Brain decay

It's a good thing I keep a diary, because my memory sucks.

This afternoon, two and a half days after mostly waking a marathon in 7:03 (revised chip time, since I started two minutes late), I ran the Levy Loop in 21:44, with mile splits of 10:52 and 10:52 (I walked for a minute after the first mile, and up the relatively steep hill on Hillside Drive), and felt great. My legs were a little stiff, but remarkably lively.

This performance reminded me of a 4-mile run I thought I had on the Thursday after my 5:23 marathon in 2005. My memory said I ran it in 31 something. As soon as I walked in after this run, 10 minutes ago, I dug through my shelf of diaries in the back bedroom. I did run a nice 4 miles on that Thursday, but in 34:19. I wrote, "I felt great, probably had three minutes up my sleeve."

Actually, I ran the fast time on Feb. 25, nine days before the marathon — the Ridge Road Loop in 31:40.

I was pretty well trained for that race. I'd forgotten that. On the Sunday before, I ran from the 11-mile mark to 16 miles (easily the hardest 5 miles on the course, from roughly Central High to Mount St. Mary High) and back in 1:38:30, a 9:51 pace. I wrote, "This was a good effort, coming just two days after my fast 4 miles."

It's been hard for me to imagine how disappointed I was by that 5:23:30, but now understand.

After that 34:19, my knee hurt for a few days and when it recovered I had lost rhythm or something and didn't truly return to training until the end of the summer.

If I do that this time, I will risk embarrassing my host and friends at the Whidbey Island Marathon in four weeks, five days. Plus, I can't feel as badly as I did yesterday the day after Whidbey and not embarrass myself and perhaps Erin Vratil, and waste $130, as we try to walk Chambers Bay (near Seattle, and the host course of the 2015 U.S. Open).

Wait a minute. On second thought, if I run the Whidbey Island Marathon in 7:03, no one will be embarrassed. Only my host and friends will be at the finish when I cross it. I think the slowest time last year was something like 6:10. That's right. Fuck training. I'm driving to a mini-mart for a 12 pack of Milwaukee's Best, and then over to Wendy's for a double cheeseburger.