My candy is gone already...

All 120 pieces...by 7:30. (Well that's 120 minus the five or six or so pieces I helped myself to early this month.) Trick or treating in my hood happens early. The little rugrats are out knocking on doors by 5:30 every year, and this year was no different. The good thing about this is that they're also done early, it's not even eight right now, and I've already given out all of my candy and shut my light off...much to the delight of Max dog. I can't complain though, being done early means fewer interruptions when I sit down to watch House in a few minutos.
I remember Halloween differently when I was trick or treatin' all those years ago. I remember going out early, but I'm pretty sure that it was after ten when we finally came back in. I also remember always having a joke ready to tell the nice candy giving adults.
You know how many kids had a joke for me this year? Amazingly enough, one child did. I gave him five or six pieces of candy as a reward. Why don't more kids realize that this is a smart way to operate? Adults love corny jokes, and when they're told be a pre-teen in facepaint they're just that much better.
Tonight's trick o' treat crowd consisted of almost sixty little ghouls, pirates and brides...plus one hooker (you wish I was joking). Every single kid that came to the door wanted to pet the Maxie (who I might add, thought he had died and gone to doggie heaven due to this). And out of all of the kids who came to the door only one was an infant who was represented by an almost teenaged mother...in costume, who insisted that she was "collecting candy for the baby". Yeah, I buy that, your kid doesn't even have teeth yet...no candy for you.
I'm a big weenie when it comes to saying no to the older kids though, I usually just go ahead and give them candy. I figure that's safer, as obviously, since they're knocking on my door asking for sugar they know where I live. I'd rather not wake up to eggs on my garage door tomorrow morning.
Hope everyone had a happy Halloween!

So I'm stressing...

I'm supposed to be having a home spa party this weekend. (Think Pampered Chef party, but instead of cooking it's grooming). The representative brings a bunch of facial products, lip peels, and instant manicure/pedicure products and everyone gets to try them out.
I sent the invitations out a week ago today and so far have only heard back from three of the fifteen people that I invited. (All three people I've heard from are coming though, so that's good, right?) I guess the idea of RSVP'ing is somewhat foreign to a lot of people. Which really isn't a problem under normal circumstances, but since the product representative needs to know by Thursday night how many people to bring supplies for...I guess I'll be making a lot of phone calls on Wednesday night.
In all honesty, I'm kind of a bit worked up about this party. I'm going to have to get up early on Saturday, as I have not yet done anything for this party. I haven't made a menu, purchased "favors" or really thought out where exactly I'm going to set this whole thing up at.
I've pretty much decided that since the party doesn't start until seven thirty, I'm going to only do dessert appetizers. The product line that the rep is bringing is chocolate themed (chocolate scented, flavored, colored, etc) so I'm thinking that all of my food will have chocolate tie-ins. So far I'm thinking of cake, brownies, cookies, some kind of fluffy pastry treat, chocolate fondue with strawberries, bananas, and marshmallows, and chocolate martinis. Anyone have any good ideas (easy too, please) for additional foodstuffs?

What the heck did I do to my shoulder?

This simply does not make sense. I ran a marathon...this activity is predominantly strenuous on your lower body, so why the heck does my right shoulder hurt? I've always had weird issues with my shoulder, including a bout of tendintis ten years ago when I was on the drill team in high school, and what we think is torn cartilage from "circus school" at the resort we honeymooned at three years ago in the Bahamas. Seriously, there was a circus school on the beach in front of the resort every afternoon ...and I love me some trapezee acrobatics.
Anyway, long story short, my right rotator cuff and biceps have been hurting pretty much constantly since last Sunday afternoon. I'm sure I've aggravated it some with work all week, as I've got a crapload of low back and neck pain patients right now (meaning I'm doing lots of manual work with this population), and I've been extra sore every night after working all day.
I'm going to give it until this Friday, and if it's still not better I'll break down and see the doc. (I'm one of those people...you know the ones that work in healthcare but don't ever think they need to see the doctor.)
Now that we've discussed my shoulder in great deal (and thus you've drawn the conclusion that I won't be lifting weights today...oh darn.), let's move on to other topics. Such as my run today. Today I went to Creve Coeur Lake park. This park is one of the hidden gems in the St. Louis area. It has a huge lake, which they do not allow motorized boats on, only sailboats and row boats. There are several trails to choose from, most of which are paved, but one of which is gravel. The trail I chose runs around the perimeter of the lake and is very pretty. This weekend was supposed to be the peak of the fall color in this area, and fortunately the weather here has been beautiful all weekend. I decided that I would do a nice three miler at a comfortable pace, which surprisingly enough was just over an 8:00 mile for me today. Where were these legs last weekend?
I took my husband to the airport this morning. He's headed back to Chicago for business for the entire week, so I'll be on my own all week with our dog and my parents' dog. Fortunately I've got a busy week planned, so it should go fairly quickly.

