Grandma's Marathon 2015 recap

Our trip started out with excitement and high hopes. We had put in the work and were feeling quite prepared. All of our workouts were phenomenal, our mileage solid, and our confidence at an all time high. We even had pre-race massages to help us be as ready as possible. With the race being set to take place on Saturday morning, we decided to head to Duluth, MN on Thursday.  Originally, we planned to leave Wednesday afternoon and drive about half way in order to break up the trip.  Unfortunately, this wasn't in the cards for us to do so we set out to make the 11 hour car trip all at once. We stopped just North of Saint Paul/Minneapolis to get an easy 2 mile shake-the-legs-out run completed. Unfortunately for me, I started feeling a little bit of a discomfort in my side mimicking a side-stitch during the easy 2 miles.  As you would guess, this made my mind a bit uneasy.  On Friday, we went to the trail that runs along the bay of Lake Superior for another easy 2 mile run and some strides. That's when the wheels started to come off. I couldn't manage to complete a 2 mile easy run without getting a side stitch again.  Now we were less than 24 hours from the race and I was truly starting to worry about how the race was going to go.

All day Friday, we were constantly checking the forecast for race morning. We were holding out hope that the rain that was headed our direction would go just South of us or simply arrive 3-4 hours later than projected. Of course, this didn't end up being the case. About 20 minutes prior to the start of the race, the clouds opened up and started dumping buckets on us. Temperatures were nearly perfect in the low-mid 50's but when you added the rain, it made conditions a bit cool. Not only that, the conditions made getting a proper warm-up difficult. Our warm up this morning consisted of a frantic jog from the bag check to the starting area and then jogging in place for about 2-3 minutes prior to the race. This was by no means an ideal warm up and I believe we paid for it for the first 10 miles.

The Race:

The gun sounded and off we went. Kimi and I were starting side by side for the first time since our first marathon together in 2010.  Our goal was to run 5:55-5:58 pace for as long as we could manage. We wanted to develop a small cushion for our finish goal of sub-2:37:00.  For the first 10 miles, our legs just didn't feel right. I'm not sure if it was the travel, the lack of sleep, lack of warm up, or all of the above, but we just didn't feel like our light, fast selves.  Fortunately, it wasn't showing on the clock as we came through 10 miles right on pace as planned. There was an odd moment in the race where Kimi and I both looked at our watches and had a moment of panic. It was like there was a gap in time that we lost somewhere. I'm not sure if the markers were off or if our garmins played tricks on us but somehow we got to the half marathon mark and were exactly at 6 minute pace. This was the first real moment where I think we both realized that breaking 2:37 just probably wasn't going to be in the cards for us on this day. We were still rolling in the 6:05-6:08 range so I knew that we were still on pace for a sub 2:40 marathon and fortunately for me, that pesky side stitch wasn't giving me any problems (yet anyways). 15-16-17-18-19 and then WHAM!!! There it was right around the 20 mile mark. Just like an ice pick in the side.  We had just gone through an water aid station so Kimi and I were separated slightly.  She kept rolling as I quickly came to a halting stop. I stretched out and watched Kimi stride away. She had no idea where I had gone. I saw her look over her shoulder a few times trying to find me but she never spotted me. At this point, thoughts of would I even be able to finish crossed my mind. I had a 10k to go and it was going to be a true battle of will if I wanted to finish and finish well at this point. I finally started back into the race after being passed by probably 20 or so other competitors. I knew my legs were strong and so long as the side stitch didn't stop me, I was going to work myself right back into a fast tempo and see if I couldn't just reel Kimi back in. My intent was to simply be there to witness her cross the line so we could celebrate together.  Much to my surprise, I was able to get the pace rolling at about a 5:52-5:55 clip for the next 5 miles. 21-22-23-24-and then WHAM!! AGAIN!!! Right at the 25 mile mark with only 1.2 miles to go, the dreadful side stitch returned. I checked my watch and knew at this point that I had about 8 minutes or slightly over to cover the remaining 1.2 miles in order to break 2:40.  I fought and I fought but it was to no avail. It just wasn't going to be my day.  I was extremely frustrated when I crossed the line, yet I was extremely happy for Kimi as well. I saw her waiting near the finish line as I approached. I was incredibly proud of her. She battled adversity all day and in my opinion, had dominated it.

 She informed me that she was the 8th overall finisher for women and also that she broke 2:39! I always knew that we hadn't tapped into her true potential just yet and this was simply confirmation. Kimi crossed the line with a time of 2:38:34 which is a 3:20 second P.R!

Our next adventures are going to be interesting. Coming up in September, October and November, we have multiple huge races that will truly test our ability to bounce back from this marathon mentally and physically. I might even jump in another marathon in October. I hear the Twin Cities Marathon is a good one, so I might just have to run it to try and redeem myself. The goal of the next few months is to figure out what's causing the side stitch issue, and put a stop to it.

Grandma's Marathon Results
Me - 2:40:19
Kimi - 2:38:34 **NEW PR!**

Race week is upon us! Grandma's here we come!

The long anticipated Grandma's marathon is finally almost here. It's been quite the journey getting to this point this year. I had to deal with some knee pain and tendinitis back in February and March. Then we went on to perform quite nicely at the Rock the Parkway half marathon in KC in mid-April. Following that, we ventured into some very high mileage for the two of us. We had 6+ weeks of 70+ miles and had 3 of those weeks in the 80's and one of them at 90.  Our long runs were solid, and our workouts were even better. The only major drawback in the last few weeks has been my hand incident during our 24 miler and of course having to battle the humid conditions.

