Wonderful news!

Wonderful news from the doctor last week!
I can start running again!
Well, sort of.
Week 1 (last week) was 1.5 min walking alternating with 1.5 min run for 2 miles
This week is 1 mile, 3 times this week.

It's so strange, looking back to this time last year, I was running 20 milers training for the marathon, now the longest I am allowed to run is 1 freaking mile! Strange.

It feels really good to be back out there and running! At the same time I want to run more! I'm trying to be really good and follow my return to running plan. I know from having stress fractures in my shins in high school, that not following the doctors orders only results in longer recovery time. However, I have a feeling that this part of the healing process is going to be as painfully slow as the rest of it.

Seriously, why has no one invented skelegrow?

It's been awhile

I stopped blogging.  I don't know why exactly.  I'm not a superb writer, my blog has no real purpose.... mainly me just rambling, I go bored with it, I got busy.... I don't really know.

So, what's been going on since I stopped blogging?

The good:
First off, I ran the Cleveland 10 Miler.  It was awesome!  It was possibly the best race i've ever run.  I felt great the entire time and I held a really steady (very rare for me!) and fast (for me) 8:30 mile pace for the entire race.  I put up a time I was really excited about.  After the race I had hopes of PRing in the Cleveland Half.

I also ran the Cleveland Half.  Also I really great race!  I would say that the Denver 1/2 is my #1 favorite, but Cleveland is a very close second.  I really like the race course, lots of turns, lots of things to see.  The weather was great (cold and rainy) the day of the race.  I didn't PR.  If I had run like I did at the 10 miler, I definitely think I would have.  My legs felt really heavy race day and my tummy got upset about halfway through the race.  I pretty much knew it wasn't going to be a PR day, but I still managed to beat last years 1/2 marathon time by a minute.  Being able to beat last years time on what I thought was an "off day" made me feel like I was in better shape and a PR might be to come one of these days.  Overall, I was really happy with the race.

The Bad:
After the Cleveland 1/2, my running was just feeling really off.  I took an entire week off because I was feeling really fatigued.  My first week back my legs felt terrible.  I knew I needed new shoes.  Did I go and get some? Nope.  Why? Busy, Lazy, who knows.  July 3rd, I went for a 7 mile "long run" and my foot hurt afterwards.  I knew something wasn't right, but I told myself my laces had been tied too tight.  I ran on it, in pain, for about a week before I admitted to myself that this wasn't due to tying my shoelaces too tight.  I took a week off of running - did some spinning and elliptical.  Then I figured, hey, it should be healed by now, right?  Wrong.  I started running again and every time I stopped my foot hurt.  By the following week it was pretty difficult to walk without limping - and running was definitely out of the question.  I finally admitted to myself that something was wrong and went to the doctor.  Diagnosis - stress fracture in my second metatarsal.  It was visible by x-ran (not usual for stress fractures) suggesting that I may have even "converted" it into an actual fracture.  I was in an aircast for 3 weeks.  I've been out of the aircast now for about 4 weeks.

The Ugly:
We had to cancel our backpacking trip to the grand canyon.  I'm really really sad about this.  We have been planning it since January.  It was really hard not to be physically able to do it.  I also have had to bow out of the Warrior Dash and Akron marathon relay (sad).  I'm still not allowed to run and I'M GOING FREAKING CRAZY!  Yes, i'm being kind of a baby about this.  It's not the end of the world, i'll be able to run again, and there are many many people out there suffering from worse injuries or life threatening illness, so in the grand scheme of things I know it's not that big of a deal, but i'm having such a hard time not being able to run.  I'm sick of spinning and quite frankly I suck at swimming and I hate it.  I just want to run dammit!

It has occurred to me that venting my frustrations on my blog might provide a good outlet for my frustrations.  So, i'm back to blogging, and hopefully soon will be back to running!  I go to the doctor Monday and i'm really hoping for some good news!

Weekly Recap 2/21/11 - 2/28/11

Well, I got through last week and all of my school stuff went well. The weekend was a little hectic trying to catch up on all the chores i've been neglecting over the last month while working like a maniac. I'm hoping things will slow down a little bit and i'll have more time for myself in the next month or so. I got most of my workouts in last week. Thursday was supposed to be a 5 miler with some hills, but I was so exhausted by that point that I settled for a 3 mile easy run on the treadmill and called it a day.

