Today was the ultimate test of my ability to run the Boston Marathon. Ideally I would've done a 15 miler, but I've been sick with the flu and my snapping tendon slowed down my return to running. I figured 12 miles would be sufficient. After that it's all mental anyway, right? Eerrg.
The weather was overcast and cool, perfect for a run. I wore my new fuel belt even though I only had to carry two packets of Gu. Better to get used to it than try something new on race day.
The rest of the world is in a full on taper at this point, and I would've been too. I love taper. I love that my perfect taper for a marathon is 3 weeks. Three glorious weeks of not working nearly as hard or running nearly as long, in order to rest up and take full advantage of my training for the big day. Well you can't taper down from zero.
The first two miles I had to keep slowing myself down, it felt great.
Mile three I started to feel tired. Fatigue is largely in your head. Or a byproduct of the flu. Nope, in your head. You're making it up.
Mile 4 and 5 I tried to lose myself without success. I was still holding back from striding out since I was unsure how my body would tolerate the large upswing in mileage. I took a Gu with one more mile to go before the turn around.
As I headed towards home I felt a little surge of energy....either the Gu or the thought of just having to get home and be done. Only six miles to go. Yeee...not a good way to view it. I turned my mind off.
I listened to the thump of my feet, uneven and loud. I felt the nagging pain on my achilles tendon that's been bugging me since I tore my hamstring. I tried to relax, listened to the rhythm of my breathing. My pace quickened as I felt that familiar need to be done. I let myself go the last two miles and finally managed to lose myself. The world went away and my legs did their own thing. They know what to do, they don't need me to micromanage them.
As I slowed to a walk when my Garmin beeped at 12 miles, my cough started up again and seized my body with each one. My hope is that that goes away before Boston.
When I got home I stretched and rolled out my muscles on the foam roller. I iced a couple places on my leg: the hamstring and Fred. It feels fairly good, just slightly sore. I'll run a few more times this week and fly to Boston on Saturday.
If you go on Boston's website they'll have a link to follow my race. I guess it updates it every 3 miles or so. You can see where I keel over, it'll be fun. Either search by my name or put in bib number 16802-that's me! My group starts at 10:25 am, eastern time.
I realize it's going to take a lot of mental and physical toughness to get through this with my lack of training, but I've pulled through before, I can do it again! The experience is going to be amazing, and today during the toughest part of my run I started thinking about the people who lost legs at last year's bombing, and they're running this thing. I don't think I have any right to complain. People have greater struggles than I do.
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