I’d been doing pretty well sticking to it up through the end
of March. It was around then, though, that I realized my April and May goals
were a bit ridiculous for somebody responsible for getting students through EOCTs,
AP Exams, and Finals. So, I scaled back my training plan for April to be approximately
40% more miles than my March plan instead of the nearly double I’d so
optimistically set out for myself back in January.
Then, it rained. And the wind gusted. I don’t like rain. I
mean, I’m made of sugar, spice, and everything nice, right? Well, those are all
water soluble, and I’m not really ready to melt. And even though being short
provides me with a fairly low center of gravity, I’m still really clumsy and
don’t need mud and wind helping me fall all over myself.
So, once again, I am slacking on the running. Which means I
started running longer distances on the nicer days to catch back up with my
plan. Which usually meant going somewhere flat (aka not my neighborhood) to
make said distances possible.
Galloway’s training plan has runners running longer runs
every other weekend, increasing by one or two miles at a time. On the
alternating weekends, you do a magic mile setup to see how your speed and
strength have improved.
Up to this point, my longest
ever run was 9.54 miles and that had been right on schedule. My last two magic
miles were 12:18 and 10:49, so there’d been improvement.
This is when I found out about
the virtual race “I Run with Boston”. The idea was to help Boston runners
fundraise for their charity while giving an average person the opportunity to
show support for the marathon runners and earn themselves a nice shiny medal.
So, I convinced myself that I
would sign up to do half the distance everybody is running today during the
Boston Marathon. Just to be clear…. That’s a half marathon. You know, the thing
I’ve been training for? The distance my training plan didn’t have scheduled for
another month? Yeah…. that one.
So, instead of doing the 11
miles I was scheduled to do this past Saturday, I suited up and headed out to a
new route to run a half marathon. I was rosy cheeked and starry eyed about just
how well I was going to do. Even the drizzle wasn’t going to get me down! Boy,
am I funny.
Here’s a hint for the
fledgling runners out there… don’t try to complete a new distance on a new
route. I mean, what kind of idiot would think that’s a good idea? Oh wait. That
was me. I am such a dumb-dumb.
It turns out that the jogging
path at Bogan Park is entirely hills. Not a flat stretch in the whole thing.
After the first lap, I was already regretting my decision. I had to do 8.5 more
laps of this thing??? After the second lap, I knew it wasn’t going to happen.
So, I bailed.
No… not back to my car. Though
I’ll admit that I thought about it. Instead, I jogged over to the area with the
baseball fields, and I started jogging around the concession stand. Again. And
again. And again. I think I jogged that path somewhere between 25 and 30 times.
But at least it was basically flat!
Can you tell where I bailed on the hills?
A little after mile 6, I
paused RunKeeper to refill my water bottles and blow my nose. (All runners know
that noses get inspired to run, too.) At this point, I started justifying that
I’d run a 10K. That’s pretty good, right? But, I’d signed up for a half
marathon. 13.1 miles. I wasn’t even halfway there yet, and I was going to give
up? Okay, fine. Maybe a couple more miles…
The
following tangent is brought to you by my stomach.
An
Ode to Sport Beans
Oh,
Jelly Belly, how I love thee
To
give sugar, vitamins, and caffeine to me
Is
just so sweet, how can it be
That
you make me forget the pain in my knee?
Now, back to my story. I had
already reduced my run-walk interval from 2.5-1 minutes down to 2-1. My pace
had slowed considerably, so I figured this was the only way to keep going the
rest of the distance. I’d also downed my first pack of Sport Beans by this
point. I pulled out my second pack of Sport Beans, and I completely zoned for
about 2 or 3 miles. It was like I was back in Biology class in 9th
grade, and it was blissful ignorance for a while.
My mind clicked back on when
RunKeeper told me I’d hit the 10 mile mark. Only a 5K to go… I started counting
down the miles that were left and calculating how many more laps it would take
before I could jog back up the hill to my car.
I finally made it! My body
hurt. I was tired. I needed another snack. But I was done.
When I got home, I enjoyed a
nice soak in my wonderful bathtub (an ode to which is forthcoming, I’m sure).
Then my wonderful hubby brought me out to buy me some compression socks (which
also deserve an ode or a sonnet or something).
Then, the most amazing thing happened.
I got to celebrate finishing 13.1 miles with steak and a sangria. Nom nom nom.
Honestly, getting to eat good food at the end of a running day makes it worth
it every single time!
So, even though I couldn't
walk very well on Sunday morning, I felt pretty accomplished. Sure, it was
probably unwise to skip a month’s worth of training to get to this distance (and
I certainly won’t be doing that again), but at least now I know I can do it.
And now I can say I did my
first 13.1 miles on Boston Marathon weekend. That sounds pretty good.
Until next time….
KnitOneRunToo.
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