Is It Time to Panic Yet?

Back when I was giddily running races all the time pretty often, I kept my “milestone countdown” widgets on my blog sidebar (over there on the right –>) updated pretty well. Once I started riding the DNS Struggle Bus last year, it started getting embarrassing so I just kind of quietly wiped it off the face of my blog, never to be talked about again.

Well, readers, today I went for my second run in a week (crazy, I know!), and decided it was about time to restart the countdowns. After all, I’ve got a big half marathon looming on the horizon, so I thought it would be a good motivator for me to see the days ticking down. So I filled out the widget info, refreshed the page, and then promptly did this:

(source)

I’m no longer Beaker-tweaking quite as badly, but I’m still tripping lightly in the Valley of Oh-Crap.

I have a half marathon in a month. Less than a month, actually. And I’ve run three (3) times in the past month, for a whopping total of 11.2 miles. I am grossly under-prepared!

Because I’m me, of course I have excuses. My ribs flared up, travel got in the way of my training, I was trying to be good and follow the baby steps of my GRG’s intervals plan, etc. etc. I had good intentions of following a plan while simultaneously acing my GetFit exercise requirements, but, as you know, those intentions went to hell in a hand-basket. Or some other mixed metaphor.

All that aside, I’m now gazing at this logo and sighing away:

(source)

This race and I already have a bit of a checkered past. I signed up for last year’s race, wanting to prove to myself that I could actually follow a training plan, and wanting to see how much better I could run a half if I did actually follow a training plan. Then my knee went wonky, and I grudgingly dropped down to the 5K distance. Then the race got rained out, and I was offered a free entry into this year’s. Since the 2016 race was a full year away, I was confident that I’d be well trained for it.

And we all know how well that’s gone.

I realized about 2 miles into my 3-mile run today that maybe it would have been a good idea to talk to my GRG about this upcoming half, and work with her on a smart plan for it. Why didn’t I? Maybe I was sheepishly embarrassed to tell her I had a half coming up, given that I was basically just relearning how to run. Maybe mid-June still seemed like lightyears away back in early March. I don’t know.

What I’m left with is a vague idea that I’ll just sort of hobble my way through 13.1 miles and hope for the best. I’m sure there will be a lot of walking (especially because the course is hilly and it’s bound to be a hot day), and I’m hoping that there’s no time limit. I’m also hoping that hobbling my way through 13.1 miles won’t result in injury… cue Beaker-tweaking once again.

I’ve got 4 weeks between today and race day to get myself into some sort of semblance of some sort of half-marathon shape, without overdoing it. I bluffed my way through a 10K a few weeks back and managed to do okay (no injuries to speak of and a miraculous PR)… does that mean I’ll be able to bluff my way through more than double that in a month’s time, providing that I can up my mileage to more than 3 by then? Or is a half marathon totally beyond the realm of what can be bluffed? Part of me thinks “eh, this race was technically free… sitting it out wouldn’t be the end of the world.” But part of me wants to just go for it anyway. Hmm.

What would you do – bluff your way through the race or DNS and set your sights on another race further out?

The Worcester Running Festival was a Wash… Literally

Back in April I signed up for my second half marathon – the Worcester Running Festival half. I felt like it was far enough away that I could train for it, and I always like running races in my home city (like the WFD6K and Canal Diggers, both of which I’ve run twice).

When my knee went wonky on me, it took me a while but I realized that the half would be out of the question. Even if it felt better in time to run the race, I wouldn’t have trained at all. So a few weeks back I switched my registration to the running festival’s 5K, and after a successful WFD6K last week, I was looking forward to another test of my knee. (Plus, this race had bling to look forward to!)

Rain lurked in the forecast, and by Saturday it was looking like it was going to be one wet race – 100% chance of rain and thunderstorms in the morning. Gun time was set for 7:15. I packed all black running kit so that I wouldn’t be a soaked, see-through mess, plus SmartWool socks, a visor with a big brim, and a rain jacket. I had studied Running World’s piece on dressing for the rain, and I was ready!

Drew and I arrived in Worcester Saturday night, and the sky was already spitting a bit. Given the super early gun time, we had splurged for a hotel a few blocks away from the starting line in order to avoid a 5am (or earlier) departure time from home the morning of. After a quick supper at Uno’s, I read and tried to psych myself up to run in the rain, which was sounding more unpleasant to me the more I thought about it. Plus, I’d likely be running with a headache, since I had been fighting one off all day and it didn’t show signs of subsiding.

What my evening looked like

I got an email from the race director around 5:30 saying that bib pickup and the post-race party would be held in a underground parking garage – instead of on the common – in an effort to keep everyone as dry as possible. That sounded altogether unpleasant as well… thousands of sweaty runners crammed in a small, low-ceilinged garage in thick humidity. Ugh. But better than standing in the pouring rain, I suppose!

