Yikes!

Ok, I am lame. The last time I posted was before my vacation. I don't even have an excuse because I have had plenty of time to blog (and run) but I just have been spending that time doing other fun things (like playing around with the floorplan of my apartment, making fun cupcakes, knitting, etc etc etc).

I guess running was just one of the main things in my life prior to now, and now, while it is still a big part of my life, I tend to have a million other things going on too.

I spent a lot of time this marathon season being frustrated...not angry...not sad, just frustrated. It seemed like no matter what I did, I couldn't get my times to go back to what they were before I had Liam. I was still working really hard, but I wasn't getting the results. I wanted to basically start where I was at the beginning of 2009. I didn't actually think this was too unreasonable (I'm not even sure if it is now). But I also just kind of accepted that running was going to be harder, I was going to be slower. I didn't know if this was a copout, but I was okay with it if it was. I thought.

Then I ran with my friends Gina and Pam one Saturday and as we were chatting Pam said that her friend (who was also pregnant around the time I was) said that running is hard, things just don't work the same way they did before. This made me feel lots better. And I realized; here I was comparing myself to Kara Goucher again, who is an Olympian, has trainers and nutritionists, runs professionally, and isn't still breastfeeding.

So, a couple of weeks ago I had my 20-miler. My 20-miler always sort of psychs me out because however it goes is the same way the marathon goes for me. I printed out this marathon armband which would have me pacing my miles so that I would end up with 9:00 splits (even though I had been running with the 10:00 min/mile group all season). I had a glass of wine the night before to relax (this has been proven to work for me). I worried worried worried so much that I didn't sleep. When I got to Grand Central (we were doing this run out of the city) I got there so early that the train doors weren't even open. So I stopped at a shop and grabbed two donuts which I inhaled in about 2 seconds. I fell asleep on the train and almost missed my stop. And then, when we got there, Coach Christine informed us that the bridge was out due to Hurricane Irene and we couldn't run our normal route. We actually had to go the other way, which involved running through several house-lined streets and the downtown area of Scarsdale before we even got to the Hudson River Parkway Trail. Ugh. And I am AWFUL at directions.
We had to stick together as a group for the first 2 miles so no one would get lost.

Well, my pace was just going to go way out the window. Whatever. I didn't really feel like I could do it anyway. I was just going to run what I ran and get the mileage in. (I usually call this "Zen Running"). So I kind of stuck with a group of three people going about 10 min/miles. Unfortunately, at the turnaround (5 miles) they decided not to stop. I needed a GU so I decided to run with the group that was slightly ahead of us and still stopped for a GU break. They were obviously going faster, so I would have to see how long that would last.

Their pace actually felt pretty good. And when I looked down at my watch, I saw we did a 9:22 mile. Cool! I stuck with them until the next turnaround, but then I was on my own. They had decided to go the other way (even though the bridge was out, someone had put a plank over the stream so you could go over it if you wanted to...I was NOT in for that. I did not train all this season to fall off a plank and injure myself.)

I got a little lost, but did find my way. I felt great. At the end I felt like I could run another 10 miles!!! And I ended up with a 9:00 pace for the WHOLE RUN! AMAZING! I was so so pumped.

THEN, I ran the Staten Island Half this past weekend. Once again, I ran by feel. I was going to try and hit 8:50s, but I took the first mile out too fast (8:37). I made a concentrated effort to slow down and went 8:22 on the next mile. I really told myself to slow down for the next mile and did an 8:08. Ok. At this point I took stock of how I felt (great) and decided to just go for it. In the end, my slowest mile ended up being an 8:56 and my fastest a 7:55.

I PRed!!!!!!!!

BY FOUR MINUTES!!!! (I got a 1:50!)

Did I just underestimate myself before? Did I just kick it in for some reason? What happened? I have no idea but I am NOT going to change ANYTHING and hope for the best on NYC marathon day.

Hill Month

So last night's practice officially kicked off "hill month" at Team in Training. I was kind of looking forward to the workout (I guess because I am a masochist?) because even though those workouts kill me I always end up feeling like I actually accomplished something awesome.

