Lots of fun and eating, not so much running… and a very delayed post

I am very sorry for the delay in this blog post. I really thought that by having less running commitments, I would be able to post more frequently but boy, was I wrong. It really has been a quite a week! Amazing all the things that happen when you’re not marathon training… of course, these are not events correlated with my race schedule but for a second I can pretend that they are.

Last (last) weekend was great; my parents are the new owners of an Elements Therapeutic Massage in Edison. If you are in the area, be sure to stop by to visit! We had some family and friends stop by for the grand opening on Saturday, and it was wonderful to see everyone! It was also great for us to celebrate Mother’s Day as well at home with my family.

Josh had a really late night on Sunday (Mother’s Day – Happy belated Mother’s Day everyone!) trying to pack and get ready for his conference in Florida. Instead of being helpful, I ended up passing out on the floor at 9PM next to our couch and eventually made my way to the bed. I thought I had a rash so I took a dose of Benadryl which knocked me out (P.S. I don’t think I have a rash, so that is good)! Josh left for Florida on Monday morning and I eventually made my way down on Tuesday.

While, he was busy at the conference, I enjoyed myself lounging by pool, reading, exercising, eating, and attending all of the conference’s parties with him. Tuesday night was the party at Universal Studios – part of the park is closed at night for the conference attendees and their companions (yes, that’s me, I have an official pass to prove it too)! We ate our way around the park, I climbed to the top of 42nd Street, and then we went on Despicable Me ride and felt sick afterwards (I think we’re like children and need to be reminded that you cannot go on rides after eating too much food)! On Wednesday night, we attended an event at the House of Blues in Downtown Disney where CeeLo Green performed. Pretty cool, huh?

The rest of the week and weekend was spent with Josh and his family. We had a blast again eating a lot of food, eating a lot of food samples at Costco (which by the way, I absolutely loved! There is something to be said for urban folk going to Costco, it’s my version of Disney), going to Gold’s Gym (which meant paying $7.50 per person to enter as guests since we did not have local IDs), getting lost while running (I will never make that mistake again), attempting to dance with Just Dance 4 on the Wii, and watching two plays at the Orlando International Fringe Theatre Festival. It was a really fun and relaxing week – I even have over eight mosquito bites to prove it (yes, I know, gross). Of course to end such a great week, we were delayed four hours on our way home due to the storms up north and in FL.

Specifically on the running front, I only packed one pair of sneakers with me on this trip. I was a little worried that by only bringing my new Brooks Glycerin 10, I would be in trouble in case they didn’t work out but boy, I really liked them! I ran three days on a treadmill in them and one day outside on the roads. I even walked all around Costco in them when we ate all those samples. I am a neutral running shoe gal as it is quite apparent by the number of Asics Nimbus sneakers I’ve worn. Since I am in my off month for training, I figured it was a good time to try a new brand of shoes and I am so glad I did (though I do feel like I am cheating a little bit on Asics). These shoes honestly felt like I was walking on clouds and running in them were excellent as well. To be fair to Asics, I haven’t run in them since the marathon (I’ll give it a go tonight though) and the ones I am wearing now are about half worn. I do have two more new pairs in the closet – the Asics Nimbus 14 and 15s, so it will be interesting to see how I feel when I put those on for the first time. In the mean time, I really enjoy the Brooks and am excited for the new updated Glycerin to come out this summer.

Also on the new running front, I chopped off my hair the weekend after the marathon. I was getting really tired of my long hair and again, since I am in an off month, I figured, why not? When I really need my hair to fit in a full ponytail, it will be longer. Unlike my new sneakers, I am not sure how I feel about the short hair. It is definitely much harder to maintain (I am a no frills person) and I do miss having a longer ponytail. Please remind me of this post when I contemplate cutting my hair more than a couple inches!

Finally, I think I have what is called FOMO (Fear of Missing Out). A friend of mine from a previous job came up with this (so I owe all credit of the disease to her) even though as I google the term it is widely spoken about on the web. She referred to FOMO when she didn’t attend a work social function. In my case, I have FOMO for races. It has only been a little over two weeks since I ran the NJ Marathon but I already missed a number of shorter NYRR runs, the flagship Brooklyn Half Marathon, Newport 10K, and the HOHA 5-miler (which I ran last year). As I see friends and teammates run these other races or when I receive emails reminding me to sign up, I get all antsy (which is a symptom of  FOMO). Even though I have other prior engagements and knowing that it is very important for me to fully recover from all this running, I still wish I could run in the races. I clearly have the running bug and FOMO.

Any way, enough of my rambling. What are some new things you are trying with running? And do all runners have the bug and FOMO?

“The journey isn’t always perfect, but always worth taking.” – Kara Goucher

“The journey isn’t always perfect, but always worth taking.” – Kara Goucher

I think that about sums up how I feel about the New Jersey Marathon.

Donating my retired shoes at the marathon expo

I had an off week leading up to the race. I felt like I wasn’t eating enough healthy foods, drinking enough water, and was worried that I would come down with a cold since Josh was battling one all week. It might be all in my head, but no one will know.

