DNF on my Half Marathon Today

Today was another humbling experience in my racing career.

I took the past 5 days off for at first what I thought was calf pain. The more research I did, I realized I was having problems with my Achilles tendon. As soon as I knew I had the beginning stages of Achilles tendonitis, I knew that rest was the only option. I spent 5 days cross training and not running. The 5 days helped immensely and I was feeling great yesterday and did a practice 1.5 mile run to see how I felt. I had no pain and thought I would be great for my half marathon today so headed up to Maine this morning.

I decided to race the all women's Maine Coast Half Marathon in hopes to redeem my training after Twin Cities. I knew that because of my injury that my chances of a PR were small, but I wanted to try and see what would happen.

Kathrine Switzer showed up for the race, how cool is that? The race advertises this marathon as an all women's half marathon and "one lucky guy". Kathrine made the comment that when she ran Boston, there were 778 men (not exactly sure of the number) and she was the one lucky girl, so here he was the one lucky man among just under 1200 women. This was probably one of my favorite parts of the day. :)

So we took off and the first 5k was AWESOME. I felt great and I was cruising. Mile 1 was under 7:40 and I settled into an 8 minute pace for mile 2 and 3. There were a lot of rolling hills and I was still able to maintain my pace going up the hills. Now one problem is, my achilles, does not like going downhill. So the initial rolling hills, while I was able to run them fine, my tendon was not happy with me. I saw my husband at around the 5k point and I looked and felt great....Looking back I should have stopped then before the pain started.

Coming down the hill the road along the ocean, so pretty.


Looking very strong and very happy and it was a perfect day for racing.


This was our view for a multiple miles, so pretty! The lighthouse in the distance is the neighborhood we got to run in.




Just over a mile later and the pain began. I gradually slowed down as the pain increased thinking it was just little pain and that I could push through it. I wasn't worried about time, I just wanted to get my 13 miles in. Well going into mile 5 there was a lot of rolling hills. I am not complaining about hills, because I love a good rolling course because I pass people going up, but going down hills was killing me. My mile 4 was around 8:20 and 5 was about 8:40. I was slowing down and the pain was getting worse. I figured, I would just make it back to my husband which was around mile 9 and be done. The decision was pretty much made, but I needed to get to him. I started to get past, over and over again. It really was hard on the ego and I knew I would never get passed by these people if I wasn't injured.

At this point, my first complaint of the half marathon began. The mile 5 or so water stop was totally unmanned. They had a table set up with jugs of water behind it and cups. Women were just drinking out of the jugs. (Ever heard of flu people?) I was annoyed but poured myself a cup and kept going. My next complaint was, where was the course support? I wanted to quit and couldn't find anyone to ask how to get back to the finish line. There were not even police officers around and the traffic was totally blocked so even if I could borrow a cell phone from a spectator there was no way my husband was coming to me other than by foot.

So miles 6-9 went by pretty slowly as I knew the pain was getting worse and I was very afraid of injuring myself worse than I already was, so I took it slow, very slowly. I was trying to enjoy the beautiful day, but who likes to get passed by people and being in pain. We were running back down the pretty stretch along the ocean and I was looking desperately for my husband. I couldn't find him and passed the turn to the finish line. I thought, maybe I could do this and kept going. I made it about 1/4 of a mile before I decided I was done. I quit. This was the hardest decision I have made while running before. I immediately took off my number and crossed the street and walked back to the high school with my head hung low. Walking was painful at all, so I knew that I could finish the half marathon walking, but I don't walk half marathons, I run them. I was not going to wear a medal that I didn't totally earn. (Please note, I find NOTHING wrong with walking in races, if that is how you finish them. I will walk when needed, but 4 miles of walking would not do me any good other than irritate my injury more than it needed to be.)

So I made it to the finish line at around 1:35 on the clock and got to finish all the top finishers of the race. I had extreme envy of their speed and injury-free legs. I waited around for my husband who finally realized after a while that I must have quit and went to the finish line to find me. Stupid, me, was so upset with quitting that I refused to grab water or food after the race. My head was telling me I didn't deserve the food even though I had just ran 9 miles. I paid for that about an hour later when I had the worst headache and chills from not eating or drinking.

