Marathon Mom

There not resolutions, so let's just call them goals for the upcoming year... -Drink less Diet Mt. Dew -Eat less sweets -Get healthy and stay injury free -Qualify for Boston at Grandma's Marathon -Finish my first multi-sport events (a Duathlon and a Tri ) -Keep up with the cross training once I'm back to running -Run new PRs at all distances My 2008 Race Schedule (So Far) April 19 Earth Day Half Marathon April 26 Get in Gear 10K May 10 Oakdale Duathlon June 1 Downtown Half Marathon June 21 Grandma's Marathon July 23 LifeTime Fitness 5K July 26 MinneCreek 10 Mile October 5 Twin Cities Marathon (Coaching) October 20 San Francisco Nike Marathon (Coaching) October 27 Dublin Marathon (Coaching)

Some good news, I found an awesome sports doc and got in to see him today. He thinks it might be a minor stress fracture in the lower part of my right tibia near my ankle. He watched me walk and doesn't see anything with my gait and just thinks my body has had enough stress, so nothing I need to change with my running. He want me to take some time off running, which I figured. No bone scan since he says many runners get false positives due to the stress on the bones of running so they aren't 100% accurate anyways. We're just treating it like a stress fracture and forgetting about expensive tests. He thinks I should be back to running in 1 month. I guess in the meantime I get better at biking and get my butt in the pool.

My right leg pain has gotten worse, so bad in fact that I had to stop my run on Thursday, I never do that. It started as a dull ache, but now it is very localized, throbbing at times. I am thinking the worst that I have a stress fracture in my tibia :( I finally got an appointment on Friday afternoon with an idiot Family Practice doctor who's answer was that running is bad. He only wanted to do an x-ray, which was negative per him, not surprising. He did tell me he's not very good at reading x-rays. He then refused to order an MRI to get an actual diagnosis. I need to know what it is, is it a stress fracture and then I'm out for 6 weeks or tendinitis and I can run when the pain is gone. I think I have rode my bike more in the past 3 days than I have since June. Maybe this is a blessing in disguise to make me a better cyclist and get me back in the pool. As long as I am able to run by mid-February to start training for Grandma's everything will be fine or at least I thin...

It is so hard for me, I have been training for marathons basically everyday since June of 2006 when and was running pretty consistently for awhile before that. I have run 6 marathons since this craziness started with Chicago in October of 2007, then PF Chang's Phoenix in January 0f 2007, Fargo in May of 2007 and a short 3 weeks later San Diego in June. Than came Twin Cities in October and Honolulu in December . Wow, I'm tired just thinking about it! No wonder my body needs a rest, but mentally I am so used to running that I am having a difficult time with this. I am trying so hard to follow the Recovery Plan, but when I feel good it's hard to only run 3 miles. At least it is winter and that keeps me from wanting to get outside as much.

The Minnesota TNT Team on Race Morning! Sunday I was up before 3am. Ate my bagel with peanut butter, got dressed and headed down to meet the group for a picture at 3:45. Then the rain started, someone found us a roll of garbage bags and we eventually headed out in the rain to the startline for the 5am start. The start corrals were pretty much non existent, I got in the 2-3 hour grouping with 2 others from the team after seeing the 4 hour pacer at the front of the 3-4 hour section. The start was amzing , a huge fireworks display and lots of noise. We started and were passing walkers right away, the course was extremely crowded and my first few miles were 10-11 min/mile just due to crowds. I was behind pace by about 10 min by mile 4. Around mile 6, I was able start making up time until going up Diamond Head at mile 8 when all of a sudden everyone in front of me stopped dead due to an ankle deep puddle, I waded through, my feet were already soaked ...

The adventure started on Thursday morning with an early flight into LA, we arrived only to find that there was a 5 hour delay. The team was getting a little crazy with nothing to do and a lot of energy, so we stayed plenty entertained. We finally got on our flight and into Honolulu late Thursday night, by the time we got checked in to the hotel I think I had been awake almost 24 hours. Me at the Expo, Aloha! Friday morning I headed over to the expo to pick up my number and I felt like I was in another country. They were speaking Japanese on the loudsepeakers and almost 3/4 of the runners were from Japan, so the Americans were very out numbered. I got to meet some running greats and get a few autographs. Friday was a rainy day and we tried to walk back to the hotel and got caught in the rain, so we grabbed some lunch and tried to wait it out. I guess I was happier to be stuck outside in rain and warmth than cold and snow. The team met up for dinner at Duke's (a reccomendation from...

I am so excited, especially now that we are covered with snow and it is freezing. I leave tomorrow with the TNT crew for Honolulu and it will be so nice to be in warm weather again. We just found out this morning that McKenna's parents, brother and sister will also be coming to Hawaii, how great for them and us!

One of the girl's I will be running for next weekend has lost her fight Lymphoma ( ALCL ). Tonight at 5:30, McKenna got her angel wings, she has fought a tough battle since age 2 1/2. She had her second bone marrow transplant this past summer and has been in the hospital nearly ever since. McKenna turned 10 on October 29 th , what a fighter she was! I know she will be there next Sunday to watch over all of us along the marathon course and give us the encouragement we may need.