Anxiety set in even more as I thought about a race strategy. My first marathon in Philadelphia felt surreal since it was just two weeks after when NYC was supposed to happen. I found out a week before that I was running it and going into the race with a minor hip injury made it that much more challenging. I finished the race with throbbing pain and then was injured for a month afterwards. After bouncing back from Philadelphia, I had about four weeks to get back into race shape for Miami. Miami definitely didn’t go as planned; I wanted to PR seeing that I ran Philadelphia with injury but I was overly ambitious given the weather and my short recovery time. I mentally broke down in Miami and ended up finishing after walking/running the last leg of the race.

Between Miami and yesterday’s race, I raced the NYC Half Marathon and partially raced the Women’s Half. When I was chatting with Coach Ali after Miami and before the NYC Half, we talked about some goal times for this year’s races. She mentioned trying to go for around 4:10 in New Jersey and then sub-4 in NYC. That would mean ideally racing a sub-2 NYC Half which I ended up being off the mark by a minute. So as I thinking about the New Jersey Marathon, I honestly had no idea what to expect. I half expected 4:10 to be a little out of reach and based on the different online pace calculators I used, they predicted that I could run between a 4:15 to 4:18 (which would be a 9-12 minute PR). Given how off I felt during some of my longer runs, I knew I had to bring my A-game if I was going to PR by that much.

I don’t usually like talking about my goal time for a race. My feeling is that I am not an accomplished enough runner yet to have a good sense of what I can physically and mentally run. There were very few people who knew roughly what time I wanted to run. That, of course, doesn’t prevent jitters though. All I could think about was that my first marathon ended in a worst injury, my second was a mental breakdown, so for my third, it would be expected that I could PR but who knows.

Looking much happier between mile 9 and 10

I guess, the long and short of it is that I did PR. I finished the New Jersey Marathon in 4:22:51, which is slightly less than a 5-minute PR. A personal record is great and I cannot complain, however, it doesn’t prevent you from thinking about what you could do differently. According to my watch, which is not the official splits due to the distance difference (I ran 26.38 miles, pretty darn close though, I am getting better at my tangents!), my first mile was the fastest at 9:25. If you had to plan a perfectly executed race, the first mile should likely never be the fastest! For the first 15-miles or so, I trailed the 4:10 pacer by no more than 200 meters and I felt great. I was on track for likely a 4:12 finish if I was able to maintain the momentum. I am not sure what happened for the last 11-miles. I know that my heart rate was starting to spike, so to control my breathing and pacing, I had to slow down. However, my pace got gradually slower and slower. I don’t think I ever “hit the wall” but my legs stopped moving with the same earlier efficiency and I had to mentally tell myself to take each mile one at a time.

Excited to finish!

Due to Hurricane Sandy, the course for this race had to be adjusted and while it was still a very scenic route, there were a lot of turns, uneven pavement, and I think that threw me a little. While the race did eventually feel mentally and physically exhausting, I kept pushing, much more than I did in Miami when I felt like I wanted to give up. It felt like the angel and devil on my shoulder – one was telling me to keep going (because darn it, you know you can) and the other was like, just walk. The angel ultimately won. I plowed through but not without talking myself through a zillion positive and negative thoughts.

I wish my eyes were open for this picture, but loved having
my parents there! It was their first marathon spectator
experience!

As I contemplate this race experience, there are definitely a number of things that worked and some that didn’t (not excuses, just lessons learned):

Pros

  • Having the support of my parents and Josh was very important and I am very lucky – I knew to watch out for them between miles 9-10 and again at the finish. It was something to look forward to no matter how bad I felt.
  • Fueling – I feel like I ate enough Jelly Belly Sports Beans during the race and drank enough water and Gatorade along the way.
  • The weather was perfect with the exception of some windy points; I really could not have asked for a better weather day.
  • Training – I honestly felt well-trained. My teammate, Julio and I kept each other accountable for our speed work and long runs and that made a huge difference. I cannot imagine what it would be like to train for a marathon on my own; I am very spoiled with being fortunate enough to have the support of our coaches and teammates.
Lessons Learned
  • Do not do something hastily on race morning! Since it felt colder than I expected the morning of the race, I hastily threw on my arm warmers as I was approaching the start. Even though I had run in them before, I definitely did not plan for the chafing they caused.
  • Do not start the race too fast! I expected that I would be able to hold the pace since I felt so great after the half-marathon mark, but I definitely learned otherwise. I’m usually pretty conservative to start races but this time, I was off the mark.
  • Not enough recovery time? This one I will never know the answer to, but this was my third marathon in six months. Even though I had over a three-month break after Miami, I raced a half in between and injured my lower back from snow tubing.
Yesterday, I hobbled up to work in the widest pair of moccasins I own, eased my way up and down stairs as well as in and out of my chair. Today, I am back in normal work shoes, still moving a little slowly, but feeling better. I am anxious to start my reverse taper in the upcoming weeks of recovery and just excited to enjoy running without a training agenda over the next month and a half before NYC Marathon training starts. I will however, need to be more careful about how much I eat!