The Big Race - Part 2

Sorry for the delay! I've been easily distracted lately.

Here are a few pictures from race weekend:











I understand that my last post was a bit negative. I would like to emphasize that this whole experience has been amazing! I ran (and walked) a half marathon!! I raised nearly $4,000 for The Leukemia & Lymphoma Society. I got to spend a few days in lovely San Diego. I made some great new friends!

I'm so happy that I signed up for Team In Training. I encourage everyone to try it, especially those who don't think they can run/walk a half or full marathon. I bet you can!

The Big Race - Part 1

It's all over.

No more Saturday practices. No more runs in the rain/snow/wind/sub-arctic temperatures. No more fundraisers. No more water stops. No more team socials.

(For now, at least.)

I thought I would feel some ultimate satisfaction when I crossed the finish line. I saw myself finishing strong, the crowds cheering me on, tears streaming down my face. It would be like a slow motion ending to a movie.

However, that's not how it happened. I finished in a crowd of people. I wasn't exactly sure when to put my arms up for the professional photos at the finish line, so I just ran a few hundred yards with my arms up in the air and a confused look on my face. I didn't cry. I just wandered around the post-race area, trying to find my bag, water, and the TNT tent.

Ultimately, I feel anything but satisfied when I look back on the race itself. I had a bad run. I walked... a lot! I didn't want to walk at all, but I think that I walked a total of 2 or 3 of the 13.1 miles. I finished in 2:38, a good 8 minutes over what I put down as my finish time, which I had assumed I would easily beat.

It's frustrating to look back at the race now, and it's easy to beat myself up about it. Admittedly, I quit mentally around mile 5 (I had a great run until about mile 4), but it wasn't all on my shoulders. The course was harder than I or most of my team expected. The middle of the course was on a highway where the road was slanted, and my feet and legs ached more than they ever had in Boston. The ground was hard (California should consider repaving when it has a few dollars in the bank). IT WAS HOT! The sun came out right as I got my second wind and sucked up all my energy. It was not the easy course I thought it was going to be!

However, I finished! I did it. It may take some time to sink in, but the fact remains that I ran a half marathon (even if I was slow). Plus, I am somehow even more motivated now to run another one. I want to prove to myself that I can do even better!

And as my next post will highlight, the trip as a whole was a big success. I stayed in a LOVELY hotel and got to soak up the California sun. I made GREAT new friends. I laughed so hard it hurt (literally... my abs were super sore after the race). And most importantly, I made a difference in the fight against leukemia, lymphoma, Hodgkin lymphoma, and myeloma. The 4,000 TNT runners who ran in San Diego last Sunday (there were 29,000 runners overall) made over $12 MILLION to go to LLS and cancer research.

That is pretty f*ing AWESOME! GO TEAM!

Packing My Bags

EEEK! I leave for San Diego in less than 2 days! I can't believe that the race is so close! I'm excited! I'm scared! I'm using too many exclamation points!!!

It all snuck up on me. I spent the last two weekends away (at home and in Nantucket), and I haven't been focusing on running, which should be OK since I'm in the tapering phase. However, I started packing tonight, and it all hit me like a ton of bricks. It's not totally overwhelming, per se; it's just an odd feeling to know that my months of training are about to culminate.

Also, is it sad that I am almost as excited to stay at the Omni (our hotel) for a few days and to go to Coronado Beach as I am to run my race?!

Brace Yourself

Since about the time that I started walking, I've been at odds with gravity. Balance has never been my forte, and my ability to fall down ended my careers in ballet, gymnastics, and being normal long before age 12. When I started playing basketball in middle school, I thought that I had found a sport in which I could really achieve, but gravity got the last laugh. Throughout about 6 years of play, I turned/sprained my ankles too many times for me to remember. By my senior year of high school, I would step onto the court looking like a mummy from the shins down thanks to my trainer's less than expert taping job.

As some of you may know (i.e., the three people who have probably read this blog), I've had some issues with my ankles throughout my training. After seeing a physical therapist for a few weeks, I made an appointment with a real doctor to get everything checked out since I was still having some pain in my right ankle/Achilles. Well, I finally had my appointment yesterday, and I have a verdict:

Achilles Tendinitis

Apparently, my screwed-up ankles have been slacking, and my Achilles have been making up the difference. Now, they're both angry (esp., the one on the right) and have decided to protest.

Luckily, the doc didn't tell me that I couldn't run, but she did give me a lovely device.

Along with icing and stretching my Achilles, I get to wear this totally comfortable (sarcasm) night brace to bed for at least the next two weeks. It's especially sexy now that it's 90 degrees in Boston with no A/C in my apartment.

In other news, after a good stretch, I ran 3 miles tonight at the gym in about 28 minutes, and I'm pretty sure that that is a personal best!!

Taper Time!!

Hurrah! It's Taper Time!

Taper Time is the magical few weeks before a race when a runner gets to cut down on his/her mileage in order to allow his/her muscles to recuperate before race day. For me, it means that in contrast to my 10-mile run last Saturday, this weekend I will be running 8 miles. Memorial Day weekend, I'll only run 4 miles, and my weekday runs are also cut down. It's GREAT!

In other news, I got my confirmation e-mail for my race this week, and tomorrow night I get my Team In Training shirt and the weekend's itinerary. I can't wait for San Diego!

I am NOT a "runner."

At a team social the other night (a.k.a. an excuse to get together, eat various fried foods, and drink beer), a few of my fellow Team in Trainers and I discussed the concept of being a "runner." I was at a table full of women (most TNT participants are female) in their prime who spend hours each week in the rain, heat, wind, etc.; who run until their toes turn purple; who spend every Friday night in bed so that they can get up at the crack of dawn for Saturday practice; and who had just finished up discussing what flavor GU (see earlier post) they enjoyed the most... and most of us were hesitant to claim that we were “runners.”

I ran 10 miles today (the longest run before my race), and I’m not sure I’ll ever be a “runner.” Why? Well… I’m just not one! I run, sure, but I do not do it gracefully. I am not quick. I do not bounce up hills with ease, and I certainly don’t pass people. I’m not rail thin, and I do not wear obscenely tiny shorts. I don’t run 8-minute miles, and I’m never at the front of the pack. These are the things that I imagine “runners” do.

No. I sweat as if I was in the Sahara. I drag my feet. I fall behind. I eat everyone’s dust. I barely finish.

But I’m there. I may not be a “runner,” but at least I’m running.

Big News

So it's been a while... but I promise that the only thing that I've been slacking on is my blogging. I've been pretty busy running, fundraising, working, and just being awesome in general.

In my absence, there have been some big developments:

1. I MET MY FUNDRAISING MINIMUM!!! Everyone has been so generous; it is truly awe-inspiring. I am not someone who is prone to sentimentality, but for reals, everyone who donated is a genuinely good soul! Thank you so much!

2. My normally lazy butt ran 14 miles in two days!!! I missed my long run this past Saturday due to some nasty thunderstorms, so I had to run 9 miles on Monday solo. I was pretty worried about running the longest distance that I've ever attempted on my own, but it went pretty darn well. I was even able to get back on schedule and run 5 miles the next night, which I will say was no picnic (I'm pretty sure a slug passed me). Today, I trudged around my office with the pace and posture of my elderly grandmother who recently broke her hip, but boy am I proud of myself.

3. I had another fundraiser, and it was a big success. I hosted a pub crawl with another girl on my team who will be running in San Diego, Kamala, and we raised over $950. Plus, I had SO MUCH FUN! We had a great turn out, and there was a raffle with a bunch of cool prizes!

We run 10 miles on Saturday, and I promise to post another update soon. I only have a few weeks left!