That fact left my reeling for what to do next. Over the next two weeks I went back and forth about what to do but ultimately I decided on limited rest/recovery I would race Monumental and just see what
happens. I adjusted my goals. 2:45 was out the window. I truly believe that I am in 2:45 shape but given the circumstances going into IMM was going to be happy with a PR and running a “good” race. I was not happy with how I raced in Chicago. Regardless of time, I did not have it together in Chicago and I wanted to right that wrong.

Race Day:

Sean picked me up around 7 and we drove down to the start line, found an awesome street spot, and
were inside the Convention Center meeting up with Collin by 7:30. Thank you small city racing!!! Collin and I headed to the start around 7:45 or so and found Josh and Michael with Sean joining us a little later after checking his bag. We discussed times and Collin’s awesome throw away sweater that Josh gave him. It was straight out of Mr. Roger’s. Sean was targeting 2:45, Josh and Michael about 2:55 and Collin and I, 2:50. If everything came together it was going to be a great day of racing.

Since I was running with Collin I decided to let him set the pace and not have my watch set on the pace. I would run with him and see how things went. We settled into the first couple miles running by Lucas Oil, Eli Lilly Corporate Center, and heading to Mass Ave in a quick pace…at least it felt quick to me. Looking at Collin, he was looking smooth and fluid and knew pretty early it wasn’t going to be my day to stick with him and I should let him go up the road. Probably somewhere around mile 5 I started to drop back a bit and told him I was going to sit behind him as long I was could. I didn’t see his face again until the finish line. We hit the 10K 39:04. I slowed it down a bit over the next couple of miles trying to find something that felt comfortable. I never really felt comfortable to be honest.

I dumped onto 38th St. by the Indiana State Fairgrounds feeling sorry for myself and my legs were tired. At this point, I am 8 miles into the race and am thinking I made a really bad decision to run another marathon so soon after Chicago. It was at this point that I had a decision to make: I can feel sorry for myself and shut it down when I see Lindsey at 16, cut the course and just run home, or I can focus on racing “hard” and giving it everything I had and just see what happens. Luckily before too long, the course turns north onto Washington Blvd and I see our friend Choy out cheering. He gives me some encouragement. It helped. I decided I needed to keep on running and just see what happens. Before too long, I am through Meridian Kessler and onto College Ave. headed toward Broad Ripple around mile 12…just get to the halfway point. I get to 13.1 just north of Broad Ripple in 1:23:36. At this point, I see Sean’s wife, Whitney, and his family. They give some more encouragement so I keep on running. My legs hurt…this was a bad idea, etc. just a couple more miles to 16 and I can stop when I see Lindsey.

I am now running south on Meridian toward 46th. I have already had two gels and don’t really like the idea of another one so I take a pack of Clif Shot Bloks from one of the aid stations and chomp on those for a bit. It really seemed to help my mood. It felt good to chew something. I continue on. My legs feel really awesome at this point. I make it to 46th  and Meridian and make the right hand turn to go up the small hill toward Butler. Lindsey and Choy are there! Lindsey is as crazy as ever. If you could make a living as a marathon spectator she’d be a pro’s pro. I don’t really acknowledge her and power. Despite how I felt, she told me that I looked 1000 times better then I did in Chicago at more or less the same point. More Running. Run through Butler and over to the IMA. See my buddy JBakeIndy outside the IMA…things are really starting to hurt now and I am having trouble not slowing down. I keep pushing on.

Mile 16

I come out of the IMA and head toward the White River Parkway and the 30K spilt. I hit the 30K in
2:00:29. Only 12K or so to go….I can hold on. Its going to be tough but I can do it. As we head down the on ramp to the Parkway Jackie Dikos, Lucie Mays-Sulewski and crew come flying past. I saw them early on in the race and figured I would see them again…just not sure when. Looking back, based on their finish times, I should have started with their pack.

Once off the Parkway and to the Naval Armory, I’ve got just around a 10K to go…maybe a little less. Up the road on Riverside I see what looks to be Sean…that’s not good. I shouldn’t be seeing him. I quickly approach him at 21. He’s walking. Oh no! I run past. He looks like he is having great time. I try and get him to run with me. He’s not having it and says good luck and tells me to keep going. (Side note: this was Sean’s first marathon and a lot of things can happen in your first one. He’s a 1:14 Half guy so he’ll be back and can really kick ass with more experience now.)