Sunday - 6.2 miles

Saturday - 5 miles

Friday - off

Thursday - 3 miles

Wednesday - off

Tuesday - 4 miles with 3 x 3 min of speed

Monday - weights

Weekly Milage Total: 18.2 Miles

Worn Down

I'm feeling a little run down and worn out. This past month has been extremely busy on the school end of things. Writing a grant progress report, writing a change of project proposal for my grant, co-writing a review, and prepping for my next committee meeting. It's been busy, and stressful. I think it's almost over. The review is due this week and my committee meeting happens this week, so after that i'm hoping to go back to a somewhat normal schedule where I can actually get home at a decent hour and not stay up late writing or reading! I'm also looking forward to taking next weekend completely off (of work anyways... i'm sure i'll still be running). I really need some R&R. These last few weeks my weights routine has suffered, although I've still managed to get most of my runs in. I was pretty sore from the race last sunday, and overall just exhausted, so I skipped all forms of speed work this week. Here's hoping this week goes by as quickly and painlessly as possible!

Weekly Recap 2/14/11 - 2/20/11

Sunday - 8 miles

Saturday - 5 miles

Friday - off

Thursday - 4 miles

Wednesday - off

Tuesday - 4 miles

Monday - off

Weekly Milage Total: 21 miles

Run With your Heart Trail Challenge-Race Report

Let the 2011 racing season begin!

Let me start off by saying this race was very different than any race i've ever done and it was fun! I've done my fair share of winter trail running while growing up and, if you can believe it, even raced on my high school SNOW SHOE TEAM (yes this really exists). If I had to make a comparison, this race most closely resembled my snow shoe days (only without the snow shoes and with more slipping around). I've been toying with the idea of buying yak trax... but never got around to it. Too bad. They would have been helpful. It became clear to me early on that "fast" was not how I was going to be running. The day was beautiful, in the upper 30's (I think) and SUNNY!! The course was hilly and without traction I pretty much had to walk up and down the steepest parts. I managed to only wipe out once, and not to twist an ankle (I consider this a win!). What I did I think would better be described as riking (hiking/running) or jiking? (jogging/hiking), rather than actual running. Whatever it was, it was still a great day to get outside and great exercise. Man am I sore from all that sliding around! Towards the end I started to feel really down on myself for how God aweful slow I was going. My final time was 1:50:49.... for a 15K.... I can practically run a half marathon in that time! Well, after looking at the race results, I really don't feel that bad. The female winner ran 8:14/mile, there were a handful of people who ran 9ish min/miles and everyone else was 10+ min miles. After looking at that, my 11:54/mile doesn't seem SO bad.

Overall it was a great race, great support, great energy. I think there were more pictures taken than in the marathon! Hopefully there will be at least one good one.... I tried to smile.... it will probably come out looking like a grimace with my eyes closed (this is usually the case). I even managed to win a raffle prize: tickets to the Cleveland Film festival. Not to shabby. I think I'll do this race again. First I think i'll purchase some yak trax.

Training Recaps

2/7/11 - 2/13/11

Sunday - 9.3 miles (Run with your heart Trail Challenge)

Saturday- 4.0 miles

Friday - rest

Thursday - 4.0 miles

Wednesday - rest

Tuesday - 6 miles total. 4X800, 4X400 with 400 recoveries.

Monday - Full Body Weights

Weekly Milage Total: 23.3 miles

1/31/11-2/6/11

Sunday - 6.1 miles

Saturday - 4.0 miles

Friday - rest

Thursday - 4.0 mile progression run

Wednesday - Cardio weights class at the gym

Tuesday- 6 miles total. 4X800, 4X400 with 400 recoveries for speedwork.

Monday - Full Body Weights

Weekly Milage Total: 20.1 miles.

Feeling Undertrained

So, here's the thing...

I still have no motivation to follow a strict training schedule. I'm signed up for a 15K on February 13th. I haven't *really* trained for it. I did an 8.5 mile long run a few weeks ago and 8 this past weekend... so I definitely think i'll be able to finish it, i'm just not expecting a stellar performance. Now is about the time I should start training for the Cleveland 1/2 marathon too. I filled in the plan I used last year into my calendar... this should be week 2. The first few weeks of the plan consist of a few 4 mile and a few 6 mile runs each week, which is pretty much what i've been doing, so for now (and maybe for the whole time) i'm going to loosely follow the training plan and try to get as many of the prescribed long runs in as possible.

