Tuesday, October 24, 2017

10/24

6 for me today; threw in some speed stuff to keep the TM interesting and see what I can do for a half in 6 weeks. Started out at 5.2, worked up to 7.1, back down to 6.3. Average pace was 9:40.

Monday, October 23, 2017

10/23

Lots of rain all day so I ended up with 6 on the TM at 10:05.

Saturday did a gorgeous and glorious 15k trail race with my friend--it was the perfect end to my Saturday long runs with this friend! The trail was really gorgeous--by far the most rugged run I've ever done and the weather was perfect.

30.3 miles last week; not too bad for still being in recovery mode.

Friday, October 20, 2017

10/20

Started a semi-normalish running pattern again this week, although I'm still taking it pretty easy to baby that stiff fracture site.

Monday: 5
Tuesday: 6
Wednesday: 5
Thursday: 2.2 (walking for rest day)
Friday: 5.1

Planning to do a 15k trail race tomorrow with a friend--it should be gorgeous weather!

Thursday, October 12, 2017




Oh gosh, I'm so behind again! Finished all my runs for taper and ran the marathon; it's just hard keeping up this log concurrently with the move!

So Chicago was not as good as I was hoping--a week before the race we started getting emails about the conditions. It ended up being very humid and in the 60s at the start and 80 at the finish...just not a great day at all for a marathon!

My legs were aching the day before, thanks to the combo of driving the Subaru up to Chicago (it always hurts my leg SO bad; something about the angle of the pedal just kills the leg I fractured two years ago) and walking around the day before, even though I really tried to limit the walking time. I went to bed pretty early and got a solid 6-7 hours before I woke up at 4:30 to get ready and head downtown. I got a ride from my sister's apartment in Lincoln Park in to downtown with a friend who was coming in from the suburbs, and then met up with another friend at her hotel. The race started at 7:30, and it was already warm enough by then that I was comfortable in a tank top and shorts...not a good sign!


My legs were aching in the first mile, and in past marathons I've just loved the whole experience for the first 15-16. I was literally checking my watch a quarter-mile in and already feeling like I didn't want to run that day. Just totally not feeling it one bit! The cardio felt fine and I wasn't tired, but I just was not there mentally and my legs were telling me that this was a stupid idea.
Then my feet started going numb and were COMPLETELY numb by 4 miles. Then they started hurting like crazy. Just crazy pain and I've never had anything like that (these were new shoes I'd worn on my last few long runs and I didn't really love them, but they were the best of the new shoes I had--in hindsight I just wish I'd gone with an older pair even if it had less cushioning). When I took my shoes off at the end of the race I had 3 blue toenails, multiple blisters, and some bloody blisters--and I usually NEVER blister ever ever. Anyway. My Garmin also had a hard time with the buildings/bridges, which I'd expected, but one thing I had not anticipated was how much that would drain the battery...more on that later.
I ran the first half in 1:59:17, so bang on target. Then my Garmin started going haywire--I was using the pacing function, and it told me that mile 14 was 8:16. Then mile 15 was 7:36. Not good! I was trying to just run by feel and keep the same pace I'd had earlier, but I was also hot enough that instead of running through the water stops, I was walking for about 10-20 seconds while I drank one cup and poured 1-2 more over my head. So that made it hard to keep the pace consistent. At the 25k, my pace had slowed to 9:26/mile, thanks to the fact that I had no idea what I was running and my watch had just told me I was at 7:36/mile. So so frustrating. By this point, my feet were also incredibly painful and I was scrunching my toes up and down at every water stop to try to get the circulation going again--it would help for about a quarter-mile and then the pain started up again.
Around mile 18 my watch died completely. I've had this happen a time or two on a run, but to have it happen during a race was incredibly demoralizing. I had no idea on pace anymore and I had no idea how far I was on mileage, which was also really emotionally difficult. I did the mental math for awhile on my splits at every mile marker, but around mile 20-21 I decided that since I had already missed the mark for a 4-hr marathon I honestly did not care that much about the difference between a 4:03 marathon and a 4-whatever, as long as I beat my previous PR of 4:17. At this point I was just so hot that I was more worried about being able to finish safely; I was both shivering and covered with goosebumps while also sweating profusely, and I knew from experience that once I hit the shivery-goosebump stage I am close to blacking out. So finishing on my own rather than getting loaded onto a stretcher became top priority! I started walking longer at the water stops and drinking both Gatorade and water, in addition to pouring water over myself--I was walking between 60-90 seconds at the water stops to make sure I was getting as much fluid as possible. I'd been eating Honey Stingers every 2 miles and kept that up with Gatorade and water at every water stop (I skipped the one in the last mile, but other than that I stopped for every one between 18 and 25). I didn't walk other than the water stops which was so dang hard--tons of people were walking and I just really really really wanted to join them, but I knew I would feel better about the race later if I didn't. At some point in here we passed the 24-mile marker and for some reason I was convinced it was going to be the 25-mile marker and I had one of those horrible despairing mental breakdowns that you only get in the late stage of a race like this--I'd been telling myself I only had 1.2 to go and to realize it was 2.2 was basically the end of the world. But I kept going.
Overall, the last 10k was absolute hell. I was so miserable and in so much pain and it was so dang hot!! (At some point my music also died but it was so miserable that I don't even remember when it was.) When we got to the last 800 meters and I saw that it was the uphill over the Roosevelt bridge to the museum campus I just felt so despairing--I didn't walk, but the pathetic little shuffle I did was probably barely faster than walking! I literally could not pick up my pace one bit on the last 100 meters of downhill to the finish...I seriously gave it everything I had to keep going on that last 10k.
In hindsight, I'm not sure I would have run anything differently. I had a terrible positive split on the second half of the race, but I really do feel like I was trained for the pace I was running and it was a function of the weather and that stupid watch dying. Overall, I'm glad I was able to finish with a 5-minute PR; slowing down & taking the extra time at the water stops was very difficult emotionally, but I don't know that I would have been able to finish if I'd stuck to my original pace goal.
The Chicago environment and crowds were awesome, but I probably won't run this again. It was a great big city bucket-list race, but I think I will stick to marathons that are later in the fall just to avoid potential warm temperatures--I really do so much better with those 55-degree days!! And I'm not running another marathon with that watch or those shoes.
 
Post-race recovery isn't going as well as I'd like; that old fracture site has really been bothering me. I ran/walked 1 mile yesterday to warm up and then did 2 easy miles and it hurt SO BAD later, so today I just walked a 5k. We'll see how it does later...I think having to drive back home the evening of the marathon did not help one bit.