I’ve never been a fast runner. I never qualified for States, the only reason I lettered in Cross Country was because there was 6 of us on the team and the top 5 of each team score the points. I happened upon the fifth runner status.
That was in fact, seven years ago.
I never qualified for states in my events in outdoor track, indoor was another story because there were…two of us on the team. But outdoor track – i was about five seconds shy in the 800, and 2-3 seconds in the 100 m high hurdles. I tried and I tried but little legs can only move so fast and when you stand at a sturdy 5’2″ (on a good day) you’ve got…little legs.
So last year when I took on the task of training for my first marathon, my goal was to simply finish. Not hard, i had 7:30:00 to do so. Unfortunately, my training consisted of running, hiatus, running and a month long hiatus right before the race. Whoops? Talk about half assed training. I finished in 7:00:00 exactly.
This year i’ve been better. I started training later (about 6 weeks later than I should have) so i was 10 weeks out from the marathon. I condensed a training plan to make sure I peaked at 18 miles (last year my peak was 15) and added in a lot of cross training (swimming and pilates) which have been an INCREDIBLE help.
I’ve been shooting for a 12-11 minute mile pace for the marathon. Doable, but I’m a little scared. I usually run about 11-12 minutes/mile just cause i like to be slow. But last week, I kicked up the pace. Thursday I did a short 3 miler around work, my first mile I clocked at 8:34. !!!!!!
I haven’t run an 8:30 mile since high school when I could run a 25 minute 5k.
I finished 3 miles in under 30 minutes, making my mile sub 10:00/mile – about a 9:30-9:45 pace.
WOO!
Saturday, the temperature hoovered around 90 or so by the afternoon. I was determined to get up and run my 16 miles. Next weekend is my peak run – 18 miles. Rosslyn to Mt. Vernon. Omg omgomgomg.
But, I didn’t set any goals for myself. I kept checking my pace, my nike+ chip (it fell out at one point on thursday so i had to walk 1/4 mile to find it. Those bitches are expensive!), i had plenty of water since i bought a new fuel belt on Friday and some more glide stick because lately since I lost my other one the chafage has been WRETCHED. I was hitting the pavement by 8:20a, finished my first 6 miles just over an hour, making my average time somewhere between 9:30-10:30/mile.
~1:28:00 for the first 8 miles. Holy shit, I thought to myself as i turned around, I’m going to be sub 3 hours for this run. And I was. 2:48:35. I had hoped to get in at 2:45:00 but the last mile and a half was a gradual uphill that you didn’t notice till you were like SHIT MAN, this HURTS. So while I tried to tell myself, if i push it, I’ll finish this last mile in 8 minutes. Two more songs on the ipod. Omg I can do it.
I walked in the last mile. 1/4 of it roughly. The first quarter. The other 3 I ran. Slowly. damnit.
But still sub 3 hours!
This puts me on track to possibly finish sub 5:00:00 for the marathon which is in less than a month. I’m hoping to finish my 18 miler at 3:30:00 – we’ll see though. it helped that i was in bed by 11pm on Friday, I had one glass of wine with dinner and 1 cider. So friday night this week I will not be going out. I will not be drinking. I will be sleeping. I will be out the door by 8am (though it’s not supposed to be as hot this saturday) and have fiancé pick me up around noon down at Mt. Vernon (i’m taking the metro over to Rosslyn and picking up the Mount Vernon trail from the beginning – start to finish it’s about 18.5 miles).
I will do it. Mostly because I know i CAN.
5:00:00 marathon here I come!!!!
