Exciting News

Guess who got into the Philadelphia Marathon on November 18? Me!!!!

I can not believe I got selected in the lottery! I feel like a kid a Christmas right now. I am so EXCITED! Thank you Philly for letting us into your sold out marathon!!!

36 vs. 41: Keeping It Real

Sorry about the radio silence this past week. I found myself in a bit of a funk and didn't want to write post after post of blubbering about my woes.

To keep a story short, my woes began the day after, or more like the day after that, I rocked my 22 mile long run on Sunday, 10/7!

But first, I have to tell you that I was way nervous about hitting a 22 mile run during this round of marathon training. I've mentioned before that the training program I am following is only 16 weeks and caps out at a 20 mile run. With my past marathon experience, I felt it was super important, maybe even just for my mental health, to hit a 22 mile run. I was plagued with trying to figure out how/when I would be able to incorporate it without screwing myself.

So on the 7th I was scheduled for a 20 mile run. I entered it saying that if I can hit 18 again great, if I can make it to 20 then I hit my goal, if I can push it to 22 I will have money in the bank. I've been having back pain/issues for the past few weeks which I have been able to manage and still keep on running. So I was hoping for a good run that day.

As you can see below, I hit the 22:

It took me 4 hours and 43 minutes (trail running slows ya down) and it started to rain on me during the last 2 miles, but I did it! Even better, I didn't experience any back pain. Just had some normal aches associated with long runs.

The day after I had my normal aches, along with a sore/stiff lower back. The day after that I was still dealing with back issues. And actually I didn't attempt running until Thursday the 11th. My back was still giving me some issues, but I got up to attempt a run with my honey that morning. I can tell you that run SUCKED! I was in discomfort from the very beginning of the run and it didn't end until 4 miles later when I was finished. I did hit the gym for an additional 3 miles to bring my weekly mileage to 7 miles. Ugh!

At this point (so much for a short story) I was becoming very discouraged about even finishing the marathon. I was questioning whether my 41 year old body was gonna make it to the finish line.

I didn't run again until this past Sunday. I successfully ran 10 miles. However, that 10 miles felt like 20! I could tell that my terrible running mileage (barely existent mileage) from the week affected this run. So my mental state was still not that great about heading into the marathon in 3 weeks even though I rocked the 22 miles.

I took yesterday off from running. (Enter stiff/throbbing back). This morning I got up for a run (even though I wanted to say screw it and stay in my toasty warm bed) and approached it very differently. I decided that I was going to force myself to run almost 1 minute slower on my pace per mile. Guess what? I ran 5 beautiful pain free miles today. Yippee!!!!

So where is my mind now in regards to the marathon?

I have to accept that my 41 year old self is not the same as my 36 year old self. I am older, heavier and slower (which I think is a direct reflection of my current weight - I have lost 15 pounds since May, but I am still 30 pounds heavier that I was when I ran the marathon the first time at 36) than I was 6 years ago.

I have to accept that I will not finish the marathon in the same amount of time it took me in 2006.  I am going to run this marathon with a slower first half (probably around an 11:40ish per mile pace - this pace keeps me pain free and gives me the hope I can finish) and increase my speed to what my original race pace of 10:52ish per mile for the second half of the race.

I am accepting that I will finish in over 5 hours this year even though my young heart wishes it could be faster. I will be proud of myself no mater what to just cross the finish line on November 4th!

5 Weeks and Once Bitten

It's hard to believe that the NYC Marathon is in less than 5 weeks! I have been training my heart out for 11 weeks now and haven't let anything stop me. I ran through the entire month of August sick as a dog with a sinus infection. I ran the past couple of weeks with lower back pain and praying that my current regiment of icing and stretching keeps it in check. This week Daily Mile congratulated me with an Epic week of training!

I hit peak training a couple of weeks ago, but since I had the back pain I had to scale back my runs during the week in hopes of hitting my long run mileage.  So far so good even though I haven't hit the 30+ total miles for the past 2 weeks.

