The past few months
It was a little over a year ago that I completed my first half marathon, the 2013 Miami Half. Very shortly after that I developed a "what's next?" mentality and registered for the 2013 Chicago Marathon. And of course, like a young reckless runner, I was "training" for it (and other spring and summer races) almost immediately after I signed up. So I went about 2013 racking up a lot of PR's and then fall happened. My knee reminded me that I am human, three weeks before the Chicago Marathon.
I still picked up my race packet and hit up the expo at McCormick Place where I met Dean Karnazes. He signed a poster with a quote of "first always is best".
Well, I knew that wasn't going to be Chicago and once I got over the pity party, I asked myself what went wrong. Well a few things came into view.
- Too much. I had crammed a number of races of different distances into my summer training schedule. That's fine if they align to my schedule, but many didn't. I was too focused of the near prizes of a new medal and a PR and lost sight of the long term prize of finishing the full.
- Too fast. Not just in these races but even during daily training, I was pushing hard. Every run became a drive to push harder. There was no focus, just "go hard".
- Depriving my body. I had the long rung carb loading thing down, but my diet was severely lacking in calcium and protein. Those two things are KINDA important...
- Cross training?! Completely absent, save for the occasional yoga class.
So I changed a few things. Most majorly, I started to take a proven training plan seriously. I went with Hal Higdon's Novice 2. That also introduced me to cycling. Well to be fair, I did cycling as part of my recovery. It was more about integrating that, some elliptical work, and some weights into my schedule and not just solely running. And I started eating better. My morning banana was supplemented with peanut butter toast. Greek yogurt at lunch. Almond milk. And a multi vitamin and calcium supplement.
Around that same time, I asked myself "when/where". My first though was the end of January. Then I found the Surf City USA. Marathon. A large race (18,000 between the full and half) and a history of 5 years so it sounded like a safe bet. Oh and in Huntington Beech, CA in January. This girl is a big fan of winter vacays and a bigger fan of destination running. But could I do it physically?
Well I was comfortable that my ability to cycle, about a month after the injury, meant that maybe I didn't need a full 18 weeks as Hal's plan called for. I tested this with my first two long runs being done on the elliptical. Much of my first 2 weeks back in training were spent that way. No, it's not the same. But it's a heck of a "plan B" and I'm sure beats pool running. No I never tried, but don't think I could do it... I then figured I could fit back in at week 6 just fine. I tested that further by getting a real long run in outdoors. It all went according to plan. So just before Thanksgiving, I booked everything. I was in training mode.
With the Chicago winter this year, that meant a LOT of miles (including my 20 miler) on the treadmill. Some indoor tracks. And when I could handle the cold, outdoors. Perhaps the worst part of being taken out of a good part of the fall is that I felt like I never acclimated to the cooler weather. I froze on nearly every outdoor run! But I kept on everything I relaxed my pace on the runs with a simple goal of "finish".
Living in Chicago, I love Love LOVE running that lakefront. When I'm confined to The Mill, Spirit of the Marathon on Netflix on the iPad is good in a pinch. I think I have the entire film memorized now. :-)
The Days Before
Finally race week was here. During my last week of taper I was hitting really awesome paces for me at short distances. I felt ready. But wow did I feel nervous! Even so much that I added an extra cross training day right before I flew out just because I was worried that my schedule put me at week 18 a day early.
Pacific Coast Highway, 2 days before the race
So onto the race. I went to the expo (a huge tent on the beach!) on Friday evening. There was a crazy long line for packet pickup but then a volunteer mentioned that was for the half. Their half was 15,500 runners. The full was 2,400. So I went to the full "line " -- I just walked right up to the table and got my stuff! To be fair, there was an impressive bunch of voluteers that made packet pickup just flow. Many others that ran the half commented as much. And waiting in line on the beach? There are WAY worse places to be. ;-)
Inside the expo that had an impressive bunch of merchandise. It of course wasn't quite as fancy as Chicago that had theirs and a number of custom shirts by Nike but it was MUCH cheaper! The vendors were what I was most impressed with. It wasn't any one vendor in particular but when you run in one area all the time, you see the same people pushing the same stuff. So it's nice to see something different. Perhaps those that were there are at all So Cal races too. It was also fun to see a lot of other races in So Cal. They likely won't happen in 2014 for me, but maybe next year. I always like brainstorming a future vacation while on a vacation.
