Last Run Before Rock and Roll Savannah Marathon

This is it, the last run before the big race. I’ve done all the training I can do before Saturday. Not to say I couldn’t have done more, I’ve missed some runs, I’ve missed some runs recently even. I’ve justified it by thinking that its better to have missed those particular runs and be healthy but “less ready” than to have attempted them and risked injury. But tonight I finished my last 4 miles on a night run, feeling good, with the moon shining down lighting the roads.

This whole journey started January 7th on a 3+ mi run with my neighbor James, a Marine I met a few years ago out cycling. I’d done a few 5ks last year including the Savannah Bridge Run a few weeks before in December and he was off that Friday and invited me to go for an “easy” run with him. It was cool and I overdressed, not to mention being in poor shape still, and just couldn’t hang. I stopped after 3.5 miles since I felt like I was slowing him down, I just couldn’t hang. But I somehow got motivated. Those couple of 5ks, a crummy run with a friend, and news of the Rock and Roll marathon coming to Savannah got my wheels turning. Since I was a teen I’d wanted to do a triathlon, and somewhere in there I decided it would be an awesome thing to do a marathon, they were two things I just felt I should do in my lifetime, so it all just added up, 2011 Rock and Roll in November was to be my chance, I wasn’t getting any younger. Thanks James for getting me off the couch.

I got online the next day, Saturday morning, before anyone else was awake in the house, looking for training plans. I’d watched Biggest Loser for several seasons and those guys that were hundreds of pounds overweight, usually “run” a marathon at the end of their season, after only a few months training, all the while shedding a few hundred pounds. Surely if they could finish a marathon I could find a plan to get me through one with 10 months to train, and I didn’t need to lose 200lbs. So I searched, which is not easy, there are many different plans out there, each with its own style. All of them had one common thread though, that you shouldn’t even START training for a marathon without having at least a year running in your legs, and be able to run 10 miles. This would haunt me many times in the coming months. I found a plan that fit me, that I believed in, that I felt could take me from the 3mi I’d been running and get me to a marathon. It had a “build up” period to get me from 3 to 10 miles where I could actually start the real marathon program. The times all fit with some room to spare, I knew I’d need that room to account for illness, injuries (I’d heard they happen to everyone,) and any other issues that came along.

Sunday morning I woke up again before anyone else and started reading, just trying to find any knowledge I could to motivate or educate myself. That morning happened to be the day of the Walt Disney World Marathon, I had no idea, and a friend of mine I’d met on Twitter and once in person just a few months prior, Nicole, was running the marathon, tweeting pics, and having a blast along the way. I watched her pics and tweeted her encouragement along the way and finally made the decision to get off the couch and start that training plan that day with my first “long run,” heh, my long run was 4 miles. Thanks Nicole for getting me off the couch.

Somewhere in there I signed up for my first 5k of the year, the Tybee 5k just a few weeks later in early February. I figured if I had done the previous 5ks the year before with poor training on no plan, surely in a month I could see some progress. It was a cold rainy day, ran nearly the whole race in pouring rain and temps in the 50s wearing a cotton long sleeve shirt, yeah, how smart is that. But my time was better than all of my previous runs, I finally broke 30 minutes with a 29:52. We’d also made plans to go to Disney a few weeks later and run the Royal Family 5k which was part of their Princess Marathon weekend and we went to Orlando and had a good time, ran the run, got a better time, and then it happened.

Up until now the Rock and Roll marathon was just an idea, a hope. I still hadn’t convinced myself in just under 2 months that I could do it. I’d doubled my longest run to 6 miles, still over 20 miles short of a marathon and only 8 months left to train, but still, it was just a “hope I can do this.” I figured I’d wait until I got to the end of this buildup plan which would have ended in May with me running a 10mile long run and then know that I was ready to start a real marathon plan. But while we were in Disney at the expo/packet pickup we passed the Rock and Roll Marathon booth. They were offering a discount for signing up there AND a T-shirt, I think I actually walked off from the booth and left Kriss for a bit, but we went back and somehow she and the girl at the booth talked me in to signing up, hey I saved like $20 and got a shirt. YIKES! I’d just signed up for a freaking MARATHON! I bettered my time again in the 5k to 27:20as well, thats decent progress. I really enjoyed this run too because Kriss came with me and was there at the end with Kellie, it was motivating to know they were at the finish waiting for me. Thanks Kriss for being there to cheer me on.