With this past week being another modified running week, I have managed to keep my back pain in check with icing 2 times a day and lots of stretching. My long run on Sunday was only suppose to be a 10 miler, but since I was feeling so good I turned it into a 13 miler!

I really wanted, and had the energy, to hit a total of 15 miles but I stopped at 13 because I ran out of hydration. I only planned for 10 and managed to make what I brought with me to last the extra 3 miles. I came close to hitting the 31 miles total for the week, just 2 shy.

I really love completing my Sunday long runs up at Rockefeller State Park Preserve. It is such a beautiful and peaceful place to be. I've said in past posts how I have seen chipmunks, turkeys and many a deer! 

I also see a lot of dogs! I love dogs. I have never met a dog that didn't like me. Well at least until this past weekend and one bit me. Yes, you read correctly. I had a dog bite me on Sunday. I am still shocked from it because it was not my fault and I don't see how I could have done anything different. Let me just say I am fine. No skin was broken or blood drawn on my arm. I am just bruised and sore on my tricep and bicep where the dog got a hold of me.

I am really upset at the owner of the dog. She was barely concerned and acted like it was no big deal. I wanted to tell her that she shouldn't be out on the trails with 3 dogs she can't control where there are many runners and children. 

Here is what happened...

I was running along the trail and noticed this woman with her 3 dogs. There was a little white dog, a little brown dog and a big black/brown dog. As I am running towards them I notice how the little white dog and big black/brown dog are tugging her to the left of the trail and how the little brown dog is tugging her to the right of the trail. I am thinking to myself as I am running towards them that this might be a problem for me because I felt she wasn't really in control of her dogs. As I get closer I am formulating my plan of action of how best to pass them. The owner is aware of me. She has looked back at me and can hear me coming. She knows I will be passing her and her little collection of doggies. Another 2 runners come from the opposite direction and pass the dogs with no problem. Not one of them pays the runners any attention. I am thinking this is good for me and they will be like all the other dogs I have encountered in the park. 

So I am getting closer and getting ready to pass the dogs. I have moved myself to the far left of the trail to get as from away from them as possible. As I am passing the little white dog looks at me and jumps out towards my legs/feet, thus pulling the owner and the big black/brown dog towards me on the left of the trail. I react by skipping more to the left to avoid being tripped by the white dog when all of a sudden the big black/brown dog jumps over little white dog and next thing I feel is a paw on my right shoulder and a pain on my tricep.

The owner of these dogs manages to pull her dogs off of me and says she is sorry and asks if I am ok. The way she reacted was NOT one of "Oh My Gosh My Dogs Are All Over You And One Just Bit You Are You OK?". She was so nonchalant that it was like her dog had done something like this before. My reaction was to access my arm to make sure I wasn't bleeding, which I wasn't, and then to tell her "Yes I think I am ok, but your dog just bit me!" Her response was, as long as your ok!

Fortunately for me I was wearing a long sleeve shirt because it was a bit cold out at first. If I had decided to just wear my short sleeve shirt I believe the dog would have broken skin. When I got home and looked at my arm, you could see the place on my tricep and the place on my bicep where the dog had gotten me. The spots are pretty close together and that just tells me how big the dogs mouth was because it grabbed my arm from behind under the tricep. Right now I have 2 bruises that are very tender to show for the dogs loving affection for me. I'm suck a lucky girl!

Here's to another week of training!!!

18 Miles of Bliss?

Week 10 of marathon training has been complete, however it doesn't resemble exactly what was on my schedule. I was suppose to complete a total of 36 miles for the week with an 18 mile long run on Sunday. However, this past week my body had its own idea of what it was going to allow me to do. 

What I was suppose to do:

Monday: 3 miles, Cross-Train or Rest

Tuesday: 5 miles

Wednesday: 4 miles

Thursday: 6 miles

Friday: Rest

Saturday: Rest

Sunday: 18 miles

Total Mileage - 36

What I actually did:

Monday: Cross-Train (30 minutes on bike trainer)

Tuesday: 3 miles

Wednesday: 3 miles

Thursday: 4 miles

Friday: Rest

Saturday: Rest

Sunday: 18 miles

Total Mileage - 28

As you can see the mileage on Tuesday through Thursday didn't quite hit it's mark. Why? Well let's just say that a little lower back pain (S1 / Sciatica) on Tuesday reared it's ugly little head this week and the longer I ran the worse it got and started going down my right leg into my heel. I was really worried that I wouldn't get the 18 miles done on Sunday.

