My first 70 mile week!

That's the way it's looking - pretty exciting and confidence boosting! 

I took my sparkling new "Boston shoes" out for the first time today - I ended up not running two days ago, and then wore my old shoes on yesterday's 23 miler. I tried breaking in a new pair of shoes  on a long run before, and that was a mistake. My feet hurt so much I had to stop the 22 mile run at 17, and had the hardest time getting home since I'd neglected to bring money for the bus. Since then I've always run with a couple of dollars, and learned not to subject new shoes to such long distance tests initially. 

Today's run felt very springy - a good follow-up to yesterday, which honestly was a grind for the last half. The first half felt so easy! The second half I found myself just shuffling along - the hard 11 miles I did the day before probably had something to do with it. I hope that was it! I took a few walking breaks yesterday - mentally I wasn't in it. But I accomplished my two goals for the run, spending at least 3:40 running and covering 23 miles, so I'll just leave it at that...

Today on the other hand I was bounding up the hills at Ravenna Park and feeling a lot better - I was surprised I felt as good as I did. I have 20 more miles this weekend, another 6ish tomorrow and a 14 mile trail run on Sunday and that'll be 70 miles for the first time...

Stocking up / Taking stock

Stocking up

I've got three new pairs of running shoes sitting in my bags right now - a good month after I ordered the first pair from Road Runner, and subsequently received a postcard from them telling me my favorite Saucony Gel Omni Ultimates, size 8, were being discontinued, I pedaled over and took what they had. 3 pairs x 400 miles each = 1200 miles of potential right here! I'll start breaking in my pair for Boston tonight.... 

Taking Stock

The trip to Denver/Boulder was really "auspicious," just as I predicted the first day, upon sitting next to the fiance of a conference presenter on the plane over. Thursday's freakish blizzard kept me from running one day, but other than that I was able to fit the runs in quite nicely. 

Wednesday was a long run along Boulder's Creek Trail. Ran towards the mountains first and through the canyon outside of town - amazing rock formations towering overhead, and the bluer than blue sky. I was sorry to run out of trail going in that direction, but I turned around and headed back the other way, where after some miles I came upon prairie dogs in great numbers, sunning themselves and wagging their stubby tails in jubilation. I've never experienced such comic relief on a run! By the end of the 3 hour run I was ready to be done and move on (to falafel with Max), but felt pretty good overall, considering it was my first long run at altitude on my first day in Colorado.

Friday and Saturday  were 6 and 9 mile runs along the Cherry Creek and Platte River trails in the afternoons. Originally I was excited about getting other TESOL runners to join me, but it was hard enough to plan it for myself, and with the snow it didn't seem likely that many others would join me anyway. Turned out fine this way though. Felt really good, especially Saturday. Four days is probably too little to really benefit from running at altitude, but maybe I can attribute yesterday's awesome 15 miler partly to that. And the extra day off on Sunday?

And this just in... (to the PO box)

Got my bib pick-up card today. It came in a fattish white envelope, with course maps, schedules, etc. 2o days to go, and 9 until we take off for New Jersey. It's just about time to start tapering - I want to have one more solid week this week, with a 23 miler tomorrow, some speed work and the Sunday trail run. Then I'll start cutting back a little...

Off to Denver!

I'm chewing on the last few bites of oatmeal and expecting Ivan any minuted with the Zipcar. My bag is packed (and not to bursting.) So it's off to Denver, for the national TESOL (Teaching English as a Second or Foreign Language) conference. 

There's a running dimension to this trip too, of course. My running shoes and other stuff are packed in my carryon so even if they manage to lose my bag (on a direct flight) I'll still be ready to run tomorrow. I'm excited to explore Denver and Boulder on foot, and I'm hoping to do at least one run with a group in Boulder. Which one. So far I haven't found weekly run schedules online, but I've got the number for the major running store in Boulder and I'll give them a call today.

I had a great run this morning after packing the socks and sweaters... about 8 miles in the neighborhood, more crew practice on Lake Washington (I see they have their first regatta in Seattle this weekend!) and felt strong and speedy. A good way to prepare for a long day of travel.

Ivan and the Zipcar are here... and so I go!

I am 13448

Apparently bib numbers have been out since January, but I only realized this today. I'm 13448... this means I'll be in Wave I with numbers 1-14000, starting at 10AM along with the elite men. (The elite women start at 9:32.) Wave II consists of numbers 14000+, at least 8,000 more runners, and starts at 10:30AM. 

So much for the numbers! 

I picked up another book on the history of the Boston marathon from the library today: Boston: Celebrating the 100th Anniversary of the Boston Athletic Association Marathon. It's full of color pictures and written by Hal Higdon, whose training plans I've been drawing on in preparation... No wonder it's so hard to get out of the chair and onto the next order of business, getting quarters for laundry!

(Today's run was an easy hour in the morning... I ran a loop around the Lake Union nature preserve, around Husky stadium, on the mushy mulch of the arboretum islands, saw the UW crew team practicing... I have to see about getting some pictures up,  we're in such a beautiful neighborhood for running!)

Running and I

How did I get here? To make a long story short:

1984-5 (?) - I learn to walk. My mom says that I would stop practicing and plop down on the floor when she came in the room. Didn't want to debut a work in progress.

1990-1996: memories of elementary school running are centered on the Presidential Fitness Test. The mile run and the shuttle run, distance and sprint. Neither are a particular joy to me. (I liked dodgeball and playing Star Trek on the playground. Rainy day recess in the library was fine by me, too.  

