Marine Corps Marathon Expo

I have to say, I am so glad I did Team in Training. I had the BEST time at the Marine Corps Marathon. I even had a lot of fun BEFORE the marathon.

Bill and I got to DC on Friday. I was so excited because this meant that I could take my time at the expo. I ALWAYS love the expos and look for things there like cute t-shirts (like the one I got in Chicago from One More Mile that says "Marathon Ho.") The thing that is different about the Marine Corps Marathon is, well, there are lots of marines around. In fact, they basically run the whole thing (not as in "running a marathon" but more like hosting). So it was kind of weird to have them shouting orders at you from the get-go. "MARATHONERS ON THE LEFT, 10K ON THE RIGHT!" And when I picked up my shirt, one was holding it up and said "THIS IS A SMALL T-SHIRT, PRESHRUNK COTTON!" I didn't know how to respond to that so I was like "Ok...thanks?" And he handed it to me and said "GOOD LUCK IN THE MARATHON MA'AM!" It was making me antsy, which Bill thought was hilarious.

Luckily, through the magic technology of texting, we ran into Gina, who had gotten there like an hour before us. She was at the Crocs stand which made me groan because anyone who knows me knows I LOATHE Crocs. I mean, I have gone into tirades about them. Granted, I have said, if any time was okay to wear Crocs it would be after a marathon. But I like Gina, so I just gave her a little grief over them ;)

I usually have a hard time not going crazy and buying everything at the expo, but I wasn't finding much :( UNTIL we found a booth called Tres Ladies. I was drawn in by the shirt that said "1 bottle of wine = 546 calories" with that crossed out and "5 miles" scrawled over the top. Cute. And totally what I was looking for. Until I turned around and saw one that was more appropriately me. It said "I run...(with the elipses as hearts)...because I love cupcakes." And even better? With each shirt purchase you got a cupcake.

We also got taste tests of GUs (I love the new High Octane Orange Vanilla. Best...GU...Ever), our blood pressure taken, free first aid kits with bandaids (including tiny tiny ones that are too tiny to fit on your pinky, for who knows what? Gina said they were for your Barbie), beer (for Bill only), Granola, oh and...

Well...

I DID forget my sandles. And I HAVE been looking for those sandles that they had in the 90s with those little massaging nubbies on them. And really, Gina's Crocs didn't really look like Crocs.

So mine are pink (of course) and brown and flipflops that DON'T look like Crocs.

Grrrr.

We spent 3 hours at the expo.

Then, the three of us grabbed pasta for dinner at this restaurant not too far from our hotel. We are FLOORED by the prices in DC by the way!!! We felt like we were actually saving money by going on vacation :)

Last Post!

Well, last post before the marathon, that is.

I have basically been doing a whole bunch of nothing runningwise, which I guess is good since I AM on taper. I have also been consuming a LOT of carbs. You know, I would have thought that I already ate a lot of carbs during the day, but making 70% of your diet carbs is actually pretty hard. Not to mention that I feel extremely lethargic and like a big tub of lard. It's hard to believe that I used to eat like this all the time. I was going so crazy yesterday that I decided to have a salad yesterday for lunch instead of something so carb-rich like I had been doing all week. I felt like I was cheating, but I was like "PLEASE! All I want is a SALAD!" (I did get croutons on it.)

I had a nice, enjoyable run on Tuesday after Ramon's Course Click, where he described in detail what we would be doing the entire day of the marathon, all of the ins and outs of the course and what our strategy should be if we were going for a time. If that wasn't enough, he sent us an email so long that I couldn't print it out. I had to paste the text into a document. It was 14 PAGES LONG!!!! But I love that kind of detail. It gives me something to focus on instead of freaking out about little crazy things.

And? Guess who is the guest speaker at the TNT pasta dinner? John Bingham!!! The Penguin, himself! I am so pumped.

Looks like weather.com is predicting that Sunday will be sunny and in between 49-65F. PERFECT. I am READY TO GO.



Oh yeah. And did I tell you my goal? It's to beat Oprah's time. She ran the Marine Corps Marathon in 1994 with a 4:29.40.

I Couldn't Make This Up

I have been sooooo careful this season...not falling on the slippery rocks on our trail runs, not losing my footing on all of the trails, avoiding all of the little ditches on the bridal path. So what happens to me today?

