My Goal

Let me start out by saying that to qualify for Boston, I would have to finish in 3 hours, and 40 minutes. That is NOT my goal, nor do I think I am even capable of that time or close to it at this point. I honestly feel anything under 4 ½ hours would be a success for my first marathon, given that I've only been running for 1 year. However, since I do love a challenge and I didn’t decide to run a marathon to just finish.. I am shooting for 4 hours, although 4:15 might be the more realistic time! I’ve been humbled with some of my long runs. I've had days where I struggle from mile 5 all the way to mile 18. Which is why this past Sunday Greg told me it was going to be a make or break day for me. If I didn't do well in my last longest run before tapering down.. I would have needed to re-evaluate. However, all went well! I ran a strong 20 miles (the first 20 of the marathon course), which gave me a confidence boost. I’m at the point now of trying to get myself past a couple of mental hurdles. The two biggest things I’ve battled in my training: overall fatigue, and tight calf muscles. I just hope everything goes right the day of the race, as several marathon runners have told me a lot can go wrong!

1 1/2 Months to Go

With just a little under a month and a half to go, I now have long runs of 15.5, 17, 18, 19, 20, and 21 miles in (some I did multiple times if I felt I struggled a bit the 1st time). I built up my long distance a little bit more each week, as my weekly mileage also continues to climb. I’m now running 50 miles a week and felt if I had to run a marathon this week, I would be ready (Something I would not have said 2 weeks ago). Over these next few weeks, I will really be focusing on my pace. I’ve done that the last 2 weeks and have been consistent from mile 1, to mile 20 (or so the Garmin tells me). So now I am going to see if I can pick up the pace slightly, which my husband would appreciate. Give me one more week and I will be ready to announce my goal time to cross the finish line. Did I forget to mention how nice it is that the warm weather is finally here for good (I Hope).

Garmin is the way to go!

I remember seeing a lot of runners at the Niagara Falls Marathon with Garmin watches on. At the time I thought how are they going to get lost, just follow everyone else to the finish line. So here I am 7 months later and my husband is now the proud owner of a Garmin watch. I figured it out! Not only does this watch tell you the exact miles you’ve run, it also tells you your pace, your average pace, calories burned, heart rate.. I could go on. One of the best features I think for a marathon is that you can set the watch to a time/per mile that is too fast and then set it to a time/per mile that is too slow. The watch beeps when you are going to fast and too slow so you can stay on target for your goal time. While there are so many great features about it (that I am sure will take a long time before we ever use) I can honestly say it was a good investment. The next one will be our marathon day outfits. In the last 2 ½ months, I’ve been figuring out the to do’s, and not to do’s. That includes proper running clothes, sneakers, what to eat the night before, how much water, and energy gels to consume during our long runs. I can see why people train 4 months for a marathon. Not only does it take a long time to get your body ready to run 26.2 miles, it takes a long time to figure out what will make you feel your best while you’re doing it.

Running is a Friendly Sport

The training group my husband and I work out with for our long runs has really inspired me. The first day Greg and I joined them, we had no idea what the route was that we were suppose to be running. We only knew the distance. No one knew our names, just knew that we were the new couple. It only took a few miles before we hit the first water stop where everyone introduced themselves. They wanted to know how many marathons we’ve run, what we were training for, and our goals. From that moment, they have given me encouragement and make me feel like I can really meet my marathon goal (which I am not ready to say, until I get a few more long runs in). There are runners of all age in this group from 20 something to their 50’s. Some of these women are incredible runners. They could beat most men I know. I learned 2 weeks ago that one of the women in this group is now 3 months pregnant. She is still cruising along, and while she says she is slower… I haven’t noticed. She plans to still run her marathon in a couple of weeks but said she doesn’t care about time now. How great it will be that she can tell her baby one day they ran a marathon. It gave me new hope for myself. If she could run pregnant.. What was I complaining about? It is one of the very few sports where your competition is actually encouraging you while you are in the middle of a race. Where else can you find that? At first I thought how strange, other runners are saying.. Keep it up, nice pace, don’t give up. Now, I have come to appreciate it and find myself saying those very same words when I pass someone who looks to be struggling.