This took some work to go back and look things up and I’m not really into doing a lot of work, so read and make me feel better about the time I spent on this post.

These first five guys run together sometimes and they are all really fast- Collin had an absolutely incredible day. I saw him at miles 16 and 25; running 6:17 pace he was all smiles. He had it going on. I’ve never seen someone race a marathon looking so fresh and HAPPY. 

Collin: 2:44:29 – PR

Collin at mile 16.4 trucking up a hill

Josh: 2:53:31- PR

Glenn: 2:54:28 – PR

Michael: 2:56 – PR… maybe?!

Glenn & Josh at mile 25.4

Sean: 3:05:45 – First Marathon

Bryon: 3:03:50 – PR and first BQ

Scott: 2:29:43 – Um, just fast. (twitter friend)

Amy: 3:49:15 – PR

Katy: 3:42:15 – PR 

Gabe: 3:38:41 – PR

David: 3:16:21 – PR

Jen: 3:30 – PR

Dan: 3:37:09

Brian: 3:24:46

Liz: 4:25:02

Sarah: 2:59:16

Peter: 4:57:12 – First Marathon

Jimmy: 5:12:42 – First Marathon

Megan: 4:27:09 – First Marathon

Nikki: 4:39:45 – First Marathon

Marty: 4:58:41 – First Marathon

A couple of local ladies I twitter stalk who are insanely fast:

Jackie Dikos: 2:48:19

Lucie Mays-Sulewski: 2:48:38

Mile 16 all packed up! These ladies are freaking tough.

Half Marathoners: 

Ashley: 1:37:03 – (my running BFF who ran a 3:17 marathon 3 wks ago!)

Brandon: 1:35:39

Lauren: 1:48:03 – PR (Oiselle Teammate!) 

Jake and Meghan: 2:10:34 – PR for Jake!

Meggie: 2:13:35

Melanie: 2:18:46 – PR (Her race recap is already up!) 

Kathy: 3:01:47 – First half marathon

Blake: 2:07:17 – PR

Chrissy: 3:03:20 – PR

Saw Chrissy just past mile 12 & ran with her for a bit.

Todd: 1:31:03 – PR

Larra: 1:31:53

Debra: 2:05:53 – PR

Melissa: 2:31:58 – 11 out of 12 half marathons in 2013 raising money for BoMF Indy!

Barb: 2:19:11 – PR

LOT’S of BoMFers!! (Gardner’s, Outta Site, Dan (3:50 pacer!!), Christie, Etc!)

Oh my, I’m sure I missed someone we know. I tried to dig up everyone!

And people I don’t know but are simply amazing: 

• Mike Fremont: Age 91: who ran the half in 3:24:57

• Alana Hadley: Age 16: 2:41:56

• Colleen De Reuck : Age: 49 won the woman’s race in 2:39:22

Colleen De Reuck at mile 25 after she took the lead to head in for the W.

So, then we spent Sunday morning watching NYC Marathon coverage. Oh my goodness and I know you’ve probably all seen Meb’s post race video by now- but if not, make sure you watch it. I love that he finished the race. I’ve always said unless I was physically injured I will finish every race I start no matter how ugly it gets. I understand why people might decide to dropout to prevent injury or maybe save it for another day, but I very much respect what he did. How can you not.

Glenn and I have talked about this topic a lot and especially over the past few weeks after his Chicago blowup.  I asked him if he were to have started walking at mile 18 or 19 on to the finish when he knew for sure that any hope of meeting a PR (let alone his actual goal time) was out the window – would that have improved his race at IMM?

The obvious answer is “probably”. If you endure running 26.2, you are not going to be recovered in 3 weeks. Plain and simple. It’s not rocket science. It’s science, but simple science.

