Meb Strong

Meb, Meb, elites react to Meb, Meb, Meb, Meb, Meb, inside Meb's win, Jeffrey Eggleston, American elite runner's sacrifices, Ryan Hall, the power of runners, Meb throws out first pitch, new beer mile record!, Shalane's valiant try, Sketchers win, Joan Benoit and family, Shalane in high school, Boston comeback, and Boston one year later.

Everybody finishes the race.  Absolutely inspirational to see.

Wow - unreal.  Not the correct way to bandit.  Now that I've had a week to let this settle, here are my thoughts.  Banditting happens - I get it.  If you decide to go this route, go by these rules:

1) Don't get in the way of other runners (take that for what it means, but don't be an impedance)
2) Don't accept water or any food
3) Don't cross the finish line
4) Don't accept a medal
5) And for God's sakes, don't photocopy a bib and run with it!!!!!!

This isn't difficult, people.

Monday, April 21st - 4 miles.  Emotional morning watching the Boston Marathon, and felt a renewed sense of motivation watching Meb win the Boston Marathon.  So went out after work and hammered out a quick 4 miler (with workout looming, wanted to go easy mileage).  Ran 270 loop and some change, and man was it humid!  Sweated completely through my shirt in minutes, and felt very lethargic throughout the run, but got it done.  Nothing is stopping me, here on out #mebstrong.  Splits were: 7:30, 7:32, 7:11, 7:09? (don't remember last one).

Tuesday, April 22nd - 6 miles.  Workout in Forest Park with Craig and Justin.  An absolutely gorgeous day to run, and very crowded for that matter with a concert going on.  Anyways, we decided on 3 x 1 mile at race pace, with 3 minutes break in between reps with a warmup and cooldown.  Warmed up towards Skinker, and looped back on the roads since the paths were crowded (not much better with a crapload of traffic).  Ran over to our Cricket loop by the Muny, and knocked out this workout while avoiding cars as best as possible.  Very pleased overall, and had to slow down on the last quarters of the first 2 reps just to get within goal pace (6:25-6:30).  Went hard on the last rep for fun, but struggled on the last quarter, going up that annoying hill.  Still need to build some strength - getting some speed back, but can't sustain it well.  Cooled down on the soft trails.  Splits were: 6:14, 6:15, 6:02.

Wednesday, April 23rd - 5 miles.  Ran after work with Crystal on the trails.  Home Depot out and back, then Village Circle loop to finish it out.  Legs were slightly tired, but felt very smooth as it was a breezy evening.  I thought it would be chilly, but ended up being quite warm towards the end.

Thursday, April 24th - ~6 miles.  Ran after work with Mike.  It was raining pretty hard, and got heavier as we kept going.  The initial thought was to go to the trail and see how things were, but we were pretty soaked by the time we got there and kept forging on.  Out and back towards Home Depot, and every bridge we crossed under had a small lake to navigate, which got annoying very fast.  Squish, squish, squish, and eventually we made it back.  You know it's been a good run when you have to wring out your shirt, shorts, socks, and even shoes!  I think our totals were 50:08 for 6.13 miles (8:42, 8:02, something, something, 7:51, 7:29)

Friday, April 25th - ~3 miles.  Ran 25 minutes out and back to the trail, and looped around the neighborhood.  Absolutely gorgeous morning and very sunny and cool.  Kept it nice and slow, and felt relatively decent.  Headed to Champaign in the morning and laid low, mainly getting ready for the race on Saturday morning.  Battled out the ordering, but eventually got it all situated (Colby, Kyle, me, then Jon).

Meb winning Boston was one of the most special moments of running ever, given what happened last year.  Very proud of him to execute his own race plan, then hang on at the end for the win.  It can't be a good feeling when getting hunted down by a very fast Kenyan, but he was able to negative split on a tough course and pull out the W.  I bet Nike's gotta be a little pissed about dropping him a few years ago!  Congrats to Shalane on a wonderful PR - not her day to win, as Jeptoo just sat on her as she did all the work, then went in for the kill later to run a ridiculous 2:18.  Top 4 women all broke the old course record, in the process, and they can all thank Shalane for pulling them out like that.  Her 2:22 would have won almost every year since 1994, and that was the number she had in mind so she should be proud that she executed her race plan.  She will win a major soon - she is making steps towards it.

And lastly, congratulations to all my friends who ran last Monday!  It was amazing getting to follow them online, and we saw some amazing performances (Jon 2:52 PR, Colby 2:55, Heidi 2:53 PR, Silker 2:41 PR, Larry 2:59, David 3:01 PR come to mind, great Boston debuts for Dickson and Joe).  Very inspirational to follow their progress, and very proud of everyone who contributed to one of the greatest races in the world!