I did my first run since the marathon this morning

It was nice. It was cold out, but it didn't seem as bad as last week, as it wasn't windy or rainy. I only did three miles, but it felt good to get back out of the roads. I tried to take it easy, but was so glad to be back running that I ended up going a bit faster then I really wanted to run.
I ran the normal route that I usually run for my long runs, but I cut it significantly shorter. It was kind of nice, as the rest of the St. Charles Runners Club was also out there, but I chose not to run with anyone else, so that I could focus on just running.
Then my husband took me to the IHOP for breakfast. I had an omelet, hash browns and almost two pancakes...with butter pecan syrup. Let me just say, the butter pecan is the best syrup ever!
This afternoon we went to catch a movie. We saw The Departed, with Matt Damon, Leo DeCaprio, and Jack Nicholson. Awesome movie, but lots of gratuitous violence.
It's been a nice relaxing day so far!

Feeling good!

It's now four days after the marathon, and I am feeling pretty much 100% normal. I guess I did something right with my training. I have one small sore spot along the shaft of my fifth metatarsal that hurts if I turn my foot just right, and I've still got some slight discomfort from the bruise on my shin, but overall I'm doing great.
I started light stationary cycling on Tuesday night, and did a bit yesterday and today as well. I'm planning on resuming running on Saturday morning. I'm only planning on doing three or four miles, depending on how I feel once I get going.
My parents are leaving on Saturday morning for a two week cruise of the Hawaiian islands, and since I have to take them to the airport early on Saturday morning, I figured I should stop on my way home and get my run out of the way. I'm kind of eager to get back into gear, my legs are feeling very antsy!

So now what?

I'll admit, I'm kind of at a loss as to what to do with myself now. I have absolutely no idea what to do with the extra time that I've now found since I'm not running again yet. It's kind of anti-climatic to train so hard for so many weeks and then to just be all of the sudden done with it.
I've not yet picked my next race, and honestly, I don't feel like I'm ready to commit to anything just yet. I'm not sure if I'll keep running marathons or if I'll drop back to shorter distances. I love distance running, but mentally this race took a lot out of me. More so than any other race has ever done. I feel like I'm much more successful at shorter distances, but the marathon and I...we've got some unfinished business still.
I'm a very goal orientated individual and I love competing. I think I need to revisit my roots and relearn how to run just for the sheer sake of running and the joy of doing something athletic. I need to forget the competition with others and learn how to compete with myself.
I also need to learn to hold my head up high when people ask how my Chicago race was....4:11 is nothing to sneeze at. And I'm an idiot for not being proud of myself for this time.
I'm planning on starting back into my regular, non-training running next week, which should help shake the cobwebs out of my brain. I'm going to try some easy stationary cycling (just to get the blood moving again) this afternoon. So we'll see how things work out over the next few weeks.