I know a lot of people advised Glenn against giving the 26.2 another shot so soon… but here’s the deal. He’s not an elite athlete, while he takes himself seriously, he doesn’t take himself too seriously and dang it he wanted to race again before he hung it up for the fall. There was a good chance he would blow up again. He wasn’t racing at a prime time. But, he worked his ass off and took 2 minutes off a fairly outdated PR. (The whole Ironman thing in 2012, paired with a mild injury spring 2013 delayed him giving it a go)

We’ve both set some pretty BIG goals and steps in taking times off our half and full marathons recently and while they are totally attainable, it’s important to remember to celebrate the smaller steps that get you there. Two minutes is a lot of time no matter how fast or slow you run and going from a 2:56 to 2:54 is something to celebrate.

I’m super proud. I know he gave it all he had on Saturday and this should give him some great confidence for what he can do on fresh legs in the spring.

I can’t forget to mention- IMM keeps getting better and better. Blake, Casey, Heather & whoever else is involved have done a great job. Congratulations on a great race guys! And Thank you so much to everyone in the city, including many BoMF Residential Members & volunteers who volunteered long hours!

Post Race! The amazing thing about IMM is it’s pretty darn easy to find your runner post race!!

Congratulations times a million to everyone this weekend! You all inspired me for when I can get back at training & I had an absolute blast cheering you on and watching you dig deep. Also congrats to everyone who ran NYC!!! (Hollie, Beth and all the other Oiselle gals and Patty!)

Glenn’s going to have his race recap ready tomorrow!!! YIPPIE!!

Questions: 

Racing IMM Saturday?

 Lindsey will be on the course let her know and she’ll yell at you to run faster!

In Chicago last weekend, I had bad feelings going into the race. It wasn’t my race to have feelings about, but I’ve been emotionally invested in the training Glenn put in. Everyday I want to hear how far he ran, what pace he ran, how he felt, what his weekly mileage was, etc. Everyday getting excited about the outcome of the training. 

We’ve had a lot going on the past month. A lot of weight he’s been carrying in this family. I’ve tried to be brave and not suck ALL the energy out of him, but he knew I scared was about the surgery. And in the recovery, he’s had his hands full. The emotional turmoil of everything effected him. I’m not blaming his race on this, but wether he thinks so or not, it affected him. 

Race morning, I was nervous. I was glad to not be walking or driving him to the start line. I feel like he needed the time to himself. He was wondering around my sister in laws apartment with his headphones on when I got up. (New PJ of course) I kept my distance.

So he left, and I paced around getting ready, anxious to get out to mile 13.

My plan was to see him as much as possible, but I didn’t know how much energy I would have to get around to different spots- being almost 2 weeks post surgery. Turns out I made it to miles 13, 17, 20 and 25 and had plenty of energy to spare. (And no, the tubes weren’t out, but it was fine. Gross and annoying, but really not that big of a deal)

The day from my perspective:  

• Mile 13-  I had been tracking him, so I knew his pace was conservative but he gave me a smile and wave at this point so I was hopeful he was ready to turn it on. I thought at this point, he knew he wasn’t feeling it, so was being careful not to go out too hard. I was analyzing everything. 

• Mile 17- He told me he felt like “ass”. I knew that wasn’t good, but thought he would fall down to somewhere near 6:35 pace. I’m telling you, he is tough and pushes through pain more than most people I know. Certainly more than I. 

• Mile 20- I had already received notification that his pace had dropped to 6:39 so I knew something was really off. When I saw him I tried to say things to whip is butt into shape and I know he felt bad, but I didn’t know how off he really felt. I got weird looks from those around me because I screamed so much.

• Mile 25- We waited for awhile. I would see groups come by that I knew were ahead of him. Then I started seeing groups that I knew where behind him. Then I saw the 3 hr pace group. I had two thoughts- we missed him somehow or something really wrong happened. 

I was sad for him, I knew that not only the goal was gone, but any hope of a PR (which we were sure was in the bag even on a terrible day) was also gone. There was nothing that could fix this race, it was over. He just had to make his way to the finish line and at this point, he was running at a pace that is slower than his easy pace- nothing was working right.

When we saw him, I hopped up on the fence as high as I could get and just yelled I love you a couple of times. We gave each other a knowing look and I just couldn’t wait to give him a big hug.

Running is a funny thing. Sometimes it’s really just NOT your day. You hope that doesn’t happen when you are racing. Especially when you are racing a long distance like a marathon. That’s a long time to fake it.