Weekly Recap 1/24/11-1/30/11

Sunday - 8.0 Miles. It was a good long run. I managed to keep my pace up despite snow packed roads.

Saturday - 4.0 miles. Icky weather...it was not a fun run.

Friday - rest

Thursday - I had planned 5 miles with some hills and speedwork, but forgot my ipod and could only manage 3 on the dreadmill before I gave up.

Wednesday - Tried a new Cardio/Weights class at the gym. It gets a thumbs up. I'm going to try to make it to that again!

Tuesday - 4.0 miles

Monday - Body Pump

Weekly Milage Total: 19 Miles

Running, even on a treadmill, is NOT "a waste of time"!

I don't know what the deal is, but it seems like this statement is everywhere these days... trainers at the gym, other health and fitness blogs, tv, internet all saying "stop wasting your time on the treadmill". Now, I kind of get what they are saying... in terms of weight loss (which, hey, it's January, so what other possible goal could anyone in a gym possibly have?) jogging along at a moderate pace at a 0% incline is not probably going to make you loose massive amounts of weight. Of course strength training and interval training are helpful to weightloss and overall fitness, but this hardly means that treadmill use is a waste of time. I, as a runner, refuse to believe that running (even on the treadmill) is a waste of time! And I really really wish people would stop saying that it is! Even treadmill running can be quite challenging, if done correctly.

I myself did a very challenging hill workout (which i'm hoping will help to prepare me for my upcoming trail race) on the treadmill last week. I stole the idea for the workout from: http://instephsshoes.blogspot.com. Personally, I did not feel it was a waste of time AT ALL. In fact, IT KICKED MY ASS! I should really do hill workouts (outdoors and on the treadmill) more often.

Here's the recap:

Sunday - 7 very chilly miles (8 degrees outside, 2 pairs of pants and 3 shirts.... I'll still take it over hot and humid!)

Saturday - 5.5 Chilly miles (below 10 degrees - but the sun was out!)

Friday - 4 miles easy (on the treadmill BTW)

Thursday - rest

Wednesday - Cardio intervals (on random cardio equipment at the gym) interspersed with mainly upper body weights.

Tuesday - 5.1 miles total with Treadmill Hill repeats as follows: 1%, 2%, 1%, 4%, 1%, 6%, 1%, 8%, 1%, 10% for one minute each. Repeat twice.

Monday - Full Body Weights

Weekly Milage Total: 21.6 Miles

A good running week.

This past week was a good running week. I managed to meet my 20 mile/week "off season" goal and work in two strength training sessions. I'm getting better at picking outdoor snow routes that allow me to run in the street (since no one shovels the sidewalk here). Today's run was great! It was 17 degrees, "feels like" 6 degrees temperature wise, so it was chilly, but the sun was out, which made it feel much nicer. At one point a guy ran past me and turned to me and said, "you know, most people think we are crazy for being out here doing this today, but I like it". It is so true, runners are a little nuts, but in a good way :-)

Here's the Weekly recap:

1/10/11-1/16/11

Sunday - 7.03 Miles

Saturday - 4.20 Miles

Friday - off

Thursday - 4.1 Mile tempo run on the treadmill

Wednesday - Weights with a focus on upper body.

Tuesday - My favorite speed workout: 1600 (400 recovery), 2X800 (400 recovery), 2X400 (200 recovery), 4X200 (200 recovery). With warmup and cooldown 5.11 Miles total.

Monday - Full Body weights

Weekly Milage Total: 20.44 Miles

New Years Resolutions?

I don't like New Years resolutions. I don't really know why... I guess it always seems so forced and like everyone makes the exact same resolution, like to loose weight. Maybe that's why I've been procrastinating my first 2011 post. What are my 2011 resolutions? I don't want to make any, so there (stomping feet). I like the sound of "goals" more than I like "resolutions", so how about some 2011 goals. (1) Mainly I would like to run more races in 2011 than I did in 2010. With all the moving craziness that happened last year I only did 3 races! It shouldn't be too hard to run more races in 2011. If I run the races i'm already registered for i'll be at 3 already. (2) I also want to have more fun running this year. I really did not enjoy the marathon training, so this year I want to get more enjoyment out of running. P.S. I wont be running another marathon this year. (3) As far as a milage goal, i'd love to hit 1000 miles again, but without marathon training, i'm not sure that's realistic, so i'm going to set a goal of 800 miles for this year. (4) I'd also like to really re-incorporate weight training into my routine, which i've started to do again, but i'd like to be more consistent about it.

