Boston Marathon, mostly in pictures.

Prior to last Monday I had some epic blog shit planned for post Boston. Multiple posts, hundreds of pics (which I have!) serious details of all the shenanigans (of which there were many!)

After last Monday I almost decided to say screw it and not blog at all, since there is a big part of that day that I'd prefer to forget forever......

But.... There was a big part of the day that was awesome. Not to mention that you only get one "First Boston..."

I decided to meet myself in the middle and do a teeny tiny recap.

 

 

My first look at the finish line on Saturday!
We then ventured to the expo which was PACKED...
I need to remember NOT to go at Noon on Saturday next year!!

My family (and internet friends!) made a group of 16 at the (winning) Sox game!
It was a cold but awesome Sunday.
This was my first game where I drank exactly zero beers and ate zero fried dough...

Apparently I am smaller than I think I am!!
6:30 AM bus line stretched for miles but they load you right the eff up.
The Boston Marathon is a well oiled machine!!!

Just a little interlude here. After my epic nerves pre Hyannis I decided to chill the hell out. I was totally cool. No nerves at ALL. I really prepped myself to be all "It's just another race. No big deal. Be cool..." And I really was. For 3 hours at athletes village I popped a squat on a cardboard box all homeless person style, wrapped my huge sweatshirt around my body and legit zoned out.

Luckily I tuned back in early enough to stand in a 30 minute porta potty line and make friends with some really fantastic people.

15K Going strong!
15K is a point in the race where I tend to get grumpy...I always feel like that is a solid number of miles and that I maybe should be done? HAH! Good luck with that...

Showboating in Natick!
It was at this point in the race that I started to feel good.
I had been running really well, but the crowds got HUGE here and my legs felt terrific.

ANOTHER side note. I cruised thru the 1/2 in about 1:42 and felt very very good about that. I was having to slow down to grab hydration- it was pretty warm compared to what I'm used to but a beautiful day. I was so happy that my Dad was at mile 18.5 with snacks and my bottle of Scratch. He jumped onto the course and ran for a bit, passed me my stuff, was happy that I was ahead of schedule and then gave up and decided not to bandit. Hahaha. Go my Dad!!

 

I did slow down up the hills but had NO idea I was climbing heartbreak until I saw the giant, chalk heart at the top. My freaking hill training paid off BIG TIME! I was tired but knew I still had some gas in the tank. All the crazy drunk boys yelling "run bird girl" "marry me bird girl" at BC were quite motivating and helped me get my pace back down into the low 8's. And sorry boys, this bird girl is taken!!

And thanks to Crow Athletics for asking me to be on their team here at Boston- I looked for other crows but they are hard to find in big crowds! (I saw some real crows... but no human ones, haha!)

Getting into the final stretch!
At this point I knew I was going to PR but I really wanted to try to push for the finish.
I tend to fall apart in the last 10K, but this time I cranked it the hell up!

Pushing thru the last mile or so.
Kicking ass.

A HUGE pack of my family was at the Pour House very close to the finish.
I still had the energy to show off for them!
And I WAS SO HAPPY to see them there!!

Flying :-)
And in the last few feet none the less.
Crossed the line in 3:31:42. Solid PR and decent BQ.
I WAS PUMPED. And sunburned. Old sunscreen FAIL.

I'm gonna end the story here.
We all know what happened in the next few hours and days....
It makes you feel lucky for what you have, and I have a LOT to be thankful for!

Boston Finish Line, while things were still fun.

More to come on my interesting Boston experience...

But for now!!!

 

What's that on my finger???
Pretty! Shiny!!

And for you boys out there with little runner girlfriends. THIS is how you propose.
Boston Marathon finish line after your lady PR's.

 Legit cred to my dead sexy exclusive dating partner for doing it up right!!!
Seriously, he got down on one knee and everything. So adorable.
Oh, and I said yes. :-)

Boston...

Just a paragraph to let you know that I'm ok and so is my family!
A very scary and tragic day in Boston, and so horrific and heartbreaking.

