Lull

Although there's been a bit of a lull in the action around our house, there has been no lack of activity.  Only...I can't remember any of it.  My mind is blank.  Since finishing that Twilight series I've had little desire to remember much.  (May I say, "lame ending"?  Sheesh.)

Here are some of the things we've been mulling over while lulling around:

• I've successfully forgotten enough of the marathon pain to CONSIDER doing another one.
• My road bike will be repaired (read replaced) in less than two weeks.  (I've been going nuts waiting for this one!)
• We have been preparing to go on a trip to southern Utah.
• Sarah has been talking about NOT doing a half marathon, though she continues to breech the subject.
• Caitin completed her first year of preschool, and did fabulous in her program.
• Jamie got her splint off and the "good to go" from her doctor.

Time for more adventure!  Coming soon:  "The Great Minivan Roadtrip"

Biker Girls

Nothing says 'growing up' like taking the training wheels off your bike...except stepping up to a bigger bike.  Caitin rode her 12-incher (aka Doll-Carrier Bike) for no more than a week before she began asking to have the training wheels taken off her 16-incher (aka Princess Bike).  Oh, and for that week on the 12-incher, she rode every day with excitement and pride written all over her face.  The 16-incher took her about a day to master.  Now she is faster than every kid on the block!  She even joined me on a run and rode 2 1/2 miles!

Not to be out-done, Jamie stepped up her game and is now pedaling the 12-incher with a bit more power every day.  It's a little funny that a very slight incline is too much for her little legs to power up, but she'll get there soon enough.  I mean, she's learning with a broken arm, for crying out loud! 

MARATHON

I woke up this morning at the regular hour, 5:00 a.m. and hit the snooze button.  Some say this is too early to get up on Saturday, but I find it perfect.  Best time to do great things. 

I'll spare the travel-log and give you some highlights (in chronological order) that I observed along the way:

• 
  
  I was able to briefly visit with 7 other runners that I knew prior the race.  That was pretty cool.  We would all suffer together.
• 
  
  I left my training 'partner' (used loosely as we only ran 2 1/2 times together) immediately after the race started.  I really felt like I was running a conservative pace, but perhaps "tapering" provided that misconception.
• 
  
  Due to my quick start I was subsequently passed by many, many people.  Not until 6 miles had gone by did these people stop disappearing over the horizon.
• 
  
  9 miles is a long distance to run when you have to pee. 
• 
  
  The upper teen miles of a marathon are fuzzy ones.  If you want to cheer for someone, look outside of that block of miles.
• 
  
  Heat is not the marathoner's friend.  At 7:00 it was close to 50 F.  That was the MAX temperature for most of my training.
• 
  
  "THE WALL" is real.  It landed in front of me at mile 19.
• 
  
  Walking remains respectable in a marathon.
• 
  
  Sometimes a race should not be considered a race.
• 
  
  No one should ever be able to convince you (against your better judgement) that chocolate flavored energy gels are worth trying.
• 
  
  Friendly faces can quickly shatter "The Wall"  Thanks to my training 'partner' for looking past my earlier digression and finishing with me!
• 
  
  Kind "Thank You's" directed to volunteers fade out.  Particularly in that last mile.
• 
  
  Finally, (and most importantly) Dad's should never forget that their 4-year-old daughters might want to run across the finish line with them!  That one's going to sting for a while.

Nerves

OK, so I'm excited about this marathon tomorrow.  I've put in the time and effort to get ready, but I wasn't sure how to treat this final week.  I had planned to run on Monday and Wednesday.  I ran Monday and felt alright.  As I chewed on the thought of running Wednesday, I determined it would be best to rest. 
By Wednesday evening I was feeling a little...jittery?  It was a slight feeling, but still I felt uneasy. 
Thursday morning I felt fine, but on top of not running, I had also taken the bus to work instead of riding.  With my typical activity level well below normal, I was glad to do some walking on a site recon for work. 
Thursday afternoon had me sitting at my desk in a buzzed state.  Jittery does not quite describe it.  I went for a quick walk so I could concentrate on work again.  (Of course anticipating the marathon AND working out details on my bike replacement are tremendoulsy effective at distracting me from work!)
Thursday night I went to watch some of the Spokane District Track Meet.  I enjoyed watching young men I've worked with over the past 5 years take the top spot on the podium while I socialized a bit with their families.  Those fellas are amazing to watch on the track, but they are more amazing (and inspiring) to watch in leadership roles in church and among their peers. 
I got home from the meet at 9:30 p.m. and tried to go to bed, but my mind and body had different ideas.  By 11:30 I was annoyed with tossing over in bed every 30 seconds, so I got up and read a book with wide open eyes and racing mind.  I've felt this once before...in preparation for a very different goal:  the PE exam.  That time, the anxiety was much more acute and seemed to actually buzz in the front of my head.  This time I simply could not rest in comfort.  Finally at 2:45 this morning I felt that my body was tired enough to overpower the anxiety, and I was fortunately right.  Ironically, some friends had invited me to join them at a concert last night and I turned them down on the premise that I needed sufficient rest for this weekend.  Sheesh.
I sincerely hope this does not repeat tonight! 

