I'm running a freaking marathon....again!

Lots of exciting running developments over the past week.  Let me start by announcing that I am running another freaking marathon!  No, not New York.  I didn't get in to New York and I am far too lazy to get a bib via fundraising (anyway, I am saving all of my fundraising mojo from this point forward for another event).  So after much contemplation--by which I mean a whole evening of thinking and sleeping on it before registering--I decided to do the Philadelphia Marathon.  Why?  Here are a few reasons:

• It's in November, so the weather should be pleasant
• It is mostly flat
• I've heard good things about it from others
• The course is awesome, as I know from running some of it last summer.  Yay scenic courses!
• When I was driving into work the morning that I did not qualify for the NY Marathon, I heard Elton John's 'Philadelphia Freedom.'  Obviously, it is very easy to substitute the lyrics, 'Philadelphia Marathon.'  So I mostly have Elton John to thank for this.
• Most importantly, there were still spots open

And that is that!  It is November 18, so the weekend before Thanksgiving.  To celebrate, I have officially ordered my first carton of caffeinated sport beans.

I'm not quite on schedule for the half-marathon, although some of it is by choice.  Last week, for instance, I decided to pool run one of the 5-milers because it's hot out and I haven't been totally keeping up with the plan, so I didn't want to injury myself.  Yesterday, I was supposed to do the 10-mile run, but I just completely was not feeling it.  Lousy reason, maybe.  But I am doing it later today, so it's not a total loss.  After talking to someone yesterday about the myriad of advantages to running later instead of earlier at this time of year, I had even convinced myself that this was the better way to go.

Thanksgiving Week

It was a somewhat busy Thanksgiving week. For instance, I went to a whole other country (okay, it was Canada, which is the country next door, but still).  I did, however, get through my entire week of running and it was a big week for this plan: 6 miles on Tuesday, what wound up being 6 miles on Thursday (surprise!), 12 miles on Friday, and speedwork today (Sunday).  I had to rearrange things due to travel, but at least everything got done.

The Thursday 6 miles was broken down as follows: 4 miles normal, then 0.5 miles fast, and 1.5 normal to finish.  I did the fast quite fast.  Plus it wound up being up a hill.  A real hill, not a Florida hill (although nowhere on par with a California hill or a Pittsburgh hill or anything).

Other excitement during my week: I bought new shoes on Monday and tried them out on Tuesday.  They seemed fine, so I took them to the foreign country.  Surprise!  They were not.  I got back Thursday to find that they had viciously attacked my feet during my run.  So I got to buy brand-new (expensive) running shoes in a foreign country.  Yay!  Ah well, these things happen sometimes.  I have to say that these were my first skunky shoes in my running career, so probably I shouldn't complain too much.

The runs all went okay, although none was particularly great. I didn't have enough fueling stuff for the long run because I was out of my sport beans.  By the end, I was hungry, which is a sign that you did not have enough en route.  But that wasn't such a big deal since I wasn't too concerned about my time.

On to tapering!  I am super excited about this since the past week wore me out.

What a difference decent weather and a packet of caffeinated jellybeans makes

I can tell you exactly what a difference these two things make: a full 30 seconds off of my personal record (PR) mile split for a half-marathon!  That's a whole 6 minutes faster!  I think that actually it's closer to 7 minutes faster!

Really!

That happened!

The scenario: the first half-marathon in the Florida Halfathon series was today.  I was, to say the least, concerned, particularly after the last long run that I did where I was awful.  I decided to try being better about fueling: generally I don't eat much before a race, so I decided to change that.  I had one of my packets of caffeinated jellybeans prior to the race.  That apparently did the trick.  I don't think that I've ever felt so focused at the beginning of a long run.  This idea is staying.

Then, I was very fortunate in that the weather was MUCH better than anticipated.  It was 58F with a dew point of 50F.  Now admittedly, this is actually in the 70% humidity range, but it felt considerably better than normal.  And there was a pretty hefty breeze--actually, I could have done without the hefty breeze from a running standpoint, but it was fantastic from a not-overheating standpoint.  Also great: it was overcast throughout the run, so Mr. Florida Sun was not even a factor.

