Philadelphia Marathon recap

I am going to preface this post by saying that the Philadelphia Marathon was great.  Yes, that needed italics and bold.  That's how great it was.  So much nicer than my previous marathon, where it was cold rain for the first quarter of the course (ew).  The weather started in the upper 30s and was no more than the mid-50s by the end.  Could not have been better.  The course was great--there were two hills that I walked, but the more gradual inclines posed no problems (I am still a hill wimp).  And most importantly, I PRed!  And I PRed by 15 minutes!!!  Whoo!

Not my actual time, I was in the final corral of runners, so I had a delayed start (like, by more than 1/2 hour).  Also, you know that you ran hard when your finish line photo is this wimpy.

There was some other walking, particularly near the end when I was getting tired.  Compared to the last marathon, though, the last 6 miles wasn't nearly as bad.  I had some crazy and grandiose plans for counting down, like trying to count out 6500 steps (no), which then became 4 x 1000 steps (walk break after 1000), which then became some other counting down, eventually culminating in 4 x 250.  I think I needed to walk in there somewhere too.  But I did push myself pretty hard during the actual running segments.  For a while during the race, I was with the 5:30 pace group, but I told myself that that would be unrealistic.  I didn't wind up all that much slower than them, though, so yay!

The course was very cool in that you got to see a lot of different parts of Philly.  There is an out-and-back for much of the last half of it, but it is along the Schuylkill River, which I like.  This time, I didn't find myself doing a lot of sightseeing or staring at rowers, like I did last summer.  Mostly I was focused on the course.  But being focused on the course evidently paid off since I did PR.  Whoo! <-- This doesn't get old.

Streets of Philadelphia

Perhaps the best part of the weekend was when Rocky aired on the local PBS the night before.  I could have totally done the stairs at the museum faster than him the first time that he tried them.  Maybe not so much the second time.  But definitely the first time.

I think that I can attribute the PRing to Crossfit, or at least the fact that I am much stronger than last time.  While I did slack off for some of the more recent workouts, in general the strength training really paid off.  I am glad that I got started with it and that I recognized its potential for helping my running; the original plan was to do Crossfit for a month then focus on running but I think that I made the better decision.  Also, I can kind of/sort of do pushups now.  Kind of.  Let's not get too hasty here.

What's next?  I have no idea.  Honestly.  I have been wrestling with this for a few weeks now.  I was thinking of doing a triathlon, but after lots of contemplation, I realized that right now is not the right time to attempt this challenge (I did one, years ago, which was not fun, but that is another story).  I may do the 10-mile run in Canada when I am home for the holidays, which takes place on Boxing Day (December 26).  Other than that, not sure.  I will definitely continue with Crossfit and am definitely taking this week off.  We will see where things go from there.

Everything is coming together

In 6 days, I am running the Beach to Beacon run in Maine.  Yay!  Maine!

Florida and I are not getting along so well right now.  It's too hot and humid (not surprising).  I got back Tuesday and did get out once for a 6-mile run.  Of course, it was more like a run/walk.  I survived it, but I certainly didn't enjoy it.

I also sat down tonight and did my marathon training plan.  It looks easy.  Maybe too easy.  Much easier than trying to do 6 half-marathons over 9 months, I can promise you that much.  Part of this is because it is a beginner's plan, whereas I had been doing intermediate plans for the half-marathons and the impending 10k.  Sure, there are long runs in the marathon plan, but only 4 that are over 12.  Yay!  And the other runs are relatively short, considering.  Yay!

The best part is that the training plan fits perfectly with when I need to be out of town for work, so I don't have to do crazy rearranging to get everything to fit.  This includes a weekend when I will be in Milwaukee for a conference.  It just happens to be a taper week (only 5M for the long run!  YAY!!!) and I am supposed to run a 10k that weekend.  By even more awesome coincidence, I found one.  It is the Colorama 10k that takes place at Lapham Peak.  Why is it called Colorama?  Because the leaves will have changed!

CHANGING LEAVES!!!!  YAY, YAY, YAY!!!!  Because we don't usually get so much of that here in Florida.

Yep, I'm excited.  As you can probably tell.  Even though I would still prefer being in the Melbourne winter.

It has been forever, I know

Some stuff that happened over the past month:

1) A lot of bad runs as the temperature went up/humidity increased.
2) One very bad half-marathon, during which I felt sick around mile 4 and never got better.
3) One really good 6-mile run on a night where the humidity was low.  That was fun!  So it isn't all hopeless, apparently.
4) An 11-mile run on the treadmill, which seemed endless.
5) I BOUGHT A TREADMILL!!!!!!!  Not the same one as the 11-mile run.  But my very own.  So I can run on it and watch the Red Sox.

Stuff that is happening in the future:

1) I am going to Australia.  It's winter there.  I hope that this bodes well for running.
2) I'm doing a 5k in Australia.  Because hey, why not?
3)  Then I get to do the Beach to Beacon 10k.  I am hoping to set a new PR here.  My goal is under 11:00 mile splits.  Doesn't have to be much under them.  Could be 10:59.  But that would still be a PR.  My current PR is 11:15 and I have spent years trying to break that one.
4) All that's left after that is a marathon.  No biggie.

I am trying to stay positive in the face of much negative with running.  Still working off the stomach bug that hit me during the half-marathon and running has not been going so well since then.  Still trying to remember that it is only one glitch and sometimes glitches happen.  Not doing great with all of these sentiments.

I'm sad that the half-marathon didn't go better for a number of reasons.  The conditions were really good for running (in the 50s!).  The course was really good for running: only one real uphill and very scenic besides.  My stepmother would have done very well if we could have just run the course.  So I was very annoyed at the outcome.  At the same time, it's really hard to run when you're sick and there is a bug going around.  I am not the only one to suffer through it.

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.