Last night was a doozie. We ran up the entrance hill at 72nd street at 85% effort and then DOWN the back of the hill at 85% effort and finished with a recovery along the road to do it again. Effectively we were making a triangle. What kind of sucked is that the recovery was all too short. We did this 12 times. Yuck.

I decided this would not be a good workout to do in the Vibrams, even though my Tuesday night runs are usually "barefoot". I am sure glad because I am super sore today.

I really took those hills hard. And I think the downhill part was just as hard as the uphill...at least I took it that way. I have the sneaky suspicion that the rest of my teammates took it as sort of a recovery. I say this because the same people who would pass me on the uphill were easily passed by me on the downhill.

I also figured out something else about my running form. I seriously think that I was built for distance. My stride is so efficient that it almost looks like I am walking when I run (I used to get so mad at Bill for saying this). But I also say this because I noticed in my hill and speed workouts I end up somewhere in the middle of the advanced group, even though I am one of the slowest runners of the group. People will always pass me on the speed part and I end up passing them on the recovery part. I always thought that this was because I was going too fast on the recovery. But when I check my heartrate, I can almost get it down to my walking heartrate. I'm breathing easily, and I feel fully recovered in time for the next repeat. So then I was like, maybe I'm not pushing myself hard enough on the speed part. But I know this is not true because I am really truly busting my butt (sweat pouring from everywhere, breathless, grunting, tired by the end, etc.) And when I ran this idea by Bill he was like "No, I've seen you do speedwork. That's not it." Anyway, these people who I pass on recovery will usually pass me again on the speed part...the first time or so. After awhile I just get too much of a lead on them and they can't pass me. So I start off the workout at the back (sometimes even the last) and end them in the middle or middle top. This just tells me that I am truly an endurance runner.

I guess this is why half marathons are my favorite event. (Bill also mentioned to me this weekend that since having Liam I have already completed  5 half marathons! That made me feel awesome!)

At any rate, at the end of the workout I was super spent and today I am super sore. But I am happy about that because it means I am building my muscles. Sometimes I think I am crazy.

P.S. Speaking of being built for distance, Bill pointed out this cool article to me about how scientists explain how Usain Bolt is truly built for speed. Kind of cool.

Sick of Being Sick

I think if I make it through this upcoming half marathon with a halfways decent time I will be extremely surprised.

I feel like for the past month I have been on-again off-again sick. Bill and I have just been passing sicknesses back and forth to each other and since we are both run-down they totally take their toll on us. I used to be able to get over something like a cold in a couple of days tops, but now I'm lucky if I get over them in a week. So my running has definitely been suffering.

Last Sunday (the 10th) I did get out for a nine-miler. And it actually felt really great. But I got sick right after that and haven't run in an entire week. I have so many missed runs this season it isn't funny. But I'm not going to dwell on it. It is what it is. And I have found that it is much better to wait until the sickness passes completely before getting back out there to work out. So even though it KILLS me not to go out for a run today I'm going to have to skip it.

I do have two fun upcoming things though in the world of running!

Firstly, I signed up to train with Team in Training again for the fall season. I think this is the best thing I could do. I need some structure to my workout plan because with all that is going on (work, baby, running) I've found that running is often put on the chopping block. Plus, it will be great for me to get out of the house twice a week and be around adults. And of course, Team in Training is also just fun, and it's nice to raise money for something worthwhile. Our first group training session starts the Tuesday after the Flying Pig Half Marathon. Already!

Also, this week I will be covering the JackRabbit NYC Running Show. Its the first year JackRabbit is putting it on, as sort of a kick-off to the NYC running season. It's only $10 for a ticket and for the price of the ticket you actually get $15 off event merchandise (awesome!). There are all kinds of exhibitors plus a lot of cool speakers. I am especially interested in seeing Scott Jurek and going to the Women's Running session. And there is a barefoot/minimalist running panel which should be interesting.

I'm also going to be looking for something fun to run in for the Flying Pig Half since none of my running clothes fit me anymore (in a good way! I've lost a ton of weight!)

Anyway, I am super psyched because I have press credentials for this show which means I get to go early to check it all out! Can't wait for Friday!

TNT Reunion!

Last night I got to go to an "Alumni" practice in the park with Team in Training. I think that this was mostly to get us to sign up for the next season, but knowing that I will not be doing that until NEXT fall season I just used it as an excuse to see my old friends/coaches and get a workout in.