Right now, he’s on the fence about racing Monumental next weekend. It is likely he will, he’s been testing out the legs and will have a better idea after a speed session on Thursday. Based on some twitter chat I stalked on between him and Collin- it sounds like it’s on. Will three weeks be enough time to recover? We’ll see. Nothing to lose right?

My thoughts on him racing Monumental. (I’m allowed to be opinionated about it… we’ve talked about it A LOT.)

• It’s flat and fast.

• It’s here. We don’t have to travel. Marshall and I can set up over by Butler and cheer our heads off. 

• He knows this race like the back of his hand. Every bit of it. It practically runs by our house. No our street isn’t anything like Washington Blvd., but it’s close in proximity…

• He has two friends running it (Collin and Sean)- both of whom he has trained with, and Collin in particular is shooting for a time that would be a solid PR and a really great pace for Glenn. Running with Collin will only help him. They’ve done several long runs together and he knows Collin is tough and he knows he is tough too and can hang on to him. They can get through it together. Although Glenn and Sean have done several training runs together, I think Sean might be planning to run too hard for Glenn- this will be his first marathon, but he is a ridiculously fast and talented runner. Collin’s the man for the day I do believe.

• He’s ready to be done before many of the other late fall/early winter races are happening. He wants the race so that he doesn’t feel like the weeks of training will just be thrown out. But he doesn’t want to recover, train his butt off (again) and taper again. He’s ready for a break. And, for the record- I don’t believe the hard work will be thrown out even if he doesn’t race. The workouts are still there- he knows he can achieve the times and when spring rolls around he will give it another go. I would also like to remind him that he has been able to race some 5Ks and update that PR. 

Sunday was anything but that. In my eyes, it was pretty much an utter failure. People will say… and its fine, hey “I’d love to have X:XX:XX time” and “don’t be so hard on yourself”, “marathons are tough” etc… and I get all that and its fine but given the amount of time and energy I invested in Chicago, I wanted more…much more. Like I’ve talked to Lindsey about many times before, the time on the clock is a relative thing for everyone and given what transpired Sunday….I hate the one I saw. I was ready. It just didn’t happen and I don’t know why.

This is around mile 17 when I knew things were not going to get better.

It brings me to today where I am questioning everything. Did I over train? Did I taper wrong? Are my goals unrealistic? Should I have run without a watch? Was it just a bad day? Should I have used a coach? Should I give it another go this fall? Can it be saved? Am I crazy? The list of questions and “ifs” can go on and on.

Want me to answer those questions? In order: No. Don’t think so. Maybe. No. Probably. Probably. Not sure. If I want to. Probably.

I have my guesses and suspicions as to what went wrong in Chicago and I am going to continue to work through those but for now I am working on way forward. Do I race again and try to wash away this bad taste in my mouth or just shut it down and regroup for the spring?

In the immediate aftermath, Lindsey and I discussed racing the Indianapolis Monumental Marathon. It is a local race, I have buddies running that are targeting my goals, I know the streets like the back of my hand. It would be a great race but the more I think about it, it’s too soon. IMM is 18 days from today. While I pretty much jogged the last 10 miles on Sunday, I still gave race effort for 16-18 miles and ran for 3 hours …I just don’t think I’d be ready to race again so soon.  What are my other options? Philly? Rocket City? Rehoboth Beach? All of these races give me more time…5-8 weeks.  So depending on which one, if I pick one, I could fully recover from Chicago, get some workouts in, and then properly taper.

If I am honest with myself, I want another shot. I know deep down inside of me, I am capable of so much more then what transpired on Sunday. So if that is the case, do I go after the same goal? Do I adjust my goal? This entire training cycle was been focused on 2:45. It is a big PR jump for me but my half time, my evolution since running a 2:56 and the training told me I could handle it. Using that 2:45 as my guide, I didn’t miss workouts, cut things short, need extra days to recover so everything told me I could handle that 6:18 pace.

