If I have won, then I am going to make that my 2012 Spring Marathon and training will start almost immediately. I usually don’t like the 16 week program because I have found that a training program that long seems to drag on for ages and I have gotten bored with in the past. Now, this was at a time when I was doing a long distance race fairly regularly and while I wouldn’t be in “marathon shape”, I would be familiar with training that my body remembered and I would find myself over training because I would make shorter runs longer.

This caused me to burn out or be over trained for the goal race and have a bad showing on race day. I benefit from the “It’s better to be under trained, then over trained” adage and so I would hand craft 12 week training schedules for me to follow. Only problem with the shorter schedule is that you have to follow it more adamantly, because you can’t miss as many training days or talk yourself into shortening your run from say 10 miles, to 8 miles, eventually to 6 miles… just because.

This time is different. I’m coming off what is a longer rest period for me than what usually happens. My last marathon was last year in November, Flying Monkey Marathon on 11/21/2010. My last long distance races were this spring (Calhouns 10 miler, Strawplains 1/2 Marathon and Whitestone 30k) and with my quad and hamstring pulls of the summer, my running was pretty much zilch.

There was also the mental aspect of running which kept my mileage down. I wasn’t motivated. I was actually not motivated from a “whole Terry” perspective and so not running was a by product of that. Now that things have gone through a mental shift back to a more normal (as normal as normal can get with me) way of thinking, the desire to RUN has come back to life.

If I don’t win the contest, then my training program will be starting on 01/15/2012 for the Flying Pig Marathon.

I don’t think I have a preference for either race. While I have not run the Georgia Marathon,  I do have Georgia (2007 Chickamauga Marathon) completed in my journey for running a marathon in all 50 states. I ran the 2009 Flying Pig Marathon, which had the largest crowd size that I had ever experienced at a marathon and wouldn’t mind running through the streets with tons of spectators cheering, just for me.

It’s Race Week, and I have been getting anxious… more than I have in the past (except for 2009 Knoxville Marathon). The Race that I am running is the 4th Annual (A New Hope) Flying Monkey Marathon run in the “rolling” hills of Percy Warner Park just outside of Nashville, Tn. Like any of my marathons, I am very excited about it, but I am holding some reservation on getting too excited. When I get to excited, I get delusions of grandeur and when I get delusions of grandeur, I get stoopid. Usually this comes in the form of “temporarily forgetting” the amount of training that I have completed before a marathon. I have yet to train adequately for ANY of marathons, despite the passion for running them, I find myself not having enough time to get it all in. Sometimes it is that clever avoidance technique that has me miss runs or cut runs down in length. THIS time was supposed to be different. Oh, and it was… just not in a “good” way.

What was supposed to be around a 15-16 week multi-moderate distance (16-18 miles for long runs), ended up being a sporadic shorter distance 5-6 week training plan. With the “Taper” being NO running because of chest congestion issue that I didn’t want to inflame to pneumonia or something in that neighborhood. As of today’s chest x-ray (part of my annual physical exam) my lungs are clear and my symptoms are gone. I am being to believe that my issue was 50% cold and 50% allergies. While I did have a slight sore throat, I never had a fever, but was really tired for a number of days… one of which I slept close to 18 hours. I kept having a cough with some phelghm with little improvement. Last week, I did an overhaul of the kids bedroom, thinking that they were having allergy issues, and I felt better, but I still had the cough.

In running, there are a few Rules of Thumb that most people abide by. One of them is the 10% Rule, which is used for different aspects of running. I don’t necessary follow (but understand the logic and reasoning behind it) the 10% Rule for Weekly Mileage: Thou Shalt not increase weekly mileage by more than 10% of the previous week’s mileage or suffer the wrath of INJURY. I do follow the Sickness Rule… if your cold symptoms are Above the Neck, You Can Run; If Below, Don’t!

Since I still having the cough, I took an Allegy med late Sunday and in a few hours felt much better. Monday, I was feeling MUCH MUCH better, but I still had “The Cough”. On Wednesday (which is yesterday as I type this), I only had times where I felt the need to cough and the volume of phelghm was smaller and smaller. Today, I have only coughed once, with minimal results. Plus, verification from the doctor who not only saw my Chest X-ray, plus listened to my breathing said he couldn’t find anything. So, I feel that I am Free and Clear now. But where does that leave me?