After a night of not-great sleep on a hard hotel bed with trains blowing their horns relentlessly at 5am directly across the street, I dragged myself out of bed when my alarm went off at 6am. With a just-shy-of-blinding headache sitting over my right eye, I changed into my Ninja Kit (TM) and stared out at the pouring rain for a bit:

View out the hotel window, taken the night before when the streets were significantly less wet

I was really not feeling this run, but I really wanted that medal, and I wanted to run again, dagnabbit, dodgy knee be damned. On a whim I checked my email, and there it was – the cancellation. It had landed in my inbox at 5:55am, 5 minutes before packet pickup was about to begin:

The weather has changed for the worst with lightning predicted for the duration of the event. I cannot send runners and volunteers out into an environment where someone could get hurt. Again I am extremely sorry to have to announce this at such late notice. I will reschedule the event as soon as possible and let everyone know the new date as soon as possible.

For a brief second I was disappointed, then that changed to a flood of relief. I didn’t have to run in the driving rain with a searing headache! I didn’t have to feel bad about making Drew and my dad huddle under umbrellas as I ran! I could go back to sleep!! I threw my PJs back on and got another 3 hours of suboptimal sleep and it was glorious.

Also glorious was the peanut butter, Fluff, and banana french toast I had at the Miss Worcester diner, where we took my dad for Father’s Day brunch:

Look at this! The diner had a separate menu just for french toast!

Unfortunately I was unable to finish this thing of beauty… WAY too much food!

Despite my giddy relief about not having to run yesterday, I’m still a little disappointed that I didn’t get my sweet medal. And, given my luck with these sorts of situations in the past, I’m assuming I won’t be able to run the rescheduled race. I suppose we’ll see. For now, my Worcester Running Festival experience was a wash, indeed!

Have you ever run a race in the pouring rain? How did it go? Any tips to share?

Which stuffed french toast would you pick off that menu?
It was so hard to choose!

2014 in Review: Going Strong Despite Setbacks!

This past January I wrote a 2013 in Review post, looking back over my first “real” year of running. It had been a pretty big year for me running-wise… I ran an entire mile in one go for the first time ever, ran my first race, and considered myself a runner for the first time. It’s fun to look back on that post and see how far I came in just one year… and then to think about how far I’ve come just since January! So, to continue that tradition, here is my 2014 in Review.

First race of 2014 – ready to take on the year!

2014 saw a massive increase in mileage for me, compared with 2013. Last year was big too, going from a quarter-mile being the longest I could run without needing a break to being able to run a 5K without stopping. In 2014, I started small by completing a 4-miler in March, and ended the year having completed a half marathon (I did take walk breaks, but still… the miles got done!) I’m not entirely sure how far I could go without needing to walk… 4 miles might still be my limit, but it’s definitely an improvement.

2014 also saw more injuries that put a damper on my year. In 2013 I suffered a bad back/neck injury that kept me from running for quite a while, and then I had a foot niggle that made running not fun at the end of the year, but otherwise I was mostly whole. 2014 saw a tendon tear that benched me from April to June, dodgy shins, dodgy toes, dodgy knees, and now a bout of peroneal tendonitis to end the year with. Hopefully the plan of attack laid out in my last post will help 2015 be a year of less injury!

2014 was also my first year being part of a running club, the Shammies. I joined in January, hoping the camaraderie would help snap me out of my first bout of running doldrums, and it’s been an awesome year of new friends, new races, and new experiences. I’m looking forward to (hopefully!) many more years as part of this club!

And now, my year in numbers:

Races completed: 19 (up from 15 in 2013)

States raced in: 6 (Massachusetts, Maine, Rhode Island, Connecticut, Washington, New Hampshire; up from 4 in 2013)

MA towns raced in: 11 (Worcester, Lunenburg, Boston, Cambridge, Woburn, Shirley, Somerville, Newburyport, West Newbury, Salisbury, Winchester; up from 7 in 2013)

5K PR: 32:43 (still not as fast as my all-time PR of 30:49)

10K PR: 01:14:52

Half marathon PR: 02:37:58

Races missed: 3 (Spring Classic, Kick In For Kids 5K, and WFPL 5K; same number missed as 2013)

And now, let’s see how I did on the goals I set last year:

1. Get my 5K PR under 30 minutes – not met. I tried, but that shiny PR of 30:49 is still my Moby Dick. I’ll keep trying.

2. Complete a 10K – heck yes! In fact, I ran two – the Old Wethersfield 10K in August and the Beat the Blerch 10K in September. Boo yeah! (And for good measure, I completed a half marathon in October! This time last year I would have laughed in my own face at the thought of running an entire half marathon. My, how a year can change things!)

3. Run in a BAA event, hopefully the 5K – I did this too! I was injured, but slathered BioFreeze all over my ankle and ran gleefully around the city with 9,999 of my closest friends. It was awesome, and totally worth the extra time I had to spend resting after running on an injured ankle.

Two out of three ain’t bad, right? Now, my goals for 2015:

1. Get my 5K PR under 30 minutes (worth another shot!)

2. Get my 10K PR under 01:10:00

3. Beat my fastest Garmin mile (currently 9:25.5)

4. Add 3 more towns and 1 more state to my map

It’s tempting to add “get injured less!” to my list of goals, but that’s just tempting fate. So we’ll leave it at that.

All in all, it was a pretty good 12 months! Here’s to an even better 2015!

How was your 2014?

What accomplishment from 2014 are you most proud of?