Chicago marathon recap

Today's race was a tough one. Although it never snowed and only misted lightly during the sixth and seventh miles, it was extremely cold (it never got above 43 degrees all day) and very windy. The aid station volunteers kept saying that it was all downhill after that part and that the wind would be at our backs as soon as we turned the corner, but every corner we turned put the wind in our faces. How is that even possible?
I did fantastic on the first 1/2. I rocked the first 13.1 in 1:56. Then I hit the wall. (Early, I know.) I slowed down drastically on the second half, it took me 2:15. My total time, per Garmin was 4:11. Needless to say, I didn't meet my A or B goals. I improved on my PR by eight minutes though. I'm not really happy with this result, but I think I'll be satisfied with it once I get over my disappointment of not breaking four hours.
I really thought that I'd be faster, since I did so much speedwork this season. I'm convinced that next time around I'll have to use a program with higher mileage, and maybe choose a marathon that isn't in a city with a reputation for being windy and cold.
I was not prepared for the sheer number of participants in this race. I knew that there would be 40,000 runners, but I don't think I really understood exactly how many people this was. My husband and I met up with Laura (who ran a 4:07), Tiffany (who ran a 3:38), and Sam (4:09) before the race started, and I made my way to the start corral with them. This calmed my anxiety a bit. (I was really nervous all day yesterday, I felt like I didn't have any clue what I was doing).
Laura and I decided about thirty minutes before the race started that we needed to use the Port-A-Potties one last time. So we jumped the fence out of the start corral. When we jumped the fence back into the start corrals, we couldn't find Sam. So she was on her own from the beginning. I then lost Laura less then two miles into the race.
The crowds along the course were fantastic. There were only a few sections that weren't packed with spectators. I really enjoyed the drill teams and cheerleading squads. My husband rode the El to three different spots on the course to cheer me on, but I only saw him one of the three times. There were just so many people.
After I crossed the finish line, I started looking for my friends or my husband. We hadn't talked about where to meet up (logistical error number 3567) but I figured that he'd be looking for me around the I-J marker (since our last name starts with a "J"). We never could find each other, even though he was standing next to the giant J, so after an hour of unsuccessful searching I just started walking back to the hotel. I was soaking wet, freezing cold, starving, and I had to pee. Needless to say I was not a happy camper. Especially since my husband wasn't at our hotel yet.
I think, no, make that I know that I had a mini-meltdown at the front desk of our hotel. I went up to the check-in desk and told the girl that I had a huge problem. I said "I have no ID, no money, no room key, and no cell phone. I can't get into my room, and I have no idea where my husband is." She told me that she couldn't do anything for me, so I started crying. (I almost never cry) Finally she took pity on me and had a security guard let me into our room where I was able to use my cell phone to find my husband.
I think I've learned my lesson. Next time, I'll be including cash and a cell phone in my gear check bag.

Are we there yet?

We are currently in transit from the Lou to the Windy City, gotta love the wireless internet connection. By the math, it should be just over 500 miles, which will take us about five or so hours. So far, the drive has been pretty boring. Lots of flat farmland, unidentifiable road kill, and slow drivers. It's pretty sad when the highlight of the first hour of drive time is seeing a department of corrections prisoner transport van.
We should arrive in Chicago right around lunch time, which will give us plenty of time to get checked into our hotel, find the expo and pick up the race information. I'm definitely planning on driving the race course, just to get an idea of what to expect tomorrow.
The good news is that when my husband checked the forecast this morning, it was slightly warmer than they were predicting earlier this week. There's still a high (60-70%) chance of rain until 11:00am tomorrow, but at least they've removed the snow flurries from the forecast. Rain looks pretty appealing to me when I consider the alternative idea of snow.

You might be a runner if...