###

Over in the STRAT3GY MARATHON ROOM, the debate on “How to Run the Marathon” is being discussed. There are 3 different methods being debated. The consensus is that it will not “Be Raced” but that leaves the questions, ” How Shall it be Run?”

1. Race It
2. Start Running and Hope for the Best
3. Tortoise and Hare method (Run-Walk)

You might think that this marathon situation is new to the Planet3rry Universe of Running, but you would be mistaken. I have encountered a very similar situation back in 2002. I was on a project in Lake Charles, LA when it went from going okay to “uh-oh”. The tritium clean-up we soon discover would take longer (it ended up being 3 weeks longer) and that left me the opportunity to run the Mardi Gras Marathon. Previous to the Mardi Gras Marathon, I had run the Strawplain Half-Marathon the week before and cumulative mileage for 2002 up to the Mardi Gras Marathon was 40 miles. I was in the “Rest” mode coming off my PR performance at the 2001 Richmond Marathon (November 2001). I was at the Mardi Gras Marathon where I perfected my “Marathon Survival Mode”. I knew that since I had little to no training, plus running with a friend for the first Half of the marathon, but by myself the rest of the way, that I would need to be “Slow and Steady” for the entire race. The course is ridiculously flat. Seriously, the ONLY incline that we went over was a man-made bridge that rose to 10′ or so over a culvert, which we ran over twice. Other than that, it is FLAT! But too much of one thing is not always good. While it was flat, you use the same muscles over and over and over, with no reprieve given from rolling (i.e. gentle) hills. So my deficit in training miles was also amplified from the fact that we were in New Orleans the night before. If there was any carbo-loading, it was from the sugar in the alcohol. Plus, we didn’t get to hotel until later in the evening early morning leaving the amount of sleep to a few hours. But, I one of the maxims that I use is that it is not the Night Before the Race where sleep is important, it’s the ‘Night BEFORE the Night Before’ the Race that counts.

Despite the fact that the Mile 4 water stop was grossly unmanned for the number of runners demanding water, nor the fact that at the Mile 9 water stop, it had either NEVER been staffed or had been abandoned because there were two 6-foot table with packages of cups and two trash cans of liquid for you to “Self-Serve”, I still had a decent first Half-marathon. By Mile 14 I was starving, which means “It’s TOO late for fueling, eat and wish for the best”, I started to succumb to the fatigue and began shifting into my survival mode. At first, it was purposely walking through water stops and food tables to maximize my intake of solids and liquids. At Mile 21, I had shifted into stopping to massage and stretch my legs after each water stop (now a mile apart). Near Mile 24, I had created a simple stretch routine that would give my legs a breather while being quick to perform it. And then at mile 26, I had gone through my Finish Line “procedure/technique” and knew the point where I could go “full throttle” to the Finish Line. My finish time was 4:38:14, which was a surprise to me since I knew that I wasn’t going to “race” it. My original Race Report of the Mardi Gras Marathon can be found here.

Here’s my Mile Split Times from last year’s Flying Monkey Marathon

I should match this with the Course Elevation Map!

So what does that leave me to believe that I can do? I am not too sure!

Originally this was going to be one post highlighting my running for August but:

1) I am to longwinded on my descriptions of certain generally gross stuff that I do

2) I keep getting interrupted from my blog to help troubleshoot problems of someone else blog

Therefore, this is Part 1 and as logic would dictate there will be a Part 2 sometime when I can get some time to blog, like at work or something.

I finished August with 69.3 miles, which wasn’t the highest August ever, but still a good amount on mileage. I even busted out a 12 mile run at the end of the month as I move forward in my training for the Rutledge and Flying Monkey Marathons this fall. Let’s take a look at some of my more memorable runs:

August 4th: Treadmill
I got back into the groove of running on the treadmill of all places. I can’t remember the exact reason, but I managed 3 miles despite my last run. I did blog a little bit about this run.

August 7th: Concord Hills
Wanting to take advantage of every opportunity to run, I ran my 5 mile route in the neighborhood. It’s a hilly course and I can tell by my time, in what kind of shape I am in. I finished the course, but my time wasn’t all that great 52:50, when a 49ish would have been a much more encouraging time.