With any marathon…with maybe the exception of Boston all courses have a dull point and this is it for IMM. 21-23 is pretty bad. It is a bad section of the race and the area is blah. You are all alone and just trying to get back to Meridian. I keep running as best I can. The pain is pretty terrible. I am trying to keep the miles as close to 7:00 as possible. I think the worst mile was 7:15.

I make the right hand turn on Meridian and rejoin the half people. 3 miles to go. I run by the BoMF water stop and here some encouraging words from people that recognize me. I’m kind of out of it at this point so I’m not sure who said what. I keep telling myself just get to the library and then it is only 1 mile to go. I keep creeping down Meridian. I’ve been doing some math and pretty sure I can hold 7:05 and comfortably PR. I keep running. I’m looking for Lindsey. She is supposed to be at 25. As usual, I hear her before I see her and just about the same time I see her Josh Dials comes flying up on me and motions to push with him…or maybe he said it. I don’t know. I pick it up as best I can but Josh is pushing and my legs are not having it. I stick with him but let him go up the road a bit. Half mile and it will be over. Just keep running. I turn on West Street and then turn again to the finishing chute. I cross the line and nearly collapse from my legs giving out. Its over! 2:54:28. A two minute PR.

Post Race Thoughts:

I’ve debated about how to finish this blog. I could focus on how this race wasn’t the race I wanted and how Chicago was supposed to be it and “what if” and project times but I don’t want to do that. I am extremely satisfied with my race from Saturday. I came into the race knowing an “A” effort was not
possible and just wanted to race hard and leave it all out there and I did that. A PR is a PR as Heath
Dotson would say. I am satisfied but am I content? Absolutely not….I know that I am capable of so much more and I am going to keep pushing after it but for now I am going to enjoy a little downtime and be happy with my race. I’ve got all Winter to focus on chopping wood and carrying water to bring down that current PR to 2:4X:XX.

I read an article today that I thought had a great closing quote that seemed appropriate here:

“That is both the gift and the curse of the marathon,” Cass said. “When you finally get it right, it’s the product of 30 variables that you have maybe 50 percent control of. When you get it wrong, you try to analyze all 30 of those variables. It’s nearly impossible to figure out exactly what went wrong and how to make it better next time. But that’s the goal. To take a look at what happened and go back to the
drawing board. And, if it’s in the cards, to give it another go.”

Congratulations to everyone that raced and crushed some very big dreams on Saturday!! 

I have thoughts of racing another marathon sooner than later, but then I remind myself that I need and really want a break. I’ve decided I’ll race one again in the fall. Sure, you can PR twice in one season, but in all reality, racing a marathon does take a lot out of you and if I want to race it to my full potential I should rest for a bit.

What now, what now. I took last week really easy and am left feeling like I need a plan. I’m not good at just winging it, I like to have some sort of schedule to follow. I think most people do. I’m ready for my sprint triathlon training plan. Ironman husband… get that together for me please?! And, although the long run makes me nervous week after week, and I’ve looked forward to not having to do one, I kind of think I don’t know how to not run long on the weekends.

Ever since I was cleared to run in early August, after having Marshall, I started training. At first it was just training (9 weeks post baby, 3 weeks of training) to build the distance for the Indy Women’s half and then (4 months post baby) the Monumental Marathon. I wanted to run those races to complete them in a time I felt was challenging but not real racing. I bounced right off Monumental to Rehoboth Beach in December, the goal was a negative split to get mentally strong for Shamrock.

The real race was Shamrock and right after Rehoboth was when the hard training began. There’s been no real break from the long run. My long run gets me excited about life and although sometimes leading up to it and while enduring it I want to be done, it fuels me to be a better person.

Beyond that, I want to keep in long run shape. I assume, for now, I’ll cap then around 15 miles, but will keep them closer to 10-12 consistently. Long, but not stressful. It’s much easier to start training for a marathon, when your base is already set. I like to keep a base year round really.

I started adding to this post all of my afterthoughts of Shamrock, but it was getting crazy long and I think it’s better to break it up. Tomorrow I’ll post a bit about my thoughts on the training plan I used and why I think it worked so well.