Luckily there was a separate workout for us alums. I guess they realized that we wouldn't be in the same shape as the regulars at practice. It consisted of a lower loop of the park, nice and easy (1.7 miles) and then some running drills.

I was so glad that people were taking "nice and easy" seriously. Knowing that I haven't really run more than 3 minutes solid without a walk break since the beginning of my third trimester, I just stayed towards the back of the pack. My goal was to do the whole 1.7 miles without stopping, but I didn't know how I would feel.

Let's just say I could definitely feel soreness in my legs due to my loosening ligaments. Yowsa. I DID, however, make it 1.5 miles into the workout without stopping. And then I walked for a bit before finishing at Bethesda fountain with the rest of the team. I was proud of myself because I kept up with the back of the pack (one of the alums told me that the only reason she ran fast as she did was because I was right behind her the whole time and she knew I was in my 8th month of pregnancy). And even after walking, I was only like 20 feet behind the last person all the way to the end.

I felt good breathingwise and body tempwise but my legs were SO SORE. Kind of like they were in the first two miles of my last half marathon. (Guess its all of that relaxin  causing my ligaments to stretch again.) So instead of joining the team for the calisthenic part of the cross-training (which I shouldn't be doing at this point anyway) I stood close by at the tree and streeeeeeeeeeeeeetched. That pretty much fixed everything (and I'm still not sore today!). I was able to join the rest of the alums for things like walking squats and squat twists, which I could still do with the best of them.

But the BEST part was talking to all of my teammates who are training for fall marathons. It was SO GOOD to see them again! And all of the coaches ran over and gave me big hugs. I have to say, it didn't hurt that all of them thought I looked great/not-as-pregnant-as-I-am and were amazed that I was running. I was especially excited to see Coach Christine because I have been reading all of her articles about pregnancy and running on about.com. (She is one of their running experts.)

We all went out to a bar in our stinky running clothes afterwards, and I devoured a gigantic cheeseburger with fries as if I had run 10 miles instead of 1.7 :)

A Perfect NY Day!

It's so funny. I complain and complain and complain about the marathon season being too long, and then the week after the marathon? I'm out on the course cheering like crazy!

This past Sunday was the New York City marathon. And one of the mentees in my mentee group was running it, so Gina and I and some other TNT friends decided to go cheer. The marathon starts LATE. The elite women's start is at 9 am and then everyone else goes out based on their corral time. It would kind of stink if you were running it, because you have to be on Staten Island by 5am because they close off all of the bridge traffic. All those people, sitting around for 5 hours, waiting to run? Yuck!

Our meeting spot was at 116th Street and 5th Avenue, up in East Harlem. It was mile 22 and we figured it was a good place to see the elites and all of the other runners too. I got there at 10:00, followed shortly by my TNT buddies. We saw a lot of the wheelchair athletes...and then? YAY! We saw Paula Radcliffe, and once again I was starstruck. And then I saw Kara Goucher!!! She is my hero! So I was super super excited.

But I have to say, even though I get a thrill out of seeing all of the superstar runners, my favorite part of watching the marathon is cheering for the normal people...people with times like mine. :) I was also so excited when I saw a Roncker shirt in the crowd. I punched Pam in the arm and was like "HEY! I USED TO RUN WITH HIM!!!" and I started waving to him wildly and he smiled and waved back and then I was like "That was stupid. If I was running a three-hour marathon there is no way I would be waving to some girl that I may or may not remember."

We all went crazy with the cowbells and with our signs and of course yelled out everyone's name on their singlet. We went REALLY crazy when we saw other TNT people. And they usually waved back or smiled. And I think I pissed some people off too. Because when people started to walk I would say things like "You can do it! You look great! Just stick with it." Some people smiled at me, some people started running, but some people smiled at me like "Shut up lady. I don't see you running 22 miles." I also saw Jim, from last season's Biggest Loser (which I love).

