What's Next? Stupidity.

I have had a master plan all year of how this running season would play out.
It got a bit derailed with a close-but-no-cigar non PR day at the Hampton Half and then of course, the semi disaster that was Boston.
However. Back in January I decided that Boston wasn't the end goal for this 5-6 month training cycle but another crack at a 50K was. Since I was quite healthy after Boston it was deemed acceptable by Coach Kelsey to piggy back the marathon training into an ultra.
WHY????? She should have shut me DOWN!!

Yeah I haven't really publicized this. I totally wanted to be able to back the fuck out, shame free.
Honesty on the internet. Always fun. 

Really though, I've only been about 50% committed. Or maybe 25%. Or 10%.
Until today. when I sucked it up and signed up.
(so now, I should be 100% committed in the other sense of the word.)

Please note my semi-depressed reply to "how I learned" about the race.

The race is Sunday so it's not like I could exactly continue to contemplate it.

How I feel this exact minute about my choices.

Hmmm. OK time to get excited.
I'm excited because it will be an adventure.
I'm excited because last year I learned how NOT to run a 50K.
I'm excited because my friends will be there and Pineland is FUN!!!
I'm excited because there is beer at the finish and this will be a quality test of my stamina in regards to running towards beer.
I'm excited because I am badass and can do anything I damn well set out to do
I'm excited because when I spend $$ I better get excited, haha!!!

I think this is stupid because:
It's 31 miles
I'm in it to finish, certainly not to compete
It's 31 miles over HILLS
There will be nature. and ticks. I hate ticks.
I might get muddy and I dislike mud. 
(all valid reasons)

I think we need to call upon divine intervenion.
Kate, please buy me this!!!
HAHA.
Please 6 pound 5 ounce sweet lord baby geezes, get me to that finish line!!!

Alex and Ani... They have bangles for every occasion. Even 50K's.

Anyway, I'm all in and plan to finish the full 50K with a smile on my face and to implement my ultra running plan far better than at GCI last year. (more on this later this week)
I really, deep down in my heart am excited. I think this will be a big challenge but why not, right? 

Of course, Sunday is scheduled to be the warmest day of the week so I will probably melt at mile 10 and require assistance to get to the beer tent at the finish. (I am currently accepting volunteers for on course hospice care I mean assistance.)

Oh Boy. sometimes I wonder what I'm getting myself in to!!!
After this it is all 5K races people, ALL 5K races...

Maine Coast Marathon, a big day!

Sunday was a big day around here.
All of us on the interwebs (and in real life) were pretty damn excited. It was Maine Coast Marathon Day! A day where almost everyone who knows anyone gets together to either run a damn stupid marathon, cheer lead or sherpa. I feel like this race more or less marked the beginning of the summer race season and reminded me how much I miss all my running buds (and how infrequently I see their faces.)

This day was all about Danielle.
You all know the age old story. Girl runs races and is fast by normal standards, girl meets freakishly tall boy and marries him, girl and freakishly tall boy have a devilishly handsome child (while girl maintains a damn quick pace, running sub 4 marathons while preggers with said child and generally kicking ass.)
Child gets born
Girl gets STUPID FAST. Like, childbirth has given her wings or some crazy shit. She PR's every distance by a sick amount while remaining uninjured which makes me think that she is a cyborg.
Girl prepares to run fastest marathon in history!
Yeah, that story. Normal stuff right? 

Back in February at the mid winter classic, seeing her face of irritation as I chased her down I knew that my obnoxious presence might be exactly what she needed in the final miles of her goal marathon. (I kid, she can run with one hand tied behind her back blindfolded. I just wanted to share in the excitement!) I offered up my sherpa-ing services and she took me up on my offer (the offer was to shout at her if she tried to bitch out. that was about it....)

Anywhoo. Fast forward to now.
I am not going to tell too much of this story (since Danielle is the worst blogger alive and it is going to take her 400 years to post about her big day)
However, I clearly need attention from the internet (duh) so here is my side of the story.
And it will be awesome.

The day of May 11, 2014 dawned cool and pleasant.
And that did not last.
Why in the ever loving fuck do the hot days have to fall on marathons? WHY? Why.... UGH.
I woke up at 4:30 ready to go for my big day I mean to support my friend on route to her big finish.

I showed up at the start and I'm saw some of my favorite people and some strangers, who will probably become my favorite people soon (since they are crazy marathoners too...)

Ok, so there is Leslie (new friend), Sarah N, Danielle, Kristal, A girl from Daily Mile (who are you? are you Karen?) and me!

