The marathon is four Sundays from now, and things are not looking ideal for me. I haven't blogged this season of training (maybe that was the crucial mistake!) so allow me to run the highlight reel:
Snowiest winter ever
This fact was confirmed by the National Weather Service, but anyone training outside this winter didn't need the bulletin. How many times did I find myself outside, in a blizzard, trying to figure out how even the sidewalk was beneath the snow drifts, snot frozen on my face, barely achieving a walking pace while fighting against the wind? The answer is many, many times.
No fear=no motivation
Last year's training was predicated on the mystery of whether or not I would actually be able to complete the race. Every run had some urgency and necessity behind it. This year, the necessity remained but the urgency was gone. Aloof is a good way to put it. Delusional is another - there's no guarantee I'm going to cross the finish line this year.
A little experience is a dangerous thing
I tried to make up for the lackluster pace of my early winter training by poring it on in the middle weeks of the training schedule. I counted a little too much on the reassurance that having done this once, I can manage to do again. I undertrained, then overtrained, then got injured.
And now for the current update:
On April 5, I ran the Burlington "Unplugged" 1/2 marathon and came in with a time that I was truly ecstatic about: 2 hours 24 minutes 55 seconds. This is 11 minutes faster than my time in this race last year: I ran steady 11 minute miles the whole way through, and that was after running two miles from my house to the starting line. It was a GREAT morning.
Until about 15 minutes after the race ended when I realized the pain in my right hip wasn't going away and stretching didn't help. Later that day I walked 3 miles (to make up the 18 miles I was due to run), but the stiffness and soreness weren't going anywhere. I woke up the next several mornings pretty much unable to walk like a normal human being -- lots of dramatic limping and demanding calls to physical therapists to get appointments. Copious amounts of Advil, heat, ice, garlic, rosaries....
After numerous opinions, many of them conflicting, I ended up taking off about two weeks from doing any exercise. Then I slowly started up with micro-mini runs on the elliptical machines at the gym, tentative run-walks outside, lots of heat, still more Advil. Days rolled by with very little training getting accomplished as my fellow runners talked about 18-mile and 20-mile routes. I seriously questioned whether I could start the race, let alone finish.
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