Well as it turned out, when Sunday came I got down to business and completed the run.

I didn't realize until today that I could include the elevation chart with the map from Daily Mile. It's pretty cool because you can see that from the start of my run the elevation begins at 300 feet and climbs close to 650 feet through Mile 2. I wasn't kidding when I said the first 2 to 3 miles were one serious hill climb. And let me just say that I love that beautiful decline in elevation from mile 3 to just past the 4th mile mark. My legs love this part of the recovery and I end up feeling strong into miles 5 and 6. Besides the first 3 miles the next hill I dread is at mile 11. It's one serious steady climb from around 225 feet to just over 400-450 feet. The past few weeks I have been able to run this hill without any grumbling or profanities escaping my mouth. Very proud of myself for that!

My splits show what kind of pace I was running. I keep having to tell myself that this is trail running so my pace it going to be slower than if I was on pavement.

So how was the pain? When I first started running I felt a twinge in my lower back and thought there was no way I was going to be able to complete the full 18 miles. However, within a few minutes the pain subsided and I was given some hope. 

I clocked the first 6 miles and hit the car for more hydration/potty break feeling pretty good. Clocked the next 6 miles and hit the car again for another round of hydration/another potty break (seriously need to re-evaluate my nutrition). Said hello to my honey and told him that I felt good, a bit tired and was feeling some lower back pain which intensified during the mile 11 climb. I was originally hoping to turn this 18 miles into a 20 mile run because I really want to be able to get a 22 mile run in before the marathon. So we decided that I was going to run the next 6 miles around the lake, which is relatively easy, and re-access the situation.

All motivated I went back out to finish my challenge. Mile 13 wasn't too bad. Mile 14 the pain in my back was saying hello. Mile 15 it was getting worse and I knew I would be lucky to get the 18 done, totally forgetting about 20. Mile 16 I was telling myself "Failure Is Not An Option." Mile 17 I was saying, "Run Fat Boy Run" (love that movie). Mile 18 the pain was pounding my back down my right leg to my heel. I was questioning how I would get to 26.2 on race day if I could barely eek out 18 with the pain. (Not to self: You can never ask those questions prior to and during a long run. You are not thinking clearly.) I clicked my Garmin for mile 18 in the parking lot next to the car. I immediately told my honey that I was done and I couldn't go for another 2 miles. I could barely bend over my back was so stiff. I spent a lot of time in the parking lot stretching and loosening things back up and as soon as I got home I started ice pack therapy on my back.

When all is said and done, I hit my goal of 18 miles. That's all my schedule was asking of me. I may not have hit the total miles for the week, and my long run may have suffered from it, but I did it. I will have to decide in a couple of weeks about the 22 mile run. Until then, I am working on icing, stretching and strengthening exercises in hopes of fixing this little problem. 

I am not sure how much, if at all, I will have to alter my training this week. I am taking today as a rest from running and may ride the bike trainer for 30 minutes after work just to shake my legs out. I am not in any major pain today. My lower back this morning was throbbing and stiff, but the discomfort is gone now. Tomorrow I will run on the track and see how it goes. Right now, I am hoping things will go well this week in the land of marathon training.

Fitness 4 Mile Race Recap

This past Saturday marked my return to racing in over a year! Ever since I started my marathon training, and it going so well, I have been itching to get back to racing. I had been on the fence all last week about whether or not I wanted to interrupt my harmonious training with a race the day before a long run. I even put it out there on Facebook about me being on the fence knowing that I would get some positive feedback in encouraging me to do it. On Friday I made up my mind and to make it concrete I asked a very dear friend of mine if she wanted to do brunch in the city so there was no backing out the morning of the race.