Last Sunday, was a different story. I never felt comfortable. Felt tired from the start…like I was running into a headwind the whole time. I knew pretty early it was going to be a bad day. I spent the first half trying to work through it but it never clicked and things unglued finally around 16 or so. I gave in. Was the goal pace too much? I have never thought so…until now.  If I run again, do I back the goal down slightly and take a smaller chunk and then take the spring to work on the 2:45? Maybe that is the approach to take.

My mind is all over the place about what to do next and what happened in Chicago. In the meantime, I’m going to give myself a week or so to decide do I want to run another marathon in late November or early December.

At least I had some legit support in the crowd:

Lindsey, my sister Erica & Marshman. Biggest day for Lindsey post surgery- walked around 5 miles.

I’m tired. But I’m stronger than I was yesterday. And the day before that. I’m sick of these tubes. And darn it I’m ready to have my energy back. All that being said, I’m thankful that it is this week and not last. I am feeling like a brand new person compared to last week!

At this rate- I’m going to have to get over having the tubes out and just rock them on Sunday while race spectating. And really, I need to get over it, it’s not the end of the world. But if you see me walking around with bulges in my shirts, it’s the damn bulbs the tubes drain into… K?!

SO, speaking of Sunday. I’m stoked to be a cheerleader. Cheering at marathons might be one of my favorite things to do. I love seeing people experience the marathon. Everyone is running a different kind of race from the next person and I like to see it all. 

I’m going to get out there early enough to see the leaders. The plan is to be at miles 13, 17 & 25. Logistics for marathon spectating can be crazy and if you want to cheer for people who are different speeds, forget hopping around too much, you won’t make it back in time! As much as I want to cheer for everyone, my main goal is cheering for GHEIN. 

Although I will be kind of sad heading to the next spot before any somewhat normal runners (running over a 3:00 hr marathon is what I’m calling normal haha) come by. When spectating marathons, I always like to size up the ladies who would be running where I’d like to be. I think I’ll have that chance at mile 25 though once Glenn goes by, I’ll hang there and wait for him and I’d say the 3:10 or so crowd should be coming by by the time he gets back to me. 

Right now, Glenn is passed out on the couch. He feel asleep hard 2 minutes after he laid down. I would NEVER be able to pull that off. I swear he could fall asleep in no time, anywhere. I know he’s nervous about the race, but I know he’s ready for it and will be confident when he needs to be. He’s also nervous that he has a cold. He got a hint of a cold on Tuesday, it’s been lingering, but hasn’t evolved to anything. I think it’s just a very mild thing and will NOT mess with him on Sunday. This guy that I married, he is tough and he works harder than anyone I’ve ever seen when it comes to running. He knows this race is going to hurt like heck. He told me today he fully planned on it hurting much worse than Ironman Wisconsin. Which is a different kind of hurt all together, but still you get what I’m saying. 

Really, the weekend home was not all bad. I got to spend some quality time with my family…which was awesome. My parents gave Lindsey and I our anniversery present and I scored some sweet beer. Overall, a pretty good weekend.

BeerHaul. DogFish. Firestone Walker. Revolution. Firestone Walker. Half Acre

Blanket made from our t-shirts- races, jobs Marshall stuff, etc.

Two weeks to go of hard training and then it is taper time. I am feeling good about where I am at. Here’s to hoping for good weather and fast feet.

Questions: How is your training going? What races are you getting ready for? We love to hear about others chasing goals!

I had this race circled as a good race simulator for the big show in October and was hoping to run well. I wasn’t overly concerned with PRing but if it happened it happened. I was coming off two big weeks (70 and 79 miles respectively) of training, at least for me, and wasn’t going to taper but still wanted to run well. My pre-race plan was to go out in about 6:00 or so and then see how things felt…then I checked the weather forecast. It was going to be about 72 with dew point around the same at the race start with a nice cross wind coming off the lake. Not exactly prime racing conditions. Ok…I said. I can adjust my paces just run smart.

Given the weather, I was planning on running 6:15-6:18. See below for this nifty chart. You can thank Mark Hadley for blogging about it.

Pace adjustment chart.

That was the plan.

