"and speaking of visualization exercises... i get to mile 18 in phoenix and feel great, slowly lowering the hammer and passing people... dropping into that wonderful pool of lactic acid... but feeling calm, relaxed and powerful. i lift up my eyes a little and see the next guy up the road, grit my teeth, hammer a little harder, breathe a little louder. slowly i make my way up to his heels... i focus on his feet, flying back with each stride. i look over... and it's paul tergat! we fly down mcclintock stride for stride... up and over the little bridge, heading for the 24 mile mark. the band at the mile marker: mc solaar!!! "carpe diem!" he yells into the mike as we fly by, feet floating over the road. tergat looks over at me, winks, and drops into 4:30 pace, leaving me in the dust! as he disappears into the distance, the fans on the course are still yelling at me that i've got second place... and at mile 25 haile jogs past, cooling down from another world record half marathon, and yells "go mc go!" at me. left turn on 6th, high-five my coach, right turn up packard, on my toes, and sprint to a new marathon pr.<br><br>
at least that's how i picture that it's going to happen... <img alt="" src="http://runningahead.com/images/forum/emo_smile.gif" style="border:0px solid;">"<br><br>
This quote is from McSolar and is not a visualation; it is the real deal. How do I know you might ask. Because I was there and so was Hermosaboy! Let me fill in the rest of the story.<br><br>
We 3 make a pact to race together. All is going well. The crowds are yelling for McS and for ksrunrrrrrrr. Lot's of crimson and blue the crowd. We felt badly for Hermosaboy. All his cheerleaders were cooking this awful smelling fish dish. By the time they looked up all we could here was<br>
MN.......s.......ta........r............eeeeeeeeee eddddddddd. Oh well. We were running well, surging, covering, clicking off the miles. These guys are tough. Hermosaboy keeps wanting to stop for the smelly fish dish. We warn him not to do it. We come thru the 1/2 at 1:28. McS and Hermosaboy look good; I'm trying to hang on.<br><br>
Mile 15 Hermosaboy actually stops and eats that stuff. McS just grins and we go on without him. Likely not to see him the rest of the day. We continue to run strong thru 18,19,..... go McSolar go ksrunr......mile 20, 21, 22, pr's in site 23, 24,25 what's this? Hermosaboy is back. But alas his valiant effort fails as the fish gets the final revenge.<br><br>
As we turn on 6th McS high fives his coach and I take advantage briefly. We are neck and neck and it is a photo finish.<br><br>
Hermosaboy finishes shortly afterwards and is a pale gray. Not a good look with that MN red running gear.<br><br>
Well that's my story and I'm sticking to it.
