"You could run a marathon tomorrow..."

Just over 5 months ago, I went on a recovery run with two mamas from the Moms Run This Town Facebook group to which I belong. It was a week after my PR half, where I definitely left it all out on the course.  I took a much-needed week off from running after that race.  I wanted to get an easy 4 mile run in the following weekend, and was invited to join two runners who were going to be doing an easy 4 miles together. 

Those two runners were Katie and Jen, and I am not exaggerating when I say that day was a turning point for me in my running.  I had never ran with either of these women, and while Katie knew a bit about my running history, Jen and I had barely spoke prior to the run as she had just joined our group.  So, of course we spent a good deal of time getting acquainted and sharing general bits of info about ourselves.  I don't recall much at all of what we talked about during that morning run, but there is one thing I remember very well.  I had told Jen that I had ran in a few half-marathons, but that I couldn't see myself running in a full.  The desire was there, but I didn't think I could handle the training... not so much physically, but the time and mileage commitment.  Jen turned to me mid-stride and said, "You could run a marathon tomorrow if you wanted to."  

Those words left an imprint on my mind that day, and again when Jen repeated them a week later during our first of many long runs together.  I had never shared with anyone that I even wanted to run a marathon... I didn't even know I wanted to until I said it out loud, in fact.  But Jen's response is what really got me to thinking about it, and just 5 weeks later, on New Year's Eve (before the race fee increased!) I registered for my first marathon.  

I've spent the better part of the last 4 months preparing for this race.  Jen and I trained for the Granville 15-Mile Winter Run, and this training segued into training for my marathon.  As I've mentioned previously, she committed to running the long runs with me to prepare for my race, even though she wasn't going to be able to actually run the marathon with me on the big day.  I am extremely grateful for her commitment to me, especially through one of the worst winters that Ohio has ever seen!  Even more awesome is that Jen is joining me in Toledo this Sunday as my #1 cheerleader.  I've never had a cheerleader during a race before... never had someone there just for me.  So this is huge, and I cannot wait to see her at various points on the course!

After one of our many cool morning long runs...

Okay, I'm sure you've heard enough about my running-partner-turned-best-bud, so I'll get on to discussing the race.  The Glass City Marathon is located in Toledo, Ohio, which is just over two hours north of where I live in central Ohio.  A big reason that I chose this race because of its tagline: "Flat and Fast Course--Great for Beginners."  Yep, I like ALL of those words!  Another reason: it is an April race.  One of the many bits of advice given to me by Jen: do not run a marathon in May.  If you ever meet her, she'll tell you about her Cleveland Marathon experience.  It was enough to scare me off from distance races in May for a long time!

The race begins and ends on the campus of the University of Toledo, where once upon a time I competed in a swimming meet or two. The course is exactly what I like: a nice big loop around the city.  It winds through quiet suburbs and hits a park or two as well.  The finish is in the UT Stadium, how cool is that?!!

As I mentioned, this race is advertised as flat... check out the elevation map.  Can't get much flatter than this!

I especially like the downhill from miles 21-26.  After spending the last couple of nights watching the coverage of the Boston Marathon from this past Monday (I had to DVR it), I am very grateful for the way my race is set up.  I've trained on hills, so of course I can do them, but it's so much nicer to know I won't have to deal with them on race day.


So, at this point in my training (as Jen says), "the horse is in the stable"... meaning, the work is done, it's time to rest these legs up and get ready for what's to come!  I ran easy last week (only 16 miles total), and this week it's only 9 miles (5 Monday and 4 on Wednesday morning) leading up to Sunday's race.  Taper taper taper! 

On to my race strategy.  I met a woman on Facebook a couple of months ago who is also running in Glass City (I think it's her 3rd or 4th marathon; she did Glass City last year as well). We've chatted on Messenger a few times, and have come to the conclusion that we should go ahead and try to race together!  Our plans are very similar: take the race out nice and easy, in around a 9:30-9:45 pace. Hold that pace for the first 13 miles.  Then, begin a gradual negative split, progressively getting faster if our bodies will allow it.  I am planning on following my own race plan, and running how I feel is best for me, but it's exciting to know that I will at least have someone to chat with during some of the race!  

Moving on to my goals for this race.  Everyone (my running pals, my doctor who is a super-fast marathoner, and anyone who has ran a marathon and has given me their input) has told met that my first goal should simply be to finish.  I hate having a goal like this.  If you know me at all, you know I am super-competitive and I like to set goals for myself.  To finish a race as a goal?  Finishing is assumed... but I bow to those who are more experienced than me, and I will say that my "C" goal is to complete my first marathon, all 26.2 miles of it. 