Saturday night dinner was Farro fettuccine with a bunch of veggies at Il Farro in Newport Beach. It was such a quiet restaraunt. Perhaps that's due to so many places around there. Following my pre-race tradition, dinner was accompanied by exactly one adult beverage. In part, that's to help me relax; in part because that's what works and I don't like messing with what works. Superstious? Absolutely. I'm a runner. I capped that off with an amazing sunset at the Newport Beech Pier and then it was off to bed.
Race Morning
Having had two incredible nights of sleep, I was awake at 3:50 for my 6:30 start. I had planned to be out of the hotel by 5 to make it somewhere to get my coffee fix. Fortunately, a couple that was also running and staying at my hotel had talked management into setting up the continental breakfast 2 hours earlier! To eat, I did what I always do... Banana and energy balls. I made them before I left and packed them. I think perhaps only my shoes were more important than those in the things I packed. Well, carried on.
I was on the road by 5:15. And I arrived, parked, and was on a shuttle bus all by 5:30. So not Chicago... It took a few minutes to get the starting area, gear check, and hit the bathroom. But even after all of that, I STILL had 30 minutes!
20 minutes before I started my warmup. 10 minutes out, I was corralled and ready. This was really happening!
The Race
I was in the second full marathon wave heading out. The race features both a full and a half with the half starting an hour later. The half and full share much of the same course (up and down Pacific Coast Highway) but the full makes the remainder of the distance up with a bit through a local park, a trail, and a paved beach trail. Not going to lie, going in I was kind of thinking the up and down PCH was going to be monotonous. NOT! The course they had, the weather, and the scenery were all kinds of amazing!
Of course any race is not possible without an amazing cast of volunteers. This race was no different. In fact that's something that really stood out for me. There were so many incredibly young kids! They were cheering, singing, and shouting. Signs and supporters always push me to go harder, but these kids were unreal! I truly wish that many other races allowed them.
As the course continued on, my other surprise was the hills. Ok, they weren't anything major but definitely more than I was expecting.
Also, along the way, the half runners joined in. This jostled me for a bit as various pace groups came up on me. The 1:30 group comes to mind the most. In the words of a guy that was running with me "it was almost like a swarm of bee's". At one point, I think I tried picking up pace and running with the 1:45 pace group. That lasted about 20 seconds, LOL!
The last 6 miles, along the beach, were challenging not just because it was it was the last 6 miles, but because there was a headwind coming off the ocean the ENTIRE WAY. Despite that, I didn't feel a wall. At all. I know my pace dropped compared to what I was doing at the beginning, but I didn't feel like I had to stop. Well until I stepped on a blister that had formed, somewhere around mile 23. Ouch! I still didn't come this far to let that hold me back. "Just a 5k left. I can do this!"
What a beautiful pier! Or what I thought at mile 24.
And I did. 4:55:45 (Garmin). Sub 5! Truthfully, I was this past summer I was thinking I could do Chicago in Sub 4. Yeah I was delusional. I changed my focus this cycle to be "I just want to finish". I was trying to keep a decent pace and somewhere in the middle my mindset was "yeah I think I can do sub 5".
But time didn't really matter, I am now a marathon finisher! Everything you hear about the feelings and emotions of finishing your first... They're all true. There were tears. And in that moment I realized that had worked so hard for was finally achieved. I realized that the struggles I had gone through to get here were so far behind me. I realized that I have the strength to do that for a lot of things that have been gnawing at me.
Running a Marathon is Crazy. When do we go again?
In hindsight, I know I lost time taking off some layers that I used for the first mile. I know there were other parts where I could have gone faster. Could I have sustained that? Maybe.
For now, I'm taking a bit of time off to recover. And by "off" I mean a 20-25 mile base. Hal Higdon's Novice 2 plan got me here. And it's his recovery plan that I'm following right now. That should culminate right into race season and I already have a fair number of shorter distances (halfs mainly) scheduled in the next few months.
I'm going to try getting into Chicago again. Though the lottery they instituted this year should make that a few more degrees of stressful. If that falls through, maybe I'll end up in Long Beach this fall!
In any case, I'm trying to work on adding strength training. I also would like to drop a few pounds. I think the combination of that along with some smarter runs, not just just "run for x miles", should help me to break 4:30 this fall. Yes, that's almost 26 minutes off. Crazy? Maybe. But then so is finishing.
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