Last weekend was quite a busy one for me. About six months ago, I came up with the idea to attempt back- to- back marathons this October. I have been doing marathons for 12 years, but I never had attempted a task so demanding as racing 52.4 miles in a span of two days. I signed up for the Breakers Marathon and the Mystic Places Marathon slated for October 21st and 22nd.
Last Saturday my guide runners and I arrived at Gaudet Middle School in Middletown, Rhode Island at 6 a.m., an hour before the Breakers Marathon would begin. Going into this marathon I was feeling great and I really expected to get one of my best times on this course, that was until 40 mile per hour wind gusts hit me when I was near the ocean. The first four miles flew by and I was right on pace for a personal best then the wind picked up and the next two miles took almost as long as the first four. After this occurred I knew that I would have to change my goal to just completing the race.
The Breakers course is a loop marathon with a lot of long winding hills that seem like they never end. During a loop marathon it has it’s ups and downs, the good part is you know what is coming up next the negative is you have to do the difficult parts three times. This day was quite long and took a toll on me mentally as well as physically every mile that went by I knew I was losing time but I had no choice but to push on. After eight hours on the course I very aggravated, tired and was ready to get this day over with. Just over an hour and a half later I reached the finish line in one of my slowest times in years. I completed the course in 9:28:11 but the important thing was I finished.
After that it was straight home to get ready for the next day and my next challenge, the Mystic Places Marathon in East Lyme, Connecticut. I had a good meal prepared by my stepfather and a great nights sleep. On Sunday we woke up at 5 a.m. and prepared to do it all again. It was cool out but I noticed the winds were nowhere as prominent as they had been the day before. Although I was hurting this made me more optimistic. When we arrived in East Lyme I got changed and got into my racing chair once again to warm up. This is a feeling I will never forget it really felt like I never got out of that chair and my right hip was throbbing.
At 9 a.m. my guides and I started the final half of my personal Iron man. The first three miles of this race are in the park and are all slightly uphill, this was not great for me with the way I was feeling. It took us over an hour just to get out of the park and I was thinking “Here we go again” but then one of my guides that I went to college with came up with a strategy that got me motivated and I slowly began to get back the time I had lost. At the half way mark of this marathon I was at 4:06 I wanted to do this marathon in less than eight hours, to accomplish this I would have to run the second 13 miles faster than the previous. Honestly I didn’t know how much longer my hip or my legs would hold out. With the encouragement of my guides, fellow competitors and spectators I began to feel much better. Almost every mile was getting faster and faster and eight hours no longer seemed unreachable. When I hit the 20-mile mark I was at six-hours, I knew I could achieve my goal.
Although the last six miles had a few big hills I managed to keep the pace, which allowed me to finish in 7:43:24. I was quite a bit happier with this performance than with my performance on Saturday. Now that this is over and I achieved my ultimate goal of completing two marathons back -to- back I would like to thank everyone who made it possible. I would like to thank my mother and stepfather for doing all the preparations and getting me to and from the races. I also would like to thank all my friends that came out to cheer me on. However most of all I would like to thank my three guides Dr. Scott Dresden, Nathan Tompkins and Chad Johnson. Thanks to the three of them I was able to accomplish one more of my goals. 37 down and 13 to go!
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