A cabinet falls on my feet. Both of them.

It was one of those things that happens in slow motion. I was trying to get some magazines out of the drawers where we store them for a brainstorming session. I couldn't get the middle drawer open because something was preventing the top drawer from closing all the way. I tried opening the middle drawer while simultaneously holding the top drawer closed and the whole thing just toppled over. It pretty much drew the entire 6th floor over, but no one realized that the thing was still on my feet. I was like "Ow. Ow. Ow." And a bunch of people pulled it off.

It skinned the tops of my feet and my ankles, but besides that, I think little damage was done. It doesn't feel broken or anything and I can walk just fine. I am icing and elevating all day now.

It would just figure.

The jury's still out on whether or not to run tonight with the group. We have course click before practice, where the coaches go through the entire course and a bunch of last minute stuff, then a 40 minute run. I am going to see how I feel.

Sneaking in Mileage

OK, well I hesitate to even write this post because I know that my mentor-friend, Gina will yell at me :)

Let me start here: Saturday we had our last "long run" which was only 5.5 miles. It was almost accidentally less because Michelle and I misheard Coach Christine and only did one bridal-path loop. We got back super early and no one else was back yet. We were confused and then figured it out when Coach Christine came back and was like "Wow. You guys must have run really fast." We had shortchanged ourselves 1.7 miles, so we just did a lower loop of the park and made up the difference.

Now here comes the bad part. ;)

This week I am supposed to be relaxing at all costs. No extra workouts, no running around, etc. In fact, my big plans for the weekend included some light cleaning, a haircut and getting a few things I still needed for the marathon trip. One of those things included a book. I am a sucker for a coupon and I had one for Borders. The closest one to my place is at Columbus Circle and since it was such a beautiful day and the train was skipping our stop anyway this weekend, so I convinced Bill that we should walk. Columbus Circle is about 40 blocks/2 miles away. I was totally enjoying the walk/weather until I was like "Oh crap. Bill! I think I'm trying to sneak extra mileage in by walking this far! Gina is so going to yell at me." To which he answered "As she should." I totally didn't mean to. But since my muscles are in recovery I could definitely feel it. To make up for it, when we went to the next store we took the bus. When I thought about walking back to the grocery store Bill said "Emily! No!" I was like "Whatever." And then he told me Gina would yell at me. And so we didn't walk.

He thought this was really funny, how I was being motivated to be good by the fact that Gina might yell at me. It is especially funny because I could never really see Gina yelling at anyone. But I could see her saying "Emily Mason! You are supposed to be RESTING!" and I guess that was motivation enough.

I am finding it really hard to be sedentary though. Not only do I have a ton of energy, but I think running destresses me, so I've been in a pretty crabby mood lately. But despite all of that, I was good for the rest of the weekend. And I AM enjoying the fact that 60-70% of my caloric intake should be carbs this week.

Yum. Carbs.

Doubt

So, last night we had another speed work exercise.

You know how people say that during taper you get antsy because you aren't running enough? I think the people on my team are just getting antsy, period. We had to wait around (in the dark...I hate how it gets dark so early now) for the coaches to send us out on our workout and everyone was getting annoyed. Everyone was like "Come on, let's go. I don't even want to be here. Let's get this over with." I mean, it HAS been a long season. Bill thinks we are all just anxious to run the marathon and it's so close that it's just making us all crazy and annoyed.

Anyway, last night we had to do three lower loops of the park. Each loop is 1.7 miles. Within those miles we were supposed to time ourselves for one mile to make sure we were keeping pace. Ramon's point was that on Tuesday we do speed work, on Saturdays we run easy, and our marathon pace should be somewhere in between. We need to learn what that feels like. So, the task was that our first mile should be marathon pace, our second should be half marathon pace and our third should be our fastest mile, which should be faster than half marathon pace by at least 45 seconds.

Ugh. I was just not feeling like I could do that.

Besides, I have a REALLY hard time switching between paces. I doubted that I knew what each of those paces felt like (well, except the last which was basically a long-distance sprint...that just feels like me dying.) I find pacing the hardest part of running. It takes so much concentration.

