This year, I completed my first ever half ironman (Lake Anna, in the beginning of September, in what was the MOST fun I've ever had racing, ever) and was thinking "ok! Time to start marathon training!" I had about a month and a half to get it into gear. My big hope for this season was to do the Sunmart 50k in December, with the MCM being a long training run for that. I cleaned my bike, put the bike shoes away, and got ready for weeks of running. Lo and behold, I checked out my training plan (developed by good friend of mine in the tri club) and was surprised to see almost as much biking as I had been doing in prep for the HIM. Hmmm. Oookay. This was probably a good thing, as I has sustained a slight injury to my shin during the HIM (not a shin split, not a stress fracture, just an annoying pain that would kick in after about 10-12 miles of running. And by 'annoying', I mean 'Ice pick to the middle of the shin bone'), but I can't say I was totally convinced. Anyway, I kept biking, did my "long" run of just over 16 miles, and had a total freak out. This wasn't going to work. I hobbled my way to the end of my long run, and knew I was out for the marathon. There was just no way. I didn't have enough time. It wasn't going to work.

I quickly got myself to a Chiro/ART doc (Dr. Kevin Rindal -- Tri Club member and overall awesome guy), who quickly deduced it was not a stress fracture, and thought he could work it out so I could get through the race and not be injured afterwards. The best part about walking into a doctor's office where the reading material in the waiting room is 'Runners World' and 'Triathlete Mag' is that you know they aren't going to tell you to bag the race and rest up. Kevin poked, prodded, adjusted and tapped me up, and it seemed that i was good to go. I had a bail out plan at mile 20, recognizing that if the 50k was going to happen, I might have to sacrifice this race.

Once I FINALLY got to the race (see above re sleeping in), my first impression is that I was tired. I saw a spectator drinking a coke around mile 2 and was very close to asking them if I could have it. I needed a cup of coffee, a red bull, something -- was very sluggish. I calmed myself by remembering that it takes me about 6-7 miles to warm up (Which is why I do marathons and not, say, 10ks :) ), and kept chugging along. Sure enough, mile 7 came and I was in a groove. I was doing 8:2 run/walk (run 8 minutes, walk 2), as this is my plan for the 50k and I wanted to check it out. Everything was going great. I felt good, it felt like an easy jog. Nutrition was spot on (eGels are the BEST) and life was awesome. Saw my friends Scott and Kami around mile 12, which was a welcome break. Yay for familiar faces! Around mile 16ish, I took a step and BAM -- ice pick to the shin. Shit. Ironically, this was directly next to a medical tent. I knew if I wanted to bail, this would be the best spot, because they could get me back to the finish and my dry goods bag w/o too much walking on my part. But I didn't want to bail. I was feeling good! I took a Tylenol that they were handing out, and chugged along. I was able to adjust my gait in such a way that the shin wasn't hurting. I'd forget every 30 steps or so and get a sharp reminder in my shin that I needed to adjust my gait yet again.

Hains Point went great. This had been a super low point for me the year before, when everything had started to shut down. But this year I barely noticed it. I was starting to get a bit tired, and I was worried about the shin, but mostly I was enjoying the day and thinking about the hours and hours I have spent circling HP on my bike, and how weird it was to run it in the 'wrong' direction. I did a mental check about mile 19 -- I was circling back towards the Med Tent at this point, another good time to bail. Was there anything I would rather be doing this morning? Brunch with friends? Sleeping? Reading? Sunday AM yoga class? Nope. This was the only thing I wanted to be doing (well. I wanted to be DONE doing it, but that wasn't the point). That was a good moment for me -- realizing that out of everything else I COULD be doing, running this race was the only thing I WANTED to do. That put a smile back on my face, and I rounded the turn to go up to the 14th street bridge.

Another good moment: seeing Mike, his daughter Sammy, Kelly and Stella and Laura and Rocky. Yay! My god-doggies! (um. And my friends). I got some much needed puppy love and it was great to see familiar faces. I know Laura was disappointed in me for ignoring the rules and listening to my iPod, but I didn't really care. I should point out that by this point, I had been listening to Kanye West's "Stronger" for about two hours, and didn't see any reason to change. Well, actually, on my walk breaks, I'd let the iPod roll to the next song (Warren G's 'regulate') but when I would start running, it was back to Kanye. I thought I'd get sick of it, but that point never really came. It was perfect for keeping cadence, although I did start arguing with the sentiment at points (Kanye, this might not kill me, but i doubt it will make me stronger, so shut the f up").

