Love. Laugh. Live. Run.

Rock N Redemption? Not so much.

It had been a long 6 weeks since the Hard Corps Marathon and I was having mixed feelings coming into this one. During my back-to-back marathons, I was pretty active and running consistently. After pinching a nerve in my back at the HCM, I was being very conservative. I wanted to let my body rest so I took it very easy. I did one long run, 15 miles, in between and sprinkled in short runs when I had the time (enter Grad School and a new job to sabotage my schedule). Almost every run I did, no matter how short, ended with lots of back pain. I felt like someone was squishing me and nothing seemed to help my back un-kink itself. So on one hand, I was wary and knew that dropping out of the race was a real possibility. On the other hand, the cocky girl who ran 3 in 56 days with minimal pain thought I could pull something great out of my ass!! You see where this is going, right?

Expo
I met up with Christin and her family, in from Germany, on Friday afternoon. (Sidenote: Her Dad has been talking about this race since last June when I visited them in Germany. He signed Christin up, but she's knocked up and had to pull out.) The Expo was huge, tons of stuff to buy, gear to check out, and people to meet, but it was so crowded! I love expos, but even I had to get out of there, it was too crowded. And, this was the worst goodie-bag ever! There was nothing in it!

Last Supper
Saturday night I went to my first Maniac Meet-up at an Italian restaurant in Hillcrest. It was so much fun! Tons of great people all talking running and marathons! It was bliss! The food was authentic Italian and delicious! I stuck with my protein dinner and just had roasted chicken and veggies.
Race Day
I was up at 4:30 getting ready for the race. For some reason, my pre-race Oatmeal tasted like crap so after a few spoonfuls I threw it away and had a few pieces of bread. We had planned to take the motorcycle to the Start Line to avoid traffic, but the bike was dead. We hopped in the truck and tried to haul ass. On the way there, we ran over a bunny. I was sufficiently freaked out at this point and decided to just go with the flow. The morning was a mess so I made up my mind to just relax and take whatever comes my way. Shit happens, deal with it. At least I had a sweet outfit!


Beau got me as close as he could to the Start so I had to walk about 6 blocks uphill to get there. I found Christin and her Dad and we started in Corral 13. It was 6AM and it was warm enough to take my sweater off. What?! This can't be good either.

I zoned out for the first half of the race. No panicking. No mental math to compute my finish time. No chasing down pace groups. Just running, how refreshing! I was going fairly fast, but I started taking walking breaks when we hit mile 8 and some hills. I felt good coming into the half way point, even though I had been doing more walking than I planned. The 4:15 pace group finally caught me and I was pleasantly surprised to know I was ahead of them.

Around mile 14, I realized that the sun was out, there was no shade, and it was HOT. I was craving ice cold water (which isn't normal for me) and I knew the rest of the run was going to be a struggle. I came into Mission Bay and tried to run as much as I could. I knew that I had a few miles before I was on Fiesta Island and that I would push all the way through that last hour. I ran into Christin and she had some encouraging words for me. It felt like an eternity trying to get to the Island, but I didn't know "eternity" until I got on the Island. I had planned on just powering through that last hour, but it wasn't going to happen. It was hot, dusty, and boring on that Island. It seemed to last forever! I would get into little grooves of running and then I'd come out of it and need to walk. I finally got some consistency at mile 24 and promised myself the world if I could just keep it to the finish line. Coming back into Mission Bay and into Sea world, you couldn't see the Finish Line. I hate that. I just kept turning corners, but it never came into sight until the last 100 meters. I crossed the line at 4:47.

All in all, it was an uneventful race. I had a great attitude going into this and expected the very worst and very best. I'm not a fan of the course or the Rock N Roll organization so I don't think I'll be repeating this one or any of their other races. For #4 this year, I held up well. I'm giving myself an entire month off of running and probably won't do another Marathon until the Fall. I really want to tune up and get back to being faster, I do not want to see anything slower than 4:30 anymore. No more slow marathons, no more walking! I guess I'll have to wait a few more months for redemption, but that's okay. Until then, I'm going to sit on my ass for a few more weeks and be lazy! You should try it, it's kinda fun!