The first loop was hard on my legs. I felt so tight from sitting around all day and my calves were screaming at me. I was also a bit distracted from worrying about pace because the whole time I was talking to the girl I met at the very first practice. She was pretty nervous because she just got back from her honeymoon and took 12 days off of running. I didn't mind chatting with her but I was very nervous that I wouldn't be on pace. I logged a 9:50 for my mile though which was PERFECT.

I thought about stopping in the middle to stretch out my legs but figured that it would all work itself out. I picked up to half marathon pace and my calves were screaming at me. As I hit the hills at the bottom of the east side I promised myself I would stop at the end of that loop to stretch. I logged a 9:10. PERFECT.

I did stop to stretch and then took off again. Stretching REALLY REALLY helped. But I did not feel like I could do a sprint after that. I was pretty tired. I knew that I had to do it though, otherwise I would be worrying that maybe 9:50 for a marathon really wasn't my pace, which just opens up a whole other can of worms. So I picked it up a lot. And actually? It felt really good. I was breathing heavy and could tell I was going to be tired at the end of the workout (which Ramon said we should) but I felt great. So great that I started worrying that I wasn't making the correct time (which should be an 8:25). I decided not to look at my watch to psych myself out, until I finished.

My last mile? 8:17!!!!!!!!!

NO FREAKIN' WAY.

I was so happy.

So I guess I learned from this that I need to stop freaking out about everything and doubting myself. I've done the training, I know how to pace and I know what my marathon pace should be.

But I also know myself. And I know that I will still freak out about it for the next week and a half. Poor Bill. :)

Psych Out

I have come to the conclusion that I psych myself out during my races. This should come as no surprise, because when I used to swim I would do the same thing...I would have a great practice and then choke at the swim meet.

I say this because this weekend I ran the Staten Island Half Marathon. Basically, my group had to do a 12-13 mile run this weekend and Coach Ramon gave us the option of running it in the park or running the Staten Island Half as a training run...meaning that we would actually race it but run it just like any other weekend long mileage run. I chose the SIH because I am SOOOOOOO tired of running in Central Park. I welcomed the change of scenery and (here is the stupid reason) I think all of the shirts from the Grand Prix Half Marathons have been kind of cool. I have the Queens one, and I wanted the SI one.

I think not racing a race is pretty hard to do. I mean, there you are, surrounded by people who ARE racing it and there's all kinds of excitement in the air. It's easy to get caught up in it. It's also difficult because they corral you by pace and my pace is listed as 8:15 (even though that was for a MUCH shorter race). Anyway, I decided to just take it out as a fun run and not worry about it and pay more attention to my breathing than my time (hard to do with a huge clock glaring at you every mile. I discussed my inability to go slow in races before the race with Eric, one of the mentors. I told him I was shooting for 10 minute miles and he said I should just go my regular Saturday pace: 9:30. I thought that was probably a good idea.

My first mile I logged a 9:15.
Mile 2 - 8:54
Mile 3 - 9:02
Mile 4 - 9:17

I have to admit, I wasn't "holding back" like I usually do during races. I felt a little blah and tired. But then, now that I think about it, that was probably okay, because that's how I usually feel for the first few miles of a long run. And I don't focus on "holding back" on those, but on keeping a nice consistent pace.

Mile 5 - 10:04 (this was because I walked through the water stop and ate a Gu. I decided not to try the running/drinking thing this time, because I waste more time recovering from my choking.)

Mile 6 - 9:08
Mile 7 - 9:09 (the Gu must have kicked in by now because I was feeling AWESOME)
Mile 8 - 10:01 (slowed down by another water stop)
Mile 9 - 9:14 (and that was stopping for water AND a Gu)
Mile 10 - 8:53
Mile 11 - 9:16

This mile had a big hill, which kind of sucked since we were so close to the end. To make it worse, this lady next to me was like, mooing or something...really loudly. She was obviously having issues getting up the hill. But even after the hill she kept mooing. I find it really frustrating to be running by people like this because they also psych me out. Because there I am, trying to do my own thing mentally to get me up the hill and even if I am making it through the hill sucessfully it is like their loud breathing etc reminds me that I am on a really tough hill and that I should be struggling too. I tried to get away from her as fast as I could.

Mile 12 - 9:36

It was somewhere in the middle of mile 12 that I decided to look at my total time. I realized that I was super close to a sub 2:00 time. I would basically have to finish my last mile in 7 minutes (ha!). I knew this wasn't possible , but wanted to speed up anyway.