Made it over the bridge, and then it hit: IT band pain. SUCK! Apparently, in altering my gait to accommodate my shin, I had starting pissing off my ITBand on my other leg. Doh. Now, I had previously though that it was impossible to run with ITband pain. This is not true. You can do it, it just sucks. This was mile 21, and it was a real low moment for me. I was still keeping up with the 8:2 run/walk, but the run was getting painful. I totally started talking to myself at this point, repeated under my breath "Relentless Forward Motion". I don't know why this phrase, but it stuck and it worked, even though I'm sure it was annoying those around me (who I was passing, btw, so suck it. I can be the crazy chick who is talking to herself as long as I am passing you!) Just before mile 22 I saw my friend Greg going the other way, who back in 2001 told me we should run a marathon together, but at the time I thought he was nuts. It was great to see him on the course (albeit about 40 minutes in front of me) and reminded me of how far I've come since then.

Miles 23-25 are just awful. Boring scenery, carnage everywhere, and then, when you hit mile 25, you can see the finish, but realize you have to run down 1/2 a mile and then run BACK 1/2 a mile and then you can finish. Blah. At this point, I was pretty sure my shin had progressed into stress fracture territory, my IT band was killing me, and I could feel tears behind my eyes. It just hurt. I was dreaming about the medical tent and ice packs, and needed to be done. Mile 25 destroyed me mentally -- seeing the finish and then seeing how far I had to go to get there. It would have been great to have someone jump in at this point to yell at me, tell me to just keep moving, and run in front of me so I could dumbly follow cadence. But, I didn't have that, and looking at my watch, I realized I had 20ish minutes to hit my pseudo goal time (5 hrs), so I just started walking, and didn't start running again until the big hill at the finish. It was only later in the day that I realized I hadn't turned off the auto-pause on my Garmin, and so instead of beating my goal time by 8 minutes, I had only beat it by 6 seconds. Yikes! I felt great charging up that last hill (that's what a mile walk break will do for ya) and was thrilled to finally, FINALLY be done. Owie.

Not give up on mile 25. That was all mental. Sure, I was in a lot of pain, but I was in pain at mile 21 too, and I kept running then. I really need to mentally work past that. I'm disappionted in myself, even though at the time I was doing the whole "Don't look back at this and be annoying, you're walking and its the right decision". But it wasn't. That was the first time all day I had bailed on the 8:2 run/walk, and it was the WRONG decision. Good lesson to learn, although it means I'm going to have to run another damn marathon just apply the lesson learned :)

One thing I WOULDN'T do differently is my nutrition and hydration. I was spot on for both. I never got dyhydrated, but I didn't have to go to the bathroom at any point. I kept to my eating schedule and never felt depleted.

The finish line at MCM continues to be a cluster fluck. After finishing, I stood still in a group of people trying to get out into the main finish area for no less than 10 minutes. Seriously -- not moving slowly in a line, just standing still. Three people around me collapsed and had to be carried out by other runners/marines who could get to them. It was less than ideal, and I don't know if they'll ever get it to a point where it doesn't suck. But that's just the way it is, and you kind of learn to expect it, and that makes it less annoying (I think).Once I got out, I just made my way through Arlington and back to a friends house, where I was given a beer, an ice pack and a pat on the back. After all, I had beat last years time by 30 minutes, had significantly more fun (Well. "Fun". I missed Team Chippy, and felt lonlier on this run than last year. But the run itself was more pleasant) I call that a win. Not sure yet what the long term damage to my legs will be, but I'll take the week off and see if maybe I can rehab it enough for the 50k. Prob not, but we'll see.

The moral of this story, really, is that when in doubt, listen to someone who isn't you. On Thursday of this week I had though there was no way I could do this race, but a good friend reminded me that self perspective is in NOT a good indicator of what you are capable of. The training worked, and I had a great experience. And seriously: if I can PR every marathon by 30 minutes, what the hell is there to complain about? All in all, a great day.


Shin injury, mental weakness, back loading a season with a HIM and marathon back to back.