The mile run was 12 laps around the Greenlake Elementary playfield. Mr. Geddicks gave out straws at the completion of each lap to keep track. I remember walking most of the way. 

1996-1998: New school, new gym teachers, same Presidential Fitness Test. A high point came in 7th grade running the mile with Maryanna Pinchuk. We were speeding along the loop around the school when somehow we took a wrong turn. So it remains a mystery how speedily we actually were going. The Presidential t-shirt will always elude me. (Walking past the Lab School in Chicago once, I overheard a tearful boy complaint to his father: "But we have to take the fitness test tomorrow..." My heart went out to him!)

1998-2002: Shannon Carney told me once in chemistry that she was running 9 miles that day with the cross country team. I couldn't imagine running that far. I did warmup laps during volleyball and rugby practice.

2002-2006: My four years at the University of Chicago got off to an auspicious start running-wise. The first week I ran along the lake shore path with one of my roommates. I strained to keep up - she was from Vermont and very sporty! Little did I know that the first day of crew practice would consist of a 3 mile time trial, followed by another one the next day, and weekly group runs after that. But who wouldn't want to run at least a little bit with such a spectacular lake to admire in all the seasons, either alone or with friends?

This was when I first heard of someone I knew who ran marathons. Anna was a med student who hung out a lot in the Mac Lab eating healthy snacks and studying anatomy and contagious diseases. She ran marathons. So did Carl, a friend of two of the crew girls. Barb and Emily told me he once ran 26+ miles in the winter, returned to the dorm half frozen and drank hot chocolate. That sounded pretty cozy.

2006-2008: I went to Hungary thinking I'd join a volleyball team, but running alone turned out to be the easiest thing. After an entire day of classes inside the same building, which was also the dorm, I needed air, movement, a change of scenery. I tried to run in a different direction each day, but often linked the run to a trip to the market, and a piece of celebratory poppy seed retes. 

At the end of the first year, my friend Balazs invited me to join their marathon relay team. What a feeling, running with hundreds (thousands?) of people along the Danube! I was hooked! In the new year, I ran some 5 and 10Ks and organized some group runs and race teams from the institute. While ice skating in the winter, I mentioned to Balazs I was thinking of running the half-marathon in Prague. He'd already run one and was up for it - come March, our little team of two runners and two coaches (Fuki and Evike!) made the trip to Prague! I'd run something with the word 'marathon' in it!

I signed up for the Seattle Marathon before I even arrived back in Seattle. Since Prague I'd run one more half-marathon and a bunch of smaller races, including one final hoorah up Hungary's highest peak, the Kekes. I didn't know what I'd be doing in Seattle exactly, and signing up for the race gave me a sense of structure. I was going back to Seattle and I was going to accomplish something! 

 

A few days after Thanksgiving, after the prescribed 12 weeks of training, Ivan and I ran the marathon in fine form, and I managed to qualify for Boston. I had three goals going into the race: 1) to finish, 2) to break 4 hours and 3) to qualify for Boston (3:40). I really would have been happy reaching even one of those goals, but everything went wonderfully, and I qualified with a time of 3:33. We had friends cheering on the course and from far away, and every bit of it helped. So that's how I got to this point, less than a month from Boston, and looking forward as much to the friends and family this occasion will bring together as to the run itself!

Third day of spring, first day in shorts

Last week's Sunday run on Cougar Mountain was a winter wonderland of snow and slush -  this week was different in so many ways. The sky was clear, at least for the first half, I was running alone and much more relaxed. Last week was my first trail run in quite a while - the longer I stayed away the harder the early wakeup and steep hills seemed. The winter weather, work and traveling were part of the reason I missed many runs, but fear held me back a bit, too. Last week reminded me of what I had forgotten: the beauty of the forest, the soft trails, the spirited conversations and sandwiches to keep us going, and the incomparable feeling of getting in the heated car at the end of the run. 

This morning was much easier to get out the door - and I made it even easier on myself by taking the bus instead of biking. I've often thought that grinding up the hills to the store at 6:30 is the hardest part. So today there was no hardest part. Two of the three other runners did the Chukanut 50K yesterday, and we got to hear the recap on the drive out - hearing from the ultrarunners is always a huge inspiration to me. After Boston I'm thinking of a 50K trail race as my next goal...

We ran 14 miles along a different route than last week - I'm very happy I was able to keep a rhythm going the whole time, and not walk any of the uphills. As slow as those tiny steps felt, it still was faster than hiking up. So hooray for the Sunday run! 

B minus 30 days

Do you know what the gazelle does when it first spots a fierce tiger lurking in the bush? It jumps up and down several times, reaching lofty heights. Why does it do that? Why doesn't it just start running? On this morning's run Ivan explained to me that the gazelle wants to impress the tiger: look at me, look at all this energy I've got to spare! I'm jumping up and down! You think I'm worried about you? (After a few more bounces, I think the gazelle takes off.)

Fascinating! Definitely worth waking up early on Saturday for! Unlike the gazelle, we did not show off with displays of excess energy before the run this morning... Just dressed up (hats and gloves for all) and headed out. Last week I was mildly annoyed about how stiff and slow I felt on this easy weekend trot around Greenlake. This time I was prepared for it, and prepared to talk about gazelles, look for the regatta action (none yet at 8:30, rowers were still gathered in their snack-tents), and bid the UW cross country girls a cheery good morning. Six conversational miles - funfun, the only run like it this week. I wish I could have enjoyed a relaxed oatmeal after, but had to go straight to work... full day at the running store, where every second person seems to be getting ready for a half marathon. And now they have the shoes to do it.