Wisconsin Marathon 2018

On Saturday, May 5, 2018 I ran my second full marathon...26.2 miles! I remember my very first full marathon just 8 months ago back in September and I remember telling myself that I was never going to do another one. That that distance wasn't cut out for me. Here I am in 2018 and I signed up for two, Wisconsin and Chicago.

I was excited and nervous to be doing another marathon since I knew exactly how miserable I was during my first one. I was ready to redeem myself and put forth more effort in training. I was a little nervous to be doing a spring marathon because that means most of my training would be done on the treadmill, which I am not a huge fan of! The marathon was in a small city about an hour north of Chicago right along Lake Michigan, called Kenosha.

Training this time around went much better! I added in speed and tempo workouts and hit nearly every run for about 12 weeks! I also incorporated Fitbody Bootcamp sessions into my schedule! Right before my half marathon in March, my leg started hurting after my long run. I knew I was in trouble. Long story short, it made my training extremely painful the next month and I had to miss a lot of runs. I wasn't so sure I was going to be running my marathon. But since I am so stubborn, I had to make sure I made it to the start line.

Since the race was on a Saturday, I decided to take Friday off of work and head up early with my best friend, Mary. We brought both of our little girls and took the 4 hour road trip together. It was so much fun to catch up and the girls loved chatting away too. Our husbands came up later that night around 10:00pm. When we got to Kenosha, we checked into our hotel and decided to walk to the Museum to grab our bibs. Since it is a smaller race, there wasn't an expo. After we picked up our bibs, we grabbed some Italian food at a cute little restaurant across the street from our hotel. I loved how everything was walking distance and the weather was beautiful!

Mary and I put the girls to bed and we had to go get all of our things together in the bathroom for the race so we could see! We checked out the weather and it was supposed to warm, high 70s and 75% humidity. I had to plan to bring a lot of fuel to keep me moving!

We woke up race morning around 5am, got ready and headed down to grab some breakfast. As most of you know, I have have been struggling with a pretty painful injury, so I didn't exactly know how this race would go since my training went downhill 3-4 weeks prior to race day. I didn't even think I was going to make it to the starting line. My husband put KT all over my leg and I took some Ibuprofen. I was feeling great and ready to go!

We walked down to the start, hit up the porta potty, and went to the start line. My friend Mary insisted on running with me so I let her, but truly wanted her to go ahead and run her race! I didn't want to slow her down. Once we started the race, I was feeling good. Miles 1-6 I was averaging around a 9:30 pace. That was PERFECT. The only problem was, it was getting hot and it was getting hot fast. At mile 7, yes I said 7, I was already struggling with the heat, bad. It was like I just ran into a sauna and shut down. I was only at mile 7 and I had hit the wall. I don't even know if that was possible. My legs were feeling fine, it was the heat, the no clouds, the no shade, and the humidity that got to me. I told my friend Mary to go ahead because I needed to slow down.

Miles 7-26.2...were miserable. I quite honestly don't even know how I made it. I saw my husband at mile 10 and told him I was going to stop at the half marathon finish because I couldn't do it, I was so hot and my hands were so swollen. I got to the halfway point and decided to keep going because I knew I would never forgive myself if I quit. My pace was literally a walk/run for the remainder of the marathon. I was struggling so bad. I was fueling every 4 miles, taking water and Gaterade at EVERY aid station so I really don't know what happened. I was so upset with myself, discouraged, and felt like a complete failure. I had trained for a 4 hour marathon and I was no where near finishing that. To make things even better at mile 15 I literally got shit on by a bird! I was mad at first, but then had to just laugh about it because well, why not?? When we got to mile oh say maybe 17, it was DIRT ROADS until around mile 23! This I did not know was a part of the race. I literally felt like I was walking on the Sahara Desert, and I didn't know when it was going to end.

FINALLY, I somehow managed to make it to the finish line and I have never in my life been more excited and upset all at the same time. This race was supposed to be the race that I got a HUGE PR. I got 4 minutes of a PR. Yes, I'm excited I finished and it's such a huge accomplishment, but I had set high goals for myself, and I was no where near it. I was a mess very early on. I think many factors played into why I fell apart so early; hot weather, no shade, humidity, dirt roads, no cloud, injured leg for weeks, etc. The good news is, I WILL BE BACK AND BETTER THAN EVER for my next marathon in October!

So you might be asking what's next for me? Well, I am still recovering from the many blisters and sore legs. I am hoping in the next few days I can start running again. I have a 10k at the end of May, many half marathons lined up, and Chicago training starts on June 3. I have more big goals for my third marathon and hoping that with a new training schedule and talking to many runners on Instagram, that I can have a more successful marathon in Chicago!

Rock CF Half Marathon-2018

On Sunday, March 25, 2018 I ran my 11th half marathon! WHAT? I remember my very first half marathon and never thought I would be 11 deep now. I always knew I wanted to participate in the Rock CF Half Marathon. It is a race that supports Cystic Fibrosis, a disease that took the life of my best friend when I was 21 years old. So needless to say, this charity is extremely close to my heart.

