Auntie Em Goes Running

The schedule called for easy miles, but as hard as I tried, I couldn't do that!  So, I've entered 5 as marathon pace miles.  Splits were:  8:20, 8:07, 8:34, 9:03, 8:14.  I followed with a mile of walk/jog, just to make sure that my shoulder was relaxed.

I'm still feeling pain in the shoulder and have to concentrate every minute to relax my neck, back, and shoulder.  I'm a little concerned about Saturday's race with this much pain, but, then again, I feel it the least when I run, and I do feel that I'm using the arm effectively while I run.  So maybe nothing to worry about.  I'll just do what I can to keep it happy this week. 

If I can begin my race Saturday with two truly easy miles, then settle into this marathon pace for 8 miles, I'll be happy!  The last few miles should be optional; either stick with marathon pace or speed up!

Weather here has become cold!  Fine for running, but chilly and no sun. 

Nice, easy run!  I succeeded in actual easy miles.  Splits were 9:35, 9:56, 9:33, 9:27, 9:34, and 10:43.  Maybe too easy.  I am pleased.

Walked a mile after and picked up trash around the pond.  Talked to a couple of kids who were out fishing early.  Saw a ton of baby things:  ducks, geese, rabbits, and spotted deer! 

Camping with family on the Hood Canal!  Eating great seafood, enjoying low tide.  Terrible place to run.  Did my miles on the highway, which thankfully had a really wide shoulder.  Easy miles were hard to pull off today; I kept it at an average of 8:45 though, which is not too bad.

Still camping.  Still a terrible place to run.  Did the three easy miles with my daughter; her job was to tell me to slow down all the time.  It worked well, and our average was 9:54!  Looking forward to getting back to my trails; I'm really appreciating the beautiful running venues that I have at home!

Last run before Saturday's race!  Its good to be back home on familiar trails; I appreciate it so much more.  I ran about the first 1/2 of the run on pavement, to be ready for 13.1 on pavement on Saturday.  It was challenging to keep an easy pace, but the effort felt like easy effort, so I guess that counts too.  Splits were 8:37, 8:07, 8:34, 10:37 and 8:40.  Mile 4 is slow because I stopped to talk to a friend I haven't seen in a long time.

Did some more thinking whilst I ran about my "plan" for the race.  I truly think it will be impossible for me to start out slower than 9 minute miles.  So, 9 minute miles it is for AT LEAST TWO MILES!  Then, a gradual speed up to 8:45 for another 3, 8:30 for 4, 8:10 for 3.  That gives me only 7:15 to finish the last mile.1.  But its flat then, so I'll do that.   

No running, just resting up for tomorrow's race in Seattle.  I drove down to Seattle early am and hung around, meeting up with friends at the expo.  Had a relaxing evening with Snoqualmie and went to bed early.

This is the least jittery and nervous I've felt before any race.  I have had a bit of a sore throat the last few days, but feel pretty good otherwise.  

I had a really tight left IT band this morning, so when I got to my husband's office in Seattle, I lay down on the large foam roller thingy to roll it out.  When the roller touched my upper leg, it hurt so badly I almost yelled.  Left a huge bruise! 

I was staying with Snoqualmie overnight, and we decided to get up just before 3:00am and get down to the first shuttles by 4:00am.  The shuttles were leaving from downtown Seattle near the finish line between 4 and 6am and would take us down to the starting line in Tukwila.  I think we might have been on the first one!  We got down to the start line with a longish wait ahead of us, but just kind of sat/stood around watching other runners show up.  It was cool, but clear, so obviously it was going to be a really pretty day once the sun came up.  We were talking to this couple from Texas who were pinning their bib numbers to the outside of their thick sweatshirts!  They were so cold from the climate shock of Seattle, they were going to run the whole thing in sweatshirts.  I wish I knew how that worked out for them; not very well, I think.

My stomach didn't feel quite right, sort of like heartburn.  I drank quite a bit more water than usual to try to feel a bit better, so visited the porta potties many times.  There were, amazingly, plenty of them. About 6:20, I left Sno and went out on the empty road behind the porta potties and did a mile of jogging, followed by special warm up exercises and a few strides.  I felt quite happy with myself for doing this by myself.  Everything felt really pretty good.  I was warm by then and the sun had arrived, so I took off my sweatpants and jacket and stashed them in my bag, took it to the trucks that would carry it to the finish and headed off to find my corral.  I have never before run in a really big race, and had no idea about these corrals at all!  On the way over to the corrals, I found a friend from my running group in Bellingham!  She was in corral 7 and I was in 5, so we found our spots together.  The rolling start went so smoothly!  As soon as the gun went off, we all started moving forward, and were actually running at pace before we crossed the timing mat.  Even though there were thousands of people, it didn't feel like I was slowed up at all.  