Now let's move on to the real goals.  Based on how I've felt during our long runs, I feel that I can hold a 10:00/mile pace relatively easily for all 26.2 miles.   That would be a 4:22 for my final time.  So, my "B" goal is to go sub-4:20 (which would be 9:54/mile).  I feel that this is very do-able, but again, I'm banking on feeling great the entire time.  This goal gives me the leeway to not feel awesome the entire race, but still make a time goal. 

Last but not least, my "A" goal.  I have gone back and forth on this one several times.  I have finally settled on "Get as close to 4:00 as possible".  I love this goal, because I really don't feel pressured by it. I had considered setting a goal of going sub-4:00 (9:09/mile).  In my heart, I know I can do this. I just don't know if I'm ready quite yet.  And I don't want my memories of my first marathon to be 
anything but positive.  With this goal, I will be seriously happy with whatever I do!   I will be blogging after the race, of course... so until then!  #Bostonstrong

Taper Madness

T-minus 11 days until my first full marathon ever, and yes, the madness of taper has struck.  For a half-marathon, I typically do a 10-12 day taper.  For a full, most people recommend 2-3 weeks of tapering.  I know I respond well to tapering, based on years of swimming as well as the previous races I've done, so it's a necessary step that I won't skip.  

That being said, it is a huge mental step for me to drop in my miles.  Last week I did 30 miles.  This week it will only be around 16.  Next week probably 10-12 (until the day of the race of course).  It's not easy to be running 35-40 miles per week and then all of a sudden decrease that by 50-75%.  I run for my "me" time, as well as to enjoy time with my friends, so I'm missing out on those things as well.  

Today was the first Wednesday that I haven't ran in over two months.  I have grown to love embrace the hills that we run at 4:30 AM.  I chose to take today off for three reasons: one, I'm on spring break (at last!), and I didn't need to get up at 4:00 AM since I didn't have to be at work today.  Two, I'm on taper and hill repeats aren't recommended.  And three, probably the most important reason: I am tweaky.   No, not twerky LOL... tweaky.  A tweak is what runners call their minor aches and pains.  We get random tweaks every now and then, some runners more than others.  I fortunately have escaped most tweaks during this training cycle. Of course, now that am resting, they start.  One in particular has me concerned.  It is on my left tibula (outer shin area) slightly below my patella (knee cap).  It is a spot that is sore to the touch, but not when I walk or run.  Weird, I know.  I got very concerned about it when I first discovered it on Monday after my run.  Taking the advice of friends, I decided a couple of days of rest couldn't hurt.  

So just now, I was sitting here icing my shin, and I decided to check out my other leg (the good one).  I felt around the same spot that I have my little tweak, and what do you know?  It's tender on my right leg too!  I am super stoked about that.  You might be thinking, "This is one crazy lady; she's excited about pain?!"  I'm excited that it's in the same spot on the opposite leg.  This means that it's very likely just an overuse tweak, and nothing serious.  Also, I've been alternating between two pairs of my favorite shoes (Mizuno Wave Inspire 9's).  One has about 150 miles on them; they're the ones I'll run my race in.  The other has over 300 miles. I *always* retire (stop using) my shoes by 300, often before.  I'm thinking that there's a good chance that my pain could be due to the shoes needing to be retired. 

In sum... yes, taper is driving me batty.  I just need to go out for a run!  And I will do just that with my friends tomorrow morning.  Nice and easy, saving these legs for what lies ahead.  My next post will discuss everything about my race (goals, course map, plans, etc.).  Stay tuned!

ORRRC Half Marathon Race recap

What a day.   No, really, what.a.day.  I'm not exaggerating when I say that today truly was the best race ever.  What made it so awesome, you might ask?  Well, settle down my friends... Marcie's gonna tell a story.

Once upon a time, there was a little girl who loved to swim.  She joined a team and quickly became one of the top swimmers in her age group in the state.  The little girl loved to compete, and to get faster.  She continued swimming for many years, right up through her first year of college.  She never grew tired of racing.  The little girl eventually had to stop swimming as she by now was married with children of her own.  She missed the competitive atmosphere of the pool, and missed pushing her body to the limit.  There just wasn't time for her sport anymore now that she was a mother and wife and a teacher, and just too busy, and it made her sad.  

Well, after her fourth and fifth children (twins!) were around 2 years old, the mother decided that she needed to do something for herself, as she was tired of being out of shape.  She bought some running shoes, and she started to run.  The mother quickly fell in love with the sport of running, and competed in a couple of shorter races before trying her first half marathon.  She found an even greater love for longer distances, and soon after started to meet other mother runners like herself.  Still, her reasons for running were more selfish than anything--it was her "me time" away from her kids, and she also loved racing and beating others, as well as her own times.

