Marathon weekend turned into a fun girls' weekend. I was so grateful to have company so I didn't have to stay in Ogden by myself. We got there Friday afternoon and checked in at the hotel. We had dinner at Mo Bettahs which was perfect because I wanted veggies, rice and a little protein. It was so yummy!
Then pool time...I sat on the side and took pictures.
Betsy is so fun! She brought facial masks. Lynnlee had a doggie mask and Sienna's was a unicorn. I went to bed early so I missed out on the fun but it was fun to see the pictures.
So here's the story of my marathon....I learned a lot from my two marathons last year. I learned that I needed to train harder and I needed to drink a lot of water during the race. I started working on getting faster last summer. Then I chose a advanced training program and started official training in January. It was intense but I was fully committed. I had some very early mornings to get my runs in before Marshall went to work. The training included 3 twenty mile runs. They were spaced out but that is a lot for marathon training. Usually it's 1 or maybe 2 twenty mile runs. I was committed though and even got up at 3:00 one day so I could get the twenty miles in before Marshall left at 7:00. SO crazy I know but I wanted to qualify for Boston and I knew it wasn't going to be easy. After my 2nd twenty mile run my left shin hurt. I didn't think it was much so I kept training. It wasn't hurting all of the time so I shrugged it off. I was able to complete my last twenty mile run and my shin didn't hurt too much so I took that as a good sign. The next week wasn't so good though. I could barely get through my runs without hurting a lot. I was taking a lot of ibuprofen to get through each one. There is three weeks of tapering after the last longest run before the race. I knew I could not just keep taking a bunch of ibuprofen to get by for that long. So I went to physical therapy. My shin splint was so bad they told me if I was going to be able to run the race that I needed to stop running. I could bike but only sitting down because even standing up on the bike hurt. It was a hard pill to swallow. I knew I would loose my speed that I had been working on for so long. I tried to push myself on the bike for the last few weeks and I kept thinking positive thoughts. I didn't want to admit that I wouldn't be able to qualify. I mean....I had spent so much time and effort for it to all be thrown away with one injury. I tried to run a week before the race and I barely made it a few miles before my shin hurt too much. So I was thinking maybe I should just hope that I can run the race at all.
I had my shin taped at physical therapy the day before and I wore my compression leggings. It was a rainy morning. At one point it started snowing. Thankfully we were able to stay on the bus until a half hour before the race began. The race started out and I was so happy that my shin didn't hurt. I felt great. It was cold and my toes were frozen but at least I could run without pain!
All was going well until mile 10 when my calves started to cramp. I was so surprised because I had been drinking a lot of water. Usually that prevents the cramping. It all went bad after that. Every time I tried to push I would get paralyzing cramps. I was so discouraged. I also realized that because I hadn't been able to run for the 2 1/2 weeks before the race I had lost a lot of muscle that I had build up. Biking just wasn't the same and didn't replace the training runs. So that was also disappointing to train so hard just to not be prepared in the end.
I had to switch my mindset to just keep running and push through it. I told myself that no matter what I couldn't stop and no walking. In marathons you get to be in so much pain and I've learned that even walking doesn't stop the pain. It really just takes longer to finish the race. So I pushed through the pain. It was cold and rainy until about mile 22 then the sun came out.
I was so happy to see my support crew when I got out of the canyon. Betsy got this great shot.
My fans at the finish line....
My 8th marathon didn't go as planned. I finished in 4 hours and 16 minutes. Not my worst time but not my best as I had hoped. I cried a lot that day and the next. I wasn't able to run for a few weeks while my shin splint healed. Running is my therapy, my "me" time and clears my mind for the day so it felt like months. It sounds so dramatic but if I could design my own version of Maslow's hierarchy of needs it would include running on the bottom of the pyramid.