I’m super excited to virtually cheer for everyone at Boston this year and am hoping it’s great weather!

What course is your PR on?

Also…. Go Hoosiers!

Old School IU Windbreaker. Marshall has swagger.

OK, so this is a post of the year in pictures, and when I started typing the word January, I  realized I wasn’t even really sure January 2012 existed, because I honestly remember nothing from it and have no pictures. Then, I stumbled upon this gem: My best friends and I ringing in the New Year… see you later 2011.

A low key New Years Eve

There’s Glenn finishing his first sub 3 Marathon.

6 months pregnant, still running 3-7 miles regularly

Glenn on the homestretch on Boylston Street at the Boston Marathon

Glenn after his first Boston Marathon

Baby Shower for Marshall.

Everyone plays flippy cup at baby showers right?

36 weeks pregnant

Leaving for the hospital. Marshall arrived 3 hours later.

Day 2 of Marshall’s life.

Ironman training in full swing!

Sleep deprivation also in full swing

Meghan and Josh’s wedding! It’s normal to be in a wedding three weeks after giving birth right?

Celebrating 4 Year Anniversary and Marshall is 7 weeks.

Marshall’s second wedding at 8 weeks

Emily and Andy’s wedding

Glenn with his biggest fans. 5AM heading out on the buses to complete 140.6.

The Ironman. Time: 10:54:46

The 2nd Annual Back on My Feet 42K Relay. I went back to work at the end of September and project number one was the relay.

This pictures are sub par because I stole them from the race picture website. For some reason, we forgot to take even one picture on race morning. Afterwards, I was so cold and felt terrible… pictures were certainly not on my mind.

• Lindsey ran first post baby marathon (4 months post): 3:33:24.
• Glenn PR’ed in his half marathon: 1:18:24.

Rehoboth Beach Marathon. 1st negative split, 2nd fastest marathon.

First time running same marathon as sister.

Marshall’s turns 6 months- first Christmas together.

The extent of my training for this race was really making sure to get in a 15, 17 and 20 miler. All the runs in between were what I had time for between balancing Marshall, not sleeping, going back to work and life in general. I did manage to squeeze in a handful decent tempo runs with some speed and that felt good. I was running around 35 miles a week on a good week and there were days my confidence was high and I thought, just maybe I’ll PR.

I had all kinds of good Back on My Feet stuff going on race week– lot’s of great news piece from NBC and Fox 59, not to mention that many of our Members would be running the farthest distance of their lives on Saturday. (check out the NBC piece on James, who I ran this race with last year.) My point is- I was pleasantly distracted with the hustle and bustle of race week preparations for work.

Here’s the Back on My Feet Indy crew leading all 10,000 runners in the Serenity Prayer pre-race. This is what it’s all about. I’m in the blue and black hat shoving the microphone in Residential Member Michael’s face. Last year we had issues with the runners hearing us and I wanted to make sure they heard us loud and clear. Thanks Michael.

I didn’t do a long run last weekend because the Tuesday 20 mile stroller run kind of threw everything off. My legs were still a little tired Saturday and I figured I’d chill instead of put long miles on my tired legs two weeks before the marathon. So Glenn and I just did 7 that day and I never made time during the week to knock out a longish run.

So this weekend, one week out, I knew I needed to do anywhere between 10-14. (There has been no scientific or specific plan here. Glenn cringes just thinking about the sporadic, random plan or lack there of a plan I’ve been doing the past 11 weeks) I plan what I am going to run day by day always knowing that I’ll do a long on Saturdays or whenever I can fit them in for that matter. (apparently that sometimes ends up being a Tuesday)

Before I headed out, I thought I’d do 12, but early on in the run I decided to do 13.1. Half the distance. No real significance there, just wanted to tackle half. Ideally, I’d love to PR, but like I’ve said before, I absolutely don’t have the training in to realistically do that (unless I’m feeling amazing on Saturday).

I do think I can run the marathon around 8 minute pace and see how I feel around mile 16 or so. I SHOULD have probably ran my 13 around 8:30 pace, instead of my projected race pace, but I felt comfortable at 8 minutes and decided to stick to that. (the dang watch kept me obsessing!). My pace varied between 7:52 for my fastest split and 8:15 for my slowest, but for the most part I kept it pretty controlled and even and ended up with an average split of 8:03.