1. Your day isn't complete until you've put your run in.
2. You have a list of all the races you plan to run...for the next twelve months.
3. You get upset about injuries because they keep you from running, not because you have actually damaged your body.
4. You drink twice as much water as any other liquid.
5. The thought of signing up for a 40K doesnt' make you quiver with fear.
6. You finish a marathon, say you'll never run another one, and in a week are looking for another one to train for.
7. The Atkins diet seems preposterous to you...who wants to give up carbs?!?!
8. You can convert kilometers to miles in your head.
9. Your blood pressure is 92/56 and you're conscious.
10. You're first post week recovering, haven't ran yet, can't explain your bad mood, but are miraculously "cured" after a five mile jog.
11. You call all other sports "cross training".
12. You consider running three miles to be a warmup.
13. Your major goal in life is to qualify for Boston.
14. You tell people: "I only ran 10 miles today because I was tired."
15. Your running shoes have more miles on them then your car does.
16. People ask you "When's your next race?" at least three times a week.
17. You've ever been pleasantly surprised to see that you still had ten toenails.
18. You've ever been asked: "How long was that marathon that you ran?"
19. You're convinced that your running abilities are seriously impaired because you missed a day of training.
20. Your sport is other sports' punishment.
21. You have more blisters on your feet than you do toes.
22. You know a marathon is 26.2 miles.
23. You're embarrassed to be seen walking, even if it's just up the street.
24. You count your time spent running in hours.
25. You're a "few" pounds overweight, so you rationalize: "I'll have to add a few miles to my weekly mileage."
26. You know the location of every public drinking fountain and restroom within twenty miles of your home.
27. You mentally measure junk food in terms of miles rather than calories.
28. Your fridge is fully stocked with bottled water, flavored water, and sports drink...but lacks staples such as milk, eggs, and "real" food.
29. You know who Hal, Deena, Dean, Pre and Meb are.
30. Your recreational drug of choice is Motrin.
31. You have/had ITBS or plantar fascitis and actually know what those terms mean...without looking them up in a medical dictionary.
32. Even your Ipod skips during interval workouts.
33. You restart the treadmill after it automatically shuts off because the mileage says 2.92 miles instead of 3.00.
34. Thinking of BioFreeze makes you smile.
35. You wear out new running shoes faster than new work shoes.
36. Your thighs are only slightly bigger than your calves.
37. GU on toast sounds like a good idea.
38. Your running club smells so bad at Satuday morning post long run brunch that the three tables closest to your crew ask to be relocated...and you think it's funny.

Well, that's it

The last run until race day is completed. It was only a two miler, but it was really tough to find the motivation to get it done. I'm excited for the race, but I'm just so done with this whole training thing. I'm ready for a break from high mileage.
My alarm went off at five this morning, and I spent a good ten or fifteen minutes laying there trying to convince myself that I really didn't need to get this run done before work. I was really surprised that it was so hard to find the desire to get it done this morning, as it was the shortest distance I've run since my last marathon taper....six months ago.
Anyway, long story short, I got up, did the run, legs felt like lead, but at least it's done and now I can move on with my day.
Today should be an okay day, I'm only seeing patients until noon. I have the afternoon marked out as a reschedule with our marketing guru and I was supposed to have a four o'clock meeting, but it's been cancelled, so instead I have a four o'clock patient...and then I'm done for the day! Yeah for me. Of course, since I'm done early tonight, I'll be working late tomorrow night, which is not so good.
Good news though: according to MSN weather, Sunday is now only cloudy in Chicago. They've taken the rain out! Thank goodness for that. Keep your fingers crossed.

So, yesterday's work drama...

Yesterday I had to "let someone go". I have a girl in my office who's sole job was to socialize with patients, clean up after me, and retrieve supplies (weights/hot packs/whatever)...in general she's supposed to help faciliate smooth function of the office. Yeah, for the past three months her attitude has sucked. There's been quite a bit of eye rolling, heavy sighing, and just general unwillingness to do her damn job. I've been very patient, as I know there's some stuff going on in her personal life; but quite frankly I've had enough. So with the boss' blessing, I got rid of her.
Technically, I dropped her from part time status to PRN, but what I didn't tell her is that I also hired someone else to work the hours that she had been working. I'd never let someone go before, so it was an entirely new, stress inducing, anxiety filled experience. I handled it professionally, I think. When I explained the decision to her, I framed it as a "financial" decision...it just didn't make sense to keep her on part time when the census is low. Apparently she then called several other clinic directors and informed them that I was a "stupid bitch" and that she would now be working only for them...at which point they told her that they didn't need her either. Such fun.
On a good note though, I did come home to find my "Run Around the Town" medal in my mailbox. Fleet Feet does a program every year where you get a third medal if you complete an event at both the Spirit of St. Louis and Lewis & Clark Marathons. I'll try to post pictures of the new medal tonight if I can figure out how to work the digital camera. It's pretty cool.

It's almost here!!!