It was real now I’d paid money, signed my name, and accepted their shirt. I can’t wear a Rack and Roll Marathon shirt without doing a marathon. A few weeks later was another race, the Shamrock 5k in Savannah the week before St Patrick’s Day. This is a Friday evening race so the whole family went downtown with me and was at the start and finish with me, again a huge motivation to know that someone was there at the end, I even spotted them at the finish. A friend of our Jill also ran this with me so I even had someone I knew to stand right at the start line with me this time. Standing at the start alone is never a fun thing, I think back to that race at Tybee just a month before standing alone in a cold rain without a sole anywhere within 20 miles I knew. I again improved my 5k with a 25:04, another big jump.

One of the things I was unaware of when I signed up for the marathon was about starting corrals. In all of the 5ks I’d done they have a start line and everyone just lines up. They always announced over the speakers that walkers, stroller pushers, and slower runners should line up further back.Some of the Disney runs even had poles on the sides with times so you could kind of gauge how fast other runners around you were and line up with similar people and faster ones ahead, slower behind, but it was an honor system. Come to find out, thats a 5k thing. “Real” races actually assign people to a corral thats guarded by volunteers that make sure you get in the correct or slower corral, but no moving up, and the faster runners got better corrals. I knew one of the runs I wanted to do later in the year was the Disney Wine and Dine Half Marathon in October, which I wasn’t registered for yet, and they even wanted a verifiable time on a certified race course of at least 10k. So I decided I needed to find a 10k nearby and get something official recorded and fortunately was able to get into one of the biggest 10ks in the country, the Cooper River Bridge Run in Charleston, SC, just 2 hours away and at the beginning of April. I signed up, made the entry cutoff, and continued training. But a little over a week out from that race I started having pain on my right side, I thought it was maybe a groin or tendon injury so I backed off training some but kept Charleston on the plan, I had to get a time recorded. Kriss, Kellie, Alyssa and I drove up the night before and I decided if I woke up and had problems we’d just come back home, but I stretched in my corral, didn’t seem to have any issues and did my first 10k, with a bridge in the middle of it in 1:00:52. I was bummed that I didn’t break an hour but with the bridge, injury, and very little sleep (long story) felt somewhat satisfied, but I hurt.

I took most of the month of April off, putting my build up plan weeks behind but still with that buffer of June I was good if I could stop hurting. Cutting through a long story, I ended up at a ortho getting an mri. The odd thing was that by the time I got to the dr, waited to have the mri, then waited for the results, I’d started back running a little with each running feeling better, I felt like I was healing. Then I went in for the results in mid May and almost fell over when the dr walked in the room and said “I didn’t see this, you have a pelvic stress fracture.” I think my heart sank. But we talked a little more, he laid me on the table and moved me around some and pressed on it, and he decided that the normal 6 weeks off that he would have normally prescribed had already started since I was getting better, so he told me to take 2 more weeks off then start back short and easy. What a relief that was, even though I was still a little worried when I left that office.

Two more weeks off put my training off until early June, leaving me only a 2 week buffer out of my 6+ weeks I’d started with, I was still good but couldn’t afford any more delays. Come June I eased back into it and got myself ready for the Peachtree Road Race in Atlanta, GA July 4th, the nations largest race of any kind. My cousin’s husband Mike had talked me into trying to sign up for this race, you don’t just pay and enter, you have to be accepted, and since it was 10k I’d hoped to get a better time to get a better corral for Disney, which would help me get a better corral for Rock and Roll. The whole family went to north Georgia for the long holiday weekend along with my dad and mom and sister’s family. We had a cabin in Helen but due to the distance from the race and how early I had to get up and drive over an hour to Atlanta, get on a MARTA train to the race start, run the race 10k away, it didn’t end where it started, get on another MARTA train to take me back to my car, I went alone. Again I’m standing in a start corral all alone waiting, running a race that no one was at the end waiting for me. Ugh I hate that. I did improve my time to 56:13 which isn’t bad on a course I didn’t know, in the middle of a Georgia summer, it was very humid too.

