Grand Rapids Marathon 2009

Cheri & I after the race

The morning of the marathon, I woke early.  I drank some coffee and continued deliberating in my mind what pace team I was going to try to stick with.  The pace teams are separated by celebrities marathon race times.  If you’re only doing the half marathon, you can divide it in half to see your ending time.  I was stuck between Will Ferrel’s time and P. Diddy. 

Honest sweat

Since July, I’ve been training again for my half marathon in October.  I gave myself 3 more weeks of training this year to make it a solid 13weeks.  My friends, Cheri & Megan, agreed to do the race together just like we had last year.  After consulting our schedules, we decided we’d have to train separately during the week and do our long runs together on the weekends.

In the beginning, it wasn’t so bad.  I learned the joy of running by myself.  Quiet time to think and release the tension of the day.  Smelling the

Getting my groove back

I can’t believe it’s really been 2wks since my last post.  How does it go by so fast?  Life is so busy.  I like it that way but sometimes, it’s nice to have a moment to breathe.  I feel like we tend to pack our lives full of obligations that we have to do and forget to take time to do the things we want to do.  We forget to play games with our kids, take a walk or spend time talking to our husband.  Exercise and taking care of ourselves takes a backseat until we stop to ask ourselves where the time has gone and how we ended up here?

I’ve fallen off the wagon.  I feel like I haven’t run in forever.  If I tried to run, I think it might hurt and I’ll be starting at zero again.  Such a loss considering what I had accomplished 7months ago and where my training had brought me back to a couple months ago.  But life will happen whether you plan for it or not and my failure to plan working out has left me feeling like a slug.

Luckily,

Run On

About a month ago, I registered for my next long distance run, The 5/3 Riverbank Run.  This one would be a 25k (15 miles) and would take place in May.  It’s a huge race here and I had heard great things about the energy and participation.  I was excited to train for a race and execute it without injuries this time.  How well could I do if I was able to train without an injury every month and a tiny bit of experience behind me?

I started training about 2 weeks ago.  An actual training schedule for a 25k  is harder to locate than you’d think so I just decided to go with the half marathon schedule but add in a couple weeks.  I figured out what days and times I’d be able to get my run in before the extra kids come or after and wrapped my brain around training for this thing almost entirely on a treadmill!  Big difference to me.

Then last Wednesday, I took Emma to register for her spring session of cheerleading.  I asked the coach if she knew their regional competition date and she gave me the sheet with all the dates.  Awesome…

~Racing Day~ During

(Megan’s girls) Makayla & Savannah, Emma & Gerrit

Course Map 

The starting buzzer must have gone off but we couldn’t hear it from as far back as we were.  People started walking, waiting for their turn to cross the starting line.  I could hear Eye of the Tiger playing loudly over the speakers.  I gave Megan a high five and about 10 feet before the line, people started jogging.  Here was the moment I had been working so hard for.  I was about to get the answer to my question.  Would my ankle hold up?  I took a tentative step and another one.  The air was filled with the sound of high pitched beeps as the racing chips looped on our shoes signified we had crossed the starting line.  I giggled with glee as I said to Cheri “I’m running!”.  I couldn’t believe it.  My ankle felt good.  No pain.

There was so much to absorb as we left.  We were thick in a herd of runners and people were trying to find their pace.  Every available hole was filled with runners trying to get ahead.  I looked and saw Megan & Amy were about 10 ft in front of us but we couldn’t reach them through all the people.  Down one street and around a corner.  Cheri & I used the curve in the road as a way to sneak around some people.  We reached them and I asked Amy how her knee was feeling.  Good… how’s my ankle?  Good!  We’re doing it!  Amy told me we just passed the first mile marker and I couldn’t believe it.  The crowd was still so thick, it was hard to run our natural gait because you’d step on someones heel.

Mile 2 passed by and Amy commented that her knee was tight.  Not a good sign.  I reminded her that I had my phone if she needed it and she said she was fine.  We continued on.  My ankle was doing good.  It didn’t hurt but I could feel pressure.  Almost like it needed to pop or something.  It wasn’t hurting so I wasn’t going to stop. 

The 3rd mile took us off the roads and onto the trail.  It was a beautiful site.  The sun was rising and the field was golden, the sky was a brilliant blue and the leaves on the trees were showing us their gorgeous colors.  It was cold but it felt good now.  I looked over the field and saw the long line of runners that were ahead.  They filled the mile ahead of us and past where we could see, curving around.  It was amazing to see the sheer number of people ahead of us and I knew there were more behind us.  I was excited to go around the bend after mile 3.  The guys & kids were supposed to be waiting for us and I couldn’t wait to see them.