August 9th: The Stroll to Tyson Park
On Saturdays, I either have the kids all day or I have them in the afternoons. Regardless, I take them to Tyson Park and let them play for about 30 minutes until they either soil themselves (The Younger) or start to throw rocks (The Elder). The catch is that we get to the park via 3rd Creek Greenway and the kids are in the double stroller. This isn’t something new. I did the inaugral Worldwide Half Marathon with the kids in the stroller. In fact, I contribute the resistance training of the stroller to my PR time at the Chickamauga Marathon last year. It’s a 5mile course with plenty of shade and hills.

August 16th: Scholar’s Run 5k
5K Road Race 24:58

August 19th: First Long Run
Had my first long run of my marathon training,coming in at 8.2 miles. I explored the new(ish) extension to the 3rd Creek Greenway. A western extension called the Bearden Greenway. It’s pretty darn sweet because when I ran from Volunteer Landing to Farragut in 2001, I had to run on the sidewalks and it SUCKED. So this is a much safer way to make it Northshore, but from here there still is a little work to get to the other West Knoxville Greenways (Weisgarber and Jean Teague)

[ed. okay, here is the end of Part 1]

Susan has been raising money for the St. Jude’s Children Research Hospital and now the raising money and training is complete, it’s now time to put the shoes on the asphalt and RUN! (technically you can still donate )

I know that She and I have crossover readers, but if you don’t read her blog on a regular basis, I encourage you to go over there and leave a word of encouragement.

On top of all this, she is well primed to totally destroy her previous PR time of 5:38:15 she ran at the Little Rock Marathon on March 4, 2007.

But first onto today’s bleh run. I was emailing one of my friends who recently ran a marathon on her comment that she had a bad run. A really pathetic run of less than 5 miles that left her a little depressed. Why could I run a marathon but then have such a horrible run. Well, it’s a normal occurrence, form my observation. There is a point in the recovery process from a long run or marathon causes this. I don’t have anything but personal experience to back this up, but it’s something that I do see.

Sometimes, it’s not very dramatic but sometimes, like my friend’s run and like my run today it’s very pronounce. I mean, why could have a great 8 mile 2-fer on Thursday at a 8:30 average mile pace and then totally bonk on today’s run?

It started out okay, because I had I good 8:30 pace for about the first mile, but then something uncharacteristic happened, I stopped at around the 1.5 mile and stood there for a minute. That’s not a good sign. I pushed forward until the 2.67 mile marker where I stopped to walk. I actually stopped and admired the river, the current and the leaves and trash in the water for about 3-5 minutes. Just hanging out. Not really doing anything.

This was supposed to be a course familiarization run for Thursday’s race as most of the course is run on Neyland Drive and the UT campus. My last mile was a 12:25 average, but I have to confess that I walked some of it. This put my 3.91 mile run at 39:55 or a 10:08 average pace. And before you go into… “I’d kill for a time like that”… remember that speed is relative. So it’s like a 12:30 pace, if you are used to an 11:00 mile pace or a 13:30 pace if you are used to a 12:00 min pace. Although they are all Apples, they are different varieties.

I’m just hoping that this is a one time deal, that it’s out of my system. I am scheduling a run for Wednesday to run the last part of the course, which will include a finish line simulation to get me ready for Thursday morning.

On another note, thanks to Ms. ShirleyPerly for confirming that my legs are probably NOT broken and that it’s really just muscle soreness. I ran the other part of my Thursday run in the shoes that I was thinking caused the initial onset and I had no new muscle pain. I would expect for the pain to reoccur in intensity with the accused shoes, but alas, my legs were fine post run. Therefore, I am NOT excommunicating my Harmony shoes from my running congregation. In fact, they are the ideal shoes for Thursday’s Run.

Terry went down to Georgia, he was looking for a PR to set.
He was in a bind ‘cos he was way behind: he was willin’ to take a bet.

Whether it’s your first, your 10th or your 100th, you will never leave a marathon without learning something. Sometimes it’s about you as a person, sometimes it’s about your running but after 26.2 miles you don’t away with nothing. You also can learn just as much from what you did right as from what you did wrong.

What I did right

Staying on the Plan: I had my plan and stuck to it. Even at the beginning when I wasn’t hitting the 9:00 pace, I didn’t worry and soon enough I was in a 9:15 pace that carried me through the first 20 miles. I didn’t sweat it when I was being passed by runners or I would runners ahead of me that appeared as if they shouldn’t be faster than me. So even though my plan didn’t unfold like I wanted it to, I did not readjust my strategy during the early parts of the race, I let it play out for the first few miles.

