Grandma’s Marathon is two days away. I don’t know how I feel about that. Usually, I am excited for a marathon, and have entered the last few marathons knowing that I could run well. After missing four weeks during my heaviest training period, however, I am not as confident as I would like to be today. Rather than dwell on the negatives, though, I have to think about the positives. If I toe the starting line on Saturday thinking that I won’t run well because of all the workouts I missed, there is no way I will have a good race.
So instead, I’ve been thinking about the good things. I came into this season in better shape than I ever have before, running a near personal record at Johnny’s Running of the Green. I had several weeks at or about 90 miles, and logged nine 20+ mile runs, including the New Orleans Rock and Roll Marathon, which I “jogged” in under 3 hours. When I recovered from my illness, I was still able to run under 7:00 pace feeling easy, and ran 2x 4 miles at 5:47 pace a few weeks ago. Obviously, I am still in pretty good shape. Whereas I had previously debated setting my sights on a 2:37 result, I must now adjust it back, but I think a sub-2:40 is still attainable.
I have been in Verona, Wisconsin for training this week, which means that I have had some more time to take care of myself. The last two evenings were spent soaking in the hot tub, and I also took an ice bath last night. I brought my foam roller with me as well, and have dutifully tried to work out any remaining trigger points in my legs before bed. My hamstrings are still as tight as piano wire, but I hope all this therapy has done something.
Tonight I fly out of Madison and meet my wife Ashlie in Duluth, Minnesota. We are staying in the dorms at University of Wisconsin – Superior, so we will not have internet access except on our phones. I expect Ashlie will have a great race, as she has been doing a lot of long runs and workouts this spring, and I think she is in the best marathon shape of her life. It will be exciting to see how she runs on Saturday!
With any luck, next time I post on here, we can both say we ran great races in Duluth!
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