My Dad and I drove up Sunday morning from Crown Point…which was a big help and fun to hang out with him. He actually went to the expo with me as well as I was riding solo for the weekend with Lindsey and Marshall birthday partying around in Indy an Bloomington.

He dropped me off about .25 miles from the start and found a parking spot. I jogged up, used the bathroom, oh and while I was waiting in line for the bathroom I ran into Neal, a long time friend, and his girlfriend. We chatted a bit. It was good to see him. He’s a good dude. I did a little more warming up with some strides, and before I knew it was race time. I jumped in the corral sweating already and was ready to run.

Race

Remember the plan. I was going to run smart, 6:15 – 6:18. Running fast was out of the question given the weather. So guess what I did….NOT THAT! I went out at 6:00. Mile 1 6:01. Mile 2 6:05 again. By this point I am drenched and my body is working too much. Mile 3 I did it again. 6:02. At this point we are running toward the lake about to turn on onto Lake Shore Drive and meet a nice headwind. We turn onto LSD and the wind is pushing across the front of us kind of from the side. We try and pack up a bit but it doesn’t really help. Mile 4 6:08. That is probably from the wind. I was working too hard still at this point. This goes on for another mile or so but the damage has been laid already. I keep running. It is too hard too soon. Mile 5 6:12.

At this point I try and reevaluate as it is not going well and I knew I made a mistake. I back off the pace a bit and am going to try and run it in at the pace I had originally plan to run. 6:15-6:18. We are continuing north on LSD. I am alone but see some runners up the road. I hit mile 6 in 6:17. Perfect. Not feeling great. I see a purple singlet up the road a bit. He looks a little familiar. I thought it might have been Jeremy, heck of an athlete and runner. We are about the same speed and both training for Chicago and tweeted back and forth about looking for each other. Sure enough I get to purple singlet at mile 7 or so…it is him. Problem is at this point, we both are not having much fun at all. We say what’s up and run together for a bit looking for the turn around. Mile 7 6:17.

The turn around is mile 8 or so…maybe a little sooner maybe a little later. it is kind of blurry. I was not having fun. I was hurting way too bad at this point. Mile 8 passes 6:18. Jeremy goes up the road a bit and is running with the 2nd place girl. I just try and stay with them. By this point, we are headed south down LSD and I was hoping for some tailwind but it wasn’t really happening. It was more of an awesome annoying cross wind. Mile 9 6:20. Things are really starting to hurt by this point. It is real foggy. A couple of runners are starting to walk at this point that had been about 30-45 seconds up the road.

The wheels come off somewhere in mile 10. It is getting bad. I have a cramp. I dump water on my head. It doesn’t help. Mile 10 6:30. I want to stop. This is awful. That is all I can think. This is not how I wanted this race to go. Can I stop and walk it in? I keep running. More cross wind. I am exchanging struggle bus passes with a couple of guys and a couple of guys that ran smart are cruising by me. Mile 11 6:37. Get this over with. Jeremy keeps slipping away a little. I still see him. More trading and being passed. Mile 12 6:48. I creep toward 7…WTF!?!?!!?! I am getting close. The last mile is taking FOREVER!  I get passed some more. Whatever. A couple of girls catch me. 3,4, and 5 I think. I can see the finish. I push a little just to get it over with. Mile 13 6:37.

Finish. Its over. Stop the watch. 1:23:58. Thank god that is over. I walk around a bit and compose myself. Chat a bit with some guys…really just share complaining about how awful that was…the shared opinion was that was one of the worst races ever. I keep walking. Feeling better. I run into Jeremy, who finished about 20 seconds or so in front of me and talk a bit. Mainly about Triathlon and seeing how quickly we can forget about this race. I am pretty sure he made the same racing mistake I did. Chasing smoke on a day that you needed to be smart. Hopefully, I can find him at Chicago…and if not then rumor has it I might see him in Madison Sept 2014…but more about that later.

I walk back to the car and Dad and I head back to Crown Point. Glad thats over.

