Monday, April 28, 2008

Checking The Weather...

The Frederick Marathon is now in 6 days. Time to see what the weather report is saying, right?

The current prediction from weather.com is 40% chance of rain with low temperature of 52 degrees and high temperature of 71 degrees. Basically, it looks like the weatherman is playing the averages.

I would actually love to run on a slightly overcast morning with temperatures in the high-50s. That would be perfect running weather for a long run like this.

Unfortunately, the weather did not turn out so great for my college friend - and a big fan of my blog - Zia who ran a half marathon yesterday in 80 degree temperatures. I haven't received the lowdown about the race, but did get a text message saying that she finished. CONGRATS Z for pulling out a real gutsy performance!!!

I had one DNS last year for a half marathon that I trained for. It was the weekend of the Nor'easter. It was to be my second half marathon - I put in all the training miles and was ready and really excited for the race. I knew the weather was going to be crappy, but I psyched myself into running the race anyhow. I woke up the morning of the race and I could hear the hard driving rain against the roof and windows of my house. I still was not deterred from running this race, so I got my running gear on, ate a snack and got into my car. As I started driving toward the highway, I couldn't see a damn thing through my windshield! It was at that point I decided to turn around. I knew that once I started running that the rain wouldn't have bothered me so much; however, I didn't want to stand around getting soaked and cold (it was in the mid-40s) for 20-30 minutes at the starting line of the race. Let's just hope that the weather this Sunday is a lot better than this!

4 comments:

Rick said...

You could have wrote that nugget of wisdom about the DNS on that half due to the weather PRIOR to April 13th Mike. Sheesh! A lot of good that did me now! LOL

The weather doesn't sound too unpromising at this point. We'll pray for overcast and 50's. At least I had the overcast part for my race... course the rest of it was mid-30's with driving snow/ice/rain progression and hypothermia. What an experience! (shaking my head and laughing)

Anonymous said...

Hey Mike,

Thanks for shoutout in your blog -- I feel like a celebrity :-) Since I don't have a blog. Here's the full lowdown on my run on Sunday.

Temps were low 70s at 7:30am when we started. My friend, Julie, noted, "This would be a great temp for the END of the race!"

Don't know why but the 1st water station wasn't there (like not at all). 2nd water station only had 1 volunteer so I had to stand in line to get a cup of water! I also had my own water w electrolytes of course. During the 1/2 I ran last year, I finished the race with half the water still in my bottle. This time due to the heat & scarcity of water stations, I was out of water around mile 7 (not good).

The course is beautiful but it also features 3 pretty meaty hills. One HUGE one at mile 5 and another pretty big one at mile 12 -- it was nearly 90 degrees by then so we were all pretty beat. I walked up most of those 2 big hills and some other points too just because it was so hot & I could feel some signs of dehydration affecting me (did I mention that for most of the run there was no shade?). Some parts of the race passed through residential neighborhoods & a few people had their garden hoses out spraying us which was great. One house had the Rocky theme blasting out their windows. I'm sure their neighbors hated them but I loved it. I really needed that boost!

I had been hoping for a much better time but given the conditions I was just really glad I finished and I did finish 5 minutes faster than my last race so it was a PR for me (and I got a finisher's medal for my wall!).

After that experience my 25K race on May 10th in Michigan shouldn't seem so bad. Course is pretty flat & temps should be in the 50s.

Anyway, thank you again for all your support and encouragement. You're the best! Can't wait to hear about your race next weekend (I'm sure it will be a more positive story than mine!)

:-) Z

Mike Fox said...

Thanks for the race report Z!

That really sucks about the water stations. Now I'm going to have nightmares about not having enough water on the marathon course. I took a look at the map and saw there are water stations every 1.5 to 2 miles, so I was planning to run the race without my water belt. I may reconsider.

Which race are you doing in Michigan? Maybe I'll make it up this fall for a game (and a race too?). Good luck!!!

Anonymous said...

I think u should run w the water belt. Even tho you prolly won't have 90 degree temps, one of the best things I learned from my coach is to try to be self-sufficient and not depend on the race for water/eletrolytes/GU because you just can't count on that. He also says don't try anything new on race day (clothes, shoes, hydration, nutrtion) so if you've been training with the water belt (and let's face it...you've been kicking butt!!) then you should do the same this weekend.

I'm cheering for u!