After the start, which seemed so tiny and small after the 309,857 people at Boston, I booked it over to UNE to prepare to tackle 20 miles, 7 or so which were to be at race pace with Ms. Danielle the super speedster.
It was 64 degrees at 7:45...

Parking lot selfie. Gotta have photo documentation...

I headed out onto the course just before 9:00 to run backwards for 6-7 miles.
Not literally backwards. I was running the route from the finish line, haha. 
When I headed out to run it was 72 degrees. Uh oh.
I was obnoxiously warm while running, it was grody and nasty with sweat and slime everywhere.
And I was running slow- like 9's. I started to feel concerned.

And when concerned I lazily stop to take ANOTHER selfie. Wow, I love me.

I reached mile 19 right around 10:10, which was perfect timing to see Danielle and Sarah making their way towards me.
By that time the temp was reaching the upper 70's. And I was glad I wasn't racing.
I had gotten a text from Sarah N hoping that I had some salt tabs but I did not- watching the runners go by was like watching a replay of Boston and I was not liking what I was seeing....

I certainly can't tell any part of this from Danielle's perspective but I knew what her goal was, I knew what pace we had to maintain to get there and I remembered, far too clearly how it felt to maintain pace past mile 20 at Boston. Half of my brain was seriously concerned before we ever got going, and the other half was ready to push, pull and help her to the finish.

So we ran. It was hot, relentlessly hot, not a cloud in the sky and the only noticeable wind was the one pushing us backwards up the annoying hills of the last miles of this race.

We have the same amazing running form. Go us!!!!

Dudes, she fought hard. I was scared to death that if she stopped that she'd become me at Boston (a waste of space) so the poor girl, every time she walked thru a water stop I was like "MOVE! DON'T FUCKING STOP! RUN YOU SLUT!!!!!" She was overheating, cramping, dehydrated and still motoring along.

When all else fails, you must remember to Fly Brave!!!! (thanks to Sarah E and Sarah N :-))

I managed to keep up my end of the bargain by yelling at her mercilessly, like a total jerk.
After my shit show run in Boston, in the heat, I knew exactly what she was going through and I figured that if her brain was wired anything like mine even a tiny bit of sympathy/commiseration would cause BOTH of us to burst into tears and park it on the roadside waiting for the ice cream truck. So when she said worrying things like "I can not feel my legs...." I replied, sensibly, with: "that is the BEST CASE SCENARIO right now!!!!" Oy. Don't ever listen to me.

I feel that I might have had several more gems like that but here's the bottom line:
She kept running. Much faster than was comfortable. And not just running, but passing people.
When you really, really want something you fight through some pretty nasty shit, and that is exactly what I saw play out. I was just along for the ride, she dug deep and gutted it out.

And the final result? Like I said, I'm not going to tell her story.
From my perspective I saw amazing things and heartbreaking things happen.
That's running right there, isn't it?
(UGH!!!!!!!!! and YAY!!!! God, so confused!!!)
Bottom line though, I'm damn proud of her. She's a tough lady, a fast runner and she has the tenacity to pull off some fast paces in horrid conditions. (fall marathon: watch out!) She finished strong, mobile and she stayed classy (and her hair looked great- see below pic. hello my hair- take notes!)

So glad to be done!!!

After the excitement and drama of Danielle's big run I got to death march, for 6 more miles. Gross. By that time it was 80, so hot, gross in all ways and I was ready to be done. (I would have had a horrible race- as jealous as I was at the start, by mile 14 on the day I certainly was relieved to be just running....)

I saw Jen S an she carried me for a while! Nice!!!

So there is my day. 20 miles. Very hot. Really, really proud of my friend.
Isaac deserves some honorable mention- he was a cheerleading FORCE and literally seemed to be around every bend. How he managed this, I do not know.

Anyway marathons, you stupid beasts!  excited to see how it plays out next time (Chicago... Uh Oh!)

Towns2gether 5K... Yes, I ran a 5K!

The past couple of weeks have been devoted to getting back into the swing of things post marathon. After feeling shockingly good post race (thanks, 3:54...) I definitely came down with a case of the "oh shit my legs feel like crap-itis" last week.

It really was rather awful.
It was also 38 degrees in raining, which was disgusting.

DISGUSTING

I hate to admit it, but my body is very well acclimated to running in 38 degrees and rain, so if nothing else the cold, windy, damp weather had me feeling more like myself by last weekend. It was gross, but I was zipping around like a damn fool. Thank heavens.