Marathon day is just six days away! I'm so excited. I'm excited to run the race, I'm excited to get out of town, and I'm really excited to have a three day weekend. I only have two short runs and a cross training day left before this marathon. We're officially into the homestretch!
This morning I did a quick three miles on the treadmill before heading to work. Amazingly enough, I did not have a bit of trouble prying myself out of bed for this run, as I knew how astonishingly short it was.
I will admit that I was somewhat dismayed though. My husband checked weather.com this morning and informed me that as of this morning the forecast for Sunday in Chicago is for RAIN! Please no...this is a contingency that I was not planning for.
Would you believe that not once during the entire eighteen weeks of training have I worried about what if it rains? It even rained during two of my long runs, and I still didn't worry about it. Now I'm panicking that it will rain on my parade, quite literally, and that this inclement weather will keep me from my elusive PR. Someone do the no rain dance...quick!

I just finished my last long run!!!!

I am so glad to be done with these long runs for a little while. I only had eight miles scheduled this morning, but I did not want to run even one or two miles. I allowed myself to sleep in until seven, which meant that I missed the entire group that leaves at seven (which I was planning on running with). Sleeping in put me down at the starting point pretty close to eight o'clock, and you might think that it would be just a bit warmer at eight in the morning than it is at six in the morning, but then you'd be wrong. It was a whole 34 degrees out when I left the house this morning. This convinced me to not only wear tights, but also a jacket and gloves...all of which I was glad I had once I felt the breeze coming off the river. Trust me, this outfit will definitely be in my bag for next weekend, just in case.
I felt pretty good this morning, despite the total lack of motivation. My legs felt strong, and thankfully, there was not a repeat of last week's killer bout of nausea. I managed to run a negative split again, with my first four miles run in just over 36 minutes and my last four run in just over 34 minutes. The splits looked good too:
Mile 1: 8:43
Mile 2: 9:00
Mile 3: 9:03
Mile 4: 9:14
Mile 5: 5:57
Mile 6: 8:54
Mile 7: 8:30
Mile 8: 8:23

Total run time was 1:10:55. I'm pretty comfortable with that and feel like I'm positioned pretty well for under 4:00 next week. My tentative plan is to go out with the 8:30 group and settle into a slightly slower pace as I get warmed up and more comfortable. I'm convinced that the course is flat, and I know that I can comfortable run an 8:30 if I'm running over flat ground. There's no way that I can run an 8:30 pace for the whole race, but if I can pick up an extra minute or two at the start, it'll only benefit me later.
I'm shooting for around 1:50 for the first half, so that would mean that I'll need to run slightly under 9:00/miles for the first half. That'll give me a little wiggle room if I get tired as I'm going through the second half.
Now that I'm actually thinking race strategy, I'm starting to get pretty pumped up!!!

Well, that was inconsiderate...

I only work 1/2 days on Thursdays normally. This week, since my census has been low for a couple of weeks, I arranged to meet our marketing guy to help fine tune my game plan for getting out to new doctors. I have one big group of orthopedic surgeons that are really tough to get into, and I thought that maybe he could help me get past the front door with this group. So, we had arranged to meet at 1:00 this afternoon.
I hadn't heard from him all week so I called to confirm that we were still meeting today. He acted like he had forgotten that we were going to get together but said that he could still fit our meeting in. So, I finished treating my patients and then ran an errand and got some lunch. At five minutes until one, he called and said that "he'd gotten hung up at another clinic and needed to reschedule."
This would have been an okay excuse, but then he kept talking and said that he'd been in a previously scheduled meeting and that he hadn't thought that he'd be able to make our meeting, but that he wanted to keep our meeting on the books anyway "just in case". Great, so now I've wasted an entire hour of my time...so not cool.
On a brighter note: yesterday I got a nice card from my friend April. She was confused about when the Chicago marathon was and thought that I had run it last weekend. So she sent a card saying congratulations on another successful marathon completion. Hopefully this is a good omen for next weekend!

See what I mean about dumb injuries?

