Three days after my half marathon with pain still present in my hip and hamstring, I dove off the deep end and started planning the training for my first marathon. If you’re familiar with the sitcom Friends, you’ll understand what I mean when I say I have Monica-like tendencies. I like to be organized, I like to have a plan, and I have a fetish for new office supplies.
Which marathon did I pick? The Country Music Marathon on April 26th in Nashville. I was shooting for a race a little earlier because I hate the thought of running when it’s potentially hot and humid, but I think it will be good to have extra training time this winter. The New Sarah and one or two other runners I know are putting it on their race calendars, and I figure it would be better to be hot and run with friends than to be at just the right temperature running alone.
Which training program did I pick? I like Mr. Higdon because he’s no-nonsense about his training plans and they’re really easy to tweak. Linden and I combined his novice and intermediate 10K training plans last spring; we had more time to train than he had planned, so we did the first half of the novice plan and the entire intermediate plan, sans speedwork.
I merged Mr. Higdon’s novice and intermediate marathon plans (viewable here). The novice plan starts next week and goes through the beginning of January and is four days a week. I switch to the intermediate plan in January and start running five days a week. This plan is pretty ambitious for me a couple of reasons:
First, I’ve never ran five days a week, but I want to challenge myself and see if I can do it. If in fact, I have less energy and am getting hurt after a few weeks of the five-day running, I’ll cut out the Fridays on the plan.
Second, I’m pretty sure that I re-strained my hamstring on Sunday and my hip and knee are still pretty sore, so I’m resolving to not run until everything on my left leg is better (aside from the Silver Dollar City Run to the Lights tomorrow night). Even though the plan starts on Monday, I’m OK with renegotiating the start time if I’m not better. I’ve also resolved to start strength training again when I’m healed up. A weak hamstring is probably what started all this trouble in the first place!
I know I’m borderline crazy for planning all of this so soon after my half, but I’m afraid that if I don’t have a plan, I won’t get anywhere. This will at least get me through the holidays, right?
November 8th, 2007
Well, it’s done! I finished the half marathon in 2:36:26 WITHOUT WALKING! I’m not sure where to start with the race story, so I guess I’ll start at the beginning.
I woke up Sunday morning at 5 o’clock and ate my trusty Fiber One bar. I read my Bible a bit before dressing and peeing one last time. Chris and I left the house at 5:55. As much as I would’ve enjoyed being in control, I was not allowed to drive to the race because when I’m nervous (especially before big races) I’m a little heavy on the pedal, and before my first race ever, I got a speeding ticket.
We stopped by Krispy Kreme on the way to Bass Pro, as I had promised my family, and we got to Bass Pro by 6:20. I passed out donuts and race routes to my mom, dad, mother-in-law Martha, father-in-law Don, my bro Jacob, and two of Jacob’s friends. Turns out Jacob and his friends were there just for the donuts and Bass Pro.
After peeing two more times, we moseyed to the Bass Pro Grand Entrance to stay warm before heading outside to the start. I’m not sure what possessed me to take a gel 10 minutes before the race, but I am so glad I did. I’m pretty sure that’s what gave me all my energy the first half. I ran into my student Drew from last spring and saw New Sarah and Lex while waiting to start. Sarah, Lex, and I screamed quietly to ourselves as we couldn’t believe what were about to do.
The gun went off, and we slowly made our way out of the entrance. I was so glad that I knew the race route because there were plenty of spots where I was able to follow the tangents of the road and save a few seconds. Man, there were some ticked off drivers those first few miles. Springfield PD and the race ambassadors did a great job keeping the traffic out of our way all morning.
I have no idea what my mile splits were, but I finished the race with an 11:57 pace, which was exactly where I wanted to be. My plan was to run the first 25–30 minutes and then walk 1, run 5 the rest of the way, but I kept feeling good, so I kept running. I didn’t walk at all (except a few steps through the water stops ). At mile two, I rendezvoused with my family and earned one toe for my pedicure. Both my mother and my mother-in-law had signs cheering for me, and they were the hit of the race! Apparently every Sarah on the course loved them, and I think every other runner wished their names were Sarah, too.