We went home and my tendons began swelling up. I was limping around so I let my husband talked me into icing and heating my ankles. Here are pictures of me with my feet in a bucket of ice water and then the hot bath.




I am now planning on 2-4 weeks of rest, more if I need it. This is not a fun situation for me because I run for more reasons than just racing. I need to run for my peace of mind, so I will be a crabby person for the next few weeks. I do plan on cross-training as I was fine with it last week. When I do plan on easing back into training, it will be a GRADUAL easing. I have adjusted my goals for Disney to just finish the races and to have fun. I know as long as I keep my cardio up that I will be able to finish the races, it just won't be as easy if I could complete my training.

The quickly filling up Boston Marathon has made my decision to take it easy over the next few months so much easier. I have read that the race may be filled by Thanksgiving so any chance of qualifying in the winter is now not an option, so I will just enjoy my winter marathon without having any what if's, no need to skip my 1/2 marathon if I am feeling good.

So there is my not-so-fun update. Oh injuries, they are so much fun.

Sore Calves & Halloween Pictures

I have sore calves. No other way to describe the pain I am in right now. According to the Newton website, you need to break your legs into the Newton's. Well, my first run in my Newton's was an 8 mile easy run and I felt great so after Baystate I resumed training as normal rotating the Newton's with my Brook's. Well after a few speed workouts in my Newton's and my calves are killing me. I would think I am injured but for the fact that the pain moves. At the beginning of the run the bottoms of my calves ache and by the end of my 16 mile run yesterday the tops of my calves were dying. And yes, I said dying. My muscles have never felt this sore before. I am also ok during the day, reinforcing the fact that this is just sore muscles.

When I started running 2 1/2 years ago, I had problems with my calves/shins. Maybe I am sensitive to pain, but my nerves tell my brain that I am in a lot of pain. It is really annoying because I know I am fine, but it is no fun running when your eyes are tearing from pain. But I must point out that I am not always in pain while I am running....Once I stop and stretch, the pain goes away. The problem is my calves cramp back up within another mile or so, so I stop way too many times to alleviate the cramps. I did make it for 10 miles yesterday with minimal stretching and at a good pace, the last 6 miles were a different story, but I did finish my run.

I am hoping my lack of miles this week and 2 days of rest on Friday and Saturday will leave me with fresh calves for my half marathon on Sunday. I am not in the mood to blow another race, so we will see how my legs handle 13.1 fast miles.

I would love any suggestions on how to stretch the poor things out. Normal calf stretches help while I am running along with stretching my hamstrings. At home I do more hamstring stretches and roll out the muscles, oh that feels really wonderful. (SARCASTIC, I hate the foam roller, but it does work.) I also don't plan on wearing my Newton's at all this week and I took the orthotics out of my shoes just in case they are worn out. Desperate measures.

Update to when I originally wrote this post....I am going to take the whole week off from running, rest is good. I am not sure this is just my calves or if a combination of new shoes and lack of recovery time has hurt me. I am going to give my legs a break this week and see how I do.

Hopefully you all had a great Halloween. Congrats to all the awesome racers out there. I spent my Halloween celebrating my daughter's 3rd birthday. Her birthday is Thanksgiving weekend, so I had the party early, so that I didn't have to cook for two celebrations so close together. Here are some pictures from the weekend.

My cake I made...


Our trick-or-treaters...


Dora & Diego (I look terrible, I was working on this party for 2 days straight and ran 8 miles that morning.)


Gabbie's new stroller...


The birthday girl...

How I Will Get to the Goofy Challenge

Well recovery from the Baystate Marathon has been going fine, but my ankle from the Twin Cities Marathon still has a nagging pain. I have been running, but it takes a mile to even warm up and the next day my foot hurts worse. My foot pain has caused me to rethink my training for the next few months.

I obviously wanted to maintain my BQ fitness that I got over the summer. I worked my butt off and know that given the right opportunity that I will qualify for Boston if all things go well. The Goofy Challenge does not make for a perfect marathon as I will be tired from the 1/2 marathon the day before. Because of this, I decided to take it easy this training cycle and let my legs and mind have some time off.

Originally, I thought I would try the Pfitzinger 70 mile plan again, but with some thought and a sore foot screaming at me, I have changed my mind. I have decided on Hal Higdon's Advanced 2 program. The program incorporates much more speed work than I am used to but the mileage is down a lot from what I am used to. I have added miles to the program so that I peak at around 63, but for the time being I will run the program as it stands until my foot starts feeling better.

