April was a good running month

As I’d shared with another blogger, I feel pretty fortunate that I’ve always preferred running alone and super early. That’s been useful during this pandemic—I don’t have to worry about social distancing (I see very few runners out when I go), and I didn't have to get used to running alone.

I’ve been working hard on my marathon training; my coach helps a lot and has been instrumental in me not getting injured. Case in point, I started having left knee pain a few weeks ago and I would have just blown it off, even though it was bad enough I cut short a long run. I shared it with him in the weekly check in (he has a section where I am to list any niggles, pain, etc.) and he immediately had me take a day off from running. Because of that, I got in to see my physical therapist (yes, my clinic is open) and we’ve been working on getting that all sorted out.

All of that to say that I hit several firsts for me: first time running 40 miles in a week, first time running 137 miles in a month and longest ever run of 16.3 miles. I still have doubts that I will actually be able to run this marathon, but that’s more about the mental side of running 26.2 miles all alone.

Last month I also ran the first of two planned virtual half marathons. This was for the Garmin half marathon, and I treated as a long run. I did one this last weekend too, which was for the Running with the Cows half marathon. I doubt I'll be a fan of virtual races after the pandemic is over (if that day ever comes), but these were good mental practice for me, running with no other runners, no support, no people cheering us on and no real finish line. Just my watch as it ticked over to 13.11 miles (I go the extra 0.01 so Garmin counts the damn run).

Garmin Half Marathon—the Land of Oz

This half marathon was one week after the Rock the Parkway Half Marathon. I didn’t need to train so much as recover from the previous week. I asked around for ideas on what/how to train and recover that week and the consensus was to mostly repeat the last week of the training program I used for the first half marathon. That’s what I did, with the exception of the easy recovery run the day after the Rock the Parkway race—it snowed that day so I opted to do cardio indoors rather than risk slipping and falling.

Pre-race
The forecast had been all over the map for race day: first it was going to be in the 50s, which would have been challenging since we have had an unusually cold spring and I’m not acclimated to running in warmer weather. Then it was going to be much cooler (high 30s) with lots of rain which is just gross. But we ended up with temps in the mid-40s and a slight chance of rain, which is about perfect. I’ll take it.

The race itself started at 6:45 and we knew there were going to be a lot of participants since there was also a 10K and a marathon. We got there pretty early, and while that stunk getting up that early, we also got a good parking spot which helped us a lot after the race. We didn't have to sit in traffic trying to get home.

I’d originally planned to take this race super easy and treat it as a long run. Spoiler alert #1: I didn’t do that. My legs felt really good all week so I decided to find the 2-hour pacers and run with them. Spoiler alert #2: while I did find them, I also found a woman I’d talked with at the Jingle Bell 5K in December and I ended up running with her for the first nine miles.

Race
Jeannie and I had to dodge a lot of runners to get in clear space, but we were right on track at the pace I wanted (about 9 minutes per mile). Once things cleared out a bit, we chatted off and on and before I knew it we’d gone 7 miles and gotten to the hilly part of the race.

Jeannie had said she couldn’t train hills where she lived, so I know this part was hard for her. But she’s a lot faster and more experienced runner than I am so she caught up on the downhills (her best time for a half marathon is about an hour and a half—like I said, she’s fast).

Then around mile 9, we got to the trail part of the race. While the trail was paved, it was also patched a lot so it was pretty uneven and I nearly fell a couple of times. By now, Jeannie had hit her stride (she trains on trails) so she took off. I was starting to feel pretty dead in my legs. I knew I’d finish, I also knew I wouldn’t be breaking the previous week’s time. Here are the random thoughts running through my head from mile 9 to 13:

“I should have eaten that banana this morning.” (I’d eaten the rest of my breakfast but skipped the banana)
“Man my legs are tired.”
“Huh that Dorothy just passed me.” (lots of women in Dorothy costumes since the theme for the race was the Land of Oz)
“Wonder if I can catch that other Dorothy . . . nope, guess not.”
“I really should have eaten that banana.” (like 80 calories was going to make a difference for me at that point)
“Oh look, the Cowardly Lion.”
“My toes hurt.”
“Glad I don’t have a half marathon next weekend.”
“My legs are tired.”

Over and over again. You get the idea. I did briefly walk, and it was at the smallest hill ever but I was just toast at that point. I walked for about 30 seconds, then ran to the finish line for a chip time of 1:59:38.

Post-race
Kent and Jeannie met me at the finish line, and we grabbed a photo of the two of us. She’s a lot of fun and I hope I see her at other races. We milled around a little, I grabbed the print-out of my time and got in line for what I thought was a post-race massage. It wasn’t, it was a chiropractor who popped some things on me (very strange, I don’t go to chiropractors so I think it was mostly wasted on me). Then we were home shortly after 9. That was the one big benefit of the race starting so freaking early (even by my standards).

Next up is the Outpacing Melanoma 5K on Sunday, May 6 (Kent and I are running that together). The third and final half marathon for the Heartland 39.3 Challenge is Saturday, May 12 in Bucyrus, Kansas. It’s called Running with the Cows and I’ve heard it’s a really fun race. I’m back in training and feeling pretty good so we’ll see if I can get a new personal best then.