Since i've been totally slacking on my weekly milage posts, here's the last 2 weeks:

1/3/11 - 1/9/11

Sunday - 5.85 miles

Saturday - 8.5 miles

Friday - 3 miles

Thursday- 3.06 miles

Wednesday - body pump

Tuesday - 4 miles

Monday - off

Weekly Total: 24.41 Miles

12/27/10 - 1/2/11

Sunday- 6.10 miles

Saturday- 5.26 miles

Friday - off

Thursday- 3.22

Wednesday- 2 miles + weights

Tuesday- 4.34 Miles

Monday - Weights

Weekly Total: 20.92 Miles

2010 Stats

So that I can start putting up some 2011 stats, here's what happened in 2010:

mONTHLY MILEAGE

January - 81.5 Miles

February - 69.2 Miles

March - 92.1 Miles

April - 106.49 Miles

May - 63.63 Miles

June - 84.18 Miles

July - 96.78 Miles

August - 125.99 Miles

September - 142.27 Miles

October - 84.47 Miles

November - 60.68 Miles

December - 66.12 Miles

2010 Yearly Milage Total: 1073.41 Miles

Races:

2010 RACE LIST

May 16th - Colfax Half Marathon, Denver Colorado

1:59:07

Twilight Trail 8K - Cleveland, OH

47:56

October 10th - Towpath Marathon, Peninsula Ohio

4:32:54

End of the Year Thoughts

Looking back over the past year 2010 brought so many changes in my life. The first half of the year was spent preparing both at work and at home for the transfer to Cleveland: Looking for a place to live, figuring out how to transfer to a new school, packing up at work, packing up at home, trying to figure out how two people could survive on a student stipend while Dan looked for a job. There have definitely been a lot of ups and downs and a lot of change for us over the past year. The move eventually came and went and overall I think we have finally settled into life in a new city. It's amazing how long it can take for a new place and actually feel at home, but I think we're getting there. With all of the move preparations, and then the move itself I raced MUCH less than I have in years past, BUT I also had some big accomplishments in the races I did run. At the Colfax 1/2 Marathon in May I finally got back under 2 hours (something I have not been able to do since my very first 1/2 Marathon). Perhaps the most important accomplishment: Running my first Full Marathon. It's a goal that's been on my bucket list for a while and i'm extremely happy to have done it. I don't know that there will be any more Full marathons in my near future. I find the 1/2 Marathon to be much more enjoyable to fit into my life, but someday.... maybe another Full.

This is the first year i've blogged about my running and kept track of my milage, so I don't know how it compares to years past, but running over 1000 miles this year sounds good to me :-).

2010 Yearly Milage Total: 1073.41 Miles

See you next Year!

Is Winter cold better than the Heat and Humidity of Summer?

Grudgingly, I think yes. Although, Cleveland cold is much more bitter than Colorado cold and I have learned that I need to modify a few things:

1. I need a second layer over my tights.

2. I need some sort of face protection.

3. Why don't people shovel here??? Seriously??

4. I need some new snow routes where I can run in the street because of #3.

Looks like a shopping trip to stock up on more cold weather running clothes is in order, as well as some map questing for some new routes. My weekly milage for the last couple of weeks has been kind of low. Last week we were in Colorado visiting family, so I got to do some beautiful mountain running. The altitude got me a little and my pace was slow, but the scenery was so worth it! The reason I complain about Cleveland winters:

This is what I got to look at on my runs last week in Colorado. This is the kind of winter i've had the luxury of experiencing. Beautiful weather and BLUE skies. It was 30 degrees, but so much less depressing than the gray skies here in Cleveland. Yes, I have been spoiled.

Weekly Update 12/20-12/26:

Sunday - off

Saturday - 3.23 miles

Friday - 4.14 miles

Thursday - off

Wednesday - 4.09 miles

Tuesday - off

Monday - off

Weekly Total: 11.46 Miles

Weekly Update 12/13-12/19:

Sunday - off

Saturday - off

Friday - 5.00

Thursday - 6x 800 with 400 rests. With warmup and cooldown 5.5 miles total.