Gloves and my form: After I took my gloves off I proceeded to carry them, thinking I might need them again. I did, just not in the fashion that I thought. Towards the last 8 miles, I started to use the gloves as reminders for my form. What I noticed was that when I would carry one in each hand, my shoulders were relaxed. The Rule of Thumb for running form is to pretend you are holding a potato chip between your thumb and index finger. Instead of pretending to have potato chips, I was holding the gloves in this way and that relaxed my shoulders, reducing the tension in my body and helping with keeping my form in the last few miles.

I had been listening to a podcast that was talking about increasing speed during swimming isn’t always about power, it’s about swimming efficiently. The same thing is true for running. Having the right form, even if you are slowing down or hitting the wall, will conserve energy than running with poor form. So, by running with proper form, you can get further than if you ran with poor form.

What I did wrong

Food: I don’t think that I carbo loaded enough during the week and as My Lovely and Talented Wife pointed out, the night before. Also, in the morning I made some oatmeal and a waffle for the trip down. When I finally got off the interstate, I was actually hungry again. I could have eaten alot more oatmeal to keep me full during the trip down. I hadn’t made that long of a trip (1.5 hours) for a race before.

The level of soreness that I had on Sunday and Monday has been very surprising. I am sore, but not to the extent that I have been at other marathons. I have been walking without hobbling, I can walk straight downstairs (although it’s sore). I am very surprised at this because my legs from top to bottom were sore during the later stages of the race AND I sat in the car for 2 hours to drive back.

My conclusion is food related. That I had enough strength in my leg muscles that the distance wasn’t the problem, but that I didn’t have enough fuel in them to last. I only had about 20 miles worth of life in my legs, then managed to get 5 more miles out them, but then it was over. I have run other marathon where I only lasted until mile 16 and then it was a struggle until then.

What I Learned

So even though I didn’t eat enough on race day, I think the oveall change in my diet this year made up some of the difference on Saturday. One key thing to my diet has been drinking a vitamin enriched smoothie every morning consisting of Flax Oil (Omega 3,6&9), Frozen Blueberries, Soy Milk, and the Vitamin Smoothie Powder. Since I have been on the Gluten Free diet, my snacking has dropped some. Where I might have 2 donuts in the morning 2-3 times a week, I don’t do that anymore and some of the gluten food that is here at work are left untouched by me. Don’t get me wrong, I still eat my fair share of candy bars and other taste-good-bad-for-you stuff, it’s just now, I am more conscious about it.

I also added a tweak to my “Marathon Survival Mode.” When my legs start to fatigue to the point that I can’t go on, I stop to do a simple leg stretch that I learned at the 2002 Mardi Gras Marathon. From a standing position, you squat down (as if you were going to lay an egg) and stay there for about 5-10 seconds, then straighten from the waist and move to a position were you are touching your toes (or close to it). Then stand straight up and continue running. The first time that I did this at Chickamauga, I didn’t drop down as far and it felt pretty good. I’m thinking that given my inflexibility there is a threshold for how far I can go to where it changes from stretching the muscles to putting extra tension on the muscles.

Speculation

I went back to my logbook and my average mileage for the last 14 weeks was 18.5 miles with weeks 11 & 12 being the highest at 29.10 and 29.25 miles respectively. This is very good news for me and breaking the 4 hour barrier. If I can run a 4:08 marathon with minimal discomfort (so far I have taken no pain medication) on an average of 18.5 miles a week, if I could train at the proper 30-40 miles per week, I would really do well.

The two questions are How Well? and When?. I’d have to start with When first. I do have to recover from this marathon first, this was not a training run. I did push myself and I am recovering and so I would need at least 4 weeks to fully recover and probably no more than 6 weeks. Now, I wouldn’t be sedentary during this time, I would be on a 4 or 6 week training schedule with another medium to long run (about 16 mile) thrown in there and then a taper. That would put me in Mid December to Late December, maybe even Early January.

Looking in my region, not many races fit in those parameters. 4 weeks out (Dec 8th) are: Huntsville, AL; Kiawah Island, SC; or Charlotte, NC and there is nothing really close anytime soon after that. I’ve decided that since I am prone to pneumonia in the late winter (feb/mar) that I wouldn’t train for a Feb or March marathon. I would participate in one if everything was right, but I’m not going to plan on a late fall/early spring marathon. It wouldn’t be until April or May that I would even look at the schedule for a pre-summer marathon.

