The Poco Loco started the madness in me. Initially I thought this was a 4 mile run and then learned it was a 13.1 mile run. Hmmmm. Well, I figured I would have to train for it, but it would be worth traveling to Boston and meeting Adam, Eddie, and Steve who have accompanied me for miles and miles of training via podcast. The event also introduced me to other podcasters and bloggers, all of whom I now follow on blog, twitter, and/or facebook. Shortly after returning from Boston, I wrote about these wonderful people.
The Poco Loco event was very laid back. I'm not sure how long it took us to run the 13+ miles, but I know it was more than 3.5 hours. We stopped frequently to ensure we didn't get too spread out and to switch up who was running with who. We ran in a large group the first 3 miles or so and then split into fast, medium, and slower groups. I was usually in a medium group but ran beside different people after each stop. It was a wonderful new experience to run with a group and talk and such. I'm usually silent while I listen to the voices through my earphones. Running and talking requires slowing down a bit and more breath control.
Event #2 was a week later at home, in Columbus Ohio, where I ran the Capital City Half Marathon in 2 hours and 24 minutes, almost a full 5 minutes faster than I ran the event in 2008 (before breast cancer). I was thrilled with the accomplishment!
Before the race, I was standing in the 2:15-2:29 corral and having dillusions of grandeur.
This is great. I've been here before. I can do this. I may even stick with the pace person and do a 2:20. I'm in shape. I'm faster than last time.
Oooo, and when I'm done with this race I will have done a full marathon if I add last week's half to this week's half. I wonder if I could put it all together and do the full marathon in October. I'll bet I could. Especially if I used my new gymboss to run-walk-run the race.
Yes, that's it, I'll knock out this race, do the Race for the Cure next week, and then just keep training at this level and do the full marathon. It will be amazing!At mile 8, the 2:20 pace person passed me and kept pulling away. At that point, I was somewhere totally different in my self-talk.
She isn't walking much through those water stops like she promised. She must be going too fast. Why can't I keep up with her? I've been in front of her for more than half the race. Grrrrrr. Damn, this is hard. I really need to find a portapotty soon. Why did I think I could ever do a marathon. That's crazy. How am I even going to finish this race?Between miles 8 and 13, I struggled and did a lot more walking than I wanted. To compensate, I ran faster than I should have, too. It was not a race run strategically. It was a pure "hold on to the end" type of event. but it was great to come in with a new PR.
The last event in my trifecta was the Race for the Cure 5K. I ran this with my daughter and she kicked my butt big time. I beat her by 10 minutes last year and she beat me by 1:17 this year. I didn't see her the whole last mile. I was very proud of her run and mine too. In 2008, I ran the race in under 30 minutes, but didn't have a chip and so I had no official time. This year, I got the official sub-30 time: 29:53.
Since the wildly successful completion of the trifecta, I have been wildly unsuccessful at keeping my training going. I had a week or two during which I didn't run at all because of an issue with my right hip flexor and IT band. Typically, though, I've run about twice a week for about 3 miles each run. My 5Ks have been about 32 or 33 minutes. On 5/31, I went crazy and did a 4 miler in 45:35. I've been playing softball, volleyball, and mowing the lawn to supplement the lack of running. But it's just not nearly the same level of exercise.
It's time to get back on the road. I've missed it. The music is calling me now. Maybe I'll listen to music for a few runs and then catch up with my podcasts.