I will post a recap at some point because before things got scary many good things happened. I think it important to reflect on the good moments, friends and family and how amazing the running community is at a time like this.

But for now, thinking of those affected and of the city of Boston...

March Recap, LATE and ONE WEEK until Boston!

So I'm late on the recap, per the norm.

Hmmmm March. What the hell happened?

 

Miles run: 165. I'm surprised it isn't higher. Well, I was kinda recovering from Hyannis the 1st week so I think that explains it.

 

Hours of cross training done: I can't figure out how to find that in my dailymile. I can take an educated guess though.... Between yoga, core and a tiny bit of Spin probably close to 20 hours. It keeps me busy, no time to do normal people things, or clean obviously....

 

 

Which is why I have this guy, duh...

Number of times I puked on my shoes- ZERO! Miracle...

 

Number of times I quit running- Once but it was after I fell in the damn snowcovered stream. Legit.

 

Number or races run- ZERO Anyone who has followed my blog knows that this is extremely rare and unusual. In the name of not overtraining/over racing I put all competitive running on hold until after Boston. It wasn't as hard as you would think, all I had to do was remember my months of shitty shin splint pain last year and that was enough to rein me in.

 

Number of treadmill runs- NONE! TAKE THAT!!!!

 

Longest training run- 19

 

Number of nightmares I've had about Heartbreak Hill- One million billion

This shit is in my damn head!

 

Number of colds I have caught 7 days out from a big race- 1. Yeah, I'm coming down with some sniffly bug. Hope it goes away pronto!

FACT

With one week to go I'm feeling fine. A little sick but fine. Legs have been decent (which is amazing for taper time) and despite my random Heartbreak Hill nightmares I feel well adjusted.

Sure, I wish I had about 6,000 more years to get my hill work in but I've really gone above and beyond- hitting every hill in town. Making sure that every single long run had a monster climb in the last couple miles. Even my easy runs have a seriously punishing hill at the end. My endurance still isn't where I'd like it to be, but in reality Id also like to be a 3:08 marathoner and THAT isn't gonna happen either! So it's all good. The forecast looks acceptable and with only a few more workouts to put in I'm feeling as ready as I can be. Bring it on, Boston!

Reginald Doodie, reporting for duty!!

While some of you might consider this to be an irregular blog post for a Friday morning rest assured that it's a solid effort on my part. Hehheh.

My blog is the best. You stumble across it and might be lucky enough to read about period issues, or, like today you might be lucky enough to meet my friend Reginald Doodie.

Yeah. Reginald Doodie. 

I wish I knew the exact details of how he came to life but I know it was due to a wine fueled bed time chat that my sister Kate and cousin Jen had. Needless to say, in true family fashion it immediately took on a life if its own and is now a true legend. I can accept no responsibility for inventing him, but I have embraced the bigger-than-life-force that he has become.... *normal* *not*

Some facts about our friend Reg:

-He is a soldier, Reginald Doodie reports for duty daily. Hopefully before you head out to run...

-A few things make him VERY angry. Jalapenos and gas station coffee come to mind...

-He takes FULL advantage of the GI bill. DUH. 

-Partying makes him a little loose, gotta keep an eye on that...

-If he had a ship he'd spend most of his time on the poop deck....

Dudes, the jokes are endless. ENDLESS.

Kate told me that he was a soldier with one of those twisty mustaches, which I didn't think were too common in this day and age. Little did I know that almost immediately after thinking that stupid thought two exciting things would happen!!

This is Reginald Doodie. On a beer bottle of all things!
I was so excited to find this.
Kate took a pic and instantly sent it to ALL our cousins.Kate and I have been known to text each other after evenings of questionable eating/drinking with "ohhhhhh Reggie...." We both know what this means and have sympathy for the other persons challenges.

This is Reggie in real life.
He works in a bar which made me nervous about the drinks!!
I was so excited to find him... As you can see!
(now leave me alone, Reg!)

Is it strange that we all now refer to our various GI issues by name? No.