Mile 13 - 8:28

Whoo hoo!

I finished strong, with a 2:01:13 overall (grrrr. If only I had been .13 seconds faster!).

But you know, if I would have been racing that, I probably would have gone slower. I've got to get in the mental game for this marathon.

Oh and one funny little story...
To get to Staten Island, you have to go all the way to the bottom of Manhattan and take the ferry. On the 1 train you actually have to be in the front 5 cars to get off at the last stop. Well, usually the only people that go down that far in Manhattan are tourists (it is by the Statue of Liberty) and residents of Staten Island. Add in a 7:30 am time on a Sunday (most NYers sleep until noon) and all you have is tourists. So when the 1 train was packed with runners like it was rush hour (standing room only, shoulder to shoulder) I think we really really really confused the tourists. They looked VERY overwhelmed. Especially when the huge hall to take the ferry was overcrowded with thousands of runners. I felt sorry for them. But I felt especially sorry for the ones who took the ferry back after the race with all of us runners. I'm sure it was a rather stinky ride.

Taper

Well, I am now officially into taper. Hurrah!

Last nights workout was cake compared to other workouts. We still had to do intervals, but instead of doing like 14 of them mixed in with ten million hills, we did three of them, with one big hill.

We started at W90th in the park, ran easy up to 102nd and then started our first push. We crossed the park, ran down to 86th and turned around for an easy run back to 97th. This next part was the hard part. Not only were we pushing, but we were pushing Harlem Hill into Lasker Pool Hill (the toughest hills in Central Park) all the way back to W102nd. From there we ran easy to 97th and then pushed it back to 90th.

Taper is weird for me, because even though you are supposed to feel like you have a lot of energy, I often feel the opposite. Like last night, even though our workout was easy my legs were feeling tired. They were mostly feeling tired on the recovery parts of the run. I'm thinking though, that this may be because it was really my first taper run. I mean, I'm probably still tired from the rest of the season. At least I hope that's it.

I've also been pushing really hard to fundraise my last $1000 for Team in Training. Yesterday I had a pretty successful bakesale at work and today is my last day to turn in donations before I get charged for the final amount. Soooooo...if you'd like to help me out, you can click on the link to the right :)

I cannot believe that this marathon season is almost over! But I'm not too worried. After all, I'll begin training for the next one in December, which really isn't THAT far away. :)

It's the Final Countdown

Yesterday I had my last 20 mile run. I had never actually done more than one 20 mile run during a training season, so I didn't know about this. But I also figured that it was probably good for me.

It was also fun, because we had another fieldtrip run. This one was in Piscataway, New Jersey. We had to carpool and everything. My mentor Gina, was the brave one, and drove us all there.

The weather was perfect. A little cold and a little overcast in the morning, but by the end of the run it was sunny. It was kind of weird because the whole thing was a trail run. At the very beginning (not even a half mile into the run) we were already stopping to walk because there was water running over the mossy rocks and they were VERY slippery. The trail itself was made of tiny rocks as well, so I was just waiting to wipe out and not be able to run the marathon.

I made sure I started out with the 10-minute group so that I would hold back. I felt REALLY good at the pace I was going, until some girl with a GPS started shouting out our pace like every thirty seconds. "Now we're at 9:15. Well, NOW were going 9:30 so that's good. Wait. Now we're going 10:15, we need to speed up." Luckily, her running partner told her that if we were going too slowly for her that she could just go ahead. Problem solved. I did NOT need to be worrying about my pace for an entire 20 miles.

I was feeling really great until about the 9 mile mark. This is when I was having some real stomach issues so I decided to stop (if you think this is just TMI go ahead and skip to the next paragraph). Unfortunately there were no good places to stop on the trail. I slid down a humongous hill filled with prickly bushes (OUCH) and then spent the next few minutes pulling them out of my skin and off of my pants. When I started running again it sort of felt like one had lodged itself into my shoe and was poking my big toe. But after a few seconds I didn't feel it, so I figured it all must have been in my head.

Since I let my group go I was running by myself, which kind of stinks. There were no distinguishing marks on the trail to tell us when to turn around, so one of the coaches said he would make some sort of mark to tell us. I knew we were close because I saw other runners turning back. I just kept running. Until a bunch of girls behind me were screaming "You've gone too far! Turn back!" Whoops. A 20 miler is not exactly a run where you want to go too far.