I also decided I am really going to focus on paces that resemble my current fitness rather than BQ paces. I am very close to the fitness I need, but I have yet to prove it in my shorter races. For example, I need to drop 12 seconds in my 5k and about 30 seconds in my 15k. My half marathon time should be about 2 1/2 minutes faster than it currently is. I do think I am there but I am not going to train as if I am there until I prove it. I will be running my half marathon in 2 weeks, so hopefully I can see improvement, but that is all dependent on how my foot behaves. At the moment, I honestly don't even think I will PR in my half based on the pain my foot is giving to me.

As for goals for the Goofy Challenge, my main goal is to complete both races and to have fun. Running Baystate really reinforced to me that running marathons is fun and shouldn't be stressful. I have no time goal other than to hopefully go sub-4 in the marathon, but I would rather finish smiling than to think about a time goal.

My upcoming week appears to be pretty easy. I have 2 recovery runs of 3 and 4 miles. I have a tempo run of 40 minutes and a marathon pace run of 3 miles and then 8 and 17 miles scheduled for next weekend. The weekday runs should be easy enough and should hopefully give my foot some time to rest. I also plan on really upping my cross-training this training cycle. I started the 30 Day Shred again, but who knows how long it will last as my body hurts from doing it. :)

As for when I will try to qualify for Boston again, I am thinking about trying sometime this spring. My husband and I need to discuss where we want to go for a spring marathon and then I will set that as my goal. So Boston 2011, hopefully, here I come!

2009 Baystate Marathon Race Report

I chose to run Baystate Marathon this year for 2 reasons. I knew I was running Twin Cities Marathon October 4th and with Baystate being 2 weeks later, I thought it was the perfect opportunity to finally join the Marathon Maniacs. My second reason for running was I convinced my sister to run Baystate as her first marathon.

I knew my sister could run a marathon after she completed her first marathon back in March. Since I convinced her to run the marathon, I promised I would run with her. Yes, I would have loved to try for Boston again, but I knew with the nagging foot pain I had from Twin Cities, that Boston wouldn't happen anyways.

We didn't go to the Expo for Baystate, instead we just picked up our packet from the running store that was a sponsor of the race, Marx Running & Fitness. Marx is where I buy my shoes, I highly recommend that store to anyone who lives west of Boston. My sister loaded up on Baystate gear so I joked that she was committed, she had to cross that finish line.

I was really relaxed leading up to the marathon. I got some shorter recovery training runs in during the week. My feet were a little sore, but nothing I couldn't tolerate.

Race morning was a typical race morning. I had to force my bagel down as I wasn't hungry at all. I chose to drink a soda instead of just water before the race because that is what I did for every marathon except this past Twin Cities. I am sure that is not what caused my side cramp, but you can bet I will go back to what has worked. My sister picked me up at 6:15 and we drove to Lowell, Massachusetts, which is about 20 minutes from my house. We were able to sit in the Tsongas Arena before the race, so we were able to have normal toilets and sit on a warm dry floor. My sister was really nervous to the point where she almost started crying when it was time to go outside. I was pretty relaxed and ready to have fun.

The starting line was pretty chaotic. This is historically a very fast race so the front of the pack was full of people. We just walked to the back of the starting coral and stood next to a building so that we could avoid the wind. The temperature was around 40 and the wind was just starting to pick up. The forecast said that the Nor'easter was to come in at around 10am. With a start time of 8am, I figured we could get halfway through the marathon before we froze. It started to drizzle about 5 minutes before the start, fun. The start was just a countdown of 3,2,1....and we were off.

The race was easily divided into a few parts so that is how I will divide the race report. Miles 1-3 went by pretty quickly but they were packed. There was a half marathon that started alongside the full marathon and we were all on one road. I told my sister no weaving so we just took it easy those first 3 miles. Mile one was 10:15 and 2 and 3 were around 10:00 pace. Her goal was to finish....I knew we would slow down at the end of the race and she was comfortable with that pace so we were going to see how long we could go that pace. I warmed up a little at this point so I took my jacket off and tied it around my waist. We saw our husbands and my brother at mile 3 which is where the half marathon turned and we were headed straight for our first loop.