Now, how well do I think I could do? I’d have to say around a 3:58. If I was able to get in good training like I have been up to Chickamauga, I’d say around 3:55. I think I could go out a little faster and hang on to the pace longer as well.

So on my quest for 50 States & DC and Boston Qualifying, I completed my 5th State (VA, SC, LA, TN, GA) and I only have to shave 52:39 off my marathon time to qualify for Boston.

Monday
I only had one rest day from my 20 miler and took Monday as an easy run day. However, my 9:07 average pace was not something I would consider easy. It felt easy enough but I was really thinking that 9:45 would be a lot easier.

Tuesday
Rest Day.

Wednesday
I could tell from the start that this was going to be a speedy day. My legs weren’t sore anymore from the 20 miler and I went out with a fury. Although the fury didn’t last very long my 8:01 average pace over the 4 mile course was enough to please the inner speed demon

Thursday
I was hoping to get around 13 miles in for the day. Soon-To-Be-Doctor David had to cancel on me and other things came up so I didn’t run after work. I was able to get in a 5 mile Tempo session (8:17 average pace). I wasn’t happy with the speed. Let me clarify, I was happy with the numbers, but I was not happy that I ran that fast. I came off a long run the Saturday before and now my body thinks that it can runs these excessive speeds everyday. That only leads to one thing my friends, injury.

Friday
Not too sure if I was going to get any longer distances for the week and so I was eyeing my 5 mile course. However, I didn’t give myself enough time and had to settle for my 4.32 mile course. I did try to slow down this run. After my sub-9 (8:52) first mile, I tried to slow down and that worked, kind of. I had an 9:03 average pace for the run, still not slow enough.

I do need to decide on whether to commit to November or December marathon or just not run one this fall. I have a feeling that I am more of a Fall Marathon kind of guy. Actually I am an Anytime Marathon kind of guy. I would run any and all marathons I could get to the starting line regardless of time. Now that I know how to survive a marathon with little to no training (but with an okay running base, ref: 2002 Mardi Gras Marathon), I would run them if could be there. However, I think that the weather/sickness variables are more in my favor in the fall and that if I try to train for a marathon in early spring (such as March/April) that I set myself up (but not guarantee) getting sick.

So now… I have to sit down and give a little think about what to run.

So Devaney's dilemma is that he has no official race group, as he is purchasing his own way to Honolulu. Also, he is in the middle of the relocation as well. I have kept asking him for the past two weeks, whether he has started running yet. HE PROMISES me that he is purchasing new runner shoes this week and will start running this sunday on the 29th.

I fit into this marathon training because I was the one who made up a schedule for his long runs so that he could be ready to go on December 11th. It actually started with finding a half marathon in Wilmington in November that would be a perfect pre-marathon practice, so to speak. In that he can use the race as a gage on the marathon will go and the race being four weeks out, will have plenty of recovery time that the racing will not hurt him. Since he has running experience, he can do that without any fear. The only thing would be a running injury, but really, that is always on the horizon. I mean, who gets pneumonia 3 weeks before a marathon?

So I hope that I have given him a schedule that he will stick to without missing much. It's a 28 week program that starts him from scratch and builds up to the mileage needed. I don't have him doing more than three 20 mile or more runs, the longest is only 22 miles. I follow the reasoning that the longer you are out running the more susceptible you are to injury, so you are better off stopping your long runs based on time rather than trying for exact mileage, say 24 or 26 miles. Plus, I don't think that he'll go out and want to run 20+ miles by himself more than a couple of times. Maybe so because he has an ambitious and acheivable time goal but he will have to hold himself accountable for the midweek runs.

He wants me to host another Mr. Arfns Marathon this February. The First Mr. Arfns Marathon was actually created because of Devaney back in 2001. His training was having him running 26 miles on Sept 30, 2001 which was the Sunday after my 30th birthday. So to accommodate the fact that he needed to run that mileage and I was training for Richmond, I created the Mr. Arfns Marathon that ran from Volunteer Landing to the Wal-mart in Turkey Creek. It turned out to be really nice and we had people join us for various distances along the course. I think that a Mr. Arfns Run (as I called it) would be in order for the first part of February as I am in training for the 2nd annual Knoxville Marathon in March. So, I might have to gen-up a course and see how it goes.

