Sunday, May 24, 2009

Stillwater Marathon

First things first.

If you run marathons, this one is worth the trip. Small town, incredibly well organized and beautiful.

You must be able to handle hills though!

And don't forget to train down hill as well as uphill!

Hmmm, I'm not sure if I know how to do this. I want to talk about everything I did wrong but I don't want it to be whinny excuses. It just is! I have learned so much with my training for this marathon. I am living in the moment that I finished a hard marathon, but I am also looking forward to faster times. I know I can do it.

I had a good training plan, I just didn't use it right. I need to adapt my plan around the fact that I work every third weekend and the fact that I work 2-12 hour shifts a week. Now 2-12 hour shifts may not seem like too much of a big deal but one weekend they are night shifts and the other weekend involves these shifts; 12, 12, 12, 8, off, 12, 8. Brutal for training.

I don't get how I can ever train for an Ironman! Work, kids, household. At this time, it is unimaginable.

I've got some figuring to do about that.

About the training plan! I really started enjoying the speed work, but when the tempo's starting getting longer like 8-9 miles (with 2 mile warm ups and cool downs), I couldn't do it. And when I did have a weekend, or I had to ski with my son, or there was a holiday, my long run was missed.

Summary of training: Too much increase in speed and not enough long runs.

Before the start!
I'm getting out of my event shell. I've been pretty quiet before races and usually don't see anybody I know. The exception would be my first marathon. Anyway I had a relaxing pre-race. Leah, a pharmacist at work and her fiance Ryan was there. Theresa, a co-worker RN was running her first marathon (she started running because of me) and I talked to strangers and offered sunscreen and like socialized and stuff. I also saw Miss Allycat after the race as well.

Anyway the marathon started about 10 minutes late. And boy did I love the beginning, all down hill for about 3 miles. It did concern me though, what goes down, must come up! (don't question me, I know science)
It was easy to be positive for the first 7 miles. First mile was 9:20 with an average heartbeat of 140, but by mile 9, I had a heartbeat of 161 with a 9:08 pace. A 161 pace meant that I should slow down. But I was fine! My fluids and nutrition was good, my pace was natural, easy and comfortable. I had some hip pain, which is really unusual for me. I assume it was because of all the downhill running. It hurt, but I was able to ignore it most of the time. There were even times that it was gone. I really slowed down at mile 12 and 13, but they were up hill. I finished at the halfway point with a 2:01:14! I needed to negative split so that I could finish in 4 hours. At this point I thought "why not"?
I was really wrong.
BTW, my half marathon was a pr by 7 seconds. I so could have run a halfie much quicker if I didn't have the other half!
Laps 13-19 were ok. I was a little slower but still averaging at @ 9:23 pace. I am a runner that is worst in the middle miles so I was really looking forward to after mile 20 for the downhill into town.
Unfortunately I was toast by the end of mile 20! My last 10K was 1:17
1:17! Ack 
Compare this to my first 10K of 55:39
Not good! The funny thing is it wasn't my legs that were a problem. Yes they hurt but we all know what pain is!
The problem I think was my blood pressure. I have gone 4 days without Coke (Jenny look away). The reason is that my blood pressure has been out of control. Try like 170/100 as an example. The last time this happened to me I quit drinking diet drinks and my bp came down after about 10 days. I thought it was the diet. But now I was wondering if it was some kind of caffeine sensitivity, I thought maybe I was just having too much. Anyway as my week progressed I measure a bp of 140/95. Still too high but headed in the right direction.
My bp yesterday 160/100.
I didn't tell anybody!
Anyway during the last 10k, my hr was was only about 158, yet I was feeling like it was much higher. I was feeling my bp. It made feel a little faint. So I would walk (downhill, which really bothered me) for @.1 or .2 miles then make a goal to run .5 miles before giving myself another break. I was really nauseas and a little dizzy at the finish line. I sat down for about 1/2 hour before feeling better, hopped on a bus to my car and went home.
I didn't even grab a free meal or a free beer.
And yes, I will see a doctor this week if my bp is not better. I know all too well the problems that high bp causes.
I hope that I find pictures of the course. It is beautiful and the crowd support for a small marathon was amazing. My plan right now is to run it again next year.
I'm not good at remembering my thoughts and specifics about the run but as I do, I'll take notes and share them later.
And a thank you to Kristin Palmer, another co-worker of mine that I saw two times out on the course. She had a few friends running and she was such an encouragement to see.

1 comment:

  1. Congrats! You did so awesome on a VERY tough course. Great job!

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