DOUBLE your pleasure!

I'm recovering pretty fast from Tacoma..the heat kept me from running at full pace for more than 3 hours, so the beating on my legs was not as bad as it would have been had it been a cool and flatter day 8/

Now, in the aftermath, I have reflected on my mistakes: not training enough for hills, not realizing that a new course with no reviews might not be the best idea for a PR and not being born for or training to take the heat (and not slowing down when I knew that).

All in all, a good experience though...any day you can run a marathon is a good day. Yes it is.

And some other things: a training cycle that was hard but clear of any injuries AND a new half marathon PR after a 4 year gap.

What's next?  The slate was now CLEAN of races. I'm pretty fit right now, at least if the weather is cool ;), and so I would like to harvest that a bit more. After pondering this long and hard (ok , for 2 days ;) I decided to do a DOUBLE. This is something that is on my "Sporting Goals" list. A double gets you Maniac 4 stars, FWIW.

What is a DOUBLE? Its back to back marathons in 2 days: 

I will be doing the San Francisco Marathon on a Sunday 6/16, and then running Tracy's fat ass marathon on Monday 6/17. (A 5.x mile loop around Lake Merced in SF also) Tracy's race is there so that people like me can do a double. The race this year is being held because Maniac Tony Nguyen (aka "Endorphin Dude") will be running his 100th marathon. The contrast between the two races is huge, SFM is expensive ($150) and crowded and fancy schmancy. TFA is $20, low key and probably only 50 people.

Note: "Fat ass" means the race is self-supported..the FA being the fanny pack you might wear to carry more stuff with you. Get it?

My plan is to run the SFM at an easy 5 hour pace, take it easy...walking the steep hill up to the bridge deck and some of the other big hills, then eat a whole bunch of food and try to do TFA's marathon in 5-ish hours the next day too.

I never planned to run SFM again so soon..it's too oversold with halfers to be a good marathon now, but running it at a slow pace makes it quite doable and I will enjoy the scenery properly and take a TON of pictures which will make going slowly worthwhile.

Two years ago I ran a marathon in 4:45 the 2 days before I was to go skiing. I skied on that DOMS day and because I went easy on myself it was no problem. I'm hoping that more fitness and going even a tad slower will make the double-doable... if not I will walk-run it. 

The SFM actually has a double going on too, but it's almost really a 52.4 mile run: you start at midnight and run the course in reverse, then run the normal SFM start at 5:30 am.

I'm not ready for THAT, yet.

The main thing is to have fun and avoid injury. I have about 40 days to recover from Tacoma and then rack some long runs!

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If this goes really well, I will endeavor to do a 50 miler (flatter one like the American River 50) someday and maybe even a QUADZILLA: 4 marathons in 4 days. 

You have to be uber free of any weak points, have boatloads of endurance, know how to fuel, know how to pace it, and have a bit of luck. That gets you 8 MM stars, if you care about such things.