lots of pictures of the merchandise, and I sample all the freebies.  The expo is also the spot for all the cool kids, i.e. the Marathon Maniacs and Half Fanatics.  These days, I don’t just go there to pick up my bib and D-tag.  I hang out and have a lot of fun.

I still can't get over the fact that it's been one year since I've run the Arizona Rock 'N' Roll Half Marathon.  That was only my fourth half marathon.  That race felt more like a business trip than a vacation.  I didn't know anybody, so I just flew in, ran the race, and flew back home.  There was no pre-race carbo load dinners with other runners or meet up at the start line photo shoots.  I showed up alone, I ran alone, I went home alone.  Not this year!  I traveled to Arizona with a fellow runner, and the second we stepped off the plane, a few Half Fanatics greeted us.  When we got to the expo, Marathon Maniacs and Half Fanatics surrounded the place.  I got to meet up with a bunch more later in the evening for a pre-race dinner.  Seriously, what a difference a year makes.

The race itself was painful.  I'm not sure if exhaustion had finally sunk in after running The Goofy Challenge the weekend before and the New Year's One Day the weekend before that, but I did struggle.  I suffered a pretty significant mental break down at mile 6.  I'm not sure what happened because there wasn't any physical pain or injuries.  The last time I broke down this early in a race was at the Eye-Q Two Cities Marathon when I suffered shin splints at mile two.  I got through that race thanks to Dean Karnazes, who high fived me on the course.  This time around it was all mental during the first half.  Fortunately, I was able to recover by mile nine.  I did so by pulling myself off the course and sternly told myself to shut up, quit whining, and run!  It worked.  Self tough love!  It also helped that so many Marathon Maniacs and Half Fanatics were out there to keep my spirits up.

At mile 18, I caught up with fellow Half Fanatics Dianasaur and her evil prehistoric predator nemesis Mattsaur.  I noticed right away that the evil dinosaur had an ice pack taped up to his right leg.  DOH!  Unfortunately, my fellow Half Fanatic suffered severe cramps and had slow down.  Because of this, the three of us decided that were were going to stick together the rest of the race and walk together as a team.  I had no problems with this!  For the next eight miles, we trotted through Arizona, cracking jokes and planning our next races.  When I hit mile 26, I sprinted to the finish line.  It took me nearly 6 hours and 45 minutes to get there, but I'm totally ok with that.  I was ecstatic to get it done!

Another marathon done.  I am another step closer to Titanium.  This is going to be a long year, but I have to say, I'm having a lot of fun with each step of this journey.  I love being a Marathon Maniac.  I love being out there and pulling out 26.2 miles.  I love life.

4 comments:

  1. Thanks for featuring Dianasaur and her evil nemesis Mattsaur! Saurs of of the world unite!
    We are lucky to be pals with Endorphin Dude!

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  2. Tony, hi!
    I just noticed that the 11th photograph is a picture of you and Todd Byers. He's a barefoot runner, and I think that marathon was his 100th barefoot marathon!
    I'm still training for my first one in San Francisco at the end of July, and yes, barefoot. Hope to see you there! Wish I could take Eddie so he can meet his long lost sister Chewbacca. Er...sorry, I meant so that Epi Pup can meet her sidekick Eddie Spaghetti.
    I hope your foot is better. Capsulitis be gone!
    Best wishes,
    Algis

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  3. Greetings!

    How are you? Hope all is well!

    Anyway, I noticed you mentioned COMPETITOR GROUP (Rock N Roll Maration) on your site: (http://www.endorphindude.com/2011/01/arizona-rock-n-roll-marathon.html).We really appreciate the mention! I'm glad you wanted to share information about Rock N Roll marathon with your readers.

    Would you mind linking back to use as a reference for anyone that is interested in learning more? Here is the URL: http://runrocknroll.competitor.com/arizona.

    Please let me know if you will. Thank you so much and I wish you all the best! :)

    ReplyDelete