Let me tell you, it felt awesome being back out amongst the racing crowd. I forgot just how much I loved the atmosphere and being amongst others who love running as much as I do. I ended up going to this race without any support. My honey had planned on a long bike ride that morning and I didn't have the heart to ask my dear friend if she wanted to come cheer me on. Call me silly or stubborn, but something that was said to me in the past prevents me from asking any of my friends to come out with me anymore. I don't want to feel like they have to come out and support me because I asked them to. I want them to be there because they want to be there. So if a friend asks me if they can come and cheer me on I don't hesitate to say "Heck Yes!"

So how was I going to approach this race? I honestly didn't know how I was going to handle running the race since I knew I had a 10 mile run the next morning. On one hand my heart wanted to see what I was made of and on the other hand my heart was telling me to take it easy because technically this race was a training run the day before a long run on hilly trails. My heart didn't make up it's mind until I was standing in the corral and the race horn blared. When I clicked my Garmin as I crossed the start line me heart said "Let's see what you can do!"

This is what the course looked like:

Mile 1 has an uphill that is called Cat Hill. As you are running up the hill and you look up the stone wall on your left you see this:

Many people dread this hill. I use to be one of them. After all my training on the trails with major hills, the hills in Central Park are not so bad.  I attacked this hill with a new outlook on hills and was able to charge up it without any problems.

Mile 2 provides a nice recovery from the hill we just climbed. There is downhill, a minor hill climb and flat road in this mile.

As you turned left onto the west side of the park, you are faced with an uphill. Mile 3 consists of 3 hills. In the past this part of the park use to be "Oh My Goodness Kill Me Now" part. Now it was "Bring It On." I actually enjoyed this challenge because it showed me how far I have come with my running just this year, or I should say just the past 2 months. With each footstep I felt strong and to my amazement I was passing other runners.

Coming off of mile 3 there is a nice downhill portion bringing you closer to the 4 mile mark. Unfortunately to get to the finish line there is a slight uphill climb. I managed to get my sprint on at the end and finished in 39:31! Believe you me I was SURPRISED! I was THRILLED! I was HAPPY! I proved to myself that I am a strong and my hard work is paying off.

Here's my Splits from my Garmin:

My pace from miles 1 and 3 reflect the hills and overall my pace was phenomenal through the entire race. I haven't run 9:30's in like forever!

Here's my official stats from NYRR:

It's kinda hard to see the F41. This is my first time racing in a new age group. Not that I am ever going to place within my age group, but it's still hard because I have mixed feelings about being in my 40's. Anyhoo, my place within the age group is not too shabby. I placed 179 out of a total of 336 which puts me in the top 50%.

Overall I am thrilled with my performance and look forward to getting back on the race course again!

Of course, no race experience is ever complete without a post-race meal! After I crossed the finish line and picked up my bag, I immediately texted my dear friend that I was on my way to our meeting point. We made a pit stop at my local running store where I dashed in to pick up a new pair of running shoes (yes I believe I mentioned I bought a new pair about 3 weeks ago, another story for another post). Then we were off to Almond for brunch.

Let me tell you it was the perfect place! It's located on 22nd Street between Broadway and Park Avenue and if you live in NYC I highly recommend checking it out sometime.  I had never been there before and I will definitely be going back. It was a super adorable restaurant. The staff was attentive and friendly. The food was to die for. I wish I had remembered to take some pictures to share, but unfortunately in my state I forgot to whip the camera out that I had with me.

We started out with a basket (or two) of mini biscuits which were perfect. I think I would have been happy just having several baskets of these as my meal. Since I could not, I chose to order the Ricotta Pancakes served with Lemon Curd. OH MY GOSH! These babies melted in your mouth. I thought I died and went to pancake heaven! My mouth is watering just thinking about them.

Running a race, catching up with my friend and sharing a delicious meal was a perfect way to spend my Saturday morning!

Week 8 Training Recap

I have officially hit the halfway mark in my NYC Marathon training! This past week was a monumental week for running. The total miles logged this week jumped from 28 to 34 miles with a long run of 16 miles. I wasn't sure how it was going to go, but I can tell you that it went fantastic! According to Daily Mile I had an Impressive week of training. They show me at a total of 36 miles, but that's because it includes all my cool down walks after running whatever distance I need to hit each day and they also round to the nearest mile.

