Week after week while doing my long runs I have had one recurring thought. I really should blog about that. Many times the blog ideas disappear by the time I get home but this one hasn’t. It just keeps floating around. Now that i’m going from being half crazy to full crazy I am going for it. Once a week I will be posting an update about my training and any tips I learn along the way. This week it is late, the holiday threw me off but this is week one of Monday Miles.
My first Full Marathon will be January 10th at the Happiest place on earth, Walt Disney World. I have read repeatedly how the Walt Disney World Marathon is one of the best marathons out there and knowing how well run the Princess races are I took it as a sign to enter when registration was on my anniversary. Happy 16th anniversary, your going to run a full marathon! To be fair my husband signed up for his first marathon too, just not WDW.
We are at 17 weeks and a few days before the marathon now and with my foot being cleared to go, it is go time. During my time off from running I was still active. During the week I was out in my garage working out with my husband, 15 year old and sometimes lil miss joined us. I would also go with my husband on his long runs during the weekend. The only difference is that I would ride my bike (ok and walk some of the steep hills but each week that was less and less). Once my foot was cleared I started walking instead of running. I wanted to test out my foot plus I was going to be sweeping a half marathon in a few weeks. 10 miles is a slow start right? I was able to do the 10 miles within the half marathon’s time limits easily with no foot problems. The following week I did 13 with my husband. I was set to go.
Sunday morning came all to early and before I knew it myself and the 3:30 pacer for Fayettevilles Race 13.1 were walking down the All American Highway. Moving right along, chit chatting and all that fun stuff.
We stayed together until around mile 7 when I picked up someone from the 10k. I helped him until around mile 8, well a bit before. I have to give this guy mad props. He was out there after having both of his hips replaced! He just wanted to see if he could do it and he did! I stayed with him until his wife came up to finish with him and her urging me to go ahead, she had him. I went ahead and saw my husband who was working as a course monitor and sped up trying to catch back up. Right about mile 9, I did my first scope on Periscope and sent a video out on Instagram.
It took about a mile but I caught back up to the back of the pack. Where I stayed for the rest of the race. I carried the American Flag and kept making sure everyone was doing ok. Outside of aches and pains and being a bit tired the ladies were doing good. One of the complaints was an achy hip from a mom of a 6 month old. She didn’t want to stop to stretch so I had her do some lunges which helped some. I also suggested she invest in a pair of good compression shorts. I explained to her the compression will help with her core which often becomes weak when having kids as well as additional stability in the hip. There are many claims that compression does this, that and the other thing but the stability is the stand out for me.
We kept on going and I kept doing what I could to encourage the back of the pack ladies. When another said they didn’t think they could do it at mile 12 I told them to stop and that they could. I explained running is in your head first. If you say you can you will. We made it up the on ramp and down to the mall and with encouragement I slowed down so she could run it in and own her half marathon finish. She worked hard for it and finished running. I came in last, like I was suppose to. It was the first time i’ve come in dead last it was very weird. I was given water and handed my medal and then I wandered my way to the Team RWB tent as most of the vendors had broken down or were in the process of doing so. My feet were killing me, I wore the wrong shoes and I am back on the quest to find a pair of shoes for the WDW Marathon. My feet are full of hot spots,blisters and i’m pretty sure I have new black toe nails.
I took Monday and Tuesday off. Well I tried to run Tuesday but my feet were not having it. My feet have not been this bad since 2012 when I did my first half marathon. I am going to try again today but we’ll see how it goes. It may be a cross training type of day.
Are you a runner? What has your training schedule looked like for the past week?