I think I should be happy to keep that pace for 26.2 on Saturday, and I know my 26.2 self all too well. 

This is how things could play out: 

• Go out around 8 min mile. Speed up too soon– Make sure I DON’T speed up too soon.

• Freak out around mile 4-5 thinking what the hell am I doing. (this happens every single marathon for me)  I think- Why did I really chose to wake up at an insane hour on a Saturday to put myself through 26 miles? My normal friends are sleeping, or enjoying breakfast in their jammies.

• Start feeling great around miles 8-14 – this is where I ALWAYS speed up and run way too fast to even think about having a negative split. I won’t do that on Saturday. I won’t let it happen.

• Make it to Mile 16. Hello Mile 16. Mile 16 is a friend because you’ve made it pretty far, but man those last 10 miles are nothing like the first 10. As soon as you cross 16- you are technically in single digits, less than 10… almost.

• Mental battles are fair game anytime after the beautiful mile 16. We hope and pray they don’t happen until way after mile 20. But you just never know. I won’t let them creep in this early on Saturday. No way.

• Miles  23-26, just keep running. Head down. Push. It hurts. Go anyway. Never Walk. I never have, I never will. (although I did quite the shuffle during Chicago, 2010)

• The whole race – remind myself how amazing the finish of ANY marathon is, not matter how fast or slow, how great or terrible you feel during the race. Finishing a marathon is makes you feel strong, and when you feel strong, life is just better.

Ideally, I would have ran it this past Saturday, three weeks out, but I had our big Back on My Feet race that day and I was absolutely exhausted on Sunday so it wasn’t happening then.  I planned on taking a day off work this week to recoup from the relay and figured Tuesday would be my best bet.

We have no babysitter on Tuesday’s. My mom was coming up to Indy to do stuff with their new house, so I thought maybe I’d run 10 with the stroller and then drop Marshall off at my Mom’s and finish out the other 10 sans stroller.

At 9:30am Marshall was ready for his first nap, so I thought, if I’m gonna do even 10 with him, I better go now. 86th street is my turn around on the monon for a 10 mile run. At 41 minutes, I was 5 miles in and felt good. I figured I might as well go up 2.5 more miles and that way I could knock out 15 and only have 5 left when I drop him off. BUT, the farther I ran, the more I just wanted to do it all with the stroller and hang it up for the day.

Marshall woke up around mile 6. Oh no, that is early on in a 20 mile run. I trucked on past the Monon center at mile 7.5. Marshall still awake but just hanging out. I needed to go north 2.5 more miles. My hope was that I could at least get back to the monon center and if I needed to stop and feed or change him I could. I’d be 12.5 miles in and it would be a good break point.

Miles 9-12. He started losing it at mile 9. Oh boy. I turned around at mile 10 only to realize I’d get to run straight into a nice headwind the whole way home. Baby crying, headwind, legs starting to get a little tired, 2 little hills. Yikes. There are essentially only 2 hills on the entire monon and they are right around miles 11 and 12 on a 20 mile out and back for me. I probably looked like a mess. Struggling pushing the stroller up the hill, while trying to stuff a pacifier into a screaming baby’s mouth. If the people who saw me knew I was attempting 20 with this baby, they’d think I was nuts. Mile 12 turned out to be my second fastest mile as I was trying to book it to the monon center.

Marshman at mile 10. In between a freak out session. Half way done buddy.

Literally 2 minutes before approaching the center, he calmed down and went into a trans like he might fall back asleep- so ON I WENT. I thought I’d try to at least make it to the bathrooms and benches at 96th street. By that point, he was out cold. 6 miles to go. The nice thing about all my worries about him crying and what not- it kind of distracted me from obsessing over how I was feeling at each mile.

Whenever I run a far distance north on the monon, I always just think- get me back to 86th street and I can handle the last 5 miles. Then whenever I get to 86th street, it’s – get me to Broad Ripple and I can handle the last 2.5.

OUCH. Those last 2.5 were freaking hard. (take a look at my last 2 mile splits. I worked for those slower miles… they hurt bad) My legs were shot, my body was tired from pushing  into the headwind and I was ready to stop. Not to mention my water bottle spilled and I was without water for the last 3 miles… unwilling to stop at McDonalds to fill up. (Are you kidding me? Stop? Baby is sleeping. If I stop this stroller, he would surely wake up.)

