12 Marathons completed in 12 days and 1,467 miles logged so far in 2012

5:15 p.m. yesterday I began marathon number eleven and 3:05 p.m. today I finished my 12th marathon in 12 days. So for the first time and hopefully the last time I finished two marathons within a 24 hour period.
 

Since I am not Dean Karnazes, today's run required a little mixture of run/walk/run in the final third of the run.  By mile seventeen, my feet felt as if that had been beaten with a paddle for 24 hours straight.

Mile 5 before the rain came

This is really saying a lot, because I take pride in the fact that I run very light.  I am a mid-foot runner and for the most part you cannot even hear my feet hit the ground.  It does not matter if I am running a sub-ten minute mile or a slow and easy 13 minute mile.  I am definitely still feeling a residual effect of transitioning from treadmill to street which up until the 2 marathon in a 24 hour scenario, has been making significant improvement daily. 

The other major fact for today's run was the weather.  The temperature started around 39 degrees and by the end of the run was at a balmy 36 degrees.  Not that big of a deal, except for the fact that from mile-marker nine until mile-marker twenty I was running in a light but steady rain.

Since I do not have the luxury of corporate sponsorship and my means are quite limited, I do not exactly have the right gear for these kind of conditions.  In other words, I was wearing four long sleeve shirts that got soaked through very fast and the same with the hat and gloves.  I found that they got so cold, due to the air temp and them being soaked, that I was better off without them. 

Eventually my twenty year old son, a.k.a. my supply guy, a.k.a. the guy who brings me the protein bars and coffee, a.k.a. the guy who works evenings with me so that the bills get paid while we make this dream a reality, a.k.a. my wing-man in this adventure showed up with a windbreaker and pants that kept the wind at bay, but eventually got just as soaked.  The recurring thought that kept repeating in my head today was; "Without challenge, there is not achievement".  For some reason, the greater the adversity, the more we tend to appreciate the achievement.  Remember that the next time things get a little more difficult.  Life IS, after all, always what we make it. 


For the record, today's official run time was 6 hrs and 47 min (Don't want to make a habit of that!)