Have any goals for 2015?

Reflections on a Half Marathon: Training

So far I’ve written about two things that really worked well for me as I tackled my first half marathon – my kit and my fueling strategy. Now, for the third part in this series, let’s talk about what didn’t work so well for me, shall we?

What didn’t work? My training method.

It seems a little funny to say that my training didn’t work, considering that I was able to finish the race and that I finished faster than I thought I would. So I guess in a way it kind of worked… except that I didn’t really train. Not properly, anyway. It’s not that I didn’t try! I just, well… the road to hell is paved with good intentions, isn’t it?

As much as I love Runner’s World, I didn’t want to shell out $$ for one of their training plans. My running club has a free training plan on their website – one that incorporates their Tuesday speed workouts and Thursday tempo runs, which I appreciated since I took part in those anyway – but it called for an 8-mile long run in the first week, which I found more than a little intimidating considering I hadn’t even run a 10K yet. Hal Higdon’s novice 1 plan looked pretty good, but it didn’t allow my Shammies events to fit in seamlessly and I was a bit too lazy to work it out properly. Rae was awesome and sent me one she had worked out too, and it looked much more my speed than the others… but yeah. I found it incredibly hard to stick to any of the plans, despite my best intentions.

In fact, looking back through my blog posts, as well as my Garmin Connect and MapMyRun logs, my “training plan” seemed to consist of a lot of faffing about, then a panic a few weeks out when I realized I hadn’t run more than 7 miles, two long runs a week apart in which I upped my mileage too much too soon, some hardcore tapering, and then my half marathon. Because I’m feeling generous, I thought I’d put this ingenious plan together in case anyone would like to take the Dana’s Faffing About 12-Week Approach to Half Marathon Training (TM):

You’re welcome.

For real though, I did not train properly for this half, and because of that, I’m surprised that I ran it as well as I did. I chalk that up to hefty glycogen stores, glorious fall weather, and the intense desire to just get to the end so I could stop running.

But, if I ran that half more-or-less decently despite a lack of real training, imagine how much better I could run a future half if I *did* actually train! The idea that’s floating around in my head now is that I should sign up for a super cool half that I really want to run, that’s at least 3 months in the future, and then be smart like Rae and develop a training plan that incorporates Shammies workouts and things I need to work on (like hills!) and then just suck it up and do it, and try my hardest to stick to it. And then see what kind of a difference it makes when I run the half. It’s almost enough to push me over the edge to sign up for my second!

Do you like to follow training plans, or do you blaze your own trails?

Any suggestions for a fun half marathon to work towards?

Reflections on a Half Marathon: Fueling

After my somewhat melodramatic post the other day about how I’ve been struggling with running since my half (well, struggling with running since I started running again two weeks after my half is more accurate), I thought it might be a nice change of pace to talk about something I liked and did well. So, consider this the second in a small series of what worked and what didn’t during my half marathon (the first being my post about race-day kit).

What worked? My fueling plan.

Pre-race, a.k.a. ALL the pasta!

(source)

To be honest, I had no idea how to approach fueling in the week or so before my half. I’d heard of carbo-loading, but didn’t really know what that entailed other than vague memories of hearing about my high school cross-country team having spaghetti suppers before big races. All I really knew was that I wouldn’t eat anything high in fat or otherwise questionable the night before my race.

Enter the Runner’s World twitter feed. It’s like they knew I had my first big race coming up (or, you know, fall is a popular time for many people to run their first)… first they posted a link to an article about how to taper properly for your first half marathon, then they posted a link to an one about how to carbo-load properly. That’s what I’m talking about… way to be there for a clueless newbie, RW!

The gist of the carbo-loading article is this:
-Choose carbs that are easy to digest – rice, pasta, potatoes, white bread, tortillas, oatmeal, bagels, pancakes, etc.
-Related to the first point, avoid carbs that are also high in fiber if you’re worried about GI issues
-Start loading up (as in 85-95% of your diet) on carbs 2-3 days before your race, not just the night before
-Make sure you take mid-race fuel

Well, anyone who knows me knows I love me some pasta. If I could eat some form of pasta for lunch and dinner every day, I probably would. So I embraced the advice of this article and stuffed my face with pasta (and a few other carbs thrown in) for lunch and dinner, starting about 4 days out from my half. It was glorious.

Mid-race, a.k.a. sting or be stung!

(source)

I started experimenting with different types of fuel as soon as my long runs started taking longer than an hour to complete, and the kind that consistently worked best for me was Honey Stinger Energy Chews. I tried out a fueling plan during my 8.5-mile training run, which involved stopping roughly every 30 minutes for a chew or two, some water, and a quick walk break. It worked well the two times I tried it during training runs, so I made the conscious decision to use that tactic during my race.

For the race, I carried my dodgy water bottle, mostly for “emergencies” between water stops; I planned to stop and take a cup at each water stop, and also decided that I’d take Gatorade at the two stops it was offered at. In the bottle’s zippered pouch I carried my iPod and headphones (I don’t usually run with music, but I was worried I might need some serious motivation) and a baggie with 2 pouches’ worth of Honey Stinger chews.