And admit it runners, we have ALL had our issues with Reg and his GI bill... You are not a real runner until you have come back from a workout with only one sock (it happens...)

 

When Eric and I run together he has been known to casually ask "So... How's Reggie?" as though he were inquiring about a random Uncle perhaps and not checking to see if I need to find a porta potti! Nothing, I mean NOTHING says epic runner romance like THAT, let me tell you!

 

I would like to make a request to Reggie at this time. Please leave me alone when I'm at mile 7 of a 9 mile tempo run. Please do NOT show up angrily when I'm doing track repeats. And good God, please don't show up when I'm at mile 22 of the Boston Marathon with absolutely NO time to deal with you.

Got it Reginald? In return I will avoid ice cream, lentils, and the previously mentioned gas station coffee.

I refuse to let these issues take a big giant Reg on my marathon day so rest assured that I will be hitting up the pepto like it's going out of style...

And THAT my friends is the myth of Reginald Doodie. May he leave you at peace while you run, or are on a first date, or a long car trip.

 

Adventures and the Final Countdown To BOSTON!

So yes, I have in fact been completely out of the blogosphere for the past couple weeks. I had imagined with Boston looming on the horizon that I would have a ton to say (even more than normal!) But no, that has not been the case. 

So what's been going on?? 

I have been looking at a lot of TALLLLLL buildings!
Eric, Eric's Mah and I went to NJ to see 1,745 of their family members, eat Easter food, and go to  New York! I have never actually been to the city before (I know, I know, so sheltered) so this was a big exciting deal for me. 

My one request was to see the Intrepid. Yeah, I'm cool like that.

Anyway, we had a super good time. We saw ALL the things, walked about a half marathon (no lie) and  really enjoyed the whole time. So fun! I always enjoy a good adventure and was so excited to learn how to shove my way thru Manhattan foot traffic, eat pretzels from street vendors that taste like they have been dragged behind a taxi cab, check out the big piano at FAO Schwarz and figure out what restaurant to go to with 2 vegetarians, 3 people celebrating passover and me. HAH! 

We did manage to run a little during this weekend but it was far from successful. However, I really didn't care as overall my running has been pretty decent.

With less than 2 weeks to go I'm feeling pretty good about everything despite my absolute blogging silence. Technically I am tapering (last Thursday was my last long run, of 19.) I have a few solid looking workouts to go which makes me happy because 2 weeks of "exceedingly easy" runs and I just do not get along. 

So why on earth have I not been blogging daily with my progress reports? I am not entirely sure other than I'm focusing so much energy on preparing that I don't have a lot left over to talk about it. TERRIBLE BLOGGING OMG SO BAD. 

So here is a quick update:

I have had a number of runs that have felt pretty great. After Hyannis I discovered, not shockingly, that my hill endurance had gone to shit. I trained for Hyannis to be flat (which it mostly was) and sought out the few flat roads around here to do the vast majority of my workouts on. I am not going to lie, the hills are still pretty tough. I have run EVERY hill between here and the next county so my effort has been high- but my hill confidence is still not where it can be. I have had some fantastic tempo runs and mile repeats. I have not had any long runs that are total shit. I also have not had any long runs that have felt good, HAH THAT'S awesome...!  My hope is that the good feeling long run will happen at the right time, if you know what I mean! I'd rather not waste it in training after all... I have been doing core work like a boss, yoga, wearing compression, drinking all the water (and all the Scratch) (and some beer) (occasional glass of wine), eating healthy (well, I DID go to M&M world but whatevs...) going to bed early (mostly) and being a responsible adult (what....????) 

It's all just a wait now, and for the next 11 days I'm gonna do my workouts, stay cool and not stress. I plan to run a kickass race. I also plan to enjoy the whole experience because this is something that most people don't get to do. I'm very happy that most of my family is going to get to spend some part of the weekend with me (we have activities planned, it will be freaking legendary.) So yeah, it's the final countdown y'all and my goal in life is to stay cool, not sweat the small stuff and toe that damn line ready to have a pretty fabulous race. We'll see how my plan works out!