All the way back I was not feeling so good so I had to keep stopping. This was not good because every time I stopped I could feel my muscles and how tight they were. So when I got to the 4 mile mark (four miles left) I was so glad.

Unfortunately, it was THE longest four miles ever.

But despite everything, I still finished at 3:25, which I didn't consider too bad. Especially since I was SO tired. I will be interested to see how this marathon goes compared with my others. I have definitely trained much harder than normal. I think based on my two twenty mile runs I am going to go for a 4:22.

And now, I'm onto my taper! Hurrah!

P.S. I DID have a sticker lodged into my toe. Now it is under one of my three blisters. Ouch.

20 in White Plains!

Saturday we had another fieldtrip run, this one was in White Plains which is way north of the city. It was an absolutely beautiful day, even a little chilly. It was even MORE chilly in White Plains, even though it isn't that far away from New York City.

Coach Christine was there to describe the workouts to us. I was pretty much dreading doing 20 miles, and she said that we didn't REALLY have to do our 20 on Saturday if we were running the Marine Corps, because we still had time to get another 20 in. But she also said that it was a good idea to get the 20 out of the way. I just figured that I really wasn't going to get any better weather than this for a 20 miler. AND it's not like I would really want to do it any other time either.

My goal was to run easy so that I felt like I could make it through the entire 20. So I wasn't going to get upset if I didn't get a great time. I was trying more to run on feeling. That being said, I wanted to maintain around a 10 minute mile throughout the entire run.

I always love our fieldtrip runs because they give us a change of scenery. Although Central Park is beautiful it sometimes is monotonous when you run it day after day. And White Plains was really pretty. We were running in the forest the whole time and the weather stayed nice and cool. The only bad thing about these runs is that the turnout isn't always great...so a lot of us were running alone. This was actually fine for me this time though, because I could really concentrate on staying steady with my pace.

It was easy to keep track of pace because our run consisted of 5 miles out to the dam, turn around and run back to the start and repeat the whole thing again. My first five miles was 41:32, my second 59:09, my third 49:50 and my last 50:40, for a total of 3:21.14. This tells me that I need to SLOW DOWN at the beginning of my run. I think this is the hardest part for me. But I bet if I would have slowed down I would have ended up with a much better time.

However, I was really happy with my run because I actually felt at the end of my run that I could have done 6 more miles. I've never felt that way before on a 20 mile run. Don't get me wrong, I was SORE, and if I would have stopped it would have been over, but my legs just kept going (I have no idea how). My 20 mile run is usually a pretty good indicator of how my marathon will go. If I feel as good as I did during that run when I run my marathon, I will be in good shape.

I DO think that I will try to SLOW DOWN in the beginning though.

Recovery

I was so glad to see in Ramon's workout email yesterday that we were going to have an easy night. I was still a little sore from racing the 1/2 marathon on Sunday and was looking forward to a non-hill night, even though it's still technically hill month.

He also gave his two cents about the half:
"Congratulations to all those brave ones that got up sooooo freaking early on Sunday to participate in the Queen Half marathon, congratulations on a great show and performance, you made us proud !! I know it was a very tough day out there, hot and humid, totally sucked !! One positive thing about it?

Welllll……let me see…hmmm…. Nothing really !! Just be proud that you were able to deal with such miserable conditions !!"

which pretty much summed up how I felt about it too. But it made me feel better about not reaching my time goal. If Ramon thought it sucked out there it must have really sucked because he usually tells us to not be such big babies about it :)

So last night was a very easy 4.5 mile loop. As usual, we didn't really get started until about 7, so we were basically running in the dark the whole time. (I can't believe it gets so dark so early). I tried not to take it out too hard because I knew it was a recovery run. I averaged about 9:35 per mile, but I guess that's okay because I didn't really feel tired, just like it was a nice run. And believe it or not, I think that little run actually helped my legs to recover.

This weekend I am doing my 20 and I am NOT looking forward to it. In the past I have only done one 20 miler before the marathon. It looks like this season I will be doing 2! I know most marathoners do this, so it's not a big deal, but it's just weird for me. As usual, before my 20s I am a little nervous about the whole thing. BUT it is a "field trip" run, so that might be fun. I just hope that someone else in my group is also doing a 20, because the girls I usually run with are doing the Philadelphia Half this weekend.