Despite the really humid weather during the past week, I did get out at 5:30am every morning (with the exception of Monday) and logged my miles.

Monday: 3 miles - Since it was Labor Day I chose to ignore the alarm clock and went for my run around 11am. Call me crazy because it was a HOT, HUMID day.

Tuesday: 4 miles - I ran 2 miles and then did 2 miles of Intervals.

Wednesday: Rest - thank you very much!

Thursday: 5 miles - Not a great run. Just decent. My legs were tired.

Friday: 6 miles - This was not an easy run. My legs were still not having it plus I think the humidity didn't help. The important thing was that I didn't give up and got the mileage done.

Saturday: Rest

Sunday: 16 miles - I was fearing this run all week long. I knew how I bonked, mentally and physically, towards the end of my 14 miler a couple weeks earlier and I was afraid it was going to happen again. As you can see from the map...

...I got it done! Everything for this run was spot on and clicked. I broke the run into 3 segments so I could mentally handle it. I knocked out 6 miles and then switched out my hydration bottles. I knocked out the next 6 miles and switched out my hydration bottles. I knocked out the last 4 miles and went back to the car with a big smile on my face. My honey told me that I looked so much better after this run than with the 14 miler. I felt great!

I have reviewed over and over what I did for this run that helped me get to the finish. It's a combination of nutrition, hydration, mental strategy and approach on how I would pace myself. As I have said before, this long run course is not easy. It is full of hills and part of it can be very challenging on tired legs. While many wouldn't agree on putting these kind of hills in with a long run, for me it is paying off. This run showed me just how much stronger I have gotten and I know it will help me cross the marathon finish line in November.

*Side Note: The Rockefeller State Park Preserve is the stomping ground for many people who are training for various marathons. Every Sunday the parking lot is packed with cars and groups of runners talking about whatever long distance they have to cover. The last 2 weeks there have even been buses filled with runners coming out for a training run. Evidently I am not the only one who thinks these beautiful hilly trails are a great place for a long run!

Week 7 Training Recap

I hope everyone enjoyed the Labor Day holiday weekend! I didn't have anything special planned for the long weekend except to start feeling better and get my long run done on Sunday.  I am happy to report that as of Friday, my antibiotics finally kicked in and I truly started to feel better. The best I felt in weeks! I am amazed at just how bad I was feeling during the past three weeks and still managed to get all of my marathon training done. This year I told myself  "No Excuses" and I certainly plugged along during the past few weeks despite the nasty sinus infection. I am committed to making it to the starting line on November 4th.

It's hard to believe that the summer is over and I have been training for 7 weeks. The summer has flown by and I can only imagine just how fast the next 9 weeks will be. Anyway, Week 7 of training ended on Sunday and I have now entered the week where my total mileage will jump up an additional 6 mile. Usually it's just 2 mile increases, but this one is a big one and it frightens me just a tad because my long run this Sunday will be 16 miles. But alas, Sunday is still a few days away. I will continue to focus on one day at a time and will deal with Sunday when it comes.

So how did this past week go? Not too bad. I hooked myself up with Daily Mile the other week. I am finding its a great place to connect with other like minded individuals when it comes to running, cycling, etc. I can easily synch my runs from my Garmin to the site. What I also love is that you can easily see your exercise recap for the week. See your total mileage was for the week and a break out for each day. Total time spent exercising and calories burned. This is what mine looked like for last week:

Monday: 3 mile recovery run that I ended up doing at the gym during lunch. I was tired in the morning (ya know from that 14 miler on Sunday) and wanted a couple more hours sleep. This run was easy and done at a 10:40 pace.

Tuesday: 4 mile run at Astoria Park Track. Wasn't too bad even though I did it in the down pouring rain! I did an easy 1 mile warm-up, 2 miles of sprints and 1 mile recovery. Legs were dead after I was done. Also took myself to the doctor and got my antibiotics to treat a sinus infection. Yay!