So I kinda have a job.

I say "kinda" because it's a temporary gig. Full-time and good pay, which is nice, but the hours are a bit insane. The office is practically 24 hours and my shift is 4am-12:30pm. Crazy, right? It's actually a great shift and I'm really enjoying these hours (I get to be early, stopped watching bad TV, home early enough for naps and errands). The biggest problem is that this shift covers peak running hours. Thankfully, I'm in taper mood, but still. I took a few days off because I was so exhausted adjusting to this schedule and had no extra energy to run. It also explains the lack of blogging: no running = no blogging. Gimme some time to adjust, I'll figure it out, I somehow always do.

I'm looking through a bunch of race calendars and trying to map out a Summer/Fall race schedule and my eyes can't help but stop over the word "marathon" every time I come across it. I'm going to have to walk away from my computer after this post because I'm about to hit the "Register" button for the San Francisco Marathon on July 25!?!

I'm really ridiculous, but I know I'm in good company. Runners are an odd bunch. One minute you hate running and wonder why you inflict pain on yourself and the next minute you're planning outfits and weekend trips for another race! How quickly we forget that pain! After that 15-miler last week, I was thoroughly content with 5Ks and 10Ks in my near future. I was giddy even. The other night, as I sat around with friends at a BBQ, I kept thinking about waking up early and going on a long run! Hello? Where you not just here for that 15-miler that almost killed you? So of course, I swear off marathons for a few months and I can't help but think about them and how "fun" they are. HA! I really am a MANIAC!

BTW, I considered running a small marathon this weekend for my 20-mile training run. Yup, a marathon TO TRAIN FOR MY MARATHON!!! Where do I come up with this???

So I've had 3 long runs since the last marathon and I can sum them up in one word: SLOW! It's taking me about 40-60 minutes to wake up/warm up and find my stride. It's still pretty rough after the first few miles, but I can zone out and get through it. My pace hasn't seen much change, my legs know what they're doing even if they're sore (good 'ol muscle memory). Unfortunately, the rest of me is just being dragged along. At first, I thought it was Baby Shower Hangover, then I speculated that it was related to woman problems, now I've come to the best, and most logical, conclusion that it's overtraining. Plain and simple, my body is exhausted. I'm going to have to cut back on some of this training for San Diego. Perhaps San Diego will have to be a fun run. That's a little depressing, but hey, calling a marathon a "fun run" is still an accomplishment.

This morning I set out for 15 miles and it wasn't pretty. I walked A LOT the first 7 miles, but finished the last half well. As I was dreading every moment out there, I was contemplating my racing calendar. I don't have anything planned after San Diego on June 6. I've been looking into Fall marathons purely to keep me in shape all summer long (if I have to have a baby soon, I might as well enjoy being in a bikini for the last time!) but another marathon will not do this body any good. And then it dawned on me - why don't I work on my short distance? How about some 5Ks and 10Ks?? A half marathon?? Let's talk about all the pros:

• the obvious, they're shorter!!
  
• much cheaper than marathons so I can race more
• it'll get me to do the track workouts I've been putting off for months, not to mention more Crossfit
  
• since Hubby is still recovering and doing minimal running, he can probably train/race with me in the Fall
• it's really heating up and I do not enjoy 3+hours in the sun (I enjoy the tanning part, but I prefer to tan by the pool now)
• I can enlist more people to race with me because most of my friends can run at least a few miles
• getting faster at shorter distances will help me get faster at longer distances - or at least that's what I'm telling myself

I refuse to think of any "cons" right now because I'm in love with this plan right now. I'm going to start looking up races to keep me busy. I'm taking June off completely - cold turkey, it'll be tough! So expect to see my race calendar expand in the next few weeks as I switch gears to short distances. This slowpoke is going to transform into a....something really fast!!