One week after Peachtree and some rest my real training program started, this was it. I could still pull out of Rock and Roll and just lose the money, but I’d already run two 9 mile long runs and a 10mile right before Peachtree, so I felt ready. During the buildup the long runs were increasing by 10% each week which in single digits is only 1 mile. But when you’re runs start getting over 10 miles they go up by 2 each week. So with no races in the near future, races are a motivation even if no one is there, I started the plan with 10 miles, the 12 miles, then an easy week, then we went on a week long trip to Disney and I got to do my first 12 mile run in Disney around the lake at Downtown Disney, what a great run it was. Beautiful scenery, water fountains all around, it was motivating. Then the following week on the last Sunday in July for my 14 mile run it all crashed in what I still consider to be my worst run ever. I made so many mistakes that day, I never want to do or feel that again. I crashed, bonked, dehydrated, over extended, ran in the wrong shoes, lost 8 lbs, and got left behind on a “group” run over a bridge I shouldn’t have even been running over during a 14 mile training run, in the words of Forrest Gump, thats about all I got to say about that.

The next day I sent an email to the training coach at Fleet Feet C.R.E.W. training, Lydia, and she said she’d talk to me. I went in and spoke to her about everything that happened looking for help, I was badly demoralized. She reviewed everything including my training up until then and all of my stupid mistakes I made that day and reassured me that everybody has a bad run, everybody makes mistakes, and its better to make them now with 3 full months to go than on race day. But she pushed me back on the horse, made some adjustments to my training plan going forward, and sent me out the door. The following Sunday I ran my 16 miler without incident. The next Sunday was my 18 miler and two weeks later my first 20 miler which would be my longest training run through the whole plan. Thanks again Lydia.

Even though it was still hot I was already looking to the fall and the Disney Half Marathon in October. But even though my 20 mile run went off smoothly, I had a little pain in a foot that was concerning. I took a little break in therein September only missing a week and then a few light runs to get going, but I really wanted to do well at the half coming up so I got back to running. But something was missing. It wasn’t a pain, but I think it was the heart. I’d already done a 20 mile long run, and even though I had another scheduled before the marathon, I think something switched in my head that just felt there was nowhere else to go, I’d done it. I did a few half hearted weekday short runs but knew I needed some motivation so even though I’d decided I wasn’t going to do anymore 5ks, I signed up for the Heart of Savannah 5k which ran the same course as the Shamrock run but starting at the opposite end. So I knew the course, it was a week away, and I thought it might give me the kick in the pants I needed to get ready for the half. Unfortunately it was another alone race at both start and finish but I ran a 24:36, my fastest 5k so far.

Disney is a whole blog that I’ve got to write still, great weekend, great friends around me the whole time from start to finish. I’m a terrible blogger though so I’ll get that post up and come back and edit this. But thanks Amanda, Sarah, Nicole, Jim, and Aurora for being there and all my twitter friends that tweeted me encouragement during the race, there are too many to name so I know I’ll miss some but thanks Barbara, Jennifer, Dan, Victoria, and Shelley for the tweets, ya’ll got me to a 2:06:11 in my first half marathon.

October was a good month after Disney. I completed another 20mile long run, tweeting all the way with my friends encouraging me. It was probably the defining run of the plan. An epic 20 miles with a good portion of it in the rain, it was one of those training days that would prepare me for many races in the future, a hardcore run that even once the effects of the training have long worn off, the mental knowledge I gained running 20miles on a rainy day will always be there telling me that I’ve trained at distances and in conditions that would have kept others on the couch. Something rather large even flew into me in the dark, I started early, still no clue what it was. I did everything right eating and hydration wise, I think I only lost like 2 lbs, and kept a good pace finishing in just over 3:27.

So here I am after my last “little” 4 miler. I just realized after recounting this that it all started that Sunday with a 4miler, I’ve come full circle. Its all over but the show now. I can’t train any more, I can only eat, rest, and get to the start line as stress free as possible Saturday morning. I know pretty much what I’m wearing, though I wouldn’t mind a new shirt, I’ve studied the map of the course so I can have as much situational awareness as possible, I’ve made most of my eating plans, though I still don’t know whats for dinner tomorrow night. Toenails are clipped. Garmin is charging. Tomorrow I go for packet pickup to get my race number and get my corral moved since I can now show proof of my times because I’m NOT starting in my assigned corral 16, I know I’m better than that.

I apologize for the big holes in my training log/blog here, as much to myself as to others because I wanted to document this for future use, and I apologize for the length of this post, most probably will look at how long this page is and skim and move on. If you’ve read it all, thanks for riding along.

Here are my stats for the entire plan since January;

718.48 total miles run this year.
119.87 total hours run this year.
88,680 calories burned
403.3 miles run in Vibram Five Fingers Bikilas (same pair)
20 lbs lost

See you Saturday at the finish.