RUN-GER

I have always wanted to be a writer, but I rarely write. I’m too scared or embarrassed or whatever. But you can’t get better if you don’t write. So here I go.... back to the blog. There’s so much to talk about.

I’ll start with the biggest event that has happened recently: I completed my first marathon!

My goal time was 4:30. My race results were:

I'm so proud of myself for beating my goal time! However, there is room for improvement.

I made the classic rookie mistake of going out waaaaay too fast. I tagged behind two people and before I knew it we were doing 9-minute miles and I felt great! If I was doing the half marathon, I would've PRed. That is, until I hit mile 18. I then slowed down at mile 22 and basically crawled through miles 24-26 (look at my 19-mile split versus my finish time). Oops. My bad.

Beyond that, here are some of my thoughts about the training and the race:

1. Wanna know a great way to NOT lose weight? Train for a marathon. Besides now having a giant ghetto-booty, I lost muscle and got flabbier in the whole training process. The run-ger (running+hunger) was unstoppable. Not even one week after the race and I’m hitting the weights again---and I already feel better!
2. There’s no way I could have done the program without my training group. I trained with CARA and I loved my group and my group leader! I admittedly was horrible about my mid-week runs but I was able to get through the long runs because I couldn’t embarrass myself by falling over or stopping in front of 20 people. Marathon training is all about the long runs. Whatever get us through it, right? Pride is a powerful thing.
3. People who are “runners” are funny. They’re both elitist and yet they embrace newcomers. I had so many runners and friends congratulate me on training for and later completing my first marathon! Their concern and support was surprising and absolutely wonderful!! However, behind the scenes they also like to compare times and gloat about past races and how many miles they “conquered” in a given week. The worst part is that I could recognize these traits because I pass the same judgement in soccer! It’s interesting to be on the other (read: "loser") side of the spectrum. I can only hope that I'll one day be fast enough to be an elitist runner.
4. The course in Kenosha, WI was really nice. It wove through pretty lakeside neighborhoods and some open spaces. I'm glad I picked a smaller race for my first marathon.
5. I never keep my race medals. I'm very superstitious about superstitions. I avoid all of them. I refuse to knock on wood, etc, etc. However, I think I might keep this medal. I fought hard for it, damnit!
6. Am I going to be a regular marathoner? Probably not. Despite this, I am excited to start training for the Chicago Marathon in October. Now that I know what the training schedule is like and now that I have made some of the classic mistakes, I think that now I can become better focused and---fingers crossed---faster.

Overall the experience was a good one. I learned a lot about running and about myself and that's the whole point, right? Right. Tell that to my aching legs.

Andrew flew out from Colorado to come support me! He surprised me with a Snickers bar for after the race (my favorite candy) and massaged me and took me out for margaritas and queso and was overall just wonderful. LOVE!

Even though I called him "the worst pacer ever" in my mile-24-I-hate-my-life rage, I adore Sean. I couldn't have gotten through the race without him! I don't know how he was able to manage running 6-miles with me after he had just PRed in his own half marathon race. This sexy runner amazes me!