I was excited to run an early spring race here in Michigan. The race is on a small island in the Detroit River called Grosse Ile. It has a beautiful loop course that follows the river. I had heard that this race can be windy at times and boy that couldn't have been more accurate. Naturally, as almost every runner does, I checked the weather the days leading up (even hours) and mother nature was striking again. It was going to be a real feel of 11 degrees with 15 mph winds. I thought about not even running because a.) I despise running in cold weather b.) seriously, that wind? c.) my right leg had been hurting the week prior and I hadn't run all week and I didn't want to injure it anymore since I am in the middle of marathon training.

My husband, daughter, and father-in-law made the 3 hour drive to the East side Saturday afternoon. We stayed with a family member which was nice. We hung out for a bit then went out for dinner where I enjoyed some more carbs. Imagine that, right? Afterwards, I had to make a stop at Meijers to grab some KT tape so my husband could tape up my right leg. Headed home and went to bed fairly early.

Woke up pretty early, ate a banana, drank some water and gatorade, got taped up, and ready to go by 6:25. Since the race is on an island, they didn't really want a lot a traffic so we had to be shuttled to the start line. I met my friend and we waited for what seemed like forever for the next shuttle. By this time my feet and hands were already frozen and I didn't really know how this race was going to go.

After touring every side street in Grosse Ile, we got to the start line. I had to pee SO BAD and unfortunately I had about 10 minutes to spare before the race started. We found my friend Mary, and booked it out of the gym to the start. I was worried I was going to pee my pants during the race because I had no time to go.

Once we started the race it was straight wind for nearly 2 miles. I was still frozen at this point and I didn't know if I was ever going to warm up. My first mile was an 8:47 pace which I knew was going to be too fast for me. I ended up holding in the 8:40s for the first 3 miles! Miles 4-5 I slowed down a bit with an 8:54 pace, still not too bad for me! I was trying to stick with the 2:00 pacer because I wanted to hit sub 2 so bad! Mile 6 I had to slow down a bit and clocked in at 9:14. Gave myself a bit of a pep talk and got my pace back down to 8:56 for mile 7. Miles 8-10 I was just trying to survive through the bit of hills and wind and told myself that I was on track for a sub 2 if I can keep it up. I was so excited to finally reach the Navel Airport Hanger. After I got out of that, it was STRAIGHT WIND for the last 3 miles. I honestly didn't know if I was going to pull off sub 2 at this point. I pushed so hard and I couldn't move my legs any faster if I tried. Mile 13 hit and all I had to do was round the corner and across that line. I looked at my watch and it said exactly 2 hours. I was devastated. I knew I just had to double check the time and come to find out I got a 1:59:57!!!! SERIOUSLY!!! I was on cloud 9 and still am!

I have another half marathon in June and I am so excited to see what I can do without walked through every water station, and hurt leg, and not taking a week off the week leading up to the race. I think I am going to add this race to my list of races each year! Such a great cause and a beautiful course!

Why is this marathon training cycle different?

Ask me 6 months ago if I was ever going to do another marathon and the answer would have been a quick NO WAY.

On September 16th, 2017 was the day I became a marathoner, if you could call it that. This race was nothing short of a disaster. It was hands down the hardest thing I have ever done. I started training in the spring. I would run frequently prior to training, but have never actually trained hard for a race. About half way through the training cycle I became injured. I had so much shin pain, I couldn't walk without limping much less try and run. I had seen several doctors, had scans, and no one knew what was wrong. I iced, had massages, stretched, did everything. Needless to say, my training came to a hault and I had to miss nearly a month of running. Race day came, and I was not prepared. We drove 5 1/2 hours the night before and didn't get in until 11:00pm. The marathon was the next day. I was tired and exhausted. On top of that the weather was hot and humid. I hit a wall pretty early on and just wanted to quit. I didn't though. I pushed through and earned my first marathon medal. We won't talk about that time, I just finished and that's all that mattered that day.

SO WHY IS THIS MARATHON TRAINING CYCLE DIFFERENT?

I learned so much from that first marathon race experience. I learned the importance of stretching after runs, rolling out my muscles, getting a massage every other week, strength training, and most importantly MAKING THE EASY DAYS EASY and the hard days hard. For my first marathon, I was that runner who thought every run had to be hard, fast, and long. That's what injured me and burned me out quickly. This time around I am following a different plan that helped me build a solid base before actually starting the hard core training. It gives me the exact paces I should be running for every run whether it is an easy run, aerobic run, 5k pace, 10k pace, half marathon pace, or my marathon pace. It incorporates hill training, speed, easy and hard runs. Most importantly, it has more easy runs than hard. I am currently reading 80/20 Running: Run Stronger and Race Faster by Training Slower by Matt Fitzgerald. It explains that 80% of your weekly mileage should be run at a slow and easy pace. The remaining 20% is reserved for your faster workouts. I have read a lot of research and I heard this method works! I haven't trained this way for a race yet, but I already notice a difference in my training.

We will have to wait and see how my first half marathon of the year goes on March 25th for the Rock CF Half and marathon on May 5th for the Wisconsin Marathon! Hoping for some big PRs this year!!

"If your dreams don't scare you, they aren't big enough."

Thanks for reading my story and following my marathon training journey!