A centennial to celebrate!

Hello! So here are a few updates.

My Philadelphia Marathon training has been going –ehh– well enough! A few weekends ago, I went to race the Cape Code Marathon as part of a relay team. Our team (Tequila Tuesday) consisted of 4 runners, plus 1 awesome driver, and one boyfriend (2 boyfriends if you count mine–which I do). I used this race as a chance to run a long training run. I ran the first two legs before tagging off to my relay team but then I slowed down and continued. My ankle was giving me tremendous pain this run, I was suffering heart burn, and to top it off, I didn’t sleep the night before (perhaps an hour at most). Given all the ugly there, I was able to complete 20 miles total (15 and then 5 more after sucking it up). Total running time was < 3 hrs which fits well into my training plan and I felt good about it when I finished.

Team Tequila Tuesday

The race itself started very beautiful, but then it became quite dangerous. The roads were not closed and there were many drivers (relaying their relay teams around) which meant a lot of cars zooming by during the race. I’m very thankful for Dave who met me around mile 12 and then continued to run with me throughout my run and also to my teammate Daniel who ran an extra 5 miles to run with me. Thanks dudes!

My next long training run came Wednesday. I took a pack and thought I’d run around Boston and didn’t want to rely on public drinking fountains. Carrying the pack isn’t totally new to me but it isn’t race normative either. For this last long run, I had a lot of mental issues. I tried to start out very slow and conservative and it felt very weird and ‘off’ to me and my stride. As a result, I felt weak and tired from around miles 10-15– did a lot of walking and a lot of resting. However, after hitting mile 15 and knowing I was still 5 miles away from home, I threw on my “fuck it” shirt and was able to crank the last 5 anywhere between 7:50-8:20 pace and felt good at the end. Overall, the 20 miles were slower than they were at Cape Cod, BUT– I think I have some mental stuff figured out.

I need to stop thinking so far ahead first of all. I know I can make it 26.2 miles, I know when it is race day that I will go all out and leave everything, so I really shouldn’t hold back as much as I was. I was forcing myself to start with 9s and hopes to get faster, maybe negative split. That doesn’t make sense to me. I haven’t been training that way so I shouldn’t necessarily implement that type of mindset during my race. Secondly, I was able to run much faster and with less inhibition after letting the mental stuff go, so I should really try to start that way. I think, if I can keep this mentality during the race, I will be very successful, however if I let the other stuff creep in and maybe “over strategize” then I may have a poor race.

I hope that knowing all that and having faith in what I have already done helps me.

Anyway– that is not really why I wanted to write a post. I ran today, this morning at the Middlesex Fells again and completed what is my 100th mile since my last bad fall! I am so thrilled with myself. Falling once and getting up is not big deal. Falling 4x in a year resulting in 2 open gashes in my knees, a very bad infection, stitches, and multiple weeks of blood and terribly weak skin is kind of a bigger deal. Since falling, I have changed how I run in the following ways:

Eyes on the ground– sorry beautiful trees and landscape! I can only check you out when I stop because otherwise I will eat dirt.
Higher steps– this may be problematic for me later down the line. It does require using more energy but I’ve been high stepping more just to be extra sure I don’t wipe out. If I ever train for a longer race, I will probably try to work on this to use that energy elsewhere.
Slower in general– I used to run much faster on trails. As a result, when I would snag my toe on a root or rock, I would fall with much more force, equating often to more pain/danger. I’ve slowed down out of fear. This is another thing that I hope to change in the future, I want to get my confidence back 100% and fly again. Winter will be helpful for this, maybe due to the soft snow on the trails. We’ll see!

Anyway, I decided to treat myself to a few beers at Night Shift Brewery (only about 6 miles from the Fells) to celebrate. I am content with reaching this milestone and as a result, I plan on starting my taper and watching TONS of netflix tonight (and maybe doing some graduate school work, who knows).