The first few miles according to my plan were supposed to be 9:00 or more pace, but OF COURSE I didn't do that.  My first couple of splits were 8:26 and 8:06.  But it felt easy.  There were bands every mile, and the first few I noticed, and even waved cheerfully.  After that, I'm not even sure I noticed them at all, except one about mile 6, where the band was playing Sade's "Smooth Operator".  For some reason I found that a funny running song.  

I realized by about mile 5 that I was going to need to use a porta potty during the race!  Never did this before, but I just drank too much water.  I spotted one at the top of a longish hill, and figured I'd dive in, go fast, and then make up lost time flying down the hill.  That's exactly what I did!  I used probably less than a minute, and flew down the hill after.  It seemed as if the entire 13.1 miles was water stations, with cytomax and water, so there was no problem getting hydrated.  I didn't stop, just grabbed a cup if I wanted one, took a small sip and chucked the cup over.  Miles 4-6 were faster splits, as planned, with the fastest being 7:50.  

At one hour into the race, I used my inhaler as I had planned.  I didn't want to wait for the asthma to kick in, because I thought it might take longer to recover if my breathing was already compromised.  Right choice here, and my breathing never became wheezy.

Another big hill and we turned left and headed down I90 towards downtown Seattle.  The full marathoners went right and ran out the floating bridge and back, which looked really pretty!  There is a really long tunnel on I90, I think between miles 10 and 11.  Here's where things started to go not so well for me.  As soon as I got into the tunnel, I recognized some lightheadedness which is the negative reaction to the asthma medication. Being in the tunnel seemed to exacerbate the feeling, and I consciously tried to just slow down and get through the tunnel.  Even though I felt I was slowing down, my split here does not reflect that.  I ran that mile in 8:21.  Near the end of the tunnel, the "light at the end of the tunnel", I realized that some idiot had put a really loud, terrible band at the end of the tunnel.  I will never again run a race with a band in a tunnel.  The only way out was to run right through it.  Horrible.

With just a few miles left to go, I could not tame the lightheaded feeling; it just kept getting worse.  But I was really determined to stay as strong as possible to the end, and knew my legs could work just fine.  I reminded myself constantly of where I was and what my goal was to stay aware, because I have heard stories of runners who forget where they are.  So I was OK, but wondering if I shouldn't have used the inhaler at this point.  Anyway, last few miles were pretty rough, a few short walk breaks, which brought my split times down to 9:03.  In the last 1/2 mile, my friend Karen came up behind, catching up to me and said "you OK?"  As soon as I heard her, I said "yeah, I'm good" and picked up the pace a bit.  Crossed the line I don't know how; and started walking crooked as soon as I stopped running.  Funny, I felt like I was running in a straight line, but couldn't walk in one to save my life.  Remembered to push the stop on my Garmin timer, and guessed that I'd come close to my goal time of 1:50.  Karen was there, and medics were trying to wrestle me into a medical tent.  They kept asking me where I was and what I was doing, which was easy because I'd been practicing the answers to these questions while I ran!  So I passed that test, but there was a general feeling that I should lie down for a minute, so I went along with it.  Didn't feel too bad really.  My coach from my running group was apparently there as well, but I don't remember that.  Kind of embarrassed about finishing so dramatically.

After maybe five minutes, I wanted to sit up and get out of there, so they let me.  I kept saying:  "Look, I know this looks bad, but I'm really strong, and I recover FAST".  And of course I did recover fast.  Felt perfectly well, and walked around eating bagels and oranges for awhile.  Then went out and found my husband in the nightmarish crowds, and wandered around for an hour or so trying to figure out where exactly the car was.  Was going to wait for Sno to finish, but our car was at risk of being towed, so we left and stopped near Queen Anne Hill in Seattle and walked around for awhile shopping, which felt really great on the legs.  Legs felt pretty fresh, and not tired, but a wanted to stretch a lot.  

Got home, went out to a party and celebrated by birthday!  Dropped into bed at 11:00.  Slept a long time. 

Edit:  I forgot to say, I'm happy with my time, even though I didn't quite achieve my goal.  Its still a big PR, I placed 24 out of 794 women in my age group!  So this stuff is all good, and I think I have so much room to improve still.  I'll be working on other solutions to the asthma nonsense right away!  Its holding me back.