Marathon

Is This Marathon Thing Ever Going to Be Done?

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My last post about marathon training really scared me. It was August and I could barely run a few miles. I went to the doctor, got some medicine for my asthma, finally felt better and started training hardcore. (Hardcore for me is waking up at 4:45am to run, even on the weekends. It’s not running really fast or anything cool. It’s basically just being hardcore enough to wake up early and run in the dark).

 

 

This is the a bakery that opened a few years ago down the street from our house and it's become a huge hit for those walking or biking on the trail. It's a great place! This is my first marker on my runs and it's only 1/2 mile in. It's the first road crossed. It's where the shade stops and the sun starts. It's a big deal.
This is the a bakery that opened a few years ago down the street from our house and it’s become a huge hit for those walking or biking on the trail. It’s a great place! This is my first marker on my runs and it’s only 1/2 mile in. It’s the first road crossed. It’s where the shade stops and the sun starts. It’s a big deal.

Since I got some medical intervention, training has been going well. I’ve trained on some hills, I’ve run long distances, I’ve done it all and I have the blisters to prove it.

Last weekend, I felt so good on my long run that I decided to just go for it and run 13.1 miles in one direction on the trail near our house and see what happened. (All the photos that accompany this post are places I pass on my runs every weekend. It’s such a great trail for running and we are lucky that it’s so close to our house.)

Another marker for me on the run. On really short runs, it's where I turn around and run home (for a total of 4 miles). This is an old railroad station for the old railroad.
Another marker for me on the run. On really short runs, it’s where I turn around and run home (for a total of 4 miles). This is an old railroad station for the old railroad.

So what happened? I ran from my house to the town where I grew up, three towns away. 13.1 miles ended up being right at a point where you cross a busy road that takes you close to my mother’s house. I ran the 13.1 miles and turned back home and just kept running….and running…and then my fitbit battery died….and then my mp3 player’s battery died….and then my running watch’s battery died. On one hand, I outran technology! But on the other hand, when the music died (Bye, Bye Miss American Pie), I got really bored. And I started thinking. Thinking about how boring running way. Thinking about how I wanted to stop. Thinking about how far away I was from home. Thinking about how much fuel I had left. Thinking about how sad I was that my running watch couldn’t record that I actually went 26.2 miles that day. And I kind of slowed down and then started walking and I was still pretty far from home. Overall, to finish the 26.2 route (with all the walking), it took me 7 hours. The marathon gives you 6 hours to finish. (What if you don’t finish on time? Do you still get a medal? I need to know this. Comment if you know.)

Isn't this ideal? You run through woods and next to farms. I've tried to convince Husband to steal my an ear of corn, but he refuses to run carrying corn (he has a point!). However, I have seen other people carrying clearly stolen produce from this farm. If only Husband loved me enough to steal me some corn...
Isn’t this ideal? You run through woods and next to farms. I’ve tried to convince Husband to steal my an ear of corn, but he refuses to run carrying corn (he has a point!). However, I have seen other people carrying clearly stolen produce from this farm. If only Husband loved me enough to steal me some corn…

Physically, I think I’m ready. Mentally, I’m worried. When Husband trained for his first marathon, his longest run before the marathon was 27 miles. He wanted to know going into marathon day that he could do it. I have the same mindset. But as we are nearing the end of training, I’m less excited about pushing myself a few more miles every week. Should I really be forcing myself to run 20+ miles at a time every weekend for weeks leading up to the race?

The Connecticut/Massachusetts border. I was so excited the first time I ran this far. I ran to another state! ANOTHER STATE! Ok, we are a border town, but I don't live that close to the border!
The Connecticut/Massachusetts border. I was so excited the first time I ran this far. I ran to another state! ANOTHER STATE! Ok, we are a border town, but I don’t live that close to the border!

Physically, the answer is no. It’s not great for my body. I’m still carrying some extra weight and pounding the pavement cannot be good for me. My feet are sore for days after runs. Occasionally, I’ll have an ache or pain in my knee or hip. So physically, I think it’s best for me to run my 20 mile run and taper and do everything that experts, training plans, running magazines, etc. tell you to do to prep for a marathon.

Another cool bakery along the trail. This one is near a huge lake, so it's slightly more popular than the bakery down the street. Plus they are open later on the weekends when more people on the trail. The one near us closes at 2 on Sundays. Sometimes they are closed on holiday weekends. They clearly need to rethink their business model. But they offer water to dogs, so they have that going for them.
Another cool bakery along the trail. This one is near a huge lake, so it’s slightly more popular than the bakery down the street from our house. Plus they are open later on the weekends when more people on the trail. The one near us closes at 2 on Sundays. Sometimes they are closed on holiday weekends. They clearly need to rethink their business model. But they offer water to dogs, so they have that going for them.

But mentally? Starting a marathon knowing that I’ve run that distance in training is important to me. Of course no training plan has you run more than 20 miles pre-marathon, but that’s another entire 10K left to run! How can people have the confidence that they’ll be able to finish when they’ve only ever run 20 miles? I would be confident that I can finish the 0.2 miles if I’ve previously run 26 miles, but another 10K after running 20 miles? Do you know how far 6 miles is? It’s pretty freaking far. (And if you’ve been following my blog for awhile then you know that I had a very hard time finishing a 10K at the beginning of the summer).

When you get really far along the trail, you come to this tunnel that is painted in an underwater theme. The last time I was running through it, a cyclist came up behind me and told me not to be scared because he was going to yell when he went through the tunnel. He did. It didn't strike me as weird at the time, but then again, I had been running for 5+ hours at that point.
When you get really far along the trail, you come to this tunnel that is painted in an underwater theme. The last time I was running through it, a cyclist came up behind me and told me not to be scared because he was going to yell when he went through the tunnel. He did. It didn’t strike me as weird at the time, but then again, I had been running for 5+ hours at that point.

So that’s my struggle as I get closer to the marathon. Do I follow the physical training that everyone suggests or mentally build my confidence? My gut says that this marathon is going to be 80% mental for me. I need to go into it with the right mindset….I need to go into it with confidence that I can finish it.

I will continue with my long runs and see how I feel. I do think I can finish a marathon, which honestly is pretty amazing in and of itself considering where I was the last time I wrote about training. But I think I need another amazing run to KNOW that I can finish a marathon in the 6 hours given.

(Because honestly at this point, I want to check this off my bucket list and be done with it. If I can’t finish under 6 hours. If I can’t run the entire time. If i get hurt. If for whatever reason, I fail at this now, I know it will haunt me and I will NEED to attempt it again in the future. And really all I want to do is have a weekend where I can sleep in and leisurely drink my coffee in the morning.)

I cannot begin to tell you how excited I was to run this far. I ran through Granby, East Granby, Suffield (all CT towns) and then Southwick, MA and reached Westfield where I grew up! It takes me 30 minutes to drive there in a car from my house, so it was cool to be able to say that I could run that distance. I rock!
I cannot begin to tell you how excited I was to run this far. I ran through Granby, East Granby, Suffield (all CT towns) and then Southwick, MA and reached Westfield where I grew up! It takes me 30 minutes to drive there in a car from my house, so it was cool to be able to say that I could run that distance. I rock!

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