As she ran with her new friends more and more, however, the mother runner grew to love the companionship that running was now giving to her.  She started waking up at ungodly hours to run with her friends.  Now, not all of her friends ran at the same pace as the mother runner did.  She learned that running didn't always have to be fast, that there was something to be gained from running at a different pace sometimes.  The mother runner decided to train for her first marathon, and her friends trained right along with her, motivating her along the way.   A few weeks before her first marathon, though, she had signed up for a half-marathon race.  She wasn't sure that she really wanted to race the distance for a PR (personal record), as she was worried about expending too much emotion and energy too close to her marathon race.  When the mother runner found out that one of her friends was looking to run a PR, and that her pace was comparable to what the mother runner wanted to run at during the race, the mother runner asked her friend if she wanted a pacer.  And this is exactly what the two friends ended up doing.  During the race, the mother runner discovered that running with a friend to help her PR was the most amazing thing ever.  She loved every single second of the race.  She learned something about herself, too: that running a race didn't have to always be about PRing.  It could be about patience, and persistence, and friendship, and most of all, the joy of running. 

OK so that maybe was a bit corny, but it is all true, every bit of it.  What a fantastic race!  Jamie (my friend) and I had discussed in detail how this race would go.  A couple of days before, she decided she wouldn't wear her Garmin watch, and thus wouldn't know our pace. This was so she wouldn't stress about how fast (or slow) she was running.  This ended up being the perfect plan for Jamie.  I let her guide us... when she wanted to pull back, we pulled back.  When she sped up, I followed her.  I kept a steady stream of conversation going, especially when I could tell Jamie was getting tired.  At 10 miles, I looked down at my watch and I knew at that point that we were going to go sub-2:00 (Jamie's ultimate goal, but one she really didn't think she could make).  I was so so excited, and I just wanted to sprint for the finish!  But of course, I didn't.  This wasn't about me at all... it was about running with Jamie and keeping her going even when she felt she couldn't do it. 

Running through the finish line, watching Jamie's face as she realized how truly fast we'd gone... well, I'm getting goosebumps right now just typing about it.  Just amazing... no other words can describe it.  Here are our splits:

Mile 1: 9:03

Mile 2: 9:11

Mile 3: 9:06

Mile 4: 9:03

Mile 5: 8:59
Mile 6: 9:11
Mile 7: 8:57
Mile 8: 9:05
Mile 9: 8:57
Mile 10: 8:59
Mile 11: 8:43
Mile 12: 8:47
Mile 13: 8:33

                                                                       0.15:      1:10
                               Garmin time: 13.15 miles in 1:57:44.   Official time = 1:57:47
 

 Here are Christine, Robyn, me, Tamara and Jamie after the race!

We collected our bling and I headed back out onto the course.  I had a planned training run of 17 miles today, and was going to run another 2 miles out-and-back to get in the last 4 miles.  That was the plan... well, after a mile I ran into my friend Tamara, and decided to finish her race with her.  So I did get in 2 extra miles.   We finished up our morning with some delicious soup and yummy cookies at the YMCA, and headed back home.  I rode with Christine, Robyn and Tamara, so the trip back to Columbus went by quickly. 

And here I am... feeling extremely excited about my full marathon in 3 weeks. I felt so wonderful on today's run!   Seriously, like I could have ran for many more miles.  I cannot wait to see what I can do when I get to run 26.2 miles on April 27!

A marathon of a blog post...

I started this post two weeks ago, realizing that it'd been a month since my last blog post.  Never got back to it, as of course life always seems to get in the way.   It's been a busy month of running, working, and mommy-ing. This post is going to be devoted to running, though, as I've got a lot to say after so many weeks!  Sorry if I get a bit wordy... pull up a chair, this is a long one!

I've been heavily into training for my first full marathon, which is on April 27.   Exactly 4 weeks from today, eek!  I was able to push to 5 runs a week for a couple of weeks in late February/early March, but as the long runs on weekends have increased in distance, my body has responded by telling me that 4 runs per week is plenty (plus 1-2 days of core work).  Training for this marathon has been so different than training for my three half-marathons.   I've had company on probably close to 60-75% of my runs.  I love running with friends, as it makes the miles just fly by.   

 I've found various runners to match my goal paces on the different types of runs that I do, which has been really cool.  My long slow distance runs are always with Jen, the best friend a runner could ever have.  She's not even racing in a spring marathon, but she's done every single long run with me.  She'll be by my side during my race, as my cheerleader and coach.  I can truly say I wouldn't be training for this race if it weren't for her.  We've had some company on a few of our runs as well; Jess is training for the same full as me so our scheduled distances typically match up.  Our kids are similar ages so there's always a lot to talk about on our runs.

 This is Jen, me and Jess after one of our long runs!