From now on, I shall be called Grace, as in full of grace, as in one who is poised, as in one who watches where she is going and successfully avoids all environmental obstacles which leap into her path.
Yep, those weird injuries I was so paranoid about? Apparently that was a reasonable concern for me, as today I managed to earn another one. I was walking along, minding my own business at work today. I was talking to a patient and looking a her chart when all of the sudden out of nowhere, the treadmill jumped up and bit my foot. Keep in mind, I wasn't using the treadmill, nor was the patient, nor anyone else in the clinic. I'm firmly convinced that I was at least ten inches away from this pyschotic, diabolical death machine. (Those of you who hate the treadmill, feel free to plagiarize that phrase). If I wasn't the clinic director, I would probably have fired myself for the words which came out of my mouth immediately after the treadmill attacked me.
I was firmly convinced that the treadmill was at fault, but the accident reconstruction team (which consists of me and my three imaginary friends) has determined that the treadmill was actually not at fault. I figure what happened was that I cut the corner near it a little too close and managed to slip the toes of my left foot under the back corner of the treadmill deck, so that when I went to advance my left foot, I cracked the top of the foot against the underside of the deck...which is very sharp and pointy.
So pointy in fact, that it cut a lovely gash in my leather shoe and left me with a bruise that is roughly the shape of Idaho...or maybe it's Utah, I always get those two confused.

I think I just ran my last fall speedwork session!

I haven't decided yet for sure, but I think that tonight was my last speed session for the fall season. Most likely, I won't run a speed session next week, as the big race will only be a few days out at that point. I'm afraid that if I chance another speedwork session next week I'll get hurt and be totally screwed.
I kind of get paranoid at this point in the training program and start thinking about all the random ways I could get hurt and mess up my race. I'm somewhat accident prone, as most of you have probably determined by now, so for the next two weeks I'm seriously contemplating bubble wrapping my entire body.
Anyway tonight's workout: I ran 1200m repeats, and I must say...I smoked them. My goal for each repetition was 6:03 and I ran all four repetitions well under that (5:18; 5:31; 5:49, 5:39). I averaged out at about a 7:15 pace when I did the math. Disclaimer here: that may be slightly inaccurate as math was never my strong suit...hence the reason I'm a physical therapist and not an accountant.
I really thought that I was stinking the place up, as I felt like crap. I'm so allergic to all the fall pollen. I felt like my chest was in a vise and my sinuses were draining like crazy. I kept telling myself just to finish the repetition that I was running and then I could cut the workout short. Knowing all along as I told myself that I could quit early, that I wouldn't. Everyone knows that I am the queen of guilt trips and I'd make myself feel so awful about missing mileage that I'd have to find a way to make it up...even if it was only 3/4 of a mile. I know, that's awful.
Long story short, I finished the run, all of it. I'm really glad that I made myself get out there and do this workout tonight. All day long they've been forecasting rain, and I kind of had my fingers crossed that we'd get it so I could just get a nice leisurely treadmill run in today instead. The whole time I was running, I kept thinking (and hoping) that I was feeling rain; but alas, it was not to be.
Now that speedwork is out of the way (or is it?) I can focus on finalizing my pace goals for Chicago. I've decided that my ideal goal is a Boston qualifying 3:40, a more realistic goal that would satisfy me is under 4:00, and my just okay goal is anything that is an improvement on my previous PR of 4:19.
Now I just have to figure out how to plan to achieve my ideal goal so that if I don't make it at least I'll be in a good position to meet my acceptable, realistic goal.

Only 13 days to go!!!

And 27 more miles before race day. That's the exciting part for me, when there are almost fewer miles left in the rest of your training than there are in the actual race itself. I ran my last five miler this morning. That means everything from here out is short and sweet, discounting that eight miler this coming Saturday. But, I figure eight miles is nothing. I can do in my sleep.
Speaking of sleep, does anyone want to do a dream analysis for me? I had the weirdest dream last night. I dreamt that I was running a race in downtown St. Louis, and that I felt like I was running at a comfortable pace. I decided to stop and tie my shoe with only a short distance left in the race (sorry I couldn't quite see the mileage sign in my dream). I was pretty sure that I was somewhere in the middle to front of the group that was racing. Anyway, as I was tying my shoe, my college roommate (who does actually run) passed me.
When I got to the end of the race, the course organizers congratulated me on my second place finish. Apparently, by allowing my college roommate to pass me, I screwed myself out of the first place award. However, I did get the second place award....and this is where it gets really weird. The award for second place was an iguana.
Not just any iguana either, but a really big iguana, with a broken off tail. They also gave me the broken off tail, and I asked them if I really needed the tail. If it would reattach itself I'd take it, but otherwise...Anyway, they told me that it wouldn't reattach itself, but apparently the iguana needs his broken off tail to go wherever he goes, as it helps his self esteem?
So, long story short, I took my "iguana trophy" home and it proceeded to piss all over my house. Then I woke up.
Moral of the story: Don't drink Diet Coke before going to bed. In fact, don't drink Diet Coke at all, as it will give you some whacked dreams.