Mile 3...Looking good and way too happy.


Miles 3-13 were very fun. It started raining harder so the rain jacket went back on. For the most part the whole race was pretty flat with a few rolling hills, it was a very easy course. The water stops were all put on by local high schools and they were awesome. Some stops the kids were in costumes and they were all so enthusiastic. For sitting outside in 40 degree weather in the rain, they were amazing. We walked through all the water stops so that I could make sure Kelli was getting all her necessary fluids. She was also taking gels at every 5 miles, I was taking gels at the first stop after each 5th mile. Mile 8 went over a footbridge of a huge bridge. This was not my favorite part of the race at all. First of all, I am so afraid of bridges, so running over a big one by foot is not fun. This bridge was fairly slippery, narrow, and moving. I ran pretty quickly over the thing as I was quite scared. It was even worse knowing that I would be going over that bridge again in another 10 miles, yuck. Miles 8-13 were very boring and easy. We kept knocking off the miles and passing a few people here and there. We were still maintaining a 10:00 pace and having a good time. Approaching mile 13 we ran over another bridge. This time we didn't have to go over the footbridge, so I wasn't quite as scared. On the other side of the bridge we saw our cheering section which now included one of my sisters.

Mile 13...Still having fun.


Miles 13-23 is when the real fun began. I swear as soon as we saw our husbands the weather took a big turn for the worst. The temperature dropped into the 30s and the rain started coming down hard. We were soaked. You could wring out my mittens they were so full of water. We made it to about mile 16.5 before we actually started slowing down. At about mile 16.5 there is a small hill that leads up to the first bridge. My sister's thighs started to get tight so we slowed down to the pace she needed. This is when she started questioning why people do this. You know the same thing we all have thought about at one point in our marathons. I was trying to maintain a positive attitude so I continued to tell her how I loved running and that this was fun to me and that it is supposed to hurt. We made it to the bridge at mile 18 and we were continuing to slow down. At this point we were pulling at 10:30 pace but decided to walk after we got over the bridge to try and give her legs a break. My feet were hurting the whole time, but I refused to stop because of me, this wasn't my marathon, I was going to get her to that finish line. We walked for about .5 miles and that seemed to help her legs a bit. Legs felt better. Our bodies were now in trouble because we were COLD! I don't think I have ever been so cold in my life. Keep in mind, I was prepared for this marathon in terms of what I wore. I wore pants, 2 shirts, a rain jacket, ear cover, and mittens. A large number of people running Baystate were not prepared for the weather. People started to drop because they were so cold. People were uncontrollably shivering and were walking off the course to quit. I was still cold and shivering with all my clothes on, but we weren't quitting. We ran/walked the next 4 miles. We ran much more than we probably would have, had the weather been warmer. I don't think we walked more than 1.25 miles of the entire marathon, something my sister should be so proud of. Surprisingly, those 4 miles went by fairly quickly even though we were freezing and our feet felt like blocks of ice. At mile 23, we saw our husbands again. THANK GOODNESS! Eric had his running gloves on and he switched out with me. Oh what a saint! I have no pictures from this point on as it was raining too hard for my husband to have the camera out. People's umbrellas were breaking because of the wind and Eric didn't want to risk ruining our new camera. I will post the official race pictures once they become available. When we came up to our husbands and stopped to get gloves, there was a bus there that opened its doors to let us in. Eric said there were bus fulls of people that had quit and were hopping on the bus. We were not quitting. We only had 3 miles left. Our average pace up to mile 20 was around 10:30 pace, so we definitely slowed down.

Miles 23-26 were a blast for me, not so much for Kelli. We left the boys and trudged on. I knew how hard those last 3 miles were for me when I ran my first marathon so I started talking. I was trying to make Kelli and the people around me laugh to lighten the situation as people were running and walking with their heads down with defeat written all over them. Kelli kind of just half laughed at me and kept up with me. My fingers felt like they were going to fall off and my feet felt like I was running with blocks of ice in my shoes, I was sooooooo cold! I am so proud of her at this point as I didn't let her slow down as much as she wanted to. I kept up an even pace even up the small hill that was right at the end. At 1 mile to go, I made her pick it up a little bit more. Her legs were dying and I was excited. I knew I would be warm in just a short time, I was squealing, literally. We ran across a bridge and I was screaming. Yes, I was a fool, but I was trying to express to my sister how exciting this moment was. The finish line was in a stadium and you kind of looped around the stadium to get in, it was very cool. You entered the stadium and did a lap around the ballpark to the finish line. The ballpark was full of huge puddles so we did some weaving around so as to not soak ourselves anymore. The whole time I kept telling Kelli that I knew she could run faster. We made it around and crossed that finish line in an official time of 4:49:14. We were done, finally!