Countdown to Marathon

In 4 days I'll be off and running.  The Windermere Marathon starts in Post Falls, ID and runs along the Spokane River on a paved trail into Spokane.  The weather will be beautiful, and a bit warm.  The finish line is in Riverfront Park in Downtown Spokane. 
This is a mostly downhill run...very slight downhill run.  Until I ran my 20-miler I kinda thought that was a wimpy way to do a marathon.  At about mile 17 I realized that the distance was certainly challenge enough!
I'm feeling pretty good about this run despite my minimal training.  When I got the green light from my chiropractor about 8 weeks ago I jested that I'd better pick up my training for this marathon.  (At that point I was only up to 4 miles for my long runs.)  She gave me a wary look and replied, "Maybe you should plan on a 1/2 marathon that day and then run the full marathon later in the summer."--although I heard, "She didn't say absolutely not, so it's a go!" (I did my first 1/2-marathon distance 3 weeks later)
My Physical Therapist asked me to let him know when I do complete a marathon.  This, after grumbling about how runners are often unwilling to take the time to heal/train properly.  Feeling pretty sure  he would not give me that open green-light the Chiropractor did, I did not even hint to him what I was planning.

Just to give you an idea of why I could be nervous about this run:  The training plan that I started in December was a 32 week plan that I truncated to 23 weeks.  That 32 week plan was designed to provide someone an injury-free training program.  I figured I was in good enough shape from cycling that I could easily do the 23 week plan.  After only 5 weeks I found myself injured.
I huddled with some medical advisors and started to work through the injury.  I went to them initially to be sure that my condition was not life-threatening, and had almost given up hope of ever doing a marathon.  To my joy, their diagnoses finally began to match my condition, and with their treatments, my condition began to improve.  That last thread of hope started to strengthen, and as I slowly increased the distance of my runs, I whittled down my training program week by week until that program was only a bare minimum - 8 weeks.  At which point I got the green light.
Each longer run would be a determining factor.  If recovery from a run took too long, I'd have to drop out.  I've been balancing that in my mind for the past 7 weeks, paying very close attention to what my body would tell me along the way.  On a run I would think, "OK, there's a new pain...wow, is this a killer?  Hmmm...I can still run.  Is it getting worse?  No, seems to be sustaining though.  Straight lines seem to help.  Whoa, not entirely!  Keep away from uneven ground.  Appears to help.  Alright, I think I can endure this pain for this run, but sure hope it goes away before the next!"  Each long run has gone like that.  I did not register for the marathon until I successfully completed the longest training run last week.

Now it's here, and I'm excited.  After 23 weeks of training, surviving, recovering, and enduring I'm finally ready to take on the mighty marathon.  I've even got a plan:  I'll carry some water and food in case the aid stations do not suit my fancy.  I don't want to make any stops, but I probably will...nerves and nature never mix well.  I'll wear my heart-rate monitor and keep a good pace.  I'll apply mole skin and anti-chafe lube liberally.  I've even picked out my outfit.  Bring it on!

Discovery: 20 miles is a difficult run...

So I've been training for my first-ever marathon.  I've talked about that a little.  It is now less than 2 weeks away!  With that in mind, I geared up for my final long-distance training run last Friday.  20 miles.  I learned some funny truths about myself on that run:

Funny:  How my mind works when I'm planning for something like this:
"20 miles...lets see...where to go?  Forget about inclines.  They are not a problem...just short bursts of pain amidst a much bigger pain.  Won't even feel them.  Guess I'll just run down the river to the dam and back.  Hmmm...not quite 20.  Yup, there we go...a nice little loop before reaching the house.  Simple.  Perfect."

Really Funny:  The fact that I did actually look at the vertical profile of the path before I concluded that it would certainly be a nice run. 

Extremely Funny:  Having looked at the profile, I did not note to myself that it would be downhill for 11 miles and then uphill for 9 miles.  Ha ha!  Ha.  *shaking head in agony*

Truthful:  I could certainly, and almost easily, run any one of the hills on my planned route in a run under 10 miles and still maintain a decent pace (decent for me anyway).  In fact I could probably even run several of those hills in a 10-mile run and not have tremendous amounts of pain.  (See how my mind has already forgotten the severity of the beating I took on Friday?)

Also Truthful:  I WALKED the biggest hill that slapped me in the face at mile 17.5 .  And I don't like walking when I'm on A RUN.

Painfully True:  Beginning to run again after running 17.5 miles and then walking 0.5 miles uphill is extremely difficult...but possible...yes, and very painful.

Thankfully True:  I still had the mental stamina to hit the 20-mile mark running; despite the extreme gravitation I felt toward cutting that final loop short.  At that point the thought process was something like this: 
"If I cut this run short I will not do the marathon...after all this training and time invested.  It's too late in the game and too close to the finish to do that.  Enduring pain is part of the process that I expected.  So, which street do I turn on?"