As I wrote in my race recap, my plan to walk and fuel every 30 minutes didn’t exactly go as planned – a few times I stopped before 30 minutes had passed, and a few times I was able to go a little more than 30 minutes. Despite the minor time discrepancies, the fueling itself went well (apart from honey stickiness, but that was to be expected) and I had enough water for the majority of the course.

Overall fueling report

I would call my fueling efforts, both before and during the race, a success. I did not bonk, hit the wall, faint, or do anything else unsavory. During my two longest training runs I did get a bit bonkish (is that a word? it is now) despite fueling as I went, so I give a lot of credit to my pre-race carbo-loading. Glycogen stores FTW! I’m definitely going to stick with this method for future races.

How do you prepare for big races food-wise?

What type of mid-race fuel to you prefer?

Reflections on a Half Marathon: Kit

I’ve been doing a lot of thinking since my half two Sundays ago, trying to figure out what worked and what didn’t – before, during, and after the race. Now that I’ve started to realize that I’ll likely run another someday (inevitable?!), I want to make sure I improve what I can, and stick with what’s tried and true.

This was originally going to be one simple post in which I outlined what did work and what didn’t, but – me being me – I rambled out of control, didn’t want to edit it down, and decided to break the post up topically. So it goes. First up:

What worked? My kit.

I debated with myself for a long time about what I was going to wear for this race! Part of me felt strongly that I should wear what I had been wearing for my long runs – long-sleeve tech tee and shorts with double-layer socks – since I was used to that, but I had actually hated dealing with long sleeves during those runs (I could roll the sleeves up when I got warm, but they tended to roll themselves back down and drove me crazy) and didn’t want to be driven crazy during my first half. I also really wanted to wear my run club singlet, but was worried I’d be too cold. I thought about a light long-sleeve tee underneath, but knowing how hot I get when I run, I didn’t want too many layers (see also: sleeve comments above), even though a light singlet over a light tee probably wouldn’t have been too much.

I tried to think about races that had gone really well and that I had felt comfortable during, figuring I’d replicate whatever outfit I had worn then. My mind went immediately to the Old Port 5K back in July, where I remember feeling fantastic:

My kit at the Old Port 5K

Okay, brilliant. Sorted. But now the question came back around to the issue of sleeves and whether I’d be warm enough running in upper-40s/low-50s temps in that same kit. I toyed with the idea of arm warmers, but something just seemed silly about those… why not just wear a long-sleeve shirt? Then Colin brought up a good point when I asked him for advice – if I got too warm wearing the arm warmers, I could just push them down and wear them as sweatband-type-things, whereas a long-sleeve shirt would be way more difficult to remove if I got too warm. I figured I’d give them a go.

Now that that was settled, what about how to hold my crazy hair back? At the Old Port race – and at many other races this year – I had worn my Buff headband and it had done its job at taming my flyaway hair. I planned on rocking the Buff again, and bringing my sunglasses, until my FIL planted the idea in my head that a hat would be better at protecting my eyes from glare. (Fair point, especially since my cheap sunglasses aren’t polarized and I still squint when I wear them.) I’ve rocked a few different hats in previous races, but they tend to make me feel really hot and God knows I didn’t want to faint during my first half. I needed to be extra cautious! Enter Julie with her magic visor. It would block more glare, protect my face from the sun, but wouldn’t hold all the heat in. Perfect. Throw my new knee bands into the mix and I was ready to go:

Modified kit for the half

It ended up being a perfect combination. It was kit I knew I could be comfortable in for shorter races, and turns out it works for 13.1 miles as well. Nothing bothered me, nothing chafed, everything stayed in place*, I didn’t get blisters (credit also due to Body Glide for this!), and I ended up being fine temperature-wise. I was questioning the arm warmers a few miles in but, despite being thermal, they didn’t make me too hot, and I was super glad I had them once the sun went behind the clouds and the wind started whipping off the lakes. I might have gotten too warm with a long-sleeve shirt on (an extra layer is an extra layer) so they were a great solution.

*I guess this isn’t entirely true. At one point my knee braces rubbed against each other and the velcro caught, loosening them both a bit. I stepped off to the side to re-tighten them and they managed to behave themselves for the rest of the race. So they stayed in place for the most part!

So what, exactly, was this kit? (I feel like I want to write something cheesy like “you, too, can have this look!”)

-Asics Core* singlet (bought through my run club… I’m unsure of the exact style)
-Fila Core Essential High-Impact sports bra
-Nike Racer Dri-FIT Double-Layer shorts
-Wrightsock Cool Mesh II double-layer socks
-Saucony Guide 7 shoes
-Nike Thermal arm warmers
-Shock Doctor Knee-Patella support straps
-Nike visor (specific style unknown)
-Sunglasses (brand forgotten)
-Garmin Forerunner 15
-Nathan SpeedDraw Plus Insulated water bottle*

*I gave this bottle a pretty negative review a few months ago, vowing to not use it anymore, and yet I still keep using it. I’m still not a fan, to be honest, but desperate times…. Anyway, I plan to write a follow-up review soon.

Do you fret over your race-day kit as much as I did for this one? (Please tell me I’m not the only one!)

