Journey to Boston

Very tired legs after yesterdays run.  Took it nice and slow.

Better than nothing run today.

Slow 10 miles today. Grandma's Marathon is a week and a half away and I am not ready. I'm going to do it but my goal will simply be to just finish. School finals, a lot of travel and a funky virus that kicked my butt for a week have really interfered with my training. I'm planning to run 10 tomorrow and on Friday and will hope that 3 10's will be compensate for not having done a 20. I've done enough marathons to know that I can finish; I had just hoped back in April that I'd be in a much better place to finish than I am now. Live and learn.

10 miles. 1:52:54. Average pace: 11:17

Splits: 10:57, 11:04, 10:50, 11:09, 10:32, 12:36, 10:21, 11:19, 11:21, 12:41

Maybe I'm just a plodder.  Another slow 10 miles.  My legs were pretty tired from yesterday.  One of these days I'm going to start running like I stole something...

Total time: 1:54:00  Average pace: 11:24

Splits: 10:10, 10:33, 10:48, 11:14, 12:17, 12:12, 11:19, 11:34, 12:09, 11:40

I think there is a lot of benefit mentally for me to run on tired legs.  Today was my best run of the 3 10's I did this week.  Granted, it was my best by 11 seconds but still my best.  Today was I was much more consistent than yesterday and only walked at my mile marks/water breaks.  I need to work on getting rid of those but I rely on them so much mentally right now.  Less wind today made it more enoyable.  Yesterday it was so windy that it was blowing my earbuds out of my ears - Sheesh!

Total time: 1:52:06  Average pace: 11:13

Splits: 10:54, 11:08, 11:45, 11:14, 11:25, 11:20, 11:22, 11:07, 11:06, 10:41

3 easy miles.  Marathon week!  Keeping the mileage low and easy this week.

Speed work on the treadmill today.  I feel like I always run better after doing speedwork.  Hope it helps out in the race on Saturday.

treadmill

outside.

My sister and I drove up to Duluth, MN on Friday to pick up my race packet.  We wandered through the expo for awhile before heading north towards Two Harbors to check out the Splitrock Lighthouse (very cool by the way).  We stayed south of Duluth in Carlton, MN.  It's about 20 minutes away from Duluth but it was the only hotel I could find that didn't require a 2-night stay minimum.  Being that I only live 3 hours from Duluth I didn't want to stick around for an extra night after the race.  Did not sleep well the night before but I knew I wouldn't so I wasn't upset by the fact that I didn't.

Race morning my sister dropped me off at another hotel 15 minutes away to catch the shuttle bus up to the start of the race.  Grandma's is a point to point race.  I chatted with a runner from Iowa who was hoping to qualify for Boston that day (she did!) - she was super nervous!

I got to the start of the race at 6:15, giving me an hour and a half to kill before race time.  Just enough time to stand in line twice at the port-o-lets...and who doesn't love standing in line for that!  The weather was gorgeous - sunny and mid 50's.  I dropped off my gear bag and found a place to wait for the start towards the back of the pack.  My goals for the day were to run easy, keep a smile on my face, and keep my posture strong. 

I got a little teary eyed during the anthem and the fly-over.  I love the beginning of marathons.  The energy was great!  For most of the race the mile markers came up pretty darn quick and I will never complain about that.  I walked for a minute at every mile split with just a few extra minutes on a couple of extra miles.  The bottoms of my feet really began to hurt at about 20 miles.  I wish I could get past that pain.  My sister was waiting for me at mile 25 and I got a little emotional when I saw her.  It was so fun to have her out there cheering for me!  The last mile was a blast - wall to wall people and lots of finishers who stuck around to cheer for us slower runners. 

The entire race is really well organized.  They had water every 2 miles until about mile 17 and then every mile after that.  They had LOTS of water, powerade and then water again.  Each station also had ice and ice cold sponges which I took advantage of.  There isn't a ton of spectator action for the first 8 miles or so due to the location.  It can be difficult to get into the area due to traffic.  After mile 8 though, the fan/spectator support is pretty constant and it's down right solid for the last 10 miles.  It was a little hillier than I remember but not bad, only walked up 1 hill.

It started to pour as soon as I got my t-shirt and medal.  I did some stretching and got my chocolate milk and bagels and then found my sister. 

It was overall a great experience.  I had a great time running and look forward to setting some new goals for the remainder of this summer. 

Back on the wagon today...or the treadmill.  Felt so good to stretch my legs and run again.  56 minutes:  walking, incline and running between 10 min and 9:13 pace.

4 miles of interval work after an hour of hot vinyasa yoga.  I love yoga but I also feel like the more uncoordinated wimp in yoga class.

Gads!  Shin splints.  My 7 miles involved about 4 miles of walking. 

Worked on banishing some serious demons today.  Got in the water at Lake Wissota in WI and did some swimming.  It wasn't pretty, but it's a good start!

Not much, but it was pain free!  Came home and spent about as much time stretching as I did running those 2 miles.  Hoping my foot/ankle pain was just a 'I need rest' thing and not something more long term.

Although I felt fine running yesterday, about 6 pm last night I locked up.  I could hardley walk this morning.  Once I got moving I've been ok but any time I'm not moving for more than 10 minutes I locke up again.  I opted for a 4 mile walk today instead of any running.  My hips, IT band and right arch are a mess right now.  The walking felt good and loosened everything up but now I'm super tight again.

walked again today.  just trying to keep my legs from getting to stiff.  Bugger!

More walking but added in a little bit of running.  My legs felt good until about an hour ago and are now super stiff!