Tonight is a cross-training night, so I guess it's back to yoga.

66 Turns

This morning I got up as early as I've ever gotten up for running...315 am!!! Today was the Queens Half Marathon, which is part of a Half Marathon Grand Prix. Each borough has it's own half and they are all spread throughout the year. I can't complain too much about the early start because it is supposed to get up to 90 today which is unseasonably warm. The weather was bad enough as it was for our 7am race....hazy and warm, 71 degrees but with the dewpoint felt like 81 with 75% humidity! And luckily, Bill got up early to come and cheer me on (he is such a good husband!)

We took a cab across the island (it is so weird to me that Manhattan is an island) so that we could catch the NYRR shuttle. Coach Ramon had highly suggested buying tickets for this instead of taking public transport because the marathon was way way out of the way. The only thing that stunk is that the buses left at 4:30am. This got us to the half site at around 4:50, so we still got to wait around until 7.

For awhile there it looked like we were going to have a coachless race. The TNT team was all at our meeting spot but with no coaches. Then, at 6:40, Coach Steve (the coach who spends most of his time coaching the advanced group) showed up. He had JUST gotten there, even though he left to take the 7 train and the free shuttle buses at 4:30am (the same time Bill and left). Yuck. I would have totally been panicking if I was in that situation because I get super antsy before a race.

Just like clockwork the race started immediately at 7.

The start was CRAZY. I don't know if people just lied to get into the wrong corrals or what but it seemed like there was a lot more pushing and shoving than normal and people whizzing past and shouldering people. Plus, of course there was a bottleneck at the first turn. The Queens half is known for it's millions of turns. One guy said on his blog that he counted them last year and came up with 66. I was pretty sure he was just exaggerating, so I decided to count them myself. The course is also pretty darn hilly. I was planning for some hills but there were a LOT.

My strategy for the race was to follow Ramon's strategy. I figured he has helped me get my best times and I haven't had a horrible race yet so it was probably a good idea. In summary, we were supposed to:

• Take the first 6 miles out a little slower than usual. This meant that we should feel like we were holding back. According to Ramon's calculations, this would put me at a 9:10 min mile for miles 1-6.
• Take stock of how you feel after mile 6...if you feel good, take 10 seconds off per mile (a 9 min mile for me) for the next 4 miles.
• Take stock of how you feel , if you feel great, race it in for the last 3.

So I was looking forward to my 1:57.

I panicked a LITTLE at the first mile when I looked at my watch. It said 9:55.22. I figured that this was because of the slow start though, and told myself not to panic, I could pick it up a smidge for the next mile.

Next mile? 8:55.62. Whoops, not that much.

I reigned it back in for the next mile, which was a 9:12.66. Perfect! Now just keep that pace.

When I got to the 4th mile I figured I should stop and get some water. It was also a perfect time to try out running through the water stops. (I usually walk these, because every time I try to drink on the run I choke and cough.) I figured this was my longest practice race before the marathon and I should be trying all of this stuff out now. No go. I choked it down and decided maybe it was better to just walk through the stops. 9:19.64.

I was trying to follow this guy who has this t-shirt on that had written on the back of it, huge, in a Sharpie "WHAT?!!!....I AM THE QUEENS BLVD." I have no idea what this meant, but he seemed to be running exactly my pace....between 9:10s and 9:20s. Lots of turns, lots of hills and lots of confused bystanders. In fact, I think in some places it was only Bill and maybe two other people cheering. And those were the big cheering spots. Mile 5: 9:32.36. Luckily, with all of these turns the miles were FLYING by. Every time I got to a mile marker I was like "Oh wow. Really?" and checked my watch, like "Yeah, I guess that's right."
Last mile to go slow...9:27.69.

At this point, I was wondering if I should pick it up. I was mostly like, "YES." because I could tell that I was holding back a little on all of those miles. But I also thought no, because it just didn't feel like I was holding back that much. I figured that mile 7 would be a transition mile into my new pace, so I was shooting for around a 9:10. I just kept visualizing my legs turning over faster, not necessarily picking up the pace. I got a 9:27.07. Not EXACTLY what I was hoping for, but then again, I didn't really feel like I was going any faster either.

