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Snickers 2013...a marathon??

For years I have said I am a runner, but not a marathoner.  I love running.  It is part of my very being, but marathons?  Not me!  I ran one 13 years ago, The Flying Pig Marathon, in Cincinnati, OH - and vowed to not revisit that again.  It was painful, I was injured, and mile 20-26.2, the "final 10K" felt more like a death march, weaving side to side, slowing from a 7 min/mile pace to a 9:45 min/mile pace.  It wasn't pretty.  I went into it injured after training with a coach who had me running 60-70 mile/weeks, did not know the first thing about nutrition, taking only half a Gu the entire race, and barely drinking water (my silly fear was that I was going to have to stop to use the port-a-potty, forget dehydration and bonking!), and as a result, didn't run for almost 2 months following that day.

Fast forward 13 years to now.  I signed up for the Snickers Marathon in Albany, GA last fall after peer pressure got the better of me.  It wasn't really the peer pressure of this particular race, it was more because I was getting tired of correcting and trying to explain to people when they asked me about my marathons, that I run but don't "do" marathons (I find the same questions in triathlon and sometimes want to scream... Not all running races are marathons and not all triathlons are Ironmans - sorry, soap box).  Just because you don't run marathons does not mean you are not a real runner - just saying...  The network, HLN (Headline News) came to our house in December to do a piece on our family, living with Angelman Syndrome, and the birth of our Miles for Smiles team.  The producer spent all day at our house, getting to know us.  Even after talking about everything from my initial fundraising goal of taking on a 1/2 Ironman at Augusta in 2011 to the Ironman 70.3 World Championships last fall, to running a 5K PR of 17:10 in Chicago while there for the F.A.S.T. Gala just weeks before the interview, I got multiple follow-up e-mails asking for me to send her pictures from my marathons!  As of now, the piece has not aired, and while I hope it helps spread awareness to Angelman Syndrome and opens doors to funding sources for research down the road, I am fearful as to what it is really about.  Staged "reality" tv at its finest!

Okay, another reason to run a marathon, and perhaps it is one I shouldn't write about, but since only curious people read my blog and are learning this blog is about honest thoughts, not sugar coated and politically correct, here it is.  I signed up to run the marathon to stop the whispering.  Yes, there are people (women specifically - women can be so caddy it drives me crazy!), who run marathon after marathon, all for decent times, qualifying for Boston (I don't even know what the qualifying time is for Boston, but I have confidence enough to know if I run a marathon, I should be able to qualify), and secretly hope that I will fail at this distance. 

So here it goes, training for my 1st marathon, the 2nd time around.  I am incredibly thankful to have an amazing group of guys to run my long runs with in the dead of winter, before dawn, on Sunday mornings.  I actually go to bed Saturday night, tickled with anticipation of the long run, unable to sleep (or maybe it is worrying that if I oversleep, I will never hear the end of it from them!)  God love those guys!  They are the best!

I am going into it injured - that hip is still mad at me and is now letting the pain tighten up the lower back, so my running is on the wayy low mileage end of marathon training, only 30-40 miles/week.  I am trying to swim once/week, but the back tightens up, so yoga or pilates class it is for me, a day or two off/week, and lots of stretching.  All I really want to do with this marathon is, besides finishing, beat my former time, my old self, of 3:12.  Quality, not quantity.  Hopefully this approach will work. I guess only time, and that final 10K, will tell...

Comments

  1. Good luck, girl! I'm struggling with some aches and pains here and there and I can sympathize.

    ReplyDelete

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