We made it over the Kessler Bridge and Marshall woke up with one mile to go. I could handle a screaming baby for 1 mile if I had to. But he just stared at me bright eyed the rest of the way. We finished in 2:44:36 and I knew my last two miles were my slowest, but I didn’t care, I just wanted to finish without slowing down to a 10 minute mile.

The lactic acid build up in my legs once I finished felt the same as when I’ve finished some marathons. It was intense. I scarfed a banana and some of my morning smoothie while I fed baby boy. So happy and proud to have finished 20 with a stroller at a great pace. It was really rewarding and special to finish my first post baby 20 miles with Marshall. We’ve essentially been running together since day one and I don’t see that changing anytime soon. He ran the Monumental with my last year and although he won’t be running it with me this year, he trained with me! I love our special running times together.

I’m going to run the Monumental on November 3rd. I don’t think I can PR, but I do think I can run around a 3:30-3:40 if I have a good race. Although we won’t go back to Boston anytime soon, I’d like to at least qualify as a goal. I don’t really have the training or miles in to realistically PR, but I’m going to believe it’s possible and we’ll just have to wait and see what kind of game both my body and mind bring to the table for the race. And I can’t help but already be praying that Marshall doesn’t have me up all night the night before. 

Stats from the 20 today: 

Splits:

Mile 1 – 8:37
Mile 2 – 8:02
Mile 3 – 8:08
Mile 4 – 8:25
Mile 5 – 8:11
Mile 6 – 8:07
Mile 7 – 8:17
Mile 8 – 8:08
Mile 9 – 8:03
Mile 10 – 7:59
Mile 11 – 8:10
Mile 12 – 7:56
Mile 13 – 8:04
Mile 14 – 7:59
Mile 15 – 8:14
Mile 16 – 7:52
Mile 17 – 8:00
Mile 18 -8:36
Mile 19 – 8:39
Mile 20 – 8:55

The weird thing about running this time, is usually when I go out for a stroller run, I do 3-5 miles at around a 9 minute mile. Never a serious run. Before today the farthest stroller run I had done was 6 miles. Who said we couldn’t do it. 

Time: 2:44:36 
Pace 8:14
Hydration & Energy: 1.5 mini bottles of water (not enough), one honey stinger and one citrus GU.

Marshall at 5 weeks

Just sitting at the table like an adult.

I feel like I spend 24 hours a day just staring at this little human being, and although I get frustrated for 2 seconds when he wakes me up at 3am every night, as soon as I pick him up and see this healthy, thriving baby, my heart melts and there is nothing more peaceful and perfect in the world. I just still can’t fathom that he literally came from nothing and then grew into a little human inside of me. It is the craziest thing. Ever.

My RUNNING plan: I should be cleared to run next Wednesday and I can’t wait. My mom and sisters and I are all planning on running the Indy Women’s Half Marathon on September 1st, will be a quick turnaround…. 24 days of “training”, but I don’t really care. I want to just run it for fun, but also don’t planning on being a turtle. As I write this, I don’t really know how I will feel, but I am hopeful I can at least run faster than the pregnant pace I had been running the past nine months.

Beyond the Women’s half, I want to sign up for the Monumental– I’m not going to commit until I run the half and see how I feel. I’ve ran marathons untrained before, and am OK with running it semi-trained, but don’t want to be miserable. I figure as long as I get in at least one 20 miler and a couple of 15-18, I’ll be good. It’s just a matter of making that happen.

Beyond setting my sites on these upcoming races– other than Marshall of course, our house has been consumed with Ironman training. Glenn will be doing Ironman WI on September 9th and he is right smack dab in the hardest part of his training. We didn’t necessarily time this perfectly, having a newborn baby right now, but he signed up before I was pregnant. Although we knew it could be a possibility, we have always known that you can’t assume or just plan that sort of thing, so kept on planning and doing all of our other “life” activities. (hence, why I was signed up for Boston this year, but obviously did not run!)