The finish line food was pretty good and we took it downstairs to eat on some picnic tables. We were so cold that we had everyone block us off with our heat blankets so that we could change into dry clothes. I apologize to anyone who may have had to see me, but I was too cold to go and find a bathroom.

Overall, I loved this marathon! It was a boring marathon in terms of spectators but the course was so easy and the finish line was great. I really think that this is a great course to qualify for Boston on, so I may be back next year with that in mind. No matter what I will run this race again as it is practically in my back yard, and it was a blast!

Marathon #7 is in the Books, Here I Come Maniacs!

Quick update until I get pictures uploaded tomorrow. Today I finished the Baystate Marathon with my sister. We finished in 4:49. I am very proud of my sister. She really pushed through pain in the end and ran a good race. We had a blast but the weather was ridiculous. Marathon #7 is complete, my second marathon in 2 weeks. My application for the Marathon Maniacs will be sent in soon.

Twin Cities Marathon 2009 Race Report

So I am finally sitting down to write my race report. The past week has been crazy as you will soon read and I contemplated even reminding myself of the not so fun events, but I do want a log of the marathon so here goes.

Pre-Marathon

Getting to Minnesota was in itself a marathon. I will preface this by saying that I went to college to be a pilot. I have my pilot's license and love flying. My trip to Minnesota reminded me why I got out of the industry. We left for Minnesota on Thursday morning. We got out of our house on time, the kids were in a good mood, we got through security, everything was going very smoothly. I made a comment to Eric that this seems like it is too easy and that maybe we will have a good weekend after all. HAHAHA! That was the last time I felt no stress for an entire week.

We landed in St. Louis and were ahead of schedule so I mentioned we should try getting on the earlier flight to Minnesota. We went and put in our names on the standby list and were basically told we would get on the flight because of Eric's frequent flier status. That is when we noticed the delays. Every flight going into Minnesota that day were delayed....by hours! We sat and waited as our flight continued to get delayed. At one point they boarded us on our flight, about 2 hours late and then took us off the plane. They told us in another 45 minutes we would board again. Instead of boarding, about an hour later they canceled our flight. They also canceled the flight we were supposed to be on. We were stuck in St. Louis. Not cool! The airline supplemented our hotel, but we still had to pay out of pocket to stay at a hotel and then walk to a restaurant for dinner. I was still thinking positive and staying fairly calm. We checked the internet and all the delays were being caused by runway construction. I figured, why would they rebook us for the next morning if they expected this to continue so I was relaxed.

I got up the next morning and ran 3 miles on the treadmill. The run was very easy and I was getting excited about the marathon. We left for the airport early, we didn't want to miss our flight. HAHAHA. We ate a gross breakfast at the airport and then continued to wait for another few hours. Our flight was delayed, again. The construction was still going on. I sat at the gate waiting for the announcement that our flight would be canceled when finally they boarded us, about 90 minutes late. We were going to make it. At this point, I had already told myself that I didn't think running on Sunday would be a good idea as I knew that I needed the day to be perfect in order for my time to happen, but on we went.

We arrived to the Minneapolis Airport to utter chaos. There were people everywhere! The rental car counters were packed and it took an hour to even get out of the airport from the parking lot. I knew immediately that I wouldn't make my niece's baptism, so the frustration continued. We rushed to my mom's hotel to change clothes and rushed downtown Minneapolis to the Baptism Dinner. I say rush, but I really mean sat in traffic for a few hours as Minneapolis traffic is terrible. The baptism was nice and we went back to the hotel and went to bed.

