My First Marathon (x2)

There are relatively few road running distances I haven't raced and the same is true with triathlon. But there's a whole multisport world I never really planned to explore. I always teased David that duathlon was for people who can't swim. And it still may be, but the why we can't swim has changed. Pools are closed and it is still a bit early for open water (never mind you shouldn't really swim open water alone). And so I did my first duathlon. It wasn't what I would call an exceptionally well planned event. It was more like semi-spontaneous shenanigans. Semi being like 10 days lead time. It started with a social pose from Ironman Virtual Reality with the upcoming schedule for their VR events. April 24-26 was listed as half Iron distance duathlon. I looked at my Training Peaks plan and my weekend was going to be "close enough" to that that I asked coach. He said sure and rearranged my weekend. I took Friday off work to plan everything for my Saturday...

When the Carmel Marathon was rescheduled from April 4th to June 14th I was sad. I knew it was necessary. I also knew that I have Ironman 70.3 Wisconsin in Madison that day. And assuming we can race by then I will be in Madison. Normally I would just completely be - oh well, can't so a race that isn't happening. I don't do virtual races. I kinds thing they're dumb. But they're cool for some people. I had deferred my Carmel entry to 2021 and figured my streak had ended...this was supposed to by my 10th year of the Carmel races and I am one of the remaining streakers. Then coach encouraged me to to a 26.2 mile "race" as part of my training for Ironman Wisconsin. So I stuck with the original date, and eventually running in Carmel. Not on the course as they had asked us not to and part of the trail is closed anyway. Here's the tale of my solo, self-supported, self-entertained Carmel marathon. The end of taper week was kinda driving me bonkers because ther...