He is doing great with his training, but I know the lack of sleep (even though I’m the only one who gets up for feedings at night, he is going to bed later and getting up earlier) is having an effect on him. He gets up at 4:30-5:00am most weekdays and either rides or runs, then swims his lunch break and some days runs or rides again when he gets home. On the weekends it’s a good 6-8 hour workout on Saturday and Sunday. So, I know he will be ready for the race and realize that to even complete your first Ironman is a huge accomplishment in itself, but he hasn’t put all of this energy into training just to finish, he wants to race a respectable time. I am trying my best to support his efforts and absolutely can’t wait until race day, but trust me, we are both ready for it to be done and perhaps he can revisit the Ironman again when we don’t have a newborn baby in our house!

And the Marshman is growing, he eats like it’s his job (and I suppose that is his biggest job for now) and comes by it honestly as we all know that his dad eats insane amounts of food. 

He seriously looks so huge to me in this picture below. I keep saying I don’t want him to be so fragile anymore, but I am truly savoring every minute with him at each stage. I’m in love.

Getting big. 8.5 lbs already… up from 6.4 lbs at birth.

If you are a seasoned marathon runner, I highly recommend running a marathon with someone who has never gone the distance. It is truly a rewarding, fun and real experience. You know what it meant to finish your first marathon. You know the feelings you had when you crossed the finish line. What better a feeling than to experience that with someone else.

James and I running with our friend Dave, who we met at mile 8 and ran with until mile 20. We never found Dave after the race but hope he had a great last 6.2 miles!

James has overcome so much in life and today he uses running as a means to move forward in life. The week before the marathon Mary Milz, reporter for WTHR came out and interviewed James – she did an amazing job portraying his story and you can read about it here!

After the finish- time 4:46, which destroyed the goal of breaking 5 hours!

Needless to say the news coverage about James and his journey to the Monumental Marathon was very helpful in our journey to finish 26.2 miles. The whole race, random strangers would run by and say “your the guy!” “way to go- you are an inspiration to me” “keep it up man, I saw you on the news”. There was even a random lady in a car waiting in traffic that yelled out and called him by name to cheer him on. We were overwhelmed by the support of the community and can’t thank Mary Milz enough for sharing the story with Indianapolis.

I am amazed at how great James felt the whole race, it is a true testament to the importance of solid training. Our Program Director, Brian Meyer did a great job putting together the training plan for the team and the hard work paid off on race day.

James, with his hard earned medal. Photograph – Green Sky Media

Now for my favorite part of a marathon race report! I either do a section break down of the ups and the downs or my favorite moments. This time around, I think I’ll touch on my favorite moments:

Full marathoners with Chris Thronberry- one of our amazing volunteers with sick photography skills. photograph – Green Sky Media

There’s been a roller coaster of emotions and minor health related issues that have kept me back a bit. I’ve kind of let these issues stand in the way of something I’ve always loved. Most people have a battle with some type of fear in their lives. My battle tends to over the top and controlling at certain times and while running is the one thing that usually calms me down and takes me to a place where I can put things into perspective, it is the thing I tend to avoid when I need it most.

Over the past three weeks, I have been getting back on track and I’m ready to start working hard. Back on June, I had the privilege of running the Carmel Half Marathon with Eric Arnold, one our Back on My Feet members and friend of mine. It was his first half and ended up being one of the best race experiences I have ever had. As I’ve said before, there is something special about running someone’s first race with them. The Carmel Half Marathon with Eric and the Green Bay Marathon with Brooke are two races I will always be grateful for experiencing.

The BoMF teams are running the Monumental 5k, half and full this year- with three men running the full. Eric happens to be one of them and although I have not been training as one should for a marathon, I did manage to get in 15 miles on Saturday and plan to do 20 this coming Saturday. Eric wants to break 4 hours in his first marathon- a lofty goal, but I’m certain he can do it on a good day and I fully intend on running his first 26.2 with him. I was there for 13.1 and would be genuinely upset to miss the real deal.


26.2 here we come…

So for now, I’m putting most of my energy into the finishing touches of the Back on My Feet 42K Relay, which is next weekend! The following week, we are going to Miami where I plan to be the best cheerleader ever for Glenn in his first half ironman and then running the Monumental with Eric the day after we return. After all of this….it’s game time. I’m ready to train. Oh and I just started crossfit! Still in the first three introduction classes… we will see how it goes.