What are your tried-and-true pieces of kit?

Green Stride Newburyport Half Marathon, 26 October 2014

What: Half marathon (my first!)

Where: Newburyport, Massachusetts
(the course also meandered into West Newbury for a bit, allowing me to check off another town on my map – yay!)

Course Map:

(source)

Who: Just me, with moral support from Drew, my dad, and Drew’s dad

Time: 02:37:58 Automatic personal record!

Splits: (according to Simon)
Mile 1: 11:37
Mile 2: 12:10
Mile 3: 11:51
Mile 4: 11:50
Mile 5: 11:25
Mile 6: 12:21
Mile 7: 13:34 (including a porta-potty stop)
Mile 8: 11:47
Mile 9: 12:16
Mile 10: 11:51
Mile 11: 11:59
Mile 12: 12:30
Mile 13: 10:37
Mile 13.1: 1:32

Recap: (I feel like my reviews have been getting a bit unwieldy lately, so I’m going to try for a slightly different format than usual. It will still be long and rambly, but hopefully slightly more organized!)

Pre-race

Drew and me posing with the Merrimack River after bib pickup.

Green Stride (the race directors) had great communication via email during the week before the race – they laid out all the details, and even offered some encouragement which a nervous first-timer like me really appreciated!

I couldn’t make the bib pickup at the Greater Boston Running Company the day before, so my mini-entourage (me, Drew, and the FIL) left for Newburyport at 7:45 (the race started at 10). We got there just in time to score a parking spot in the public lot closest to the start/finish area, otherwise we would have been looking for street parking. Bib pickup itself was easy and quick at that point in the morning; we had been emailed our bib numbers ahead of time, and pickup was organized by number. With my bib I got I really nice tech t-shirt and a pint glass, which I gave away to another runner who seemed bummed she hadn’t gotten one (our kitchen cupboards are overrun with pint glasses!).

Race shirt and bling

It was a little brisk by the river (upper 40s and windy), so we headed back to our car so my southern Californian FIL wouldn’t get too cold. There, in the shelter of the car, I pinned by bib, put on my new patella straps, and Body-Glided my toes (it feels weird but it does its job for me… I got no blisters!). About an hour before gun time I thought I’d scope out the porta-potty situation and start to warm-up. Holy porta-potty lines, Batman!! The pre-race emails had said “Unlike other races, there will be no lines for porto-potties at this race…….just kidding!” Having never run a race of this distance before, I had never experienced the insanity of pre-race porta-potty lines. Wow. However, the lines moved quickly and they seemed to be mostly clean and in decent shape.

(TMI: I panicked at the sight of the lines, decided I didn’t have to go after all, wandered away to warm-up, and then realized that warming up made me have to go again. When I wandered back, the lines had all doubled in size! Luckily the FIL had gotten in line for himself and sacrificed his place for me, which was very sweet. However, once inside I no longer had to go. What the heck, body?!)

The Race

Being goofy at the start

After my porta-potty incident, I only had about 5 minutes to find my pace sign and get situated in the starting area. There was a bit of a crush of people around the barriers by the starting line itself, and I had to squeeze my way through runners and spectators to get down the sidewalk toward the back of the pack. I snagged a spot somewhere between the “10 minutes” and “walkers” signs, and was a little weirded out to find that I didn’t feel nervous at all! I was expecting major nerves but I was strangely calm and it felt a bit anticlimactic, like just any other race. I couldn’t hear the start signal, but the crowd lurched forward, and after a few false starts we were on our way.

The first mile felt great. I made sure to start off slowly, and there were lots of people out on the sidewalks and on their porches cheering us on. I tried to smile at everyone and thanked the ones who cheered, and waved at the ones on their porches. There were a few clusters of kids with their hands out, and I tried to high-five as many as possible. The crowd of runners ahead of me looked intense as it rose up the first hill… it looked like the Boston Marathon, there were so many people squeezed in together! (There were about 4000 runners, so clearly it wasn’t as many as Boston, but it looked like a lot at the time.)

I had planned to take quick walk breaks every 30 minutes so I could eat a chew and have some water – this fueling tactic had worked well during my last 2 long runs – but I was worried that my lack of a good breakfast would mess me up. (I had made myself a bagel with peanut butter and banana slices, but the bagel was crazy stale and it was mostly inedible. I ate what I could, but it didn’t seem like enough energy to carry me through 13.1 miles!) I stopped to have some chews maybe 2 miles in… it seemed early but I was starting to flag a tiny bit, plus there was a sizeable hill so it was a good opportunity! I was so worried that I wouldn’t have enough energy to make it the whole way.

By the time I got to mile 4, I was feeling great again. To be honest, I hadn’t hydrated enough, or warmed up enough, and my breakfast was pathetic, so really I could have probably felt great the whole time but set myself up for weariness. But my mile 4 I was in a groove. The course took us through a state park, which was all nice and woodsy, and then down along a lake. It was gorgeous, such a scenic route! I pulled alongside a guy around mile 5.5 to chat about his run club, the Wormtown Milers (hometown represent!) and spent a few minutes running side by side in companionable silence before I pulled away.

