on the iPod: "good time" -- owl city (feat. carly rae jepson)
Yesterday's long run of 20 miles will be the last real push before the NYC Marathon, which is exactly 14 days away. But that doesn't mean training is over. Not by a long shot. So much of distance running is having mental stamina to persevere. My three previous finishes have all found me wildly nervous and scared as hell the day before. I always put on my game face to enjoy the expo and pre-race dinner as much as possible, but on the inside i'm always that insecure kid again. It all changes when the gun goes off and I cross the starting line. That's when I feel most alive. I know that running in Gotham is going to exacerbate both sides of the coin -- i'm going to be even more nervous than before, but starting the race is going to be sweeter than anything i've ever experienced.
Yesterday's weather for our 20-miler was perfect and as we blistered through 9 minute miles for the first couple of hours, I realized how much my stamina and athletic ability has increased since I began three years ago. For years I was a lazy lug, but now it's relatively effortless to blaze through the early miles, not stopping until the end of the Meadow Creek trail for a quick water break before we head back out for more mileage. Both Mrs. Murie and I are starting to feel a few pings that come from training for 16 weeks -- she's fighting plantar fasciitis in both feet, and i'm feeling it in my right foot on top of a little bit of left knee pain. Needless to say that we're both pleased these last two weeks will be tapering. We did the entire 20 miles in just over 3.5 hours and I finished with plenty of push left in my legs. I wanted to go a few miles further but knew that my holding back was the right thing to do.
It was craft fair weekend in Northwest Arkansas, a tradition that dates back to 1954 at the old grist mill in the tiny community of War Eagle, Arkansas. A local family, Lester and Blanch Elliot, offered their farm land that first year to let a local quilting group get together for the weekend. 58 years later and over 100,000 people from all over the country ascend onto that same field for a long weekend surrounded by the gorgeous Ozark foliage at the highlight of it's changing Fall colors. It's a huge event that rivals Razorback football weekends when it comes to tradition. And in the 20 years that i've lived in Fayetteville, I'd never been. Until yesterday.
Please understand that I have no interest in arts and crafts. I don't own potholders. There is nothing in my house colored periwinkle blue. I don't decorate for the seasons. Puffpaint sweatshirts aren't made in my size. I'm allergic to potpourri and homemade soap. Having said that, i've always wanted to see War Eagle. For some bizarre reason, maybe it's all the people watching, maybe it's the festival atmosphere, maybe it's crisp fall air, i've wanted to make the short drive over and spend the day in the middle of all things craft fair. So this year I swallowed my shame, stopped watching college football for a few hours, turned in my man card, and went.
I convinced Todd and Hamilton to go with me, and because the temperature was perfect in the upper 60's and the sun was shining down without a cloud in the sky, we took the convertible with the top down. The drive over, winding past Beaver Lake and through the Ozarks, was just as much fun as the actual fair. It was late afternoon before we got there and things were in full swing. A bluegrass band was playing "Jackson" by Johnny and June Carter Cash as we crossed the one-lane bridge on foot toward the main field of vendors. I'm not for exactly for sure what I was expecting to see, but what we found exceeded my expectations ten fold. Stopping short of actually buying anything (please re-read the above paragragh), War Eagle was really really cool. It was like taking a step back in time when families spent the afternoon in the country with picnics and fishing poles. It's not the way that I grew up, and probably not the way most people did, but for whatever reason it still resonated with me. I'll definitely go back.
There was also a complete and total overabundance of fair food. Running 20 miles will make a guy glutton himself on the finer delicacies offered, but I restrained myself and only had the following: hot fiery roasted peanuts, a bag of kettle korn, a large lemonade, and two corndogs. I was proud of myself for skipping out on funnel cakes, turkey legs, roast beef sandwiches, nachos with jalapeno peppers, and a snow cone.
These next two weeks shift somewhat from logging lots of training miles to more of the logistics of getting ready for the marathon. Mrs. Murie and I are already looking at how to get to the Staten Island Ferry which will take us to the starting line. Dinner reservations will have to be made for the night before (something safe and easy) and for the celebration dinner (something over the top and decadent). We're in talks about what to see while we're in the city and, of course, the options are endless but time is limited: Rockefeller Center, Ground Zero, Times Square, Greenwich Village, Macy's, the Met.
As we get closer to race day, checking weather.com will become obnoxiously common. I'll go there multiple times a day, as if some drastic swing from sunny skies to an arctic tundra being forecasted might happen within minutes. Being the first weekend in November, the temperature shouldn't be an issue, but rain and wind can amp up the difficulty level of any race. So even though there's absolutely nothing that I can do about the weather, I'll check it anyway. A lot. Like really a lot. But please know this: regardless of the weather, i'm going to cross the finish line of my fourth marathon in the heart of Central Park.
A final word: i'm completely taken aback by my friends and family who are sponsoring my fund raising efforts with Shoe4Africa, a great group of runners that build schools and hospitals in Kenya. Westerners are so incredibly blessed to have the access to education and health care that we do, and people everywhere should have be as fortunate. I'm including a link below, grab your debit card and give what you can, because every dollar counts. I'm almost over the $1000 mark on my way to raising $1500 total! Love and generosity always wins, jump on board and make a difference.
Run.
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