Race Report - Madison Marathon

I've had more than 24 hours to think about how to write this race report, and I still can't come up with anything that sounds good. So I'll just give you the short version. I hurt my back on Friday (a recurring problem that chose Friday morning to flare up). Getting in the car and driving 7 hours didn't help. I woke up Sunday morning feeling optimistic - it was tight, but not unbearable. The race started well, but I could feel my back getting tighter and tighter almost from the start. By the time I hit 7 miles, the pain was coming around to my right hip and starting to go down my leg. I took some walk breaks and tried to stretch, but nothing was helping.

I knew our hotel was at the 11 mile mark. I started thinking about quitting. And then told myself that I couldn't quit, that plenty of people run through tougher conditions and I needed to suck it up and get going. I just kept going, taking frequent walk breaks. As I got closer to the 11 mile marker, I saw my mom and Sophie. And started crying.

I decided to quit. In the end, I figured if I ran the whole way, I would hurt my back more. From past experience, I know the worse it is, the more time I have to take off and the thought of missing 4 plus weeks of running was too much. And, at that point, I knew it would take at least 5 hours to finish. And it was ridiulously hot and humid. I had already stopped sweating and was getting the chills. Heat stroke and a bad back? No thank you.

I feel really crappy about quitting, even though I am 90% sure I made the right decision (the other 10% of me thinks I am a big loser!). So I have my first DNF. May it never happen again.

And . . . Gone

The clock is ticking - I'm heading home after work to get our bags packed, get in one last easy run, and hit the road to Madison tomorrow. Marathon weekend is here! I am excited to get on the road and to get running. Some goals:

1) Run the best I can with the day I am given. That pretty much sums it up. I hope that means:
2) Sub-4:30. I ran 4:31:ish in Green Bay last year. If I can keep my wits about me and not give in to the annoying whiny wimp that lives inside my head, I can do this.

I will have lots of support at the race - my awesome running partner Jim, my sister Michele (who is running the half), my #1 race fans (my mom and Sophie), and several of my relatives from Wisconsin. I'll be back on Monday with a race report (and possibly the story of how I got attacked by a june bug at golf last night). Have a great weekend!

Are you poopy?

I opted for a bike ride instead of my usual kettlebells class tonight. I sometimes get some serous muscle soreness from kettlebells and figured I didn't need that so close to the marathon. Anyhow . . . after work, Sophie and I picked up Jim and his bike, stopped at home and grabbed my bike, and headed up to Hinckley to the bike trail. As we were riding along we came across a pretty strong farm smell. Sophie lifted up the back of my shirt, pulled my shorts out and said, "Mom, are you poopy?" Thanks Soph.

One Week

By this time next week, I'll be rocking the recovery socks at my Grandma and Grandpa's, basking in the glow of finshing my fourth marathon. At least that's the plan. I had a good taper week this week:

Monday: 3 miles easy (am), 6 miles hills (pm)
Tuesday: 1 hr kettlebells (more leg work than I would have liked!)
Wednesday: 1000 m. swim
Thursday: 5 miles
Saturday: 8 miles
Sunday: 20 minutes yoga

I've got an easy week planned this week - a couple of runs, a bike ride, a swim. No kettlebells.

As part of my taper madness (right along with making a giant batch of chocolate chip cookies), I'v been obsessing about my training. Did I do enough? Am I as prepared for this race as I was for Green Bay last year? Things I think I did pretty well: nice medium distance hilly runs, great track workouts, and some really strong long runs. Not so well? The tempo runs. I never really hit my tempo groove during this training cycle. Definitely something I will focus on when training for Twin Cities starts (in three weeks!).

Keeping my Distance

When I got home from my swim yesterday morning, my husband came downstairs. The first words out of his mouth? "Can you take my temperature?" Immediately I invisioned a steel cage come from my living room ceiling and trap his germ-infested self right in there. He's got strep.

In case you are harboring any notions that I am nursing my poor, sick husband back to health, let me clear that up. Hell. No. I am staying as far away as possible. If it was acceptable to spray lysol directly in his face, I would probably do it. Because the marathon is 10 days away. No sickness allowed!

I am really excited for the marathon. Working really hard at stifling the negative taper thoughts and picture myself running strong through the streets of Madison!

Bare Legs in the Morning!

A sure sign that the weather has finally turned - I wore capris for my early morning run this morning. No more (hopefully) digging around to fnd my winter pants and long sleeves. And my after work run today was down right hot - 80 degrees according to the bank sign. Funny how last week I refused to run because it was raining, and tonight I was hoping for rain. Oh how things can change in just a week.

Speaking of last week, better get the training recap up before this week is over:

Monday: 3 miles easy (am), 4 miles track (pm)
Tuesday: 1 hr kettlebells
Wednesday: 1000 m. swim
Thursday: 30 min. yoga
Friday: 1400 m. swim (and swim distance PR!)
Saturday: 13 miles
Sunday: 35 min. yoga & kettlebell & core mish mash

So, other than the whole only running two days thing, not too bad of a week. Planning on definitely getting some more runs in this week!

Indecision Over. Maybe.

Some of you may know that I have been going back and forth about running Grandma's this year. And/or Twin Cities. Or both. I really wanted to run Grandma's, but worried that it may be too close to Madison. Then my mother-in-law scheduled a little overnight trip for her birthday and my mom's birthday that weekend. Which, being the good daughter/daughter-in-law I am, took Grandma's off the table.

So then I started obsessing about running Twin Cities. Which I originally thought I shouldn't run because it would mean another full marathon training cycle (which might drive my husband crazy) and because I thought we would maybe try to get knocked up again this summer. But we decided to put that off, so what's a girl to do? Run another marathon. Makes perfect sense to me.

$106.25 later and I'm registered for Twin Cities. Now if you will excuse me, I have a training plan to work on.