It was a lot of fun. We stayed till almost the very end (4:30ish?) and we were the only people left cheering. And now all of us have sore throats :)

Beat The Bridge : The Final Miles

Yes! Finally! I was at the 14th Street Bridge. This was supposed to be the be-all and end-all of the marathon. I had heard it from everyone; Ramon, Christine, even John Bingham. If you made it past the bridge and felt okay, you were good to go. I was trying not to think about the fact that I already felt like crap. In fact, my 19th mile was a 10:19 feel like crap.

I desperately wanted my coaches. In particular, Coach Steve. My coaches had been yelling and screaming and going crazy all throughout the race. That was all well and good. I mean, I felt great at the time. But now I felt like crap and I needed them to run with me. Coach Steve is especially good at this. He says just the right things, and runs with me, picking up my pace ever so slightly to what it should be so that I don't notice, and then I'm running all well and happy on my own. I knew he was coming up, because when I saw him at the 10K mat he said "I'll see you on the bridge at mile 20!" So I kept looking around, like "Where's Steve?"

This bridge...I don't even know what to say about it. It was like a bazillion miles long. All flat. But that kind of flat that drags on forever. Not like a pretty bridge either. This was a highway overpass. Gross. I HATE running on the highway. WHY does EVERY marathon have a section like this? At the END, no less!!!

Yay! I saw Steve. He was on a cellphone, like, coordinating with the other coaches. I heard him say that he saw me coming up and he got off his phone to run with me.

I honestly can't remember everything he said. But he did help me pick up my pace AND he was like "Uh, you only have one 5-mile loop of Central Park left. You can do that in your sleep and I know it because I've seen you run it a million times." And I was like "He's so right!" He also told me Mike (the coach from Brooklyn) was coming up, which made me happy. Another coach!

Back down to 9:54 for mile 21 AND off of the million mile long bridge.

Into Crystal City...our TNT Hotel HQ! For some reason (deliriousness) I felt like I knew this area, so it would be easier. I was thinking of it as my stomping ground even though I've never been to DC in my life and had only spent 1.5 days in Crystal City. Lots of crowd support, lots of pretty, colorful flags and...
what? A turnaround? I HATE turnarounds. Especially at this point, because they are always longer than you think. Plus, right before the turnaround, they had you duck into this circular driveway. What? Mentally this was horrible course planning.

It did make the miles go faster though (at least in my head. Not in timing.)
Mile 22 - 11:10 (OUCH). Uh. And that's when I had to go. Like really really badly. My stomach was in all kinds of knots and I knew I had JUST passed a port-o-let. My time was also bumming me out. I was like "TRY to get back to the 10s."

Mile 23 - 10:47. Come on. I really really have to go. Where was that port-o-let on the other side?
Found it! Not ideal, but I had to cut across the runners going the wrong way to get there. Needless to say, my mile 24 was a slow 13:08.

I was finally out of Crystal City, thank goodness, I never wanted to go back there again.

I was now on to...a highway. Seriously. I am going to beat whoever thinks that it is a good idea to put final mileage of a marathon on a deserted highway.

Yay! I saw Mike and I was so happy!
Plus, Mike had great news. He pointed to the Walmart truck and told me 1. There was a water stop. (Hurrah! I thought I had already passed the last one!) 2. That was mile 25.
I was super energized (well, as energized as I could be. I knew at that point that I WAS going to finish).

Now, in my mind I was kind of cheating. I don't think I really needed the water, but I needed to walk. And I was NOT going to walk this marathon. AT ALL. But...we all know I can't run through the water stops without choking. So the water stop was a perfectly valid reason to walk a little but then have to run as soon as the water was done. I picked up mile 25 to a 10:18.

And right around the corner? Coach Christine! I told her I felt like crap and she was like "What? You're kidding! You look great!" Now with most coaches I do not buy this at all. But she really for real sounded sincere. And I was like "Wait. I am doing great. I screwed up my entire marathon, but I'm still doing 10 somethings." So that made me speed up a bit.

Mile 26: 10:03.