We woke up early the next morning for my sister's 10k. She rocked it with a time of 53 something. It was very fun and then we headed to have breakfast at a coffee shop and wait for the Expo to open. The Expo was great. There were so many vendors and lots of free stuff. I didn't buy a thing. I didn't want to jinx myself by buying clothing not to mention I have a ton of things from last year's marathon. We only hung out there for about 90 minutes so I wasn't on my feet for too terribly long. After that we got some groceries and ate lunch. For dinner that night I ate waffles with peanut butter. I was very scared of messing up my stomach so wanted to take it easy.

Going to bed that night was easy sleeping wasn't as easy. For the past few days I had woken up at 4am and this was no different day. So I was up early for the marathon and got myself ready. Breakfast was not settling into my stomach at all. I ate a waffle with some peanut butter as my oatmeal tasted gross to me. My breakfast was probably only half the calories as I am used to before a long run, so my worries began.

The Marathon

We arrived at the Metrodome and found out we had to pay $20 for parking! Last year we didn't pay for parking but of course the Minnesota Twins were playing in town and we wouldn't be out of the parking lot in time for the game so we got charged for event parking. We headed over to the Dome and hung out inside until about 7:30. I figured we better head outside, and I wish we would have left earlier. There were so many people outside and already lined up. I was in wave 2 and it was nearly impossible to move my way up to the pace group. I pushed my way up, but only ended up next to the 3:50 group. I figured I would start there and see if I could catch up to the 3:40 group once the race started.

Standing at the starting line, my nerves really kicked in, and I started noticing how thirsty I was. I thought about taking a gel, but didn't do it. Looking back, I wish I had taken a gel. I obviously didn't eat enough for breakfast and really could have used a drink, but of course I will always have regrets.

Wave 1 took off and 3 minutes later we were off with wave 2. There were so many people at the start. I seriously don't remember this many people at the start last year. I was easily able to get into my slightly slower than marathon pace right away. Mile 1 was going great and then the cramp started. Who in the world gets a cramp at .5 miles when you are only going 8:30 pace?! I was baffled. I started relaxing my arms, blowing out, stamping my foot.....Nothing was working. Mile one, I hit at around 8:33, so fine, but the cramp was still there. Going into mile 2 was a hill. I read an article before the race about how you relax up this hill and let people pass you and I did. I hit mile 2 at 8:30, right where I wanted to be, but I still had the darn cramp. My plan was to speed up to 8:20 at this point and I did and also took a gel. A gel at mile 2 was not in the plan, but I needed to get rid of this cramp.

Mile 3-13 was about the same. I wavered around 8:12-8:30 pace and the cramp would NOT go away. I began slowing down around mile 13 as I was getting frustrated and I had to pee and thought a trip to the bathroom would help. My first half was in 1:51, so about a minute slower than my goal pace, but I figured if my body would cooperate, I would be ok. I stopped to go to the bathroom and I heard the clock ticking and my heart breaking. My stomach hurt and I couldn't do anything to make the pain go away. I knew I had 13 more miles to go and there was no way I was going to Boston with this race.

After leaving the porta potty, I obviously slowed down, but I at first thought I could at least get a PR. My first mile out of the bathroom was a 9:24 and I was hurting. My confidence began to sink and I knew this was going to be a mentally tough marathon. At this point my feet started to hurt. It was radiating pain. (At mile 6, I stepped in a pot hole and rolled over on my ankle.) I thought the pain was from the pot hole or from being tired so kept pushing through the pain. I knew I would see my family around 18-19 miles so promised myself if I could get to them, I would let myself stop to talk to them and get some spirit back in me. It was a tough 4 miles to find them. I started having an asthma attack (panic driven I am sure) so pulled out the inhaler. When I finally found them I stopped and told them I was done. I wasn't quitting the race, but I was done trying for Boston today. I figured I was only a few minutes ahead of the 3:50 pace group. I was not mentally in the mood to run a PR of only a few minutes, I wanted the big PR, so I decided I need to switch gears. I saw the 3:50 group run by and then...

I asked my sister to run with me. (Yes, I realize having someone run with you is not the most honest thing to do, but I needed the moral support, it was not planned, but a desperate thing.) So she ran with me for the next 7 or so miles. She made me laugh, she listened to me whine, she recorded me on her flip, she talked to me. She went whatever pace I wanted to go and let me walk when I needed it. My feet were in so much pain and my knees started hurting. I wasn't finishing this race to get a new PR, but I was finishing what I started. This was also when I realized that my husband was nowhere to be found. I knew based on his goal time that he should have been passing me and I never saw him. So I spent those 7 miles looking back wondering where he was. Those last 7.5 miles were pretty much a blur of pain and frustration but we knocked them off between 9:40-11:00 pace depending on if we walked or ran the whole thing.

