Pre-Marathon

Heading into the race today, I had no idea what to expect. I had been diligent on my training up until the first week of March, when I ran a then personal long distance of 16 miles…at a pace that would have put my marathon time at 3 hours and 30 minutes. But I would spend 3 of the next 4 weekends severely sick (flu, flu/cold, nasty sinus infection). The first week of April I finally got on track and found myself only a week behind in my training (good thing I had started in November!).

Alas on my birthday (April 7th), I decided to play basketball in the old man’s basketball league with my Dad. I had never sprained an ankle before. Not even two minutes into the FIRST game I was at half court, took an easy pass with no one around me. While walking, I took two dribbles and rolled my right ankle so far it touched the court. I limped off without being able to put weight on my right leg, but was able to walk it off and keep playing the next game. Only did the true extent of my injury become clear when I woke up on Friday morning with one normal-sized ankle and the other twice as big! And only able to support a slow walking pace. So began a 2 and a half week stretch of ZERO running, a lot of ice, and a lot of time spent on the trainer for my road bike. I finally conceded that I HAD to start running again, ankle be damned, or I was going to have much bigger issues on race day.

I started running about 2 weeks ago, and pushed myself to a very painful (ankle) 12-mile run 9 days ago, then 2 days later an 8-mile run. This week was all about recovery/rest (3ish miles Tuesday, 3ish miles Wednesday, 2 miles Saturday). Wednesday’s run was the first where making right turns while jogging wasn’t excruciating. Just uncomfortable.

Enter this morning: 5:30am alarm, glass mixed vegetables and fruit courtesy of my juicer, heated up some slow-cooked steel cut oats with blackstrap molasses, honey, peanut butter, and nutella. Topped it off with a couple glasses of water and a half cup of coffee (of course!). Go time.

I arrived on campus at Borgess at 6:45am after fighting through traffic (race start of 7:30, so plenty of time). I did about a mile or maybe a little less warm-up jog then went back to my car to stretch. Still with over 30 minutes until the race and it only being 46 degrees out, I was in no hurry to ditch my hoodie and pants. So I waited in line for 15 minutes for a port-a-potty, then finally stripped to shorts and my compression shirt (great idea, no nipple chafing, unlike my half-marathon).

The goal, 4 to 4 and half hours. I picked my way toward the jam-packed start line and finally it became to condensed to pass anyone at the 4 hour 15 minute pace setters. Race on!