Ooops, I Did It Again - The Marine Corps Marathon

Remember that time I didn’t really want to sign up for the Marine Corps Marathon but did it anyway?

Yeah, that would be today.

Some of you may remember this statement I made on Facebook back in January, about an hour after my Disney Marathon was over:

Umm, I left out the comments under that status update in which every person I know called me a liar. Cause what do they know?

I hadn’t planned to sign up for the Marine Corps Marathon (MCM) when I woke up this morning, although the MCM is great. It’s nick-named “The People’s Marathon” (because it’s open to all runners; requiring no qualifying times), is well-known for supportive crowds, and runs through the heart of our Nation’s Capital. Some gorgeous running scenery, that.

And last year registration for the race sold out online in about two hours.

But you may wonder how does one “accidentally” sign up for a marathon?  It’s not a pretty tale…

I see on Facebook that a good running buddy, Heather, had been trying register for the MCM for an hour with no success.

What’s that, Heather? You need someone to help you waste time doing something on a computer? I’m your gal.

So I, along with other of her friends, got online to hit refresh over and over at the overwhelmed race registration site, trying  to get to the screen that would allow us to register Heather for the race.  No luck for nearly an hour.  We were about to give up hope when one of us was able to get into the registration page and sign Heather up.

But… did I stop hitting refresh after Heather had been registered?

We all know the answer to that question.

Basically, I allowed a “please try again” message on a website to goad me into running another marathon. Because all I know is that somewhere between the 3,000 and 4,000^th time I hit refresh it became my life-long goal to run the MCM. My passion in life. The one-thing I was put on this earth to do.  And I knew my time was running out. The marathon would sell-out soon.

Refresh, refresh, refresh. I could not allow a computer registration system to stop me from my life's mission!

I didn’t let myself think about the 20+ mile training runs required for a marathon, or how I had just said to a good friend that I was done with training and competitive running, or that my husband was probably going to leave me when I told him I was running another marathon.

All I could think of was how important this Marine Corps Marathon was to me. Even though I hadn’t even known about it three hours before.

How the story ends: I got through (barely, it sold out just minutes afterwards). I got registered. I will be running another marathon in October. Plus the 500 training miles required in the months leading up to the race.

A day may come when I am not ridiculously stupid, but it is not this day.

Countdown to the Marathon - T Minus 5 Weeks

Another week of training for the Disney Marathon coming up on January 13, 2013. My training log for T - 5 weeks (Dec 5-11):

Miles ran:  25 (14mi, 6 mi, 5mi)

Miles scheduled:23

Cross training: Yoga x 1; misc cross training

Total miles run since training began:397

General Notes: A relatively light week in terms of miles. And I must say, after two weeks of 20+ milers on the weekends, it was nice to have a slight break and call my long run 14 miles. (I had the Surf-n-Santa 10 mile race, so I added four miles before the start - worked out beautifully)

I had some twinges and swelling in my right knee this week. Didn't seem to be anything serious. (I think it might be from lunges I was doing earlier rather than actual running -- so no lunges for me for a while.)  A friend of mine who was also training for the Disney marathon found out he has a stress fracture in his tibia and can't run for six weeks - marathon is out. After all the work I've put in, I'd be devastated. So caution is the order of the day.

Hard to believe the marathon is exactly one month from today. My main long runs looks like this from now on:

Dec 15-16 - 23 miler
Dec 22-23 - 15+ miler (we'll be out of town, so whatever I can get in)
Dec 29-30 - 22 miler
Jan 4-5 - 14 miles, over three runs (Ragnar Key West)

Countdown to the Marathon - T Minus 6 Weeks

Another week of training for the Disney Marathon coming up on January 13, 2013. My training log for T - 6 weeks (Nov 28- Dec 4):

Miles ran:  34 (7mi, 20mi, 3mi, 4mi)

Miles scheduled:34

Cross training: Pilates x 1; misc cross training

Total miles run since training began:374

Audiobook: I have totally given up on audiobooks. Once I started on really long runs I found that the audiobooks took too much concentration -- concentration I needed to just remain upright and moving forward after 18+ miles. It's all music for me from here on out. Good news is, I have discovered Pandora.