At mile 25, I told my sister to meet me at the finish line and that I could do this myself. I told her to beat me there so she could watch. She got on the sidewalk and I kept running with her and then took off. She couldn't keep up with me anymore. I picked up my pace to 9:00 and the last .75 miles were at about 7:30 pace. It was downhill and I was so excited to be done. I jumped up and hit mile 26 (dumb mistake, didn't help my poor feet and I almost fell out of my shoes) and sprinted in. I would say I probably passed 100+ people in the last .5 miles.

The finish line clock wasn't working, not cool, so I had no idea what my time would be. I crossed in 4:09. Last year, I would have died for that time and here I was slightly disappointed in myself. I was so happy to be done and to have shared that marathon with my sister. I put on my smile and enjoyed my small victory.

I waited for Eric and he crossed 20 minutes later. Poor guy threw up 3 times at mile 16 and the course officials made him stop to drink and ask questions to make sure he was ok. Then he walked for a few miles because his legs were cramping up. He finished strong though with 3 miles of sub-7 minutes. My husband has never ran a 5k that fast since he was in high school and here he finished a marathon that fast. Amazing!

Post-Marathon

As I have posted recently, the only thing that was sore after the race was my feet and my side. My stomach/side was sore for 3 days. Talk about a wonderful cramp. My feet were sore for 2 days and then I ran in the same shoes on Thursday. Big mistake! The shoes were shot and my feet are now injured. I am now recovering from Plantar Faciitis.

Mentally, I am upset, but getting over it. Post-marathon blues are no fun. I just registered for a 1/2 marathon that is in a few weeks so that maybe my training can shine, but we will see. 2 marathons in 2 weeks is a new thing for my legs.

Will I do Twin Cities again? I have no idea! I can't seem to mentally break that course, but I could change my mind.

New Shoes and Fighting Kids

I have a new pair of shoes! Brooks Glycerin 7 will be the new set of kickers that I will be wearing to the marathon on Sunday.

My running store was hesitant to sell me those shoes as he believes I should be in a more stable pair of shoes. The Glycerin is a neutral cushioned shoe. I have been really frustrated with my shoe shopping as according to my supination and high arches, I should be in Neutral shoes but the running store disagreed. I hate going against someone who really knows what he is talking about, but I also have to trust what I read. I have very high arches that I correct with custom orthotics. All my shoes show serious wear on the outsides of the soles, so I am also going to work on landing on the center of my foot. Who knew that running shoes could be such a complicated thing? I went for a test run last night and I think they will work, but we will see. I know the Newton's were not going to work as after only 3 miles yesterday, my legs were aching. I really need to break my legs into the shoes and I don't want to ruin the shoes by running a marathon in them immediately. Moral of the story is, get fitted for your shoes and have the running store watch you run in your shoes. My running store never watched me run, he just put me in a pair of shoes he thought were good. They worked, but were not the shoes that were for me.

So I have two little girls at home who keep me on my feet at all times. Gabbie will be 3 next month and Bridget will be 5 in March. The past week or so, they have taken to arguing over everything. Bridget likes to be in control so her voice keeps raising when they disagree over a toy or how a game should be played. Gabbie on the other hand has a hard time sticking up for herself so she just whines when she is frustrated. Yesterday was the longest day as I was constantly talking to the kids into calming down.

This week I decided I would cook homemade soups as the chilly weather called for soup. Well needless to say, soup can be messy and time consuming. I think the girls love when I cook because I am preoccupied and they know they can get into more trouble. So every 5 minutes, I would hear screaming. They were having fun, and I was getting frustrated, because for the second day in a row soup was spilling out of my blender. Eric walked in the door early last night, and I let out the biggest sigh of relief. He was going to the running store for me and I said loudly, "Please take one with you!" The soup was delicious though!

While they can be frustrating they also amaze me. Bridget has taught herself three phone numbers this week from a silly little play phone and Gabbie is a little mocking bird so she is on her way to learning them. Oh the challenges in our life can still be rewarding!