As we came upon the curve entering mile 4, Cheri & I laughed at the people already in line at the port a potties.  Wow! 

~Racing Day~ Pre-race

I can’t believe it.  Sunday was racing day.  The day that I had been waiting for and training for was finally here!  I had some major ankle issues a couple weeks before the race and even consulted a doctor because the swelling and pain would not leave.  He thought I had a stress fracture and told me not to run until the day of the race.  I looked at him with skepticism on my face but he assured me that he was speaking not only as a doctor but as a fellow runner.  He has run 2 marathons himself so I tried to believe him.  It was hard to not run but the pain in my ankle let me know that I definitely wasn’t going anywhere.  Everyone kept asking if I was going to risk it.  Would I run on racing day?  I told them I was running.  I didn’t know how far I was getting but I was running.

I couldn’t run the week before the race but I could carb load!  I researched different menu ideas and made my week long schedule of food to consume.  Trying to stay away from high fat foods but high in carbs.  I planned refried bean burritos with some beef in there, white chicken chili, pastas, lasagna and home made chicken noodle soup.  Taking an extra potato at dinner and just a small piece of meat… it was the strangest sensation.  I don’t try to stay away from carbs but I try to eat more protein daily than carbs and it was bizzaro to intentionally be eating mostly starches.  I can safely say I have never had that many carbs before in a week’s time.  By Saturday, I was daydreaming of a big fat Whopper.  Meat!  I want meat!

The morning of the race, I awoke at 5am.  I was fuzzy brained from sleep but pulled

I won’t give up that ghost

Another end to a tired week.  This crazy new life I have wears me out.  Not only have I added all this new responsibility of watching babies but I’ve started volunteering at least once a week if not twice at Emma’s school.  I feel like I have a full time job.  My new found stress reliever, running, has been sidelined by my body turning against me and so I start to feel overwhelmed.  Add in a dash of PMS and I’ve just given you the recipe to become Lord of the Ultra B’s.  Poor Dan has been great and trying to help.  I feel bad for how much he gets it taken out on him.

The week before last was a real challenge.  I was able to run the Monday after the Bridge run but when Wednesday came for me to run again, my right knee and ankle were wonky.  I still don’t know what I did to them but they were punishing me greatly for whatever it was.  I wish I did know so I don’t do it again!  But I don’t so the odds are great, I will.  10 days went by with me not able to run and everyday that ticked by, I could almost feel my muscles atrophying.  All the progress I had made in the last 6 weeks of training, flushed down the toilet.  It’s frustrating to say the least.  I’ve been trying to do core work with the exercise ball since I couldn’t do anything aerobic.  But since it’s a no impact regimen, it’s not really good training for a half marathon.

Thursday, I felt good enough to give it a go.  While my desire to run further was high, I knew if I didn’t want to become a gimp again, I needed to take it easy.  I ran a lazy 1.5 miles nice and slow.  I can’t believe how much it hurt though!  Geez, it was like starting all over again.  All the fun was gone.

Today is Saturday and as always, our big runs.  We are starting to taper in our training for the big race in 2 weeks so it only called for 9 miles.  Megan, Cheri & I made plans to meet at Megan’s and run the trail out by her.  It’s flat and would probably be best for my jumping back into the game.  I was happy I was able to go but apprehensive about re-injuringmyself.  Would I be able to run that far?  Would I put myself out of commission again if I did run that far?

Here’s the dilemma…

The Bridge Run aka Cheri & Chris Rock

Map course

While training for the half marathon, I stumbled across the Bridge Run (10mile race).  It fit right in line with our training schedule so my friend Cheri & I decided to give it a go.  Technically, we were supposed to run 11 miles this Saturday with our schedule but we figured that the added bonus of getting a race under our belts would offset that 1 mile difference. 

The night before the race, I was really  nervous.  It surprised me just how nervous I was!  My belly was full of butterflies and I was stressing out a little.  I tried to drink a lot of fluids that night to make sure I was hydrated and eat a very simple, easy on the tummy dinner.  From what I had read online “there is no such thing as constipation for a runner on race day” and I was not going to take any risks.  Yikes!

I woke up Saturday morning