Thursday's Child Has Far to Go...

Not sure why, but my blog title was inspired by a nursery rhyme but it was, and it seemed appropriate because I really do have a long way to go until Marathon Monday. Adding up all my "short" runs for the week and my weekend long run, I logged almost 40 miles last week and I am definitely feeling it. I felt guilty for being run down/sick the week before, so I tried to catch up and ran 18 of those miles in just 4 days, and then another 18.4 during my long run yesterday. Brutal.

Yesterdays run was good in terms of distance, but I was just not feeling it. Although it was warmer than it had been in the past, it was still only 30 degrees out on the course and was pretty windy. The run went from Watertown, out onto the marathon course over the hills (Heartbreak included), to Wellesley and back. This means I got to run the hills not only once, but twice. Unlike my previous group run, I ran alone because most of the people who run at my pace were nowhere to be found. An iPod can only do so much to motivate you and I really wasn't feeling that great by the time I got up to the 3rd water stop at mile 9. I contemplated pushing myself and running another mile out to the 10 mile marker so I could complete the full 20, but my own personal Yoda/water boy, Mike McDonough, asked me: "Are you sure you want to run 20?" I said, "Yea, I do." Again Mike asked, "Are you sure? How are you feeling?" Truth be told, I felt horrible. I had never run up into Wellesley before, and the thought of having to turn around and run back up and down all those hills made me ill. So, I turned around, feeling slightly defeated but also very grateful that I was halfway home...only an h

our and 15 minutes to go! The run back was no better, and really the only highlights were the "drive by" water stops courtesy of Mike, who was armed with my favorite purple gatorade and a years worth of marathon experience. Although currently sidelined with a hip/leg injury, this did not deter him from parking his car on one side of Commonwealth Ave and sprinting across it to give me a pick me up. Run Mike Run! The last 3 miles were mostly downhill but I was really not feeling it, and the only thing motivating me to finish was 1) the thought of getting warm and being able to feel my fingers and 2) eating anything I could get my hands on. And while I finished 18.4 miles in 2:53, I really didn't experience that runners high. I felt slightly defeated. Especially since I spent the rest of my day just laying on my couch, only to go to bed at 8 pm and sleep for 14 hours. I remember thinking to myself before I fell asleep, if this is how bad I feel after 18, how am I going to feel after 26.2?


I read a Globe article this morning entitled "Head Strong," that was chock full of advice for marathoners on how to deal with training obstacles, both mental and physical. The timing of the article couldn't have been more perfect. The two parts of the article that jumped out at me are as follows:

"'Experienced runners know how to deal with days when they feel bad, taking them in stride as an opportunity to train mentally for adversity. “You don’t know what the 19th will hold. You have to be prepared,’’ Brown said. “The brain is what it’s all about.’’

Dr. Arthur Siegel of McLean Hospital has some advice for runners with two months to go until the April 19 starting gun, based on what he has seen in the marathon medical tent and what he learned while training himself for multiple marathons: “If you feel good, don’t get overconfident, as it won’t last. If it feels bad, just hang in there because it will soon be over.’"

Currently I'm somewhere in between feeling good and feeling bad. I have no idea what to expect, and that is terrifying. It's hard to explain to someone who is not training, but there is a BIG difference between being able to run 18 miles and being able to finish a marathon. The jump from 18 to 26.2 is epic. That's basically 8 miles, or another hour and 20 some-odd minutes. A lifetime in my mind. But luckily I'm not alone; I'm surrounded by people who are either running this for the first time and are feeling as overwhelmed as I am or by people who have run it before and can dole out their expert advice or show me their Marathon day highlight reel so I can get a better perspective of what I'll be up against (or when I need a good laugh). So, there are less than 2 months to go, but as Dory says in Finding Nemo, "Just keep swimming, just keep swimming, just keep swimming swimming swimming..."