And RIGHT at the 26th mile marker was Ramon. I was SO HAPPY to see him. He was happy to see me too. He grabbed my hand and started running with me and talking to me and asking how I felt. I was like "I'm dying!" And he laughed and was like "Of course you're dying. What? You think this is easy? Are you crazy? Look at all these people cheering. If this was easy, all these people would be doing it. You are doing awesome. You look strong. You are going to run up the last hill...NOT HARD, just real easy. Ok. You can do it." And then he squeezed my hand and ran away and I felt the hill in my calves and I was like "This isn't so bad. I CAN do this hill! This hill is nothing!" And then I looked over my shoulder to my left and I was like "OH SH*T. THAT'S the hill!!!" So I took it easy, felt my heart rate climb to a million beats per minute, looked at the overhead clock, saw it was 4:22 (my last ditch goal from the end of the season, my first goal from the beginning of the season) and sprinted (ha ha) it in as much as I could.

4:22:54.

NOT what I was hoping for, but pretty good all the same.
Plus, I beat Oprah. (And Al Gore and Ted Koppel).

SOS: Trying to Beat the Mental Game, The Middle Miles

I had to go to the bathroom.

REALLY REALLY badly. And I had just passed a port-o-let not too far away, which meant that another one was probably really far away. And I was already losing the mental game with myself, so I tried to tell myself this: It's no big deal to stop now. In fact, it's so much better to stop now, because you are way ahead of pace. If you stop at the end you will be mad at yourself. This just gets it out of the way.

YAY! Wherever it was that the Marines were giving out oranges there were two port-o-lets. Of course there was a line. And one person in line was a non-runner, which sort of made me really angry, like "Hey! Let me in front of you!" But I knew that this was also just my anxiety talking. Sensibly I knew that this man had every right to the port-o-let too. I kept looking at my watch and flipping out and the girl behind me was like "I KNOW, right?"

Back in the game with a 13:38 for the 10th mile. TRIED not to look at the pace bracelet to see how far off pace I was. (And I was off pace, even though I had "banked" time in the beginning, which, everyone knows, you SHOULDN'T do.)

Mile 11 - 9:12. Good. (At this point, I was like, "Yeah. Hey, if it feels good, it's good.")

Mile 12 - 9:21. I would like to tell you about the course, but the honest truth is, that I don't remember. I think at this point I was running by the Mall. At some point it got very very narrow and we could only run with two runners across. It was tense, but at the same time it gave me energy. This was good, because while I still felt pretty good I could tell that I was starting to drain.

Mile 13 - 9:23. I was like "Hey! I just finished a half marathon!!!" Because really, at this point I was still feeling like I had a ton more energy than I did at the Staten Island half and the miles were flying by. But the little devil Emily on my shoulder was like "Uh, well you SHOULD have more energy than your half marathon. For one, you are going slower, and for two you are only HALFWAY finished. Oh, and did you notice that you are gaining time? By the end you will be doing 11:00 miles." I tried tried tried to stay positive, but it is sometimes hard to shut up that little voice.

Mile 14 - 9:47. Panic. Because I was feeling like the "Death Drain" that you see when you are trying to beat Tom Morello in Guitar Hero and just can't do it. And? It was only mile 14. I told myself to pick it up a bit, but not too much.

Mile 15 - 9:19. For some sick reason, this made me feel better. Even though I should have known better because it was not in my window. I was like "SEE! I CAN do it!" At this point I needed all the optimism I could get, so when I ran over the 25k mat I was like "Whoo-hoo!" quietly, which made the guy next to me laugh. I mean, really, I had no idea how much 25K was, but I did know that a marathon was 40-something K.

Mile 16 - 9:44. I was like "That's ok. Pick it up in the next one." This just shows how demented I was at this point. Because what I should have been saying was "Perfect! Right on target!" But no, I was telling myself to speed up.

Mile 17 - 9:35. Maybe I regained my senses because I was like "Perfect!" But I also felt like I was dying. Like "OK. That was a good run. I'm finished." Which sucks. You are NOT supposed to hit the wall at 17. I told myself I was almost at the bridge, which was my next big milestone. Everyone wanted us to "beat the bridge." If you beat the bridge, you were okay.

Mile 18 - 10:00. This seemed like the longest mile of all eternity. I actually felt like if I logged a 12:00 I would have been happy. I was so done at this point. I told myself that I was doing great and that I needed to make <10:00 on the next one and to just focus on that next mile.