General Notes: So it's been a month since my last marathon training post, but fortunately my running didn't suffer so much. Except for the week where my mom had her stroke, I've pretty much stayed on my training schedule. 

Nov 7 -13: 15 miles total (6 mi, 9mi)

Nov 14-20: 28 miles total (6 mi, 18 mi, 4 mi)

Nov 21-27: 29. 5 miles total (8 mi, 21.5 mi)

The long runs are tough. Really tough. I'm so excited that this weekend I don't have a 20+ miler (mostly because I have a 10 mile race on Saturday, so I'm going to call that my long run -- maybe adding a few extra miles if the weather is nice -- and be done with it). I have two more scheduled 20+'s  before the marathon. They are grueling, but important, almost as much mentally as physically.

If you want an understanding about the ridiculousness that is long runs, here's a FB conversation between me and a buddy who is also training for a marathon earlier this week:

A1:  I ran 18.07 miles in 3:54. The overwhelming desire to lay down and rest at mile 15 means that your training is going as planned, right?

Janie: You did give in to the desire to lay down at mile 15 right? That is important an important part of training.

A1: I didn't lay down, but I'm pretty sure I blacked out somewhere between 16 and 18. Sadly, when I came to, I was still moving.

Janie: Don't you hate it when you get to that point where you decide to walk for a while, but then it hurts just as much to walk PLUS you're moving slower so it will take longer. And you just want to cry.

A1: My favorite part was when I was like, "OK, legs! We've only got three miles! We can do three miles, easy!" Then I started running. Except by running I mean walking. And by walking, I mean standing and staring off into the distance.

Janie: And no matter what you can't make your body move faster. And you wonder if someone came and threatened you with a gun if you could run. And you even envision that scenario. But when you open your eyes you're still standing staring off into the distance.

A1: I totally thought that! I was like, if someone mugged me right now, I would just hand them my sweaty damn money and be done with it.

Note to self, start crime ring that targets runners in their last month of training.

Janie: Seriously. While on my long runs that often take me a bit far from normal civilization, I used to fear hoodlums who might try to steal my virtue. But after 15+ miles you have to face the facts: even rapists have standards.

And then you remember that no one is forcing you to run this marathon. As a matter of fact you paid a pretty obscene amount of money to do this to yourself. Sigh. So as you can tell marathon training makes you crazy. I’m interested to see how much more of my mind I can lose before January 13.

Countdown to the Marathon - T Minus 11 Weeks

Another week of training for the Disney Marathon coming up on January 13, 2013. My training log for T Minus 11 weeks (Oct 24-31):

Miles ran:  21 (11mi, 3 mi, 7mi)

Miles scheduled:24

Cross training: Pilates x 1

Total miles run since training began: 244

Audiobook: Still reading Life of Pi by Yann Martel. Still making slow progress, but progress.

General Notes: Let me reach into my bag of excuses and pull one out. How about... sickness, no already used that.... too much work, wait, also used... how about: HURRICANE. That's it, I couldn't get all my miles this week in because there was a hurricane that hit the East Coast and we had three days straight of rain and wind.

Now, just because that's true, still doesn't negate the fact that I once again did not get my full miles in for the week (fifth week in a row, if I'm not mistaken).

When I first started running, I enjoyed it most because while I was out, I didn't have to cater to or worry about the needs of my children, my boss, my home, my hubby, my students.... Instead, running was a time where I let my imagination run free. To take my mind off the physical discomfort of distance running, I created grand scenes and stories in my head. At the time, I wasn't doing any writing, so it was a good exercising of my imagination.

But now... I need my imagination to work on command as I'm writing my book that is due at the end of November. So when I run, I'm trying not to let my imagination go hog wild (I want to save it for when I'm writing). That in turn, causes me to be much more aware of discomfort my body is in while running.

And overall, makes running not so much fun.

But enough with the whining. The good news in, the marathon is still a little over 10 weeks out. I still have time to quit crying and start working harder. That's the new plan.