Just after seeing my family, I made it to the first water stop and took water from my good pal Heather M., who was working the station with the Community Blood Center. I stopped a moment to give her a hug before moving on.
I still felt good at mile three, so I kept trucking. I met my family again at mile 4.5ish and earned my second pedicured toe. I just felt good, so I just kept going. At mile 5, I sorta felt the urge to pee, so I got it out of the way instead of waiting until I really needed to go.
At about mile six, I started running with Cindy, a gal from Ozark who was also running her first half. She was a lifesaver! We were able to maintain an easy pace by getting to know one another, and I’m sure I would’ve walked part of the last mile without her.
At mile eight, after crossing the Kansas Expressway overpass, we met up with my family again who were cheering in fine form. I earned one more toe. We were off to Nathaneal Greene Park, and somewhere along the way I missed the eight-mile marker (which is hard to imagine because the mile markers were probably six feet wide and 12 feet tall and held up with scaffolding), so when we came upon the nine-mile marker, I was ecstatic. Shortly before the turn around point for the half, we were passed by the front-running marathoner. He ended up finishing his marathon two minutes before we finished our half marathon. Ugh!
On our way back to the Kansas Expressway overpass, we met up once more with my family and I earned one more toe. I still felt pretty good, and at this point, there was no way I was going to walk unless I was really feeling bad. My hip didn’t give me any problems, but the back of my left knee was a little achy. It was tight all Sunday afternoon, but it’s feeling a bit better today.
I felt great until about mile 11.5 where we entered the final neighborhoods before Bass Pro. I’d run them before, but I hadn’t noticed the slight mile-long grade. I really wanted to walk, and no offense to the Army Reservists who were along the route, but they were no help whatsoever. Come on, guys! You could’ve given me a few, “Keep goings!” Cindy and I kept each other going, and once we turned to see the backside of Bass Pro, we got a second wind and hoofed our way to the finish line! I finally earned a ten-toed pedicure!
We moseyed around for about half an hour just so I could cool down and get some food in me. I called Linden, who was waiting in Germany to hear from me, and I talked to my grandma on the phone. We headed home and I showered. We met the family at Buckingham’s BBQ for lunch, and then Chris and I went home where I napped the rest of the afternoon.
The jury is still out on what marathon I’ll run, but once I’m back to 100% and back on the road, I’ll let you know the plan.
November 5th, 2007
Friday. T minus 31 hours to start (yes, I realize I should be in bed). I turned in the final draft of my thesis to my readers, had the oil changed in my car, went to the grocery store, and spent some time snuggling on the couch while watching Oprah. Believe it or not, the turning in of my thesis caused some freaking outage, and I needed some time to veg.
I picked up my race packet at the fitness fair after I re-registered (it was misplaced, apparently). My number is 669. Went to dinner with friends at the Brew Co. and checked out a few galleries in the First Friday Art Walk. Stopped by Starbucks for a non-fat chai latte and headed home.
I know I’m supposed to relax and do nothing tomorrow, but I actually have quite a bit to do:
- Sleep in
- Vacuum living room, dining room, and kitchen (10 minutes of work—max)
- Find the cat’s mice (at his request). I’ll probably find them when I move the couch to vacuum under it.
- Clean up the kitchen
- Launder Sunday’s race clothes—blue shorts, blue shirt, white fleece, socks, sports bra
- Pin race number to my shorts and fill out race number emergency info
- Pack Sunday’s gym bag—gels, Sports Beans, and Snicker’s Marathon Bar; Sport Shield; visor; sunglasses; headband/ear muffy thing; gloves; iPod
- Visit Chris’s family for a few hours and get in a few games of canasta
- Attend pasta dinner where Chris will finally meet the local news anchor in my training group
- Veg
I know that’s a ton of tasks, but I’m pretty sure that getting my mind off Sunday’s task and not watching CSI reruns is best.
And here’s the picture of the OMRR training group from our meeting Monday night. I’m the girl near the second row with the black-and-white top. I’ll have full Saturday and Sunday reports eventually. Yikes! I can’t believe I’m about to do this. Runner’s really are a tad bit crazy.
November 3rd, 2007