And I did not even come close to overheating!  I did have to walk a bit around mile 11 because I got going too fast for a while.  But I was back on track soon enough and polished off the last mile and finished in a much faster time than anticipated.  Considering that I was worried about being taken off the course for slowness, this was, to say the least, an unexpected surprise.

This was my benchmark race for the series.  I need to work on staying steady and getting faster so that I can power through that 11-mile slump next time.  On the other hand, who cares because I got a half-marathon PR!

WHOOOOOOOOOOO!

Apparently, it's the year of weird running surprises.  I got the age award for the 5k in April, even though I didn't run all that fast.  Then, I got my half-marathon PR on a race that I really didn't expect.  Considerably better than last year, which was the year of the cruddy race weather.

Another Long Run of Ick

You're probably getting completely sick of me complaining about the unending, awful running weather here.  It's hard to stop, I have to say.  But during today's run, I got to thinking about a few less depressing things than the Threshold of Ick.  For maybe 2-3 minutes.  The other 2 hours were agonizing.  I did walk/run it, even though I had this hilarious idea around 0.2 miles that maybe it wasn't so bad out.  Ha!  The sweaty hair around 0.7 miles reminded me that it was.

1) This is training: it's not the real run.  It's okay if I'm slow or sweaty or walking or whatever.  It's learning how to cope with a challenge.  So if I wake up on the morning of the 1/2 marathon and it is 77F with 90% humidity, I will have a strategy.  Although really if that happens, I will probably just cry or something.  Since the race is happening in a far more northernly clime, though, let's assume that it won't.

2) I need to read labels more often.  I haven't been using my normal healthy Gatorade (aka Recharge) because my local store apparently no longer stocks it.  Instead, I was using the sticks, which are basically juice mix that you add to water.  Take a look at how many calories that the sticks supplied on my run today.  I had two, so you can double that to 20.  Not nearly enough for a long run, I can promise you that!  I guess a trip to the Whole Foods is needed.

I did have my caffeinated jelly beans this morning though.  That may have been the highlight of my run.

3) The running around the drinking fountain route may be boring, but it is mostly shady and has the added bonus of a water fountain every 1.86 miles or so (that is the approximate length of the loop).  Who needs excitement?

4) I'm running in oppressive conditions.  Even Runner's World says so.  In fact, here is their advice for running in oppressive conditions:

High heat (85+) + high humidity (over 60%)
THE EFFECTS
Raises core temp, reduces blood volume; humidity interferes with evaporation of sweat.
THE SOLUTION

"Stick to easy runs or use the treadmill," says Puleo.

Adorable.  Okay, I am not in 'high heat' most of the time.  Only for half of today's run. Ah heck, it's close enough.

Also, is 60%+ high humidity?  Wow.  This makes me feel much better.

4) There is one saving grace about walk/run: it makes the actual activity very regulated and, for lack of a better word, doable.  It was much easier today to know that I only had to get through a certain interval and then I would get a break.  Also, when I started getting ahead of myself and felt like I couldn't get through the remaining intervals, I told myself that I could only do one at a time and there was no point in getting ahead of things (this was actually really helpful).  Otherwise, it would have been impossible.  So I just need to stick to this for the remaining long runs.  Incidentally, for the purposes of this training plan, I've decided that anything over 5 miles is a 'long run' and will have to be run/walked.  What this means is that 4 out of next week's 5 runs are 'long' and will have to be run/walked.

5) There is nothing wrong with dousing yourself with water at the water fountain.  It won't evaporate for the rest of the run, but there is nothing wrong with it.  In fact, because you will be slippery for the rest of the run, you may avoid chafing.  Unexpected bonus!

Believe it or not, I am in a better mood about this run than I was a few hours ago.  As the Runner's World article says, irritability is a sign of heat exhaustion.  Only three more weeks to go.  It's almost over.  So very close.