Last weekend, we went out to the Willard track (first time going there), and completed our last major speed session. On the schedule, we were set to run twenty 400's.  We break it down into sets of 4 with a 200m jog recovery and then a 400m jog recovery between each set.  Each set was also slated to get faster and faster starting out with 78's and working down to 75's. When we started, it was already very hot and muggy so I wasn't completely sure how it would go. Much to my surprise and satisfaction, we ran the entire first set at 77.  Then we dropped it down to 76's, and then 75's for the final couple sets. We usually like to finish with a last one-fast one but I thought for sure we were going to be spent prior to our last one. The last one capped off a great workout with us solidly finishing in 72.

Many people ask me if I get nervous for races.  The simple answer is 'Yes'. I explain it mostly as being nervous that somehow things won't go as planned and that the entire focus of the last couple months might feel like it was a waste.  However, the more likely scenario is that the better trained you are, the better chance you have to actually reach your goals. I find that those that put in the work, typically get the results.  Having talent, but not putting in the training, doesn't get you anywhere.

This week is a laid back week for the most part. We have a small tune-up workout tomorrow and then it's just some really short runs and getting plenty of fluids and rest for the remainder of the week.

Kimi in Beast-mode @ Willard Track 

Finished our peak mileage! Now on to our taper!

We're finally in our peak mileage week. The last several weeks have contained mileage of 80, 86, and 85 miles.  This week, we're going for 90. But before we get to that, let me recap some of our workouts over the last week in a half or so.

Last week, we had a Fartlek-ish style workout that I have come to call a "new style" workout.  I don't imagine I'm the first person to come up with it but it's something that we had never done before until last year so it has been deemed new to us. This workout had to be completed in the evening last  Wednesday because we couldn't pry ourselves out of bed that particular morning. It might have been raining that morning, which is typically a good enough excuse for us to just keep on snoozing. The workout consists of a 6 minute press with 1 minute recovery, followed by 5 minutes press, and 2 minutes recovery working all the way down to where we end up doing 1 hard minute.  It's fairly easy to remember because you always add the press and the recovery and they equal 7 minutes. Much to our surprise, we came through the 3 mile mark under 6 minute average even with our recovery pace mixed in. All in all, we covered 12 miles that evening.

I was a little concerned with just how we would handle our workout Saturday since we were unable to keep all of our longer runs in the mornings during the week. Saturday's workout was scheduled to be a 10 mile tempo with an optional 2 mile recovery and then 1 more mile sub 5:45. The 10 mile tempo also was to include 4 miles at marathon pace and then 1 mile at half marathon pace, then 4 miles at marathon pace again, followed by 1 mile at half marathon pace. Our marathon goal pace is 5:58 and our half pace is about 5:50 miles. The morning started with us taking our tables out to the trail in order for us to have water to grab during the tempo. This also allows us to practice taking our Nutrilite Endurance Cubes while running a long fast effort (basically simulating how it will feel on race day).

We started the workout right on our marathon goal pace and it was feeling surprisingly easy.  For our fifth mile, we increased the pace to 5:50 just like planned. The hard part is settling back into marathon pace and not slowing too much. We were able to get things right back on track for the next 4 miles. There was one mile that the pace crept up over 6 min on but I think that was mostly due to it being the turn around mile and having to fight the wind all the way through Willard. (If you're not familiar, Willard always seems to be windy and often seems that way from both directions). All in all, we pretty much nailed this workout. We even managed to crush the optional 1 mile at the end.

--Skipping ahead a week now--

On Saturday, Kimi and I headed out to Frisco for our weekly long run. This one just happened to be our last really long one prior to our upcoming marathon. We set out to complete a 24 mile long run and that's precisely what we did. For our long runs over 13 miles, we will usually wear our water belts and take along our Nutrilite Endurance Cubes as well so we were definitely packing for this one. We established a plan to run out 9 and back 9, then drop one of our water belts, and go out 3 and back 3. Neither one of us enjoys wearing the belt so we typically alternate wearing the belt for the last bit. At a mere 5 miles into the run, we came to a place on the trail where the tree limbs were hanging low and made it narrow. Usually we will just go single file in order to get through these areas but for some particular reason, I decided last minute to just push the limb to the side. Who knew this would be a huge mistake. I received immediate pain in my left ring finger (specifically my proximal interphalangeal joint).  I could see a small puncture wound but nothing stuck in it. It immediately became difficult to bend the finger but there wasn't really any swelling just yet. I worked it out and continued the remaining 19 miles of the run just fine. Actually, it was quite stellar really.

The next day, we woke up and ran 9 miles and immediately following, my finger swelled up a bunch and I could feel my ring just holding fluid in the finger. The pressure was building. Finally, I decided to find someone that could cut the ring off thinking that with the release in pressure, the swelling would be able to go down and all would start to normalize. 2 days later and I'm still having a lot of stiffness, swelling, and pain in that finger. It is improving but not as quickly as I'd hoped. Of all the injuries I would have considered during a long run, having something like this to a finger, wouldn't have ever crossed my mind.

All in all, last week was a great week, we completed 90 miles (the most I've run since college, and the most Kimi has ever run in a week), one track workout, and crushed our final long run. Now if my finger could just get better, I wouldn't be so concerned with running over the next few weeks.