Boston Spectator

Today was my first day being a spectator in the Boston Marathon crowd.  What a day really.  The record heat was unbelievable but given the warm winter we had - it could have gone either way right? It could have went this way or it could have been a threat of a blizzard - no one knew what to expect.  I had a lot of friends running today - some very seasoned runners and some it was their first marathon.  I was excited for a lot of reasons to be on the other side today. 

My plan had been all along not to run Boston this year; I'd like to do something in the fall and didn't want to have to wait to recover from Boston or even deal with any lingering fatigue from it.  It was a good thing I didn't sign up.  Although it's tough because it's the hometown marathon and a lot of people seemingly don't understand that there are other marathons in this world, it was in the end the right choice.  If I was able to run today - it really wouldn't have been worth it- I wouldn't have been in good shape, I would have risked re-injuring myself and I would have had to combat a day like today.  The right choice was made and that felt good.  It also felt good just to hang out with my friends, scream and clap my head off and just take in the scene of the race.  Boston Marathon is just plain awesome.

I have a tremendous amount of respect for those who ran today.  One can argue that anyone can run a marathon in ideal conditions but I think it takes a really strong person to persevere though a day like today.   I really felt motivated by watching all walks of life push on through out there today - congrats to all of the runners who finished or even ran today - totally inspiring!

Returning to Blog Again: Summary of Running in 2011

I was reminded of this blog today and realized I hadn't written anything this entire year.

Where to begin?  Well, I learned a big running lesson this year and that's to respect my body.

2011 began training for the 115th Boston Marathon, my third Boston and last - for awhile anyway.  I had a really good training for Boston last year despite the excessive amount of snow we had.  So when April rolled around I was really excited for Boston.  I knew I was going to have a great race.

However, Day 1 into the taper week, I started feeling some tightness in my left lower calf.  I blew it off as taper madness but it didn't seem to improve as the week wore on and Boston race day rapidly approached.  Being who I am, there wasn't anything that would stop me from running that race given I had qualified to get in with my current PR of 3:11:40, I got my under 10K race number and I was just euphoric with the vibe that comes from running this race.

Well, race day arrived and this tightness did not go away.  As a matter of fact, I felt pain for the entire race but foolishly, I did not stop despite seeing many medical tents along the way.  Miraculously, I earned myself a 3:16:56, a tibial stress syndrome and 10 unwelcomed weeks off from running.  I had never been so severely injured - never to the point where I couldn't even hop on one leg, nevermind run.

Well my husband earned his angel halo during those 10 weeks, I became reacquainted with my gym on the bike and elliptical and I learned that when something hurts, I must let it recover properly.    The remainder of my summer (the 10 weeks took me into June) was really getting back to where I had been pre-injury.

I had already decided to take a break from the marathons at this point (good timing).  So my focus was the Mohawk Hudson River Half Marathon in October.  I trained very hard for this race as, despite my injury, was looking to shave almost 3 minutes (sub-1:30) off of my prior half marathon PR (1:32:34).  The weather wasn't in our favor this day (80+ in early October), but I am proud to say that I was able to run a 1:30:37 (if only I could have found those 38 seconds!), a new half marathon PR.

Since October, I've run some fun, social races but really, looking back at 2011, this was a learning and recovery year.  I'm hoping that 2012 bring new, fun challenges at different distances.  Currently, I'm running but "resting" i.e. no intense speed workouts.  This will all change starting on January 2nd when I return to my regularly scheduled training with Coach Braz.  Happy Running to all in 2012!