Month: October 2011

I finally carved a pumpkin yesterday! Better late than never, right?

I can’t decide if it looks happy or creepy. Maybe both? I think that’s the creepiest type of creepy… when someone looks at you with a smile, and then you slowly realize that it’s not a happy smile, but a creepy smile. Think evil clowns.

ANYWAY. After Saturday’s long run, I took the World’s Greatest Nap and then went out to celebrate Halloween. I dressed up as a… RUNNER! Yes, lame, I know. I just knew I’d never be able to top last year’s costume, so I didn’t even try. Plus, I was able to wear my compression sleeves as part of my costume (shorts, running top, race bib and Brooks), which was extremely necessary given the fact that I ran 18 miles that day.

For reference, this was last year’s costume:

YOU try to top that and then come talk to me.

I’m feeling 100% back in good health even though I stayed out laaaate on Saturday night and enjoyed a few alcoholic beverages. I am so, so, so thankful to be better and able to fully resume training.

And aside from my knees feeling a little creaky on Sunday, my legs don’t even feel like I pounded them into cement for nearly three hours this weekend! That’s definitely due to the fact that I stretched, foam-rolled and iced my knees, plus wore compression sleeves during and after the run.

Fun fact: My compression sleeves are a women’s size large. My calves measure 15.5" at the largest point, and that’s the low end of the large size on the CEP sizing chart. Ain’t no shame here! Cheers for having wicked muscular calves.*

*Except when they outgrow very cute knee-high boots.

I have NO CLUE how this run went so well. I think it was a combination of grit, determination and just plain stubbornness. Also, the weather was delightful — 50-something degrees and sunny!

18 miles — 2:54:18, 9:41 pace

That’s new personal distance record and very satisfying pace after a week of being sick as a dog!

It called for a little Reluctant Runner-style Blue Steel.

True life: I literally crawled up the stairs of my townhouse — on all fours — to grab my phone from the kitchen for this ridiculous photo. Stairs are fun, and by fun I mean EFFING IMPOSSIBLE.

Since I love me a good 9-miler, I mentally broke this run up into two 9-milers. I did my usual route along the Burke-Gilman trail and around Lake Union for the first 9 miles and felt fine, although a little slower than usual. Then I tried to reprogram my brain to think, “OK, now I just go run 9 miles!” like I hadn’t just run 9 miles.

Surprise! It didn’t really work. I wanted to go home so badly, especially since I was within a quarter mile of my townhouse. The last 9 miles were all heart. And stubbornness. And determination.

Mile 14 was by far my slowest because it involved running up a hill on Eastlake for the second time. It wasn’t very fun.

I legitimately wanted to quit at mile 15.5 because I was just tired. I spent the whole week resting and trying to recover from being sick, not working out, so my body was all like “WTF?” when I asked it to run for nearly three hours. 

I just kept telling myself, “Only 2.5 miles to go — you can do anything for 2.5 miles,” and so on and so on with the remaining distance until I got to the very end.

And the end was glorious. I collapsed on my patio and stretched. The concrete felt so good that it might as well have been a pillowtop mattress. Yum.

OH, and FYI for all the Tumblrites that ran Soaring Wings this morning: I hit 13.1 at 2:05:44 and made a mental note of it so I could pretend that I’m as cool as you guys today. I didn’t sign up for the virtual half… I just keep the crazy alive on my own.

Sickness update: I’m still sick. I have no idea what to do besides rest and drink a ton of fluids so I can get back to marathon training as quickly as possible. 18 miles kinda have to happen this weekend.

Anyway, I totally forgot that October 21 was my one-year Tumblr anniversary! Oh, how far I’ve come since that first post:

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I’ve had pain in my right knee during and after running for the past few months. The entire day after running it was always stiff, and I would hobble around in pain wondering if running was even worth it.

Then my mom’s boyfriend noticed that I slid my running shoes on and off instead of re-tying them each time I ran. He laughed at me.

I re-tied them so they fit much more snugly and ran one mile; no pain. Two miles; no pain. Three miles; no pain. Huh.

That was last night. Absolutely no knee pain today.

And here I thought my 23-year-old body was defective! Turns out it was just my brain.

Such a relief.

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Luckily my body is still not defective. My brain is about the same, although at least now I know how to tie my stinkin’ shoes.

Thank you to all of you crazies who read, “like,” comment, encourage and offer advice as I write this weird little blog. I wouldn’t be the runner (or person) I am today without the awesome Tumblr community that has shared my highs and lows, running-related and otherwise, over the past year.

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This will come as no surprise to those of you who’ve kept track of my rainy runs (two within the last week)…

I’m sick.

I tried to deny it for a while and run in crappy weather anyway, but obviously that didn’t work out. I’d like to blame this on my body and say that my immune system has failed me, but I acknowledge that it has more to do with… user error.

Little sore throat + rainy 12-miler + big party with lots of beer consumed + very little sleep + rainy 5-miler = full-on sickness.

So now I rest and drink huge glasses of ice-cold lemon-lime Nuun and hope for a speedy recovery. I have an 18-mile run on Saturday, people!

I just recapped Marathon Training: Week 13 on Answering Oliver, and it was a great week — but also perhaps an example of a girl packing in too many activities and getting too little sleep when she already didn’t feel 100%. Don’t be like me, kids.

Ben crashed on my couch last night and suggested we go for a run at 8:00 this morning if it wasn’t raining, so I woke up at 7:15 to eat and get my running gear on.

It wasn’t raining.

I got all ready to go and even turned on my Garmin, which for me means there’s no turning back. At 7:50, I woke his ass up and said it’s tiiiiiiime for a ruuuuun!

It wasn’t raining.

While he got ready, I heard a little pitter-patter on the roof… and sure enough, when Ben was ready, I had to break the news…

It was raining.

Ahh, well, we went anyway. WETTEST. RUN. EVER.

We ran 2.5 miles along the Burke-Gilman Trail to Gas Works Park, where we posed with the gloomy Seattle skyline.

The sky absolutely opened up during the 2.5 miles back home, and little puddles that we’d dodged on the way out had grown to monstrous ponds stretching across the width of the trail. We did a lot of graceful leaping.

There comes a point when it’s not physically possible to get more soaked than you already are, and I’d say we got to that point around mile 3.5. We’ll call it a character-building run.

5.25 miles — 49:42 (9:30 pace).

Ben’s off on a plane to Arkansas now, and whaddaya know, it’s now sunny in Seattle! Go figure.

Since the last six weeks of my Rock ‘n’ Roll Las Vegas Marathon training will take place during the coldest, rainiest months, I keep having to remind myself of Bill Bowerman’s quote: “There’s no such thing as bad weather, just soft people.”