Wednesday - upper body weights and core

Tuesday - 5 mile tempo run.

Monday - total body Weights/cardio circuit workout.

Weekly Milage Total: 15.5 Miles

Winter has arrived in Cleveland

Well I think I may have spoken a little too soon... I was starting to feel better, but I seem to have this horrendous sore throat that will not go away. I'm not congested anymore, so getting back to exercise this week felt good after being pretty much in bed for 2 weeks, but my energy levels are still pretty low. I made my third trip to the doctor, where they confirmed that my lymph nodes are very swollen and my tonsils are inflamed. Duh.... I already knew that. I was really pissed off that they didn't seem to think it was worth doing any type of throat culture or test for mono considering i've been sick for 3 weeks, but I guess i'm just going to have to wait this one out.

Winter has officially arrived in Cleveland. As far as I can tell this means its going to snow pretty much every day... which i'm sure will get tedious and depressing after a few months, but so far it hasn't prevented me from running outside on the weekends. I do like to keep those dreadmill miles to a minimum in the winter.

Sunday - 5.38 miles

Saturday - 6.11 miles

Friday- 6X800 w/ 400 jogs. With warmup and cooldown 5 miles total

Thursday - off

Wednesday - off

Tuesday - 4 miles easy

Monday - Spinning Class

Weekly Milage Total: 20.49 Miles

Finally! I'm Well!

Alleluia! After literally spending a week and a half in bed sleeping I seem to finally be recovering from the God awful bug I had. Unfortunately my sickness caused me to miss out on the last of the beautiful fall running weather. It seems to be winter now. 30 degrees and snow flurries for the foreseeable future. 30 degrees is still far better than 90 (or even 80) degrees in my mind though! This is our first Ohio winter.... so I'm still not sure exactly what to expect, but I have a feeling the sunny winter days we saw in Colorado wont be happening here. Saturday morning I ventured out for my first post sickness run. I kept it short and I think the cold air actually made me cough up some of the lingering flem.... hmm gross. I can't believe it's only a few weeks until Christmas. If my calculations are correct i've already hit 1,000 miles for this year. It wasn't exactly a goal.... but it still seems impressive to me!

Weekly Recap 11/29 - 12/5

Sunday - 6.01 Miles

Saturday - 3.10 Miles

Friday - sick

Thursday - sick

Wednesday - sick

Tuesday - sick

Monday - sick

Weekly Total: 9.11 Miles

Weekly Milage Recaps

Well I've been sick all week so no running for the past week and no turkey trot unfortunately. I'm hoping to sneak a reindeer run 5K in in the beginning of December as a fun race. Hopefully I am feeling better by then. For now i'm off to rest some more and drink more fluids to get rid of this crud. Spending a week in bed sick is no fun.

Weekly Recap 11/22- 11/28

0 miles

Weekly Recap 11/15- 11/21

Sunday - 5.94 miles

Saturday - 6.31 miles

Friday - off

Thursday - off

Wednesday - 5 miles

Tuesday - weights

Monday - 4.5 miles with 2x (400, 800, 1200) speedwork

Weekly Total: 21.75 miles

Weekly Recap 11/8-11/14:

Well, I was finally able to motivate myself into fitting weights in twice a week. Yay! I have a feeling next week wont go as well.... I'll be traveling and I just don't see it happening.

Sunday - 5.11 miles

Saturday - 4 miles

Friday - weights

Thursday - 5.35 miles

Wednesday - weights

Tuesday - 6 miles

Monday - rest

Weekly Total: 20.46 miles

I really need to update...

Well, not to much is going on with my running. I'm trying to keep milage between 15-20 miles per week, but not really worrying to much about it. Ideally, i'd also like to get myself back into some sort of weights/strength routine, but I just can't seem to get really motivated to do more than 1 day a week - not much better than during marathon training. Really, i'm just trying to enjoy the flexibility of not training for anything specific right now! I'd thought about doing another half, but registration was full for the race I had my eye on.... so whatever. The last track workout of the season was last week (a little sad). I'd still like to work on some speedwork this winter on my own. I think i'll sign up for the Cleveland Turkey Trot and some other fun winter races. Can I just say I LOVE COLD WEATHER RUNNING! (it's not really that cold yet) Cold is so so so soooooooo much better than 90 degree heat and humidity (oh.... and can someone please remind me of this when I start complaining about how cold it is later this winter?). That's all of my random ramblings for now.