Wednesday: Rest Day

Thursday: 5 mile run at Astoria Park Track. I struggled a bit with this run. My calves were aching (despite rocking the compression sleeves) for the first 3 miles and this was my first outside run wearing my new running shoes. I changed up the brand of shoes I had been wearing because I was dealing with some issues and these ones were to fix them. By the end of my run I was hating them! I vowed to give them 2 weeks and if I still hated them I was going to buy different one that I had tried on that was better than the original pair I was running in but not as perfect as this pair.

Friday: 6 mile run at Astoria Park Track. Can I say that this run was BEAUTIFUL! In 7 weeks this was the first run that just felt great. No aches. No pains. Everything clicked. I even fell in love with my new running shoes. I started this run with a 10:50 pace and with each passing mile I picked up speed. Mile 6 was done at a 10:13 pace. I was super happy! Think my meds finally kicked in by this day.

Saturday: Rest Day

Sunday: 10 mile Long Run at Rockefeller State Park Preserve. I showed you what my 14 miler looked like last week. Here is my 10 miler:

 

I used the map from Daily Mile so I could show you each mile mark so you get an idea of the direction I took. My Garmin map is nice but it won't show all the mile marks for my longer runs. 

Mile marks 1 and 2 have some serious hills. Let me just note that no matter where you run in this park you will encounter hills. Some are gentle as others are intense. So these first 2 miles have the most intense hills of my course. But what is nice about a big hill is that there is always a nice downhill. Miles 3 to 4 is where I recover from the first 2 hills. By the time I hit Swan Lake after mile 4 my legs are feeling pretty good and my pace picks up to a sub 11:00. After mile 5 I encounter another hill. It's a moderate hill that is out in the open from the tree cover and it is a long climb. Mile 6 is the beginning of a downhill recovery. I will loop back up around and then head over to another part of the part. Right after mile 7 I begin another long hill climb. It's not terrible in grade. Just long. A little bit after mile 8 I hit a nice down hill and the course flattens back out some with minor climbs to mile 9. About mile 9.5 you start another long climb back up to mile 10. Again it's not terrible but on tired legs it can feel like torture. For this run I hit my 10 mile mark right before I turned out of this portion of the park. I was thankful because the trek back up to where the parking lot is, is one serious long hill. This hill kicked my butt the last time I HAD to run up it. Unfortunately next week I will be running up it and then have to run another 4 miles after, but that's ok. I am working on my re-hydration plan for that day and know I will have to go by the car after that hill to refuel so I will take a moment to get what I need and recover and then take off to conquer the 16 miles.

So that's my Week 7 training in a nutshell!

What Does 14 Miles Look Like?

Sunday was a big moment of truth day for me and my marathon training. It was a day of, "Will I successfully run 14 miles?" This is something that I had been thinking about all week long leading up until Sunday morning. To top it all off, I hadn't been feeling all that well and going into Saturday evening I had a sore throat, earache and a low grade fever. Nothing that a good 14 mile run on Sunday wouldn't cure, right? Well let it be known that when the alarm clock went off at 5:30am, my fever, soar throat and stabbing ear pain had subsided to the point where I could attempt the run. Was I 100%? No, but I wasn't debilitated enough to where I should sacrifice my long run. With marathon training, the long run is the most crucial run of the week.

All my long runs this year are taking place at the beautiful Rockefeller State Park Preserve which is about 45 minutes north from me up in Sleepy Hollow/Pleasantville, NY. This park provides over 1,400 acres of playland for runners, walkers and horseback riders. Absolutely no bike riding allowed. The trails are well maintained and provide a wide variety of inclines from easy to steep. During my runs I have encountered a lot of wildlife including rabbits, chipmunks, ducks, deer, turkeys and an osprey. The majority of the trails are under tree cover so you aren't running directly in the sun all the time. Often you are running alone, despite the fact that there are a ton of cars in the parking lot. It is truly a beautiful and refreshing place to run!

So what does a 14 mile run look like? It look a lot like this...