Luckily for me, the race organizers had decided to put 2 porta-potties at each water stop (I somehow missed this vital piece of info in the pre-race emails… if I had seen it, I don’t think I would have had such a weird porta-potty situation before the start!) and the ones at mile 7 were perfectly timed. As a bonus, they were the first ones to not have a line! And, considering how far back in the pack I was, the one I used was as immaculately clean as a porta-potty can be. Probably more TMI, but I was so happy about that porta-potty and set off happily once again, enjoying the rolling farmland on either side of the street.

[This is where I’d love to insert a photo of said views, but I decided to focus on running and didn’t stop to take any photos along the way. I kind of wish I had after all!]

My happiness didn’t last long, though. By mile 7.5 or 8, I started questioning why I was running a half marathon. The sun, which had been out for the first half of the race, had gone behind clouds and the wind off the lake picked up pretty strong. (I was so glad I had worn arm warmers – I had a whole debate with myself beforehand about what to wear, because I get really warm after running a short distance so I didn’t want too many layers –  because that wind was chilly!) The pack had thinned out by this point too, and I was alone for a few stretches. The start/end of the loop in West Newbury, where runners around miles 5 and 8 passed each other, and which had had tons of screaming spectators when I was at mile 5, was pretty much abandoned as I came back for mile 8. I still felt strong enough, but mentally was questioning my sanity for having signed up for this thing in the first place.

After running across the bridge back over I-95, the course spent a few miles going through industrial parks. After the supportive spectators and gorgeous scenery of old houses, forest, and lakes in the first half, this abrupt change to abandoned roads and buildings did not help my mood much. On the plus side though, it was flat! The pre-race emails had mentioned a change in course from previous years that removed some hills… I’m guessing the random detour around mile 11 which took us down a street only to turn around halfway and run back was part of that change to make up distance. I was still mentally bummed out, and even telling myself “Hey! Only a 5K left!” at mile 10 just served to depress me further.

At about mile 11.5, however, I started kicking that Negative Nelly to the curb… except I pictured it as the Blerch! Yes, I was a champ who needed her rest, but the nap I so badly wanted would have to wait until I was done running. I tuned out my Blerchiness and steeled myself to finish strong. I took one last walk break at about 11.75 miles, ate a few last chews, shook out and adjusted my posture, and away I went.

It was a good time to steel myself, because I was rewarded with another abrupt change in scenery; the course took a turn onto the Clipper City Rail Trail, a paved-over old railway line which was dotted with sculptures and turned into the Harborwalk, which was part boardwalk and part paved trail. Something magical happened to me on that trail… I reached the point where I felt like I couldn’t stop if I tried, and, knowing how close to the end I was, I started to pick up speed so I could finish quicker. My body felt like a machine and I lost count of how many people I passed. I stopped giving goofy thumbs-ups to the photographers, as I had been doing the whole race, and just focused on getting to the finish line.

When the boardwalk turned into trail again, I picked up the pace even more; I had run this part of the trail during my warmup and I knew how close to the end I was! The crowd was getting thicker and I could hear people cheering as I “flew” past them (I wasn’t sprinting by a long shot, but it felt like I was!). I passed one lady and then ended up stuck and slowed down by people running slowly side-by-side ahead of me on the trail, and the lady I passed sped up to catch me… I don’t think she liked being passed so late in the race. As soon as I spotted a sliver of space between the jogging people in front of me and the crowd, I slithered through and took off even faster toward the finish. Simon clocked my pace as around 7:45 at this point! I spotted Drew standing on a rock taking pictures and I waved goofily before pushing myself even harder. I didn’t see my dad and FIL standing next to Drew taking pictures, but FIL got this awesome shot of me at full stride, rounding the last corner (slightly less scary than the one my dad got):

Almost there!!

There was one runner left between me and the finish line, and I didn’t really want to beat her (honest!) but I really, really wanted to be done with running so I set my sights to the right of her (she was all the way over on the left) and decided to gun it:

However, she decided she wanted to meander her way across the front of the finish line to cross closer to the right side, and I ended up having to slow down so that I wouldn’t crash into her. What the heck, wandering lady?! Totally killed my buzz for a moment there. Did she hear me approaching and was trying to block me from beating her? Or was she just oblivious, since she was wearing headphones, and didn’t realize she was blocking me? Either way, annoying.

Done! (Bonus: Drew is visible standing on a rock on the far right of this shot, and my dad and FIL are comparing photos on their phones next to him.)

That annoyance disappeared in milliseconds however, as I crossed the finish line and heard the PA guy say “Dana, you have arrived!” Hells yeah!! I ran a half marathon!!

Post-race

When I heard the PA man say I’d arrived, I thrust my fist in the air in victory and grinned. A smiling volunteer handed me my sweet finisher’s medal, and I carried on walking away from the finish line and away from the mass of people. As usual, in my experiences anyway, there was no water to be found immediately, so I wandered back and forth by the entrance to the post-race party, not wanting to get lost in the huge throng of people inside until my family found me. They spotted me within a minute or two, I got hugs, and then the dads-taking-all-the-pictures fandango began in earnest:

Showing off my medal, reppin’ the Shammies, and rocking some crazy, frizzy hair

This is my forced, “Please stop with the pictures, I need to find water” smile

And this is my “Maybe if I start closing my eyes in all your pictures you’ll let me leave and get water” look

Finally the photo session stopped, my dad found me a bottle of water, and I stood tottering on my feet as everything sunk in. I had just run (and walked a bit) 13.1 miles! I had just totally killed the last bit of the race! My body became a machine at mile 12! I also kept thinking about how tired I was and how I never wanted to run that far again.