11/1 -11/7

Sunday - 6.46 miles

Saturday - 3.01 miles

Friday - weights

Thursday - 4 mile tempo

Wednesday - rest

Tuesday 5 miles speedwork

Monday - rest

Weekly Total: 18.47

10/25-10/31

Sunday - 7.3 miles

Saturday - rest

Friday - rest

Thursday - rest

Wednesday 5.5 miles

Tuesday -rest

Monday - rest

Weekly Total: 12.8 miles

10/18-10/24

Sunday- 6.1 miles

Saturday- 3 miles

Friday - weights

Thursday 5 miles

Wednesday- rest

Tuesday 4.02 miles

Monday - rest

Weekly Total: 18.12 miles

Recovery

This week was all about recovery from the marathon, so not much running.

Sunday night, after the marathon, my legs were so sore that I had a little trouble sleeping. Monday, I was really sore. Walking down stairs... well really just walking in general was hard, but walking down stairs was impossible. I walk around at work a lot and am on my feet a lot of the day, so by the end of the day monday I was ready to get home and rest my legs. I wore my new neon green compression socks (hot!) that I picked up at the race expo all day monday and tuesday. I have to say Tuesday was worse than monday. In addition to soreness my legs really hurt. Being sore and in pain was also starting to make me a little cranky. Luckily, Wednesday morning I woke up and finally felt pretty normal again. I was able to walk down stairs! HORAY! I thought about trying to take a short recovery jog, but decided to give it another day. Thursday I felt pretty good, so I went to the gym and ran on the dreadmill (mainly because I wasn't quite sure how far i'd make it!) for 2.5 miles easy. My legs were still very tired, but it felt good to use them again and I got a good stretch in after my run, then I walked 1.5 miles home, which also felt good. Friday, I decided just walking home from work would be enough. Saturday, I felt like I could have run, but really just wanted to take the opportunity to sleep in as late as I wanted and lay around all day reading. I did manage to drag myself out of bed to go and get a massage (life is rough). It was a very lazy day. Today I felt like a "real" run was in order. I went out for 6 miles and tried to just let my legs run at whatever pace they wanted (yes, they do have a mind of their own). It felt good, but it became apparent around mile 4 that my hamstrings and butt are still very sore. All in all, recovery is going well. Although in doing day to day activities I feel all the way back to normal, running still isn't quite there yet. Supposedly, it take 1 day for every mile of the marathon, so I guess this is normal. This next week i'm going to shoot for 15-20 miles, but basically just try to pay attention to how my body is feeling.

I'm toying with the idea of running a half-marathon in early november... I think i'm in shape for what could be a half-marathon PR... but we'll see how my legs feel over the next few weeks. Other than that I don't think i'm really going to train for any race in particular over the next few months. I've been searching for some fun shorter distance 5Ks and 10Ks to do. Over the winter I'd like to work on some speed, but for now I'm just going to give myself some time to enjoy running without a schedule.

Weekly update for 10/11 - 10/17

Sunday - 6.22 miles

Saturday - nothing

Friday - nothing

Thursday - 2.5 miles

Wednesday - nothing

Tuesday - nothing

Monday - nothing

Weekly Total : A measly 8.72 miles and some well deserved rest!

I am a Marathoner!

Well, I finished the marathon! It didn't go exactly as I had hoped, but i'm happy to have finished and I definitely learned some things from the experience.

(Pretty fall colors at the start)

The weather was absolutely perfect at the start of the race, in the 50's I think. The air felt nice and crisp and refreshing. The race started well. The first 10 miles flew by, easily. The path was beautiful with the fall colors and I was was just enjoying running and looking around at the scenery. I started too fast. Shocking (not!). I had planned on trying to run 9:30 minute miles then slowing down if I needed to. Instead, I ran 9 minute miles and hit the wall at around mile 18. Rookie mistake. I knew I was going too fast, I had been told not to go out too fast, I had been told about the infamous wall. I knew better. Why didn't I run slower at the beginning? For the first 10 miles, a 9 min. mile pace just felt good. It felt comfortable and easy. Around mile 14 I started feeling a little tired and did slow down to the pace I should have been running at the beginning. I think I ran about a 2 hour half.... too fast. The course was two out and back loops with the start and finish in the middle. The first loop went out 9 miles, so when I started feeling fatigued I just thought about getting to mile 17ish to see Daniel cheering for me.

