I just felt like runnin'... Part I

Last March I got a wild hair and decided to train for a marathon.  Why you ask?  I'm still not quite sure what drove me to this insanity. I had just completed a 13 week boot camp like program at the gym and was in the best shape of my life.  So I thought then was as good of  time as any.  Fortunately for me, I had a coworker, Dave, who ran marathons. I found myself picking his brain for information as to how to prepare and run the daunting 26.2 miles. Keep in mind that before this, I had only ran maybe a mile, tops!  He was nice enough to get me pointed in the right direction. He got me set up with a 16 week training program. All that was left for me to do was to commit to a race.  Easier said than done!  The thought of actually putting money down meant I was REALLY committed. This wasn't chump change I would be spending, it was $145! In the end, I decided to put my money where my mouth was and sign up for the Chicago Marathon, which was 10/10/10.  That left me with 7 months to prepare. YIKES!  Luckily for me, Dave came to my rescue and helped me begin. Our first run together was my longest....ever. 5 miles.  Surprisingly, it wasn't as bad as I had anticipated. I had to stop a few times to breathe, but found the run more enjoyable than I had imagined.  And so began the making of a marathoner.

Training officially didn't begin until June, which left some time to get my base built up. By the time it started, I could easily do a 6 mile run without  problems. Who would have thought that I, a girl who only ran to my car when it was cold or raining outside, could run 6 miles!? I was beyond excited! Training progressed and before I knew it, my Saturday mornings were filled with 8+ mile runs, working my way up to the big 20 miler a week before the event. Even with my mileage slowly creeping higher each week, I never let myself think of the idea that I would actually run 26.2 miles after all was said and done.

After weeks of running, I could feel myself getting stronger, and possibly a little faster. I found myself yearning to run.  It is amazing the conversations that a person has with themselves as they are trying to distract themselves when they have a 14 mile run to do at 7am.  I found myself singing songs that my 5 yr old had learned in Kindergarten, making grocery lists, etc... I did a lot of thinking about my life. The good, the bad and all the stuff in between. Before I knew it, I was running to Hudson and back. It was something that months ago I couldn't fathom. I ran to another town! Who does that??

Though the majority of the training was okay for me, it was also filled with many struggles. The mental toughness that a person training for a marathon has to build up is insane. There were days where my mind and legs would not match up and a 6 mile run seemed excruciating. On those days, I would automatically start doubting my capabilities and wonder if completing the training, let alone the marathon, was something I could do. I just wanted to say SCREW THIS to it all. I wanted my life back, my Saturday mornings with Lane. But then, after a shower and time to cool down, I would always go back to the idea that I WAS succeeding in my training. Not every day is going to be a good day. Though that statement sounds simple, for a person like me, who always strives to be the best at what I do, it was hard to swallow.

A second struggle that I was faced with was fatigue. After weeks upon weeks of training, my body was telling me that it was tired. Every inch of me was tired. I recall one Saturday morning when it was cold and raining outside. I actually cried during my drive to the trail because I was dreading the next 3 hours. But, like always, once I got out there, I became lost in the run. Before I knew it 18 miles was done.

During the middle of my training I started to have pain in my right knee. It started out with numbness and throbbing. However, the more I ran, the more it hurt. So, 3 weeks before my race, I made a trip to the doctor to make sure everything was ok. His diagnosis, tendinitis. My first question was, can I run? He said I wasn't doing any permanent damage to my knee but the only way for it to go away was to stop running. REALLY?!?! I was 3 weeks from race day, there was no way that I could stop now! So, I drugged myself up on ibuprofen before each run and ran my final 20 miles pain free.

Next came days of tapering in order to prepare for race day. Stay tuned for my first marathon experience!