My breathing was still good and not audible, so I decided to pick it up for real this time. I willed my legs to turn over faster, and you know what? It worked!!! I felt like I was going a smidge faster, but not that much. However, I logged an 8:55.04. Hurrah!

The miles were still coming fast at this point even though the hills seemed to be multiplying. I was stupid at the next mile and forgot to push the lap button, so I don't remember what that split was, but the next two combined were 18:53.59. After these two miles I was just like "Forget it. I'm done. I'm not running anymore." I was so tired. Plus, my GU from mile 6 kept coming up which is an awful, gross feeling. My tank and short were SOAKED which was incredibly uncomfortable. I was just done. No more. So, according to Ramon's plan I was dropping out. I meaured how I felt after 10 miles and decided from that point just to finish the race.

It was a pain to run the next miles. More hills and MORE turns. Luckily, there was some funny/friendly banter from the runners ahead of me about Sarah Palin (for and against, despite the fact that in NY everyone is a democrat). It was cracking me up, which was good because it took my mind off of everything.

It was here that this woman came up to me and said "You're doing great. I've been following you from mile 1 and you still look like you're doing good. Keep it up." She of course passed me. But I thanked her tremendously because I totally needed that at this point (even if it wasn't true). I knew I was running awful and tired and I didn't care. Mile 11: 10:04.10. I wasn't even surprised and I didn't care.

Now the miles were DRAGGING. I kept thinking, "Aren't we almost there?" Some guy asked a course volunteer what mileage we were at and he said "11.5" and I groaned audibly.

It was here that I ran into Coach Steve. He ran up to me and started running with me. He asked me how I felt, and instead of smiling through the pain and saying "Oh, just fine." like I used to do in Cincinnati during my practices, I said "I feel like crap." He said "Of course you do." (I was like WHAT?! Really?) "It's really really hot and humid out there. You look good and you're almost finished. Make sure you get water at the next stop which is right around the corner and then just finish strong and we'll be there to cheer you on." The whole time he was telling me this he was running next to me and it didn't escape me that he was increasing my turnaround by just a smidge. Yay. For some reason, all of this made me feel better. Mile 12: 9:22.13. Hurrah!

Here I saw Bill, and even though I was feeling a little better I gave him the thumbs down to let him know that I was completely off my plan, and overall not feeling so hot. He gave me some words of encouragement to push through. And guess what else was there for me? A HUGE hill. Maybe the second largest on the course? Now that was just MEAN.

I was SOOOOO tired. Mile 13: 10:10.93, but I didn't even look at the watch on that one because I was totally focused on the finish.

I finished with a 2:04.17.

I guess it's a PR since I've never done a half before ;)

I definitely wasn't ecstatic, but I felt like considering the circumstances I did ok.

But the thing that stunk? No medals! Pttt. Well, at least the shirts were cool.

Oh, and I lost count of the turns when my race started to fall apart, but at that time it was around 50, so it is quite possible that there really are 66 turns in the Queens Half Marathon.

Hills, or "Inclines"

Since it is Hill Month 2 for our advanced team I guess it was no surprise that last night we had a hill workoutBut instead of doing tons of repeats on steep hills, we did 2 repeats on a bunch of rolling hills.

In fact, Ramon didn't even consider them hills, but "inclines".

What is the difference?

Well, on hills you have to shorten your stride in order to make up for the steepness of the hill. Otherwise you would die. On inclines your stride really shouldn't change at all. And because of this, we were supposed to be running at 90% effort level, which is about a 5K pace. Whew! This was a tall order, especially since our workout last night consisted of 8 miles of these rolling hills. (Of course we did have some recovery time in between, so it was sort of more of an interval workout with lots of hills thrown in).The tricky thing about effort levels is that you have to maintain the same effort for the entire workout. So, you may actually be going slower up the hill, medium on the flat part and faster on the down part, but the effort is all the same. An easy way to measure this is your breathing. When you're doing a workout at 90% you should basically be huffing and puffing. This is EXACTLY what I was doing the entire workout (well, the non recovery parts).

During these workouts I try not to use my watch, because Ramon told us the point of the workout was not to save energy for the end, but to go all out on each one. Therefore, your second round would be slower. Besides, effort levels are not about time. This kind of workout reminds me of the Karate Kid, because you are really really in tune with your body. I'm hoping that this means that I will become a better runner. I KNOW I never paid attention to my body this much before while I was running.