(Just before mile 17....starting to feel tired)

Once I crossed through and started the second out and back loop I really started struggling. The last 8 miles felt 3 times as long as the first 18. At about mile 20 I threw all pace goals out the window and just tried to keep running/jogging/moving forward at whatever pace possible. Around mile 21 I almost broke into tears my legs were so tired and achy. I started telling myself to just work on one mile at a time and I started walking through the water stops. Mile 26 I broke down into 800's in my head. I just kept telling myself 3 800's to go, just like a track workout. I came through the finish line in 4:32:54, much slower than either of my pace goals, but I was so happy to have finished that it didn't even matter.

(coming towards the finish line, looking very tired)

(Finished. I couldn't figure out if I should eat something or drink something. So I grabbed everything. Haha.)

I didn't really even want to post this.... but maybe it can serve as a warning to other first time marathoners about what happens if you go out too fast. If the goal was to run progressively slower each mile I definitely accomplished that.... unfortunately that wasn't the goal.

Here it is, the garmin splits.

Mile 1 - 8:55 (umm too fast!)

Mile 2 - 9:05 (okay... I ran a little bit slower)

Mile 3 - 9:06

Mile 4 - 9:07

Mile 5 - 9:09

Mile 6 - 9:04

Mile 7 - 9:15

Mile 8 - 9:13

Mile 9 - 9:17 (at this point i'm thinking okay this pace feels pretty good)

Mile 10 - 9:22

Mile 11 - 9:28

Mile 12 - 9:38

Mile 13 - 9:46

Mile 14 - 9:59

Mile 15 - 10:05 (my muscles start to hurt and I think okay, i'll just hold 10min/mile for the rest of the race no prob.)

Mile 16 - 10:03

Mile 17 - 10:02

Mile 18 - 10:50

Mile 19 - 11:07 (I want to cry and be done with the race, my legs hurt and are all crampy..oh and I also realized the consequences of going out too fast)

Mile 20 - 11:22 (I throw out all pace goals and just try to propel myself forwards)

Mile 21 - 12:16

Mile 22 - 12:36

Mile 23 - 11:44

Mile 24 - 12:08

Mile 25 - 11:57

Mile 26 - 11: 36

The last bit: 3:49 (11 min mile pace)

overall average: 10:15 min/mile - not great, but i'm still happy to have finished a marathon!

And the weekly milage recap:

Sunday - 26.2 miles! Yea!

Saturday - 1.05 miles (really? I put running clothes on to do this?)

Friday - rest

Thursday - 3.01 miles

Wednesday - Ab workout

Tuesday - 4.12 miles

Monday - off

Weekly total: 34.38 miles

Revisiting my Goals

Well, the day has come (almost!). The marathon is about 1 day away. Tasks for tomorrow include picking up my race packet, getting some power bars (my pre-run breakfast), finishing my ipod playlist, and trying to stay off my feet as much as possible. According to my marathon training plan i'm also supposed to do a 10 minute run. It almost doesn't even seem worth it to change into running clothes for something that short, but I do always like to get a short jog in the day before a race to loosen my muscles up and stretch afterwards.

When I began training for this marathon I had some training goals:

- Complete as many runs as possible. Check.

- Not get injured. Check

I also had some marathon goals:

- Finish alive and uninjured

- Run 10 minute miles or under

- Try to run a 4 hr 10 min marathon.

Now, at the end of training, my goals really haven't changed. My 20 milers were at about 10:50 min/mile pace.... so i'm definitely going to kick it up, but my experience has been that my race pace is much faster than my training pace, so I think 10 min miles are definitely possible. As for a 4hr 10 min marathon... we will see. My plan is to try to keep my pace at about 9:30/mile for as long as possible. I always go out to fast, so i'm really going to try not to do that.

I'm definitely feeling nervous!

I'll try to do a short blog tomorrow before the race. If not, i'll do a race recap after the race!