I put on my hoodie (it had gotten cold and the clouds were spitting rain by that point) and we set off for the car. I had two beer tickets and a pizza ticket attached to my bib, but I wanted none of that nonsense… all I wanted was chocolate milk and a place to sit down. As we approached the parking lot, my dad and FIL ran into the cafe that was right there, the Riverside Cafe, to see if they were still serving food (they close at 1 and it was about 1 by that point) while Drew and I continued to the car so I could put my sweatpants on and grab my clothes to change. We spotted some huge cement pipes over by the river and wandered over to take a quick victory picture (which involved my swinging myself up about 5 feet to climb on the pipes… how I managed to do that considering how exhausted I was I still don’t know!)

Victory picture

The dads had snagged a table at the cafe (which stayed open well past 3 to accommodate all the runners, which was above and beyond!), I changed out of my cold, sweaty running clothes, and enjoyed a late breakfast of scrambled eggs, a banana pancake, and chocolate milk. Thank you so much to the Riverside Cafe staff for feeding and sheltering us when you could have gone home!

It’s still a little mind-blowing that I managed to complete a half marathon, especially when I think about how I could still barely run a mile less than 2 years ago. Thank you to my blog buddies for all your support and advice along the way! 😀 Even though I promised myself while running this race that I would never run another half again, I’m already starting to reconsider… I kind of want to see if my body will go all runner-machine on me again! That felt pretty cool. Sigh, such is our fickle, running way!

Half Marathon in the Bag!

My first half marathon = successfully completed!

13.1 miles is a long way to run. I’m not sure I want to do it again, if I’m honest. But ask me again once I stop having to go down stairs at a glacial pace, with both feet on each step. Who knows? Maybe I’ll change my mind.

I’ll post a full recap soon, but for now thank you for all the support – on here, on Instagram, on Facebook, and in the awesome texts I received the morning of! You guys are the best 🙂

I’ll also leave you with the photo that has taken the crown of Least Flattering Race Photo of Me, courtesy of my dad. This was taken as I rounded the last turn before the finish line, and clearly I was ready for the whole thing to be over:

We can’t all be Ridiculously Photogenic Guy, right?

How was your weekend? Any one else race? How did it go?

Tapering Like a Boss

In lieu of a Weekend Wrap-Up – since there’s really nothing to report, at all – let’s talk tapering, shall we?

(source)

Tapering, according to this Runner’s World article, is “the reduction of exercise before a competition or race.” After training hard and building up your mileage, tapering gives your body a chance to recover from all that work, rebuild glycogen stores, and repair any tissue damage that might have happened during that training (hello knees). Nearly every instance of tapering I’ve seen in blogs, on facebook, or wherever has included a runner complaining about how terrible tapering is and how cranky they get while doing so (see image above).

Maybe this makes me a terrible runner, I don’t know… but I’m loving tapering. As I struggled during my 10-mile training run two Sundays ago, I kept thinking how awesome 2 weeks of tapering would be, and that’s what got me through that run (that, and Colin being motivating and awesome as usual). However, I might be taking the rest-during-tapering instructions a little too… restfully.

I took my tapering advice from another Runner’s World article titled “How to Taper for Your First Half Marathon.” After a final long run of 10-14 miles 2 weeks out from the race, RW advises 30-minute workouts during the week, a 45-minute run on the Sunday before the race, 30-minute runs on Tuesday and Thursday, rest or a very easy run Friday, rest/walk Saturday, and go-go-go on race day (they didn’t really say go-go-go, but that sounded more exciting to me!)

So what did I do after my last long run? Rested Monday, skipped speed workout Tuesday because my knees were still bothering me, skipped soccer Wednesday to attend a fancy work shindig, kickball was rained out on Thursday, I did nothing Friday, nothing Saturday (other than beating Super Mario World, heck yes), and blew off Colin for my stepdad’s birthday party, after having promised to run my 45 minutes with him (oops – sorry Colin!). I rested, and how! The one constructive things I did all week were a) ask my doctor about my knees and, b) on her advice, buy some knee braces.

This week, during the final countdown? I’m planning a nice, easy run with Colin on Tuesday, then I have a double-header for soccer Wednesday (which I really, really want to blow off in order to protect my knees but it’s the last 2 games of the season and I’ve only played in 2 games total and feel bad leaving everyone a sub short for a double-header… pray for me, readers, or cross your fingers or send me all the knee-protecting vibes you can muster!), a wicked late kickball game on Thursday, and then I intend to rest my little legs for as much of Friday and Saturday as I can. And hydrate. And eat all the pasta. I ❤ pasta. I may test out my knee braces at some point too, to see whether a patella strap or a compression sleeve works better. And hydrate.