Mile 19 - This was also rough. I felt like I was dying. At this point I was like "Come on, Emily. You haven't hit the wall. You are still pretty much on pace. In your first marathon you felt great until mile 22. Let's do that again. Just make it to mile 22." I logged a 9:44 and congratulated myself.

MCM: Ants In My Pants, the First Miles

Isn't our team cute? This was right before we headed out to the metro to catch the train to the starting line. I couldn't have asked for better weather, I got the right amount of sleep (like 7.5 hours!!!), I was all pastaed up...but...I felt so insanely nervous. Like, I felt like I was going to throw up. I kept forgetting my mantra that Gina helped me with ("My spirit fears nothing."), my stomach was off kilter and I pretty much did not feel like I could run 26.2 miles. I tried to suck it up as much as I could though.

We left en masse for the starting line. We lost Gina and Donna and the rest of the team almost immediately, but I wasn't worried. Especially when we caught up to them before we even got to the runner's village. We couldn't find the rest of our team but luckily we ran into Coach Steve, who also couldn't find the rest of the team. He got on his phone and was like "I've got 5 of them here." Which for some reason made me laugh really hard inside, which I attribute mostly to feeling sick with nerves.

Gina, Donna and Pam went to check bags and I decided I should go to the Port-o-let. By the time Bill and I had gotten back, the team was gone, so we decided to book it to the start. It was a good thing we did. It was massively crowded. It took me forever to get to the 6-7:00 finishing time area, and I had to get all the way up to 3:45!!!! (Ramon said we needed to start 30 minutes ahead of our projected finishing time.) I think that number (3:45) made me sick to my stomach as well. Last year I would have been happy with finishing anywhere lower than a 5, so the number seemed way crazy to me (even though I wasn't trying to finish there). It was like swimming in concrete. I could NOT get anywhere. I JUST got to the 3:45 flag when people started moving forward.

I was concentrating on my strategy. Keep it at 9:40s. You can go up to 9:50 or down to 9:30 but THAT is the window. If I did that, I would be able to get my 4:13 I wanted, which was my "aggressive goal". Even though Ramon said that only 20% of the people who try get their aggressive goal, I knew I could do it. In fact, for some reason I had the number 4:11 stuck in my head (which I guess was my secret goal) and to emphasize that, I had the song "Come Original" in my head (I guess because it was by 311 :).

By the way, that's me in the purple in the center.

The first mile felt a LITTLE hilly. It was also crowded. I was frantically looking for the clocks they keep at each mile to see if I was on pace. Well, they didn't actually have those clocks. Just little white signs with red writing marking off the miles. So I totally missed the first mile. But at the second mile I clocked a 19:25. According to my pace bracelet I should be at 19:27. Perfect!

My third mile was 9:06. Whoops. I told myself (out loud) "Em, slow down."

My fourth mile? 9:06. Whoops. Yes, I am good at keeping a consistent pace. This was sort of freaking me out. I tried to slow down and enjoy the scenery. It WAS very beautiful out...kind of foggy. At one point we could see the top of the Smithsonian Castle (I think) peaking out of the fog over the water. It was cool.

(Obviously this pic was taken by Bill, not me.)

My fifth mile I was able to slow down a bit and logged a 9:37. This is when we started running into all of the wheel chair athletes. I don't know if it is just how the MCM was set up, or because I was further up than normal or what, but it seemed like there were a LOT of wheelchair athletes in the middle of the runners. We had to keep "making a hole" to let them through. It was a little strange. I mean, it was very inspirational to see them go through (those wheelchair athletes are truly TOUGH) but it was weird to keep weaving right and left during the race.

Sixth mile? 9:09. WTH??? I was REALLY concentrating on slowing down and I KNEW at this point I was screwed. I really needed to run at least my first 9 miles slow and here I was speeding through. I was so mad at myself. This is the mistake I made at my very first marathon and I definitely paid for it in the end. I did NOT want to have to walk this one at all, and at this rate I was headed for disaster.
I really yelled at myself this time. "SLOW DOWN."

Seventh mile? 10:06. Ok. Too much. I tried not to freak out about it. I also was having all sorts of issues with things visually psyching me out. Like the girl right in front of me. She had a shirt on that said "I'm Going to Beat Sarah Palin: 3:59:36". Or, the 4:00 pace group that JUST passed me. Somewhere around here was the big hill too. It looked huge. But you know what? Because of where it was in the race it really didn't bother me at all. In fact, I felt great at that point.

