Run to Win

Just yesterday, Kara Goucher was considering the London Marathon. It took about a day or so, but her coach, Alberto Salazar, has talked her out of running.

The AP is listing her possible attempt at running London 6 days after Boston as having been unprecedented, but I know that that isn’t true. At least 5 people ran both in 2005, when London fell the day before Boston.

Pam Reed not only ran London and then flew over the pond to run in Boston, but also ran from Boston to Hopkinton before the start to get over 50 miles in on the day.

While it is probably the wiser move for Kara not to run next weekend, it still would have been awesome had she managed to have another great performance in such a short span of time.

(Photo Credit: Roger Morse – Less Info: Associated Press)

The other week, 5 people ran the London Marathon. They then flew back to the United States and ran the Boston Marathon. One of them, Pam Reed, ran the London Marathon (3:25), and then ran from Boston to Hopkinton the next morning, only to race back from Hopkinton to Boston (4:13). That seems a little excessive to me.

I could understand doubling on a marathon. Given that my goal is to run one in every state, I could foresee running back to back if I went out west or some such and wanted to get two nearby races out of the way at the same time.

I can not see myself flying a third of the way around the planet in order to run marathons back to back, though. Nor can I see myself warming up before my second marathon in as many days by running the (entire) course backwards.

I suppose the gulf of comprehension is fairly easy to understand though. My looking at ultramarathons and ironman triathletes is probably close to the same thing as a number of people who meet me and learn that I have run 5 marathons. I get the “Why?” question a lot, as well as the “I can’t imagine ever doing that” response. Which seems to be exactly my response to reading about these folks.

Update: It’s been over 2 years since I wrote this, I have doubled my marathons (more than doubled, if you count my ultra) and while I can see running the 50+ miles, I still can not picture myself ever flying a third of the way around the planet for a 50 miler the day after a marathon. I still find this really impressive. (2007 December 18)