Matt and I decided to start Thanksgiving morning out in downtown Minneapolis along with 10,000 other people in the cold and run a 5K. We stood outside getting cold waiting for the run to started, but it really was the perfect morning for a run. Just as we started the snow began to fall and at about the halfway point as we were running along the river the flakes got bigger and it was gorgeous. I finished 23:xx, not too bad for having to dodge walkers and strollers and dogs for the first mile. No matter how many times the announcement was made to start in the back if you were walking, people just didn't listen I guess they assumed the other 8,000 people behind them must have been walking too. Matt finished 33:xx, not bad for not running since September . When we got home he he told me he wanted to run a marathon, was he serious? He said he'd watched me run enough and it was time for him to get out there. He wanted a Spring race, so we discussed and I think the decision is Grandm...

This week is done, I topped out at almost 65 miles. My body is needing a rest, my right calf, shin and ankle are hurting and I have no clue why. This happened one other time right before Fargo and then just went away, so I'm hoping it does that again. At least at this point I've trained and can cutback runs if needed to rest my leg. I just need to make it to race day healthy and in one piece. I need to knock those few minutes off my time so I can book my Boston hotel before they are completely full. I just keep telling myself "You can do this." What could be better than qualifying for Boston in Hawaii and then spending the rest of then day relaxing on the beach?

Starting with Saturday's Ironman Florida, another day of tracking and watching online video coverage of my teammates and coaches. They all did great, everyone finished with times between 11 hours and 14 hours 30 minutes, what an accomplishment. Someday, I'll do it! Saturday also brought some sad news, during the US men's Olympic trials in New York, Ryan Shay died. He was 28 and a great runner, he just collapsed at the 5 1/2 mile mark. This really makes you think about life and how fragile it is, no matter how well you take care of yourself. This brought an abrupt end to the celebration of the winner's when they heard the news. Sunday was the New York City Marathon, another day of tracking teammates online and everyone finishing. The big news of the race was the women's winner Paula Radcliffe who gave birth to her daughter just 9 months ago. http://www.nytimes.com/2007/11/03/sports/othersports/03runner.html?_r=1&ref=sports& oref = slogin Watching the finish...

After this morning's 17 miles I can definitely say that Fall is here in Minnesota. I think the shorts are packed away for at least a few months and the gloves, hats, pants, and jackets are coming out. I am getting better about cold weather running, but am still not the biggest fan, although this is the time of year when I am most proud of myself for getting out of bed in the dark and starting those runs in the cold. It is so nice to come home to that hot cup of coffee and sit in front of the fire! One exciting note, yesterday I met my fundraising minimum for TNT. Now I am just hoping to raise a little more a reach the $5000 mark!

Last night's run started out with the intention of being an easy run, well I took off with Cathy, Jerusha , Kevin, Robert, Russ, and Igor and we started chatting. Half of this group is doing IM Florida in under 2 weeks and the rest of us have recently finished events so an easy run on a hilly course was the plan. Well 47 minutes later we were finished with our 6 miles, too bad I wasn't racing a 10K I think I would have been close to a PR! So much for easy, but that's usually what happens. Throughout this short run much of the talk was on the upcoming Ironman and past Ironmans . I watched the live finish online at IM Canada in August and IM Madison in September . I was inspired, maybe its time to move beyond marathons and become even crazier. I keep thinking, I can do this! First I need to get over my fear of biking and getting injured again, then I need to actually finish a triathlon. Maybe an Ironman in a few year, what greater accomplishment. So on November 3rd, I w...

I don't think this picture quite captures the heat and my struggle at TCM last weekend. Yes, I look tired, but this was at about mile 26, so that is to be expected. I think at this point I was just happy to have the finish line within sight and know that the race from hell was finally reaching an end!

I ran (if you can call it that) marathon #7 on Sunday in unseasonably hot and humid temps. They announced it was the hottest start to TCM ever and not to start if you were at all unprepared, ill, dehydrated great way to scare the runners. I made it past Lake Harriet and had to slow, the heat was awful. I actually got to the point that my goal was no longer to get a Boston Qualifying time, but to finish on my feet, not vomit and not be taken of the course. Well I accomplished the second goal in 4:23, my slowest marathon since the last fateful TCM in 2003 which resulted in 2 stress fractures in my foot. Maybe I just shouldn't be running on the TCM course. 8 1/2 until Honolulu Marathon, now the focus changes...

The weather Gods must hate me! The past 4 marathons that I have ran have all had bad weather. I have run in rain, unseasonably cold temperatures with ice on the ground , wind gusts of over 50 miles per hour and high humidity. And now the forecast for Sunday keeps getting worse. It started out as thunderstorms and 40s, now were at thunderstorms and high 70s. Please make this stop, I need good weather! I guess the lesson here is, a sure way to garuntee bad marathon weather is to have me sign up for it. I apologize to all the runners out there.

Anyone who has ever run a marathon will understand this. You train hard for months, averaging 50-60+ miles per week and running n early everyday. You eat to keep up with this training and people look at you like you're crazy, for 1) the amount of miles you run and 2) the amount of food you can eat and not gain, even lose weight at times. Then all of a sudden you cut this training nearly in half and try to keep your sanity. You just want to get out and run, but your know it will only hurt you on race day. It is a constant battles between mind and body. On top of this you are so used to eating a zillion calories and need to remind yourself to cut this down a bit so that you won't be a giant by race day. This is what the expert call tapering, runners call it madness. If you are a runner or have ever lived with a runner you know why.

Thought I would give this a try. A way for me to track my training and be accountable to anyone who wanted to follow along since my next marathon is for charity and so many of you are supporting me in this adventure I am undertaking. The next couple weeks will be pretty easy leading up to Twin Cities Marathon (#7) and then the focus will turn to Honolulu and continuing the fundraising fro the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society.