I made it into work at a decent hour yesterday, hopefully I am on schedule again. Seeing that I woke around 5:30 yesterday and today. Although today my eyes were very heavy and I proud that I did not fall back into bed for that extra 5 minutes (read 15 minutes) of sleep. Jen and I have a Free Trade coffee – French Roast in the rotation right now, that helps with the 5:30am sleepiness. Also, Jen earned a FREE under the cabinet CD/Radio player from Mary Kay, so I can now have a radio in the kitchen in the morning. To hear the inane conversation of the local radio stations does help with staying awake in the morning, it’s my daily dose of pop culture.

I started to plan my route for the Mr. Arfns Marathon, which is only a run that I started back in 2001 when my friend Devaney was training for the Marine Corp Marathon (His first). He came down to Knoxville for my birthday which happened to coincide with his Marathon Training, in fact, it was his long long training run. So as an incentive, I told him that I would run with him and so I constructed the Mr. Arfns Marathon that ran from Volunteer Landing to Faragut for a total of 26 miles. I even produced T-shirts for all of the runners, each shirt was unique. Funny thing though: I have yet to wear mine once. Regardless, we had 6 runners at the start and due to schedules, it was just me and Devaney at the end. We did a 4/1 run/walk routine, which is run for 4 minutes and walk for 1 minute and we did this at Devaney’s pace. Despite it being a slow pace for me, I think the experience is what allowed me to achieve my marathon PR time of 4:09 at Richmond that year. Anyway, this past December, one of the runners suggested that I should bring it back which I had been contemplating because I need a long run of 20+ mile for the Knoxville marathon training. So, yesterday, I started downloading jpg off of mappoint.com so that I can construct maps to figure out the actual course. I’ll then use a program called USA photo maps to figure out the distance so that I do not have to drive the course to find out the mileage. Although Knoxville has a strong running community (we have been called “Little New York” by Runner’s World) the roads here are not runner-friendly, hence our extensive but choppy Greenway system. The course is ran on some Greenway, some sidewalks, and some fend-for-yourself roadways but it will get me from one end of the city to the other with stops at convenient stores on the way. In 2001, we actually had a support crew of Jen and Andy that drove to places along the course with water and bagels. I am not sure if I will have that same support this year, so I want the route to run past these places so that I can replenish when it is necessary.

While thinking about my training runs for the marathon, I saw that my Church’s Blood Drive was on the 26th and that the Calhoun’s 10m was on the 29th. Since I wanted Calhoun’s to be a race rehearsal and warm-fuzzy, I have come to realize (the hard way) that when I give blood, I will not perform well at a race a few days after the donation. So that I can still give blood but also race Calhoun’s I decided yesterday that I would stop by Medic before I went to go tutor. It wasn’t a bad experience, although it was not a very good one. First of all, I was not prepared because I had on a long-sleeved tshirt AND a sweater. So I had to take my sweater off, so I was in a Umbro Tshirt and Corduroy pants (goofy lookin’). Next, I had a new employee, which she did a fine job, but when it came to declare that I had been out of the country to American Samoa, it took about 5 minutes to get the correct wording on the paperwork. Good news though, I do not have to mention it again (you usually have to declare leaving the country for 3 years). Next, I am usually a good bleeder. I have easy veins to find, but yesterday, it took me over 12 minutes to donate a pint. In fact, the lady had to come over after about 5 minutes to “fish” for a better connection into the vein. But I finished, I got my Tshirt, Cookies and soda and was off to tutor.

my second job that I have is that I tutor for the athletic department two nights a week. On Tuesdays, I am at the Math Lab and on Thursdays, I have appointments. In the Math Lab we get a variety of different classes. Most of the classes are the basic classes that the student has one or two questions about the homework. I have yet to have a student who is completely hopeless at learning the subject. I really enjoy tutoring and when Jen becomes a Elite Executive Sales Director and I can retire in two/three years, I would love to continue to tutor, it would be a great part time job.

So a new dilemma has arisen. In Feb, Jen is going to Myrtle Beach for a debut of some of her consultants and this falls on the same weekend as the Strawberry Plains Half-marathon. So, do I let Jen take Eric to Myrtle Beach, or do I watch Eric over the weekend and NOT run the race or do I go with them and run the Myrtle Beach Marathon as Dress Rehearsal for Knoxville (it would 4 weeks away, so I could run it slowly and be okay). I have run Myrtle before, so it would not be a new marathon and it would be $65 as opposed to like $12-15 for Strawplains.