The workout was insanely hard and I really pushed myself. I was even keeping up with some of the insane NYRR classes that were being held in the park at the same time. I was so tired and my legs were extremely tired at the end, but I felt great!

The rest of the week for me is a taper because I am running in the Queens Half Marathon for time. The coaches all say it is a good idea to run a half around this time in the training to give yourself a good idea of what time to expect on your marathon, and just to see how you're going to race in a long distance.

I am excited but also nervous.

Unrealized PR

So on Saturday I ran another 4-mile race in Central Park. It was for Fitness magazine and was the same 4-mile loop it always is. At the beginning of the week I was all set on having a PR. Unfortunately when I woke up on Saturday morning it was super humid. So humid in fact that the race coordinators could not stop talking about it. They told everyone not to go for a PR today.

It always makes me nervous when they keep talking about the weather like that during a race. It makes me keep saying in my head "it's humid out, it's humid out." Which makes me more aware of it. This might be a good thing for some people but for me it's like I can't stop concentrating on it.

So I decided NOT to go for a PR. I DID want to beat my last 4-mile race though, where I was hung over.

I told myself to hold back on the first mile because I've figured out that this is the key to a good race for me. I was feeling a little winded but figured this was just the humidity. My first mile was a 8:27 and I was like "uh oh. Slow down, sister." Plus, I was just way too aware of the girl on my team who was running next to me. I was allowing her to get into my head again.

The next mile was supposed to be my fast mile, which it was. I lost my teammate on this one. 8:00

The third mile was a bear. I hate it because of all of the hills. Plus, at this point I was very very tired from the heat/humidity (did I mention that later that afternoon we had the big "tropical storm?"). I stopped for water for the second time and dumped a bunch on my head which I try NOT to do. 9:30.

The last mile I was just trying to hang on. This is where I usually get my second wind, but I honestly was just trying not to collapse over the finish line. I looked at my watch and figured I would try to make it in at 34:00. I figured that while this was not my PR, it would still do for the race. So I was a little disappointed when I clocked a 34:22.

I called Bill to tell him how I did, which in my words was "I guess not tooo bad, considering the humidity. But I was really really hoping for a PR."

Yeah, well, I just checked my times from my spreadsheet of all of my races at work. I DID have a PR. By three seconds, but still a PR. And the former PR race? That was the one where I was feeling invincible! So that tells me that I HAVE improved.

Yay hill work I guess ;)

Ramon is Trying to Kill Us

So Sunday I got an email summarizing our upcoming September in running. My favorite line was
"Well....the advance group has been thinking all along that they were not doing any hill work, wellll....september is your hilly month...get ready !!" And all of this started out with our first September group workout.

Last night we had 7-10 hill repeats on Cat Hill. YUCK.

I have never done THAT many repeats in one workout. Ramon emphasized that we should not be guaging this workout on what anyone else was doing, that it was a personal workout. We were also not supposed to worry about time (good thing, because I forgot my watch) because obviously you will get more and more tired as the workout progresses. Instead, we were supposed to run at effort levels again. The up hill was an effort level 4 (out of 5...that means at about 85%). I guage these workouts through my breathing, which is what I think you are supposed to do.

It was also a sliding scale of 7-10 because you were supposed to go with how you were feeling. For instance, if you were dying after 4, you should only do 7.

All of these caveats were because (as our coach for the night explained to us) all of the Advanced runners have Type A personalities and think they have to do the full workout even if they are dying and that they have to beat everyone that they usually run with because they are so highly competitive. (Guilty as charged).

The first 3 were not bad at all (I mean, for hill workouts). I was definitely tired and definitely behind the people I usually run with (you can't help but notice), but I was feeling pretty good. I hydrated after these 3 which I think was a mistake, because it sort of took my momentum and motivation to do more away.

So instead of my plan to hydrate after every 3 I decided to play it by ear and try not to hydrate until the end of the workout. This worked out a lot better. Our coach was at the top of the hill making sure that we ran at full effort all the way to the end with great form, so I was really concentrating on keeping my arm swing low and not running on my toes, which I tend to do when the hills get tougher for me.

After 7 I was done. I was slowing down and my recoveries included walking.

So I decided to do two more.

It WAS a good workout. I think all of this heavy hill work will help me out in the marathon for sure.