A nice recovery run

This morning we slept in a little...I didn't get up until almost 7:30am. We had talked a lot yesterday about where we were going to try to find a trail or path to run on. We had it narrowed down to Blue Springs Lake, or Longview Lake, both of which are just outside of Kansas City. Per the recommedation of my husband's cousin, we headed out to Longview Lake, which was only about twenty or thirty minutes from his grandma's house.
The weather was nice, but slightly chilly, and there was a nice breeze coming off of the water as I ran. I enjoyed the scenery, as the path winds along the shore of the lake and then through a wooded area. I'm not really sure how long the entire path is, or if it goes around the entire lake, as I was only doing about six miles this morning.
I was scheduled to run four miles, but since I had planned on doing two extra miles yesterday and hadn't done them because of my gastrointestinal issues, I made them up today. Overall, it was a really nice run. It took me about 52 minutes to finish the six miles.
There were a few people out this morning, including what appeared to be a local runner's club. They were setting up to get started on their run as I finished mine. They are actually so organized that someone thinks far enough in advance to bring Powerade, water, and disposable cups so that they can set up their own little "aid" stations every couple of miles. It wasn't warm enough out that I needed to take advantage of these, but I still thought it was pretty cool.
My only complaint with this morning's run was that the pavement on the trail was cracked and broken up. Also, the arch of my right foot is slightly sore from a slip on the step going from my garage to my kitchen Friday. This happened as we were getting ready to leave for KC on Friday afternoon. I was of course, barefoot, and my foot just slipped right off the step. I thought that I had skinned my arch, but there were no obvious injuries...although today it's a little sore.

I was misinformed

Whomever told me that the Kansas City 1/2 marathon course was flat was a damn liar. That was without a doubt one of the hilliest courses I've ever run in my life. I knew I was in for a long run when less than two miles in there was a hill that was over a half mile long and seemed to go straight up. You know you're in trouble when over half of the people running around you are walking at the two mile marker.
I had an okay race, even though it was really cold when we started out. I couldn't feel my toes for the first mile, then I hit the monster hill, and just when I found my groove with my legs, the stomach started acting up. I'm not sure if it was the blue Powerade, the smell of Gates BBQ, or a combination of all factors, but I seriously felt like I was going to hurl for the last eleven miles of my race.
I managed to pull just over a 9:00/mile pace, and my "unofficial time" per the Kansas City Marathon webpage was 2 hours and 29 seconds. I'm pretty sure that my official time will be a little faster when the chip times are posted.
Other than the nausea and the hills, the race was a good one. I really enjoyed the bands that were stationed throughout the race course, and the crowds were great. There were also a lot of really nice people running. People were very social at this race, which is a nice change for a lot of the races that I've run. I think that if I'd been more pyschologically prepared for the hills, then I would have had a little bit more of an edge than I had. I think it really was detrimental not to be familiar with any of the course, which is a good lesson to learn before running Chicago.

Why do I feel so busy?

I really haven't had that much on my plate this week, but it still feels like this week has been a whirlwind of activity. Things have been going well on the running front, although I admit, I was more than a little excited to get out of bed this morning knowing that I didn't have to run today.
I was less excited to know that I had to put in a full day of work though. I feel like I haven't got anything done this week except work and running. I haven't cleaned the house in preparation for being gone all weekend, we're scrapping the bottom of the barrel when it comes to feeding the dog, and I still haven't put even two things into my bag of stuff that's going with me this weekend. In fact, I'm firmly convinced I'll probably forget something important...like my running socks.
I'm hoping that I get enough time at lunch today to run out and get some errands finished, and that I'm home early enough to throw together a bag for this weekend. Fortunately, I'm only working a half day tomorrow, and I should get off about three hours before my husband...perhaps I'll be able to get the house cleaned before he gets home and we head out.
I'm pretty excited about the race this weekend. I really love running in places that I haven't ever run before. I'm not really sure what I'm going to do about my four mile recovery run on Sunday yet. My husband's grandma kind of lives in a semi-rural area, and even though she's not on a "main" road, I seriously doubt that there are four miles worth of feeder streets in her area. I may have to see if I can find a park or a cemetery to get my four miler done at. Or I guess I could always just wait until we get home, but I'm pretty sure that I'm not going to want to run after sitting in the car for almost four hours.
If anyone in the Kansas City area has any recommendations for places to run near Lee's Summit, let me know!

