Ready or Not, Here I Run!

Yesterday I had several people ask me if I was ready.  My answer to all was different variations of "Well... is one ever really ready to run a marathon?"  It might be my day and it might not, but no matter what it is going to be a struggle at some point in the run.

I like to think of the marathon I ran here in Santa Barbara as an overdue baby.   To top it off I have some very bad personal love hate going on with much of the SBIM course.  I simply know it too well.  So actually, it is like an overdue 2nd child.

First things first in my metaphor about an overdue baby.  Training for a marathon isn't something that you just say you are going to do without training for it.   I started really running again in May after a year long hiatus from any serious training with the intention of running the NY Marathon last weekend...."Just for fun".  Yes, I trained for a 3:30 marathon.  That is the pace I run even for fun when training + I had a partner in crime who ran a just right pace to crank out those long tempos.  We were ready.

Here I am with my bouncing
carb baby.   Notice the nice fold
of the tummy over the shorts.  

So like any good marathoner I carbo loaded in spite of being sick as we traveled to New York just days after Sandy.  Gosh was that a drag.  I was bloated and gassy and uncomfortable much like one is in the later stages of pregnancy.  But, I knew that when the marathon was over I wouldn't have to even look at another Fig Newton or cinnamon raisin bagel for at least a year.  So, I choked them down and washed them down with cranberry juice.  Yuck!

Fast forward just a week and you have me choking those same items down once again.  I found the cranberry juice was pretty high in carbs and did help lubricate the other carbs so even though it wasn't really needed anymore I gulped down several liters of the stuff this last week.  Now I have it on my list with bagels and Fig Newtons not to be touched again, I hope, for at least another year.


There were some perks to running here at home. I had another week of not running all that much or far.  I did show up at the track this last Tuesday and threw down a 6:38 mile before I realized that maybe that was a little too fast for 4 days before a marathon.  I did the next one at 6:45 without feeling wiped out one bit.  I was ready.  The legs had one more week to loosen up.  The only real kicker was coming back to work and the stresses that are there along with cleaning up the mess that the substitute did while I was gone.  Stress effects my running quite a bit.... and I felt it oh boy.

The start of the marathon went well.  We were banking time and running pretty consistent 7:55's.  I felt relaxed and strong.  The legs started to tighten up when we got over to the bike path at about mile 16.  Then the stomach started at it with the feeling I was going to wretch.  But I stuck with George, otherwise known as 3:30.  I don't know if he or any of the others in the group noticed how quiet I got.

Then things got mental on me.  George and the others seemed to be racing away from me as I tried to will myself to stay with them.  I just didn't have it in me. I was alone.  It sucked.  The mile markers were blown to and fro or not there at all, so I had no idea how fast I was going. I had hit the wall.  I hate Modoc even more now than ever.

Fast forward again to the last 2 miles along Shoreline.  The legs still didn't want to whip down that hill as I have done so many times.  They were done. It was up to me to make them go and I just wasn't doing it.  Then, out of nowhere Mr. Bower shows up and encourages me to keep it going.  Even then I just wasn't doing it as I had envisioned.  But, it helped... I wasn't alone anymore.  :)  Then to my great surprise George showed up on the other side of me.  They both were there for me.   I felt so loved and cared for.  It was a strong last little .2 into the stadium and a nice welcome by my three biggest fans.

So, all ended well.  I did the best that I could do today.  I didn't give up and I learned a valuable lesson. Keep running with friends.  They make it a hell of a lot easier even when it is not.  Thanks to Rusty and June for a great marathon.   It is funny how it took me going all the way to NY to run at home.  Go figure.  I am glad I ran today here in my own Santa Barbara with my own people cheering me on!

Like childbirth, I am already thinking of the next one.  I will get that 3:30 some day.  It will be my day. For now I am enjoying that fact that I earned the right to sit around and do NOTHING today.   I did the best I could. For most of it I really did have fun.  Darn that wall.

Now if I could just find my appetite so I can eat!