I run with a Garmin watch and I love that I can download all my running data onto the computer to analyze and keep track of my stats. One nice aspect of the data is that you get a nice map of your run. This picture only captures a fraction of the trails at the park. Of course my route is in red and in a few spots I run them over again, whether to get another hill in or a little bit of a recovery before I move on to a tougher spot.

The last time I ran 14 miles was back in 2006 when I was training for the marathon the first time. I ran 12 miles two weeks ago and prior to that run I hadn't run that distance since 2009. During the 12 mile run, I felt really good up until mile 11 and then mile 12 I was faced with a long, steady hill to the finish. That was the longest mile EVER, but I finished it. 

So going into the 14 miler, I was nervous. I knew that I could do it. It was just actually doing it that scared me. So how did it go? The first 10 miles was good. I was running a bit slower than normal, but I didn't feel horrible. I had four miles to complete so I chose to rerun a path that I normally do at the beginning of my trails runs called David's Loop. On my way running toward mile 11 on this path was my road to almost disaster. 

See David's Loop is one serious hill. The incline is something else and I have conditioned myself to handle it well on fresh legs. Now I was attempting it on legs that had been running for just over 2 hours. Half way up the hill I got very tired, my heart rate spiked even though I was going much slower and I thought I was going to be sick. To get through it I just told myself that the downhill for recovery was almost there. Once I got past this obstacle, things would be better. Once I hit the downhill things got a little better. My heart rate went back to normal and I didn't feel like I was going to vomit as badly as I felt going up the hill. My legs were very tired and my mind started playing games with me. I have felt this mind game before. I knew it before I ever saw it on my run. I knew I was stronger than my mind telling me to quit. I knew I just had to keep going.

As I was running down toward Swan Lake, I hit mile 12. I was excited to be hitting the path around Swan Lake because I knew it was relatively flat and  I would be able to recover and finish the 14 miles. So as I am running I all of a sudden feel like this...

I am fighting my mind that wants to give me an emotional break down.  It wants me to call it a day. I am struggling at this point. I hit mile 12.5. I am still fighting with my mind. It's tell me I am done. I hit mile 12.75. My legs are carrying me back to the car. I hit mile 12.79. I am leaning against the car window with my head hanging on the edge and tears in my eyes. My wonderful boyfriend looks out at me and says it's ok. He helps me regain my composure and tells me that I got this. We check to make sure I have enough hydration in my bottles to finish that blasted last 1.10 miles. Just one more loop around the lake and then I am done. I got it.

I did finish my 14 mile run. It was very emotional for me. Sunday, I proved to myself that I could do it. The next time I have to run I will be that much stronger. I have pushed my threshold level up a notch. My boyfriend is such a rock. He gave me the support I desperately needed. I am so lucky to have him on my team. I thank him with all my heart.

5 Weeks Done

It’s truly hard to believe that I have completed 5 weeks of my marathon training. I am currently halfway through Week 6. I have a relatively easy 5 mile run Thursday morning and then 2 days of rest until my long run on Sunday. This week my long run jumps up to 14 miles! When was the last time I ran 14 miles? Well let’s see. In September 2009 I ran the Philly Half Marathon (which is 13.1 miles for all you non-runners out there). Hmmm. The last time I ran 14 miles was in 2006 when I was training for the NYC Marathon that year! I was truly amazed when I thought about how long it's been.

I would be wrong if I said that I wasn’t nervous about attempting those 14 miles this weekend. ‘Cause I am. I know what my body has been capable of in the past, but it’s been 6 long years since I last ran that distance. My body has so changed in the past 6 years. I am at a heavier weight now (even though I am now down 13 pounds since May!), my legs seem to have developed aches and pains that once never bothered me and I am now 41, not the spry 35 year old anymore that felt invincible.

So how will I approach Sunday’s run? With a positive mental attitude. Two weeks ago I ran 12 miles for the first time in 3 years. I felt awesome up through mile 11. That twelfth mile kicked my butt (it was all uphill and I swore the whole time running up it), but I finished. Will I struggle with the 14 miles on Sunday? Most definitely a yes. Will I be prepared the best that I can be? Yes. Will I give up? Most definitely a no.