Countdown to the Marathon - T Minus 12 Weeks

Another week of training for the Disney Marathon coming up on January 13, 2013. My training log for T Minus 12 weeks (Oct 17-23):

Miles ran:  20 (5mi, 10mi, 5mi)

Miles scheduled: 29

Cross training: Cross Training x 1

Total miles run since training began: 223

Audiobook: Still reading Life of Pi by Yann Martel. Making slow progress, but progress.

General Notes: Once again not hitting the mileage I need. I have a lingering cough which is part of the problem, but really more of an excuse. I decided to go ahead and cut out my cross training classes so I can get my mileage up, but will continue with Yoga and Pilates.

I console myself that three months is still quite a while to get my miles upped. The end of November and into December is when I start to get into the real long runs (20+ miles), but I want to make sure I'm ready for those runs. I'm discovering that my difficulties are really more mental than physical. Time to get tougher.

If only I could figure out how to write my book while I'm running! Then I could run all the time.

Countdown to the Marathon - T Minus 13 Weeks

Training at T Minus 13 weeks (Oct 10-16)

Another week of training for the Disney Marathon coming up on January 13, 2013. My training log for T Minus 13 weeks (Oct 10-16):

Miles ran:  13 (6mi, 5mi, 2mi)

Miles scheduled: 25

Cross training: Circuit Training x 2; Pilates x 1

Total miles run since training began: 203

Audiobook: Still reading Life of Pi by Yann Martel. I like the book okay, but it is not enough to keep me interested/distracted while I’m running. I didn’t have a long run this week, so I didn’t really get to much of it. But I will finish it, even if it takes me a while.

General Notes: Evil sickness struck this week!! Maybe it was the all the running in the rain for the Crawlin’ Crab Half Marathon, but I was coughing and snotting up a storm all week, resulting in my lowest mileage since I started training.

I’m also struggling with balancing my cross training classes with my running. Cross-training is Tue/Thurs and it’s a great class – really hard. But it pretty much means my muscles are shot for Tuesday-Friday. I’m not sure if I’m going to be able to get in the miles I need to if I’m doing this particular cross-training class. So I may have to reschedule that class for after January. But I'm going to give it a couple more weeks then reevaluate.

Countdown to the Marathon - T Minus 20 Weeks

Another week of training forthe Disney Marathon coming up on January 13, 2013. My training log for T Minus 20 weeks (August 22-28):

Miles ran:  20 (6 mi, 6mi, 3mi, 5mi)

Miles scheduled: 24 (but in my defense, I was tapering for a Half Marathon race this weekend and didn’t want to do a long run)

Cross training: Pilates x 2

My weight:  X – 1. Yay, lost one pound!

Running song o’ the week:  “No Air” by Jordan Sparks (my tribute to the awful humidity)

Audiobook:  7 Habits of Highly Effective People by Stephen Covey. It’s the abridged version, but I’m really enjoying this book. Should finish it this week. 

General Notes:  My legs were just so tired this week and I had breathing trouble with some of my more humid runs. I am looking forward to cooler, less-humid weather! I’m also looking forward to the kids going to school so I can get into a regular routine. I had my first “dark moment” yesterday when I could barely get through a 5 mile run – thinking why in the world am I doing this?  It’s not the last time that thought will occur to me, I assure you.

But I did get in two sessions of Pilates this week – my first ever. Loved it! If I could get in three Pilates or two Pilates and one Yoga every week I think that would be the perfect amount of cross training.  I like Pilates because it is “go get ‘em” style class – working the body (hard!) from beginning to end. Yoga was more of a “pausing & centering” style – still hard work but also about slowing down and breathing.  I like both of them but I am definitely more sore after Pilates.

(If anyone wants a comparison of Pilates vs. Yoga for runners, my friend Chantel (who teaches both and also runs) wrote one on her blog: http://www.raceutopia.com/uncategorized/yoga-vs-pilates-whats-the-difference/ )

Virginia Beach Rock & Roll Half this Sunday. Looking forward to a steady run – nothing fast or fancy.