And feeling better can lead to some solid life choices....
All last summer, while training or the GCI 50K I said "No" to every race or fun run activity that sounded amusing. This was because my sole focus was to get to the 50K uninjured, not over raced and ready to go. Basically my plan went as I hoped (lousy finish and all) but I got a little bit bummed, missing out on all the local races, saying "no" left and right like it was my second job.

So. When I found out that my best friend's school (she is a teacher) was having a 5K fundraiser I said "sure, why not"
(the day before, but it's not like training for a 5K would actually help, hahah!)

Not so sure it was a good idea before.... Happy after!

I showed up. It was cloudy and chilly. We ran around a little to warm up and to find a bathroom. Angie was pushing Quinners in his stroller because at 1 year old it's high time for the kid to learn to race. So we talked to him for a bit and he looked mad. I asked Angie if she would push me in the stroller too and she seemed oddly reluctant. Then I was mad too.
I tried to continue my warmup until the very second the race started but wasn't particularly successful, since I wasn't exactly sure where the start line was, or which way we were supposed to go. Luckily, one lone person had that info so I did not miss the start, as I have been known to do.

I hope that this race becomes a yearly event, as with the exception of absolutely nobody paying attention to the pre race announcements (I suggest a much more amplified communication device) and the slight confusion about where the race actually started from, it was a solid little 5K.
I never expect "big time" race support from small town 5k's but this one was pretty decent. They had an actual timing company working instead of a dude with a stopwatch (good), the course was marked well enough and at intersections there were volunteer and police support (good) the course seemed to be advertised as long- but was close enough for me (3.13 is close enough) there was plenty of water at the finish and I really enjoyed the relatively flat out and back route. Also, the volunteers at the bib pick up were extremely helpful and if it had been my first 5k I can't think of anything they could have done to make me feel more comfortable (so a good race for your first time.)

I was really surprised at the number of people starting- there were over 300 which is kind of insane for a town that has a population of 5. (I'm kidding. I basically live there so I can kid.)
I lined up near the front and suddenly we were starting.
All the little kids took off, ready to win the damn race.
100 feet later they all stopped. It was very funny but made for an rather creative beginning to the race. I liked the attitude of those 1st graders though, they were in it to win it until the discovered that a 5k is slightly longer than 100 feet.

At this point I had passed the 1st graders. And a few middle schoolers from the looks of it.

 A bunch of men and a few woman had broken off with the lead pack, and not wishing to kill myself in the first 0.3 miles I maintained a reasonable pace.
I have not run a 5K for real in about 2 years, and honestly had no idea what to expect. It had warmed up quickly and was 60 and sunny- and I felt warm. Duh. Where is my 38 degree weather?

By the half mile marker I had already caught several of the lead woman but could no longer see the front runners. Since I knew that a fast time was beyond my reach I aimed to maintain sanity in my pacing (and since I had had nothing but shit runs all week, the fact that I felt great was enough to make for a very fun run.)

There really isn't much drama to report, I ran fairly decent splits- 6:53, 6:51, 7:02 and since I have not seen "6" as the first number in so long I was really a bit shocked. I never gave up (although in mile 2-3 I was in no man's land with not a single person to chase, so perhaps got a bit lazy?)

Forrest Gump running style. Seriously, this is how I run.

 Anyway, to zero fanfare I finished. My time was 21:36 and of course my first thought was "ugh, slow!!!" I shut that down though, because at a 6:58 average pace that is fast for me and that's all that counts. Also, that's reasonable close to how I run when I train to be fast for short distances. So no tears here.

BIG FINISH.

I thought I might have been the first woman. Angie's husband was fairly sure. Nobody really knew!
So, needing to get to work I hopped in my car and left.

As it turned out I was 6th overall and the 1st place woman.
Yeah, I know that at a big race this time would not have been competitive. I don't care though, for me this was a fast time, a good effort and I'm really pleased with it.
And it was FUN.
I can't remember the last time I had so much FUN at a race! Go figure. I claim to hate 5K's...
I really enjoyed being done so fast.
I was ZERO percent tired or sore.
I then worked all day, no problem!
The next day I went on a 10 mile trail run over a mountain with no "race" feelings in my legs.

So bottom line, this was a great day. I was glad to say "yes!" to something spontaneous and fun, I was glad to feel fast, I was glad to have a good day with my friends. sometimes you just have to live a little and remember that running does not always have to feel hard!
And I was glad to see my little buddy Quinners really enjoy his first race. He looked so pumped once he got going! I expect him to be a big track star (no pressure or anything.) And really. I expect Angie to be a big track star because if you can run fast while pushing an enormous stroller than you can do anything (like push me next time!!)