Overdue Update

This weekend I went to Missoula, Montana for one of my favorite yearly events: The Missoula (Half) Marathon. Steve and I truly believe that "the more the merrier," and this year we were successful in recruiting an array of friends and relatives to come with us. Several of our good friends and training partners from Spokane made the short journey East, and my Aunt Kate and Mom Judy also came with us. Steve and my mom both ran the full marathon, and both had excellent races. Everyone enjoyed the event and the challenge that comes with a long race in the beautiful Missoula countryside. And then, of course, there's me.
I had a great time and stuck to my main goal: to "keep the streak alive" by competing in the event every year since it started. This year, of course, the race was just 14 days after Ironman. Not ideal, but I thought if I took it easy I would be fine. I suppose I was right... IF I took it easy, I would be fine. But did I take it easy? Not really. To begin with, my favorite training buddy (Brenda, HI BRENDA!!!) was with me and I just wanted to stick with her and feel the wind under my feet after a long spring of slogging through Ironman training runs. I knew it was risky. I did it anyway. I survived! But here's a brief race report.

Start: Good. For about 4 minutes. Then I had a terrible shooting pain through one of my shins, and I actually started to limp. I went probably 15 - 20 strides pondering the idea that my race was over already! Fortunately the pain let up and I got my stride back.

First few miles: I was a little cold and had trouble getting into my rhythm until about mile 2. Then I felt pretty good and I was enjoying the speed. This is also a beautiful part of the course on the river, which certainly didn't hurt. I was running with Brenda and giving her a few comments here and there about what was coming up on the course.

Mile 3 - 5: We turned to start the "zig-zag" portion of the race through the rural neighborhoods into town. I felt pretty good! Not perfect, but as well as I could expect. I wasn't laboring too hard, but we were clocking between 7:20 - 7:30 pace. I was happy.

Mile 6/7: Starting to feel like I was working hard. I thought about how I had run a 12k (7.5 miles) 2 weeks after my Boston marathon in 2008, and pondered the idea that I was running a lot further than that this time... and faster too. At mile 7 I finally dropped off of Brenda, although I was close to her for at least a mile.

Mile 8 - 10: Brought myself to a 7:45ish pace. That's what I should've run the whole race, to be honest. Still hard, but surviving. Stomach was a little iffy, legs felt okay but heavy.

Mile 11 - 13.1: This part was all in my head and it was tough. My legs were like dead weight. I was trying to stay under 8:00 min/mi pace and barely was making it. The only reason I hung in was that I thought to myself repeatedly, "You didn't work that hard for the first 10 miles for nothing, right?"

The finish: 1:40:31. Not actually a bad time AT ALL! I would always be happy with a sub 1:40 no matter the situation, but to run close to that 2 weeks out from Ironman was pretty impressive. Which is not to say I was thrilled, but I knew enough to be satisfied.

The real story starts after the race. After Steve finished his marathon (a 3 minute PR!) and Mom finished (16 minutes faster than her November NYC marathon and 2nd in her age group!) we drove back to Spokane. My legs were already incredibly sore. Despite my post-race massage they were very tight and they became worse through the afternoon and the evening. When I woke up Monday morning I could barely walk. Fortunately there was no acute injury, but both legs felt like gigantic bruises. It was the most sore than I have been after any event in years. I have to think back to some of my earliest marathons to remember being so stiff and sore! I would roughly approximate my discomfort Monday as being about 10 times worse than after Ironman. eeghad!!!

Two days later I am still sore, but definitely recovering. I've also learned a valuable lesson about recovery; I felt great going into the half-marathon and had planned a reasonable approach to the race, but my legs were definitely not recovered from Ironman. I consider myself lucky that all I had to deal with is extreme soreness. I certainly could have injured myself doing that. So, while I wouldn't say I regret my decision, I will forever remember this experience as a reminder of how fragile our bodies can be after a major effort, even when they feel "fine" in our shorter recovery workouts. I wouldn't risk something like this for most races. (For my Missoula streak, however, STILL WORTH IT!)

This week I'm going to focus on healing and next week I plan to start back with some 30 minute sessions of running, biking and swimming. No rush. The future and its possibilities (and races) stretch endlessly in front of me, and I want to be sure I can enjoy all of it!