When I want to run a bit faster, I call up Jenny or Tamara K., as they both are speedy mamas who push me hard.  I try to get in at least one hard road workout per week, either tempo or progressive.  Jenny is in nursing school, however, so I don't get to run with her as much as I'd like.  Wednesday mornings have become a party in Worthington Hills, as up to seven of us meet at 4:30 AM for miles plus hill repeats.  The party-goers vary from week to week, but I can always count on Jamie to be there.  She's the leader of our local Moms Run This Town group and I love running with her... awesome sense of humor in that one!  

 Here we have Jen, me, Jess, Laurie and Jamie in the front, and Lyndsey and Stuart in the back, lighting up the Hills!

I still am on the treadmill typically once per week, doing speed work (interval repeats or ladder sets), since I know my legs still need to know how to run fast even though I'm running a huge distance.  I do still "dread" it, but it's too cold and dark out when I can fit in track repeats, so the gym it is.

So that's my training, in brief.   Here is a quick peek at the weekly miles I've been running... we do drop-back weeks every other week, where our long runs go down a bit. I think that these weeks, in addition to running 2 runs per week (hills and long run) at a pace that is very comfortable for me (over a minute slower than my half-marathon pace) has what's keep me injury-free as well as motivated to train.  

Look at that 43-mile week in there! :) 

Well, yesterday was the big one... 21 miles!  I've never ran so far, or for such a long period of time.  It was just Jen and me, as Jess has some tweaky ankles right now and didn't want to have to pull out during our run.  We started at 6:00 AM to 1) hopefully escape the predicted rain, and 2) get finished by around 10:00 so Charlotte could get to her swim lessons at 10:45.   Both tasks were basically accomplished :)  We began at our usual spot, the beginning of the trail behind the Hills Market in Worthington.  Recently on our long runs we've had friends come with us and have done a few out-and-backs to stay with them on their shorter-distance runs.  This time, though, it would be 10.5 miles out and 10.5 miles back.  The first half of the run is a blur.  We ran, we talked, we laughed.   The miles ticked off and we felt great.  The sun came up a little over an hour after we started our run, and even though it was cloudy we were happy to turn off our headlamps and be able to see the trail. 

We hit Ohio State's campus just before the halfway mark, and ran onto West Campus to get in the extra half-mile.  It was at the same time that I saw the building with several cars parked in front of it that I realized that I *really* needed to use the bathroom.  That building was a beacon of light... almost like there was a neon arrow pointing at it saying, "HEY, there's gonna be flushable toilets in here!"   Super happy mama runner here!  We ran to the building and found a bathroom where we did our business, relishing in the clean toilets, running water, and yes even the automatic paper towel holder.  These are such luxuries during a run, when we haven't even had porta-potties to use over the past few months!  Even better, there was a drinking fountain where we could fill our bottles.  We gave thanks for these small but miraculous fortunes and headed back out to finish what we'd started... but not before we snapped a picture in front of the 'Shoe (OSU's stadium).   It always sends shivers up my spine... I'm a Buckeye for life!

The 10.5 miles back to the Hills didn't go quite as swimmingly as the first half of our run.  The rhythm had been interrupted, and as the miles racked up, Jen's tweaky hamstring started to bug her more and more.  We added some Eminem to our run via Pandora, which pumped us up a bit.  By this point, other runners had started their Saturday long runs, and we welcomed the diversion of the different people on the trail, even chatting with a few as they passed us or we passed them.   The predicted rain finally decided to make its appearance at around mile 18 or so.  Sprinkles were fine, though--we were prepared with hats and water-proof jackets.  We were fortunate that the rain didn't
really start to fall until we had less than a mile to go.  At that point, the parking lot was a truly welcome sight!  A quick selfie (see the inset pic above) and we were on our merry ways, truly proud of each other and what we'd done that morning. What a feeling, to run farther than most people will even drive in a day!   I'm pleased to say that I feel great this morning, thanks in part to wearing my compression socks yesterday.  I still can't believe that I'll be racing in a marathon next month... but I can say that I've definitely trained for it!

Next weekend brings a new challenge for me.  Several moms in the MRTT group are running a half-marathon in Xenia, Ohio (a little over an hour from Columbus).  I signed up for this race before deciding to run the full.  Needless to say, I am not prepared to PR at this race.  I'm a strong believer in tapering, and running 21 miles the week before a race isn't really tapering LOL!  That being said, I am not sure how I could run a race and not... well, race.  Well, I've decided to try something new... I'm gonna be a pacer!  My aforementioned friend Jamie is going for a PR, and I want to help her get there.  So that's my job, and I cannot wait to do it!  We're gunning for around a 2:05... maybe faster ;)  I'm also planning on running 2 miles prior to the race and 2 miles afterwards, so that I can still get in my 17 mile long run for the weekend. I will try to blog about that race in a somewhat timely manner :)