8th mile? 9:05. I was really freaking out at this point. I was not following Ramon's number one rule: BEHAVE. (It was even printed on his singlet in huge letters). So I needed to make a decision. I kept telling myself to slow down because I was going to screw myself halfway through and be in awful awful pain. But at the same time, if you haven't been able to slow down for 8 miles is it really productive to tell yourself that it's going to suck at the end if you don't slow down? Those first 9 miles are so important and I'd already blown 8 of them. So I tried to fake myself out. I told myself this:

Uh, Emily, you've been training harder than ever. Maybe you are just this fast. You will be fine. After all, you wanted a 4:11. You can do this. You are just this fast. That's why you can't slow down.

I don't think I really bought it. But I just kept telling myself that anyway.

Mile 9: 9:30. Much better. Much calmer. Good job, Em. :)

MCM Weekend: Saturday

Friday night I truly got the best sleep ever. Thank goodness that TNT booked rooms at the Marriott. They have something akin to Starwood's "Heavenly Bed" which I think helped a TON.

We had a nice little 20 minute group run at 8am. The team met in the lobby and I realized that we were now branded as the "New York Team." See, there were like 20 other TNT Teams in the hotel from all over the country. Next to the DC team, we were the largest. And the loudest. And that morning, Coach Ramon herded us all together by whistling really loud and yelling "YO! Let's GO." All the other teams looked at us like "Oh. There's New York." :) How stereotypical of us.

That afternoon we had a meeting/singlet decoration party. I was so glad that Gina brought cool stick-on letters from Michael's to put my name on my singlet. I am NOT good at writing in white-out or puffy paint and I wanted my singlet to look somewhat classy, so this helped immensely. Plus, Gina made cute little bags for all of her mentees with cool stuff in it. Aw. She is so great.

Everyone talked about why they were there, including Tasha, our honored teammate. See, our honored teammates are currently battling Leukemia or Lymphoma AND running our marathons with us. Pretty impressive. Plus, Tasha is one of the most positive people I know. Tasha is awesome, and I've found myself remembering her when my running gets tough. I mean, if Tasha can go through everything that she's gone through AND run a marathon I can make it through my miles when they get tough.

The coaches also gave us some last minute pointers and told us that it was important for us to have our names on our singlets so that they could call us by name when they came up to help us through our miles on the course. Apparantly in the past, the runners look at them like "who are YOU?" Since we DO have a very high coach to runner ratio (and some of the coaches are from Brooklyn, so I wouldn't know them by sight necessarily.)

We then made our way back to our rooms to get ready for the pasta dinner. Everyone from our team was instructed to go out and buy I Heart NY t-shirts to wear to this, which I thought was a really cool idea. Bill and I got ready and made our way downstairs. When we got through the hallway we had to walk through this huge barage of coaches all screaming and clapping and making noise.

The New York coaches were going especially crazy, but then again, they are usually pretty crazy.

We then sat at team tables to listen to the speakers...the first being John Bingham!!! The Penguin himself!!! I was so excited because I LOVE him. Since when I started marathoning I was not the fastest runner I really associated with his whole philosophy of having fun and finishing the race. It's funny too, because I always read his articles in Runner's World like "Wow. This is a really good article." and then I get to the end where he says "Waddle on, friends." and am like "Oh. Right. That's because John Bingham wrote it." :) So I was starstruck, which made me feel a little stupid. And I hung around afterwards to get a pic. Which made me feel REALLY stupid. But I'm glad I did. :)

He was also really funny, by the way.

We also had a really inspiring former marine talk to us. I was getting all pumped up.
Here are some things that are REALLY cool:
• When TNT started in 1988 the survival rate for Leukemia was 5%. Now it is 95%!!!
• Over the years, TNT has raised $950,000,000 to help battle blood cancers.
• The New York City TNT Team for the MCM raised $323,000 this year!

The whole evening was really cool and really inspiring. I was very pumped up and ready for the marathon!

Oh, and here is a cute pic of me and my running friends, Michelle, Donna, Gina and Tasha after the dinner.

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.

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.