Half Marathon Musings...

So my first half is in 17 days. I am prone to bouts of panic and crying when I think about it. I need to trust my training. I have put in the work. I am more cardiovascularly fit than I have been since age 19. But holy shit, 13.1 is a long way to go. I'm skeered.

Did the 12.

After last week's epic fail, I decided to go to a local run group and try to clock my 12 miles with other people who're training for a half marathon. I was successfull, but it did get a little hairy around mile 10.

A Heightened Sense of Blah.

So Saturday I ventured out for my longest run to date, a 12 miler. This run became an absolute horror of a run, cut short at 8.3 miles. The night prior I made a couple of fatal errors. Number one was a delicious, greasy sausage pizza. Number two was a giant bucket of theater popcorn, loaded with nasty movie theater butter. Can you see where this is going? I chose a new, extremely hilly route through my neighborhood. Somewhere around mile 3 I hit the first bathroom. It wasn't too bad and I thought I could continue. Around mile 5.5 I met a nice couple and their cute pit bull puppy. I played with the pup and then asked directions to the nearest park with a bathroom. They told me about a port o potty about a half mile down the road. I reached it, but barely. Hideous. I continued on down the road. At one point I actually had my cell phone in my hand to call my husband for help. I convinced myself I could continue. I was no longer able to run and was run/walking to the next park. Unfortunately, that park's bathroom was still boarded up from winter. Now I'm getting shaky. Continue on a couple of miles to my neighborhood's clubhouse where I know there are bathrooms. I make it in time, and open the first set of doors to find the second set locked. Practically in tears I ound on the door, but to no avail. I check the outdoor bathroo by the pools... closed for the season. By this point, knowing I couldn't run 4 more miles to get home, I call in the cavalry. Husband quickly picked me up, and I cried on the way home. It was embarrassing, uncomfortable and I was hideously disappointed in myself for quitting a run. Fast forward to today. I had my normally scheduled 3 miles. I wanted nothing to do with it. I forced myself to go, but it wasn't pretty or fun. I am worried sick about my upcoming half marathon. I'm worried about handling the distance, and about GI issues. I don't ever want that experience again.

Knees & Potholes

Tuesday I ran four miles at a mildly easy pace. About halfway, I failed to notice a pothole in the road and slammed my leg into it hurting my knee. You know that feeling when you expect one more stair on a staircase, but there isn't one and you take a weird step? That's exactly what happened, I expected my foot to hit the road and the road wasn't where it was supposed to be.

Wednesday I ran 3 at about the same pace. By a mile I could feel my knee begin to hurt (and a weird twang on my opposite foot bottom) and be the end of the run I was limping. Argh.

I have my first 15K tomorrow and am hoping that 2 days rest and icing will have allowed sufficient healing. If I do run it, I'm just treating it as a long training run. No land speed records. No max effort, I swear! I'll take it easy...

Irish Sprint 10K Race Report

This race was by far the hardest, but also the most rewarding I've run to date. The web page described it as "challenging". The web page did not lie.

My day began at 3 am with an animal yowling outside my window. That animal turned out to be one of the cats that we'd accidentally shut out on the deck. As soon as he got in the house, he ran under our bed and continued to growl and spit for the rest of the night. So that was the end of sleep.

My husband, daughter and I were up, fed (well hubs and I ate anyway, we had to pick up some nutrigrain bars for daughter), dressed and out of the house by 6 am. The race was in a national park, with inadequate parking, so we had to take shuttle buses to the start.

The port o potty situation was dismal. Maybe 20 port o potties for 2000 runners. I've never been so jealous of men before, as many just chose to take a trip into the woods. Lucky bastards. I must've waited 20 minutes to pee, and was getting a bit nervous about making the start time. It all worked out though. Oh, and the national anthem was played on bagpipes, it was awesome.

Runners were to start in waves, based on your estimated finish time. My daughter was in the first wave, husband in the second and I was in the third (but not the last wave!!!). It took over 8 minutes for me to even get to the start line after the gun went off.

We started out on asphalt with an easy downhill then a slight uphill, no biggie. After a cool boardwalk, we turned a corner to hit the first trail portion of the race. There was a Marine posted at the corner who smiled and told us we had a 1 mile hill ahead of us. I thought he was joking. He wasn't. It was really and truly the neverending hill from hell. About halfway up, mired in my own misery and pain, I shouted "Holy BALLS, this hill is huge!". I felt better getting that out. I was SO excited to reach the peak, knowing I could catch my breath on the downhill. Until I got a look and the next hill waiting for me. *sigh* I looked down at my Garmin and saw that I was running a 12:30 min/mi, and knew there was no freaking way I was going to get a PR (personal record) and beat my last 10K time.


We finally reached the asphalt again, and luckily it was mostly downhill and I got to relax into my run and pick up my pace. Around mile 4 was the second water station. I knew I needed some and I knew I needed a bit of a break, so I allowed myself to walk through it. Then, with dread, I turned back on to the trail. We went through rolling hills until we reached a cool suspension bridge that we had to run single file across. This thing really messed me up as it was bouncing up and down with all the runners and it felt like you were running across a bouncy house. *barf* And, just to keep things fun, they decided to end the race with another large, fairly steep trail uphill. Awesome. We were pretty deep in the woods, but I could hear the crowds and music at the finish line. I will admit to walking for the second time for a few steps. Until suddenly, miraculously I heard "Good Feeling" by Flo Rida being played. This is my jam! I listen to it on almost every single training run! It gave me the extra boost I needed to push myself over the top of the hill and down to the finish. I looked down at my time and realized I'd picked up my pace enough to PR! Official chip time 1:08:48! Over a minute faster than November's 10K on a relatively flat course! My fitness level is most definitely going up!

Running begins to run your life.

When I decided to start running the treadmill about a year ago, it really was only to lose weight. I remember a girlfriend telling me she'd run 2 miles and I was all DAMN! That's a long freakin' run!

Then the races started, and the work became fun. The results were everywhere! In my ever shrinking wardrobe, in the way people who hadn't seen me for awhile reacted to me, and in a PR everytime I did a race.


And then, sometime last October, I decided that I wanted to run a marathon. And the obsession grew. It seems that all I can talk about is running, running shoes, gu, port o potties, training plans, and running skirts. I still don't always love to run, but I love the way I feel when I finish!

This Saturday is the long anticipated Irish Sprint race. It gets me my "golden ticket" so I can register for the sold out Marine Corps Marathon. It's a hilly half trail/half road race. My "A" goal is to finish. That's it. My "B" goal is to steal my 15 year old's ticket if I can't finish. She doesn't need it anyway!

Miles are going up!

I'm very proud to say that I ran 21 miles this week! That's the first time I've had mileage greater than 20. I was so exhausted after yesterday's 9.4 miles (and hungry!), I have trouble wrapping my head around the 13.1 half marathon distance, let alone the full marathon. How the hell is that going to happen? This summer, my marathon training takes me up to 40+ weekly miles!!! For a newbie runner, those type of miles are beyond comprehention. Someone tell me I can handle this. Please!