Post Race Thoughts

I am moving on. I really am. I’m over it. I am happy with my training for Chicago. The thing that bothers me is my lack of discipline in the race. I knew the deal going in and ran stupid the first 4/5 miles and paid dearly for it. I mean my bonk was spectacular. I have not bonked like that in a long time. It was truly amazing. That is what bothers me. I have been running long enough to know better. Heck, we coach people and tell our athletes until we are blue in the face don’t do this…and what did I do?!!? The exact opposite. Time to move on. I have two weeks of grinding left. I am feeling good about the race. I am putting this race behind me and will not forget it. I will not make the same mistake…if I type it out I will make it happen, right? Moving on. I have training to do. Chicago 2013 here I come!

Questions:
Have a bad race? What do you do to move on? Have a good race? How did you stay focused? Running Chicago?

This cycle started coming off of the Eagle Creek Trail Half so I was a little tired coming into it. I ended up moving the workout I was supposed to do on Monday by a couple of days to allow for a little more recovery from the race.

As it turns out I ended up doing the workout on my birthday. Happy Birthday to me. It was a great birthday present! Welcome to 30! It was a nine mile run with 6 @ descending tempo going from 6:14 down to 5:52. Woof. Doing this run at midday was a great idea to by the way. Also I had signed up to run a 5K on Thursday so doing the workout Wednesday was going to make for a tough run @ the 5K but I wasn’t too worried about as I was running the 5K as another workout and I had not raced one in a long time.

Speaking of that 5K. You can read about it here! It sucked….I will however be running on next cycle. The way the workouts fall next week will line up nicely for a good 5K race. I am hoping to take a run at 17:00 flat.

So I have now raced twice in one week and had a long tempo run…so by the time Sunday rolled around I really wasn’t feeling it and that was a good thing since I had my first 20 mile run of training since I pushed my 20 two weeks ago when my hamstring flared up.  The plan is still getting in all four 20s…just means moving a couple of things around. Sunday’s workout was 20 miles with the last six at a descending tempo pace. It was not fun. I left early Sunday and went up straight up the Monon with my Hammer flask. This allowed me to get water on the trail and not have to carry a bottle…which I liked. Man oh man…those last six were fun! 6:40, 6:30, 6:22, 6:22, 6:19, 6:14. Woof.

Overall a good week.

Week 8. More of the same. It is week 2 of the cycle so it only had two workouts and easy runs the ret of the week.  That is always a nice little bonus. Wednesday’s workout was a 9 mile run with 7 @ tempo. Up until this week, I had been doing about 6 mile tempos so it was time to move things up this week. The goal is to get up to 9/10 @ tempo by the end of training. Since this was the first week doing 7, I backed the pace off slightly to make sure that I got through the workout. It felt pretty good. Managed to do about 6:11-6:15 for the 7.

Couple of easy runs Thursday and Friday. 10 miles and 8 miles.

Saturday’s run was 17 steady with Collin, Mike, and Josh on the Monon. 6:40 pace. Good working effort. We decided to pick it up the last two miles. 6:22 and 5:49. Good run. No fuel. Felt good. Week done. Rode the bike trainer Sunday and watched Breaking Bad…currently on episode 5 of Season 3. No running for sure. I picked up a new CycleOps Fluid trainer and I could definitely feel the difference from my old crappy unit. This will serve me well here in the next couple of years. Just need a powermeter now.

After the hamstring a couple of weeks ago I am extra cautious about the leg. After Saturday’s run…I can tell for sure that I need a day off from running. The milage is lower this cycle and that is fine. The workouts are getting done and the important thing is getting to the start line feeling healthy and strong.

Week 8 was good. It’s funny. I keep thinking about that 5K I ran last week. I struggled…I mean really struggled to run that 17:40 (5:40 pace) and today at mile 17 of the run today we bust out a 5:49 like no big deal. I mean it hurt but nothing crazy. Running is a funny thing like that…sometimes it goes well and sometimes it doesn’t go well….either way just stay after it. Be consistent and it will pay off.

The next two weeks is more of the same…just more intense. Things are really starting to ramp up. 8 weeks to go. Get fit. Get strong. Do Work. Get Fast. It will pay off….oh and I’m getting that 17:00 @ that 5K.