Well, that went well

I have a screwed up schedule today. I normally work 1/2 days on Tuesdays and Thursdays, but I have a messed up schedule all week since we'll be traveling to Kansas City on Friday afternoon. So I decided to flip my long Friday with my short Thursday to get all of my evening patients all of their visits this week. Wouldn't you know it, exactly one of those evening patients "just couldn't make it on Thursday, but really wanted to come in". Thus, I'm taking about three hours off this afternoon and then coming back to work to see one patient.
Where am I going with this story you ask? Well, normally I do my speedwork at the track on Tuesday nights. Since I'm coming back into work, and since it gets dark about seven now, I had to get my speedwork done this morning...on the treadmill.
I was dreading it, but it actually went pretty well. I did 10 repetitions of 400m at my normal speedwork pace, and ran 400m of recovery pace in between each set of speed. It really went well. I was pleasantly surprised to put it mildly.
Now I've got the satisfaction of knowing that my run for today is already finished. Having it out of the way seems to make the whole day just that much better.

Gotta love the taper

This morning's run started my taper for Chicago. These next three weeks are unarguably the best three weeks of the entire training program. I love knowing that I don't have any real long runs left until the actual race day.
This morning was a five mile run on the treadmill before heading into work. I felt really good. The new shoes make all the difference. I still had pain in my right baby toe (the one that has a new callus and a blister on the tip from Saturday's run). It was definitely less painful this morning in the new shoes than it was in the old shoes yesterday.
I'm really looking forward to the rest of this week's runs. I've got another five miler tomorrow, four on Wednesday and then the Kansas City 1/2 marathon on Saturday. Supposedly this race is fairly flat, and it's all pavement...unlike last month's Lewis and Clark 1/2, which was run partially on gravel.
I'm hoping to be able to shave those last six minutes off of my time from Lewis and Clark to reassure myself that I can finish Chicago in under four hours. I'll admit, I'm getting myself a little worked up about finishing in under four hours....alright, I'm downright anxious about meeting this goal, and I'll be more than a little disappointed if I don't meet it.
Oh well, I've still got three more weeks to get myself into a real state of anxiety, so I might as well check that at the door for the time being.

Sometimes it's just hard to get going

Today was a short recovery run. I had a really hard time talking myself into getting today's run done. Once I started, I was mostly okay, although the calluses and semi-blisters on the baby toes of each foot didn't feel so great. I found myself trying to think of reasons to cut the run short pretty much from the second I started running. In the end, I ended up getting the whole run done.
We went to Fleet Feet for some new shoes today. I stuck to the tried and true Asics GT 2110s. I figured that since I've had such good luck with this shoe in the past, I shouldn't mess with it now. I'll admit, I kind of wanted to try on the new Asics Kinseas though. I was afraid that if I tried them on though, I'd love them and I'm really not wanting to spend twice as much on my shoes as I'm already spending. Maybe if I ever win the lottery...
We were given tickets to the Rams football game today. One of the surgeons that my company works with couldn't use his tickets, so he passed them along to our Director of Corporate Clinical Operations, who then passed them on to me as a token of appreciation. Needless to say, the seats were AWESOME. We were literally seventeen rows off the field behind the visiting team's bench. We were close enough to see the sweat on the brows of the players. Such great seats.
We didn't stay for the whole game, as my husband needed to study and I had stuff to do around the house, but the three quarters we watched were pretty good. The Rams were winning when we left, so hopefully they managed to hang on for the last quarter.