On top of all that, I’m going to try to calm my pre-race nerves down a bit (ha!). The pre-race stress dreams have already started, and each time I think about running 13.1 miles my heart starts to race a little. I need to remember the words of Pattie, my Shammie friend: “Just take it one mile at a time!”

Any tapering advice? Am I doing it completely wrong? 😉

What are your thoughts on patella straps? Have you used one/did it work for you?

Any half marathon advice??

Needy Knees

I feel like every few weeks I take to my bloggy soapbox to complain about injuries. Torn ankle tendons, shin splints, toenails of doom, IT band woes, back injuries of yore… I’m starting to feel like it’s getting a little old, and I apologize if you’re feeling the same way.

Maybe not entirely true, but it feels this way sometimes! (source)

Since this blog serves as a chronicle of my running adventures, I guess the unfortunate and/or boring should still be included, so I’m going to add a new injury to my list: dodgy knees.

I feel like knees are the cliched runner’s injury… you know, the one people always warn you about when they find out you’re a runner (especially a new one): “Oh, you shouldn’t run. Terrible on your knees!!” and so on. I’ve considered myself lucky during my running “career” since my knees never really bothered me, apart from the stabbing pain I’d get when I’d try to run fast in the cold without warming up. (That, however, always happened before I consciously became a runner… learning proper form and how to pace myself has made that a non-issue.)

Well, looks like my luck has run out. My knees started getting a bit dodgy after my 8.5-mile long run two Sundays ago, when the outside of my right knee (a reprise of ITB woes?) started acting up during my last mile. Playing soccer on a hard, knobbly pitch a few days later didn’t seem to help, but luckily the pain both times was fleeting and was gone by morning.

These are my 3 favorite results from the first page of images I got when I googled “dodgy knees.” Ledley I get, as his knees were made out of chalk and held together with prayers, but That Guy from One Direction and a bizarre pair of shoes? I’m so intrigued. (sources here, here, and here)

Then this past weekend’s 10-miler happened. My knees started hurting right away, then felt better as the miles ticked by, but got painful again during my walk home from the pond. They continued to hurt Monday… and Tuesday… and Wednesday. I brought an ice pack to work, tried to avoid kneeling because I found out the hard way that kneeling DOES NOT HELP, and began fretting about the ever-approaching date of my half marathon. What was wrong with me? Would I be able to run??

I started googling runner’s knee, and read in horror about people taking weeks off to let their knees heal. I don’t have weeks to spare right now, people! I had visions of DNSing my first ever 13.1 and was pretty seriously bummed.

Cue a well-timed appointment with my doctor for something completely unrelated. When she uttered the magic words “Everything else okay?” at the end of my appointment, I launched into my word-vomit extravaganza about my dodgy knees. She nodded calmly, asked me to roll up my trouser leg, and grabbed the tendon under my kneecap and wiggled it back and forth. To my glee, she announced that my knees weren’t swollen and there wasn’t too much “lateral movement” which would indicate a more serious injury, and said I had some mild tendonitis but should still be able to run my half a week from Sunday. Huzzah! She suggested a simple knee brace if I felt I needed it and sent me merrily on my way.

Because I have an unquenchable thirst for knowledge about the things that afflict me, of course I had to google “knee tendonitis” after my appointment. I’m still confused as to how it’s different from runner’s knee, or jumper’s knee – are they all the same thing?! – but I have a little better idea about what might be causing my dodgy knees and what I can do to help them out and make them a bit less needy.

According to a Running Times article, tendonitis in the knee can be caused by all sorts of things, several of which I seem to have fallen victim to: over-pronation, knock-knees, and *ahem* having “recently increased the distance or intensity of your training.” All of these things are preventable. I have orthotics to counteract my over-pronation, but I don’t wear them because they pushed my feet forward in my shoes and hurt my already bruised toes. Years ago a physical therapist told me that if I can teach myself to push my knees outward when I stand/walk (because my knees point in a little), then that would not only help my knees but would also naturally lift my arches/fix my over-pronation. That made me walk funny so I didn’t try for very long. And *hangs my head in shame* yes, I knowingly increased my mileage too fast. I know I did. This tendonitis is my punishment.

Damn you, tendon. You are harsh but fair. (source)

Despite the stars aligning to curse my knees (or, you know, my bringing all this upon myself), I am working to make this situation better. I’ve been resting my knees – I skipped speed workouts and soccer this week (and kickball was canceled due to rain) – keeping up with icing, and bought myself two braces – a regular compression-sleeve-style one and a patella band – because I couldn’t decide which one would be better. (Luckily, thanks to Columbus Day sales and my loyalty rewards, I basically got both for the price of one – score!) The pain has already subsided a little today, so I’m keeping my fingers crossed that I’ll be right(ish) as rain for my race next week.

Have you had issues with your knees? How did you handle them?

Anyone else feel like his/her body parts conspire to ruin his/her good time, or is that just me?

Just for grins, here are two other articles from Runner’s World / Running Times about knees, in case anyone is like me and wants to learn more:

Taking It On The Kneecap

Patellar Pain Exercise Program