four stars

The 7:00 am start of the Stars & Stripes Marathon

I had no idea how two marathons would go when I signed up for the Firecracker Double high on the endorphins of qualifying for the Marathon Maniacs.  But since the two marathons were just $25.00 each, and I could get four maniac stars, I couldn't resist.

And then spring struck, and my training went to crap.  I topped out at 110 miles in May - not the mileage I wanted to have heading in to this.  I really wondered if I could pull it off at all.  Just a few days before, I thought about pulling the plug on the idea.  I couldn't get a handle on my allergies; I was undertrained - I thought of every excuse in the book.

You're doing the marathons, my husband told me.

Running with Sarah & Rob

Thankfully, I had my friend Sarah running with me.  Can I tag along with you? I asked her, hoping she would be cool with that.  I don't know what I would have done had she said no!   So she set a course for us - run .4 miles, walk .1.  Over and over.  And that's just what we did as we looped around and around Greenlake Park.  10 times.  We picked up another maniac, Rob, in the first loop, and just chatted our way through it.

No speed records were broken.  It took us a little over 5 1/2 hours, but after we finished, I realized that I didn't feel all that bad.  My legs were tired, but they weren't dead.  I soaked in the tub after I got home, took a nap, refueled on every food in sight, and went to bed early.

When I first woke up Sunday morning, I had a moment of panic.  I felt like I had run a marathon the day before.  Duh.  And I wasn't supposed to do this again?

Freedom Marathon smiles

But I thought about the friends I would see there, and I got ready and headed out to the course at 5:45 am.  I arrived with just a few minutes to spare, and then we were off.  Again.

We started out with Rob and legendary maniac Larry Macon - a 12 time 50 states finisher.  12 times.  50 states.  Mind boggling.  I could have listened to him describe all the marathons he had done for the entire day (the man is a running catalog!), but we gradually started leaving them behind.  Amazingly, my legs were feeling pretty good.  The aches and pains worked themselves out.  This was going to happen.

As we headed in to the 1/2 marathon turn around point, we realized that the overall winner was just behind us and was going to beat us in to the finish before we reached the 1/2 mark.  I had to try to outkick him.  I did.  And so I gave it everything I had, but the dude turned on the wheels!  (He was running a 2:50 ish marathon after running one the day before...)  He came up to me after and told me I had some serious speed - which was as great a compliment as I've ever received.

About this time our friend Jodi came in behind us, so we were excited to have her run with us.  Except that she was running really well, so she decided to keep on going and aim for a PR.  A little sad, we wished her luck.

.25 mile later, we watched her turn around and come back to us.  "I could PR, " she said, "but I want my friends!"  Amen to that!

And so we ran and chatted and ran some more.  The popsicles at mile 19 were DELICIOUS!!!

Heavenly popsicles!

Mile by mile, we got it done.

A sweet finish.

And that's how I earned my four stars for the marathon maniacs.  You don't have to be a running badass.  You don't have to train 60 miles a week.  But you do have to be willing to perform to what your body will let you do the day. You will have to adjust your expectations for how fast you will run.  

The greatest thing I've learned from the marathon maniacs is that there are more reasons to run marathons than just improving your time.  You can run for friendship. You can run for laughs. You can run to find what you are made of. With any kind of luck, you'll find all three.

dreaded allergies

I am ready to move from this pollen infested wonderland called Oregon.

It's beautiful, yes, but the pollen count is insane.

A common sight.

I have been a mess since April, battling a couple of colds and endless post-nasal drip.  I'm hopped up on Flonase and Allegra, and I am still lacking full energy to train and do what needs to be done to get ready for my upcoming races.

I am growing weary of it.

If anyone has any good suggestions about how to control allergies, please send them along.  I really want to get to some good training in.

But hey, I'm less than two weeks from my double marathon weekend - that will be good training, right?

a 50 mile training plan

19 weeks until the 50 miler.

That's really not very long.

Someone needs a training plan.

There are millions of training plans for marathons, half marathons, 10ks. 50 milers - not as much. I purchased the Definitive Guide to Ultrarunning thinking that it would be chock full of 50 mile plans...there was one article with some general suggestions about how to go about  getting ready.

I'm the kind of runner who needs to review a bunch of plans, think it all through, and plot out my training weeks.  Only to ignore them of course, but the value is in the contemplation of what needs to be done.  I may move my key workouts around, but I like to have a few milestones that help me to feel prepared.

There are some decent resources online:

Runner's World take on 50 mile training
Santa Clarita's build your own 50 mile schedule app
Run 100 Mile's personal plan
Hal Higdon's Comrades plan
Words of wisdom from the UltRunR board

I'll be perusing these today and sketching out a road map to get me to Autumn Leaves at the end of August.

If anyone has a good plan to share or words of advice, please let me know!

finding your lost mojo

Who knows how it happens.  Perhaps it is a lack of sunshine.  Or too many errands to run.  Or getting off your training schedule and staying up too many nights.  Maybe it is a lack of a motivating goal, or a long stretch between races, or a nagging injury that just won't go away. Whatever it may be, the result is the same - you lose your mojo.

I'm missing mine right now. 

Life is getting in the way of running, which is usually does.  But I also don't have that extra drive to make it happen anyways, and that's what I think running mojo is really all about.

So what's a runner to do?

1. Give yourself space to be in a funk.
I'm taking a few days off to get things done, to wallow in my frustration, and to let the feeling pass.  If I wait long enough, that desire usually starts showing back up after a few days.  If I force it too much, I find that the funk lasts longer and my training suffers more.

2. Think about establishing a new goal.
I am going to get my four stars for Marathon Maniacs on the 4th of July - it just might take me awhile. But for whatever reason, this goal is not motivating me.  Neither is my 50 miler in October. I need to come up with something in the interim that gets me excited about getting out there.

3. Watch some inspirational video.

Every time.  These videos should be my alarm clock.  I'd never miss a run again.

Whew.  Feeling better already.

What techniques do you use when you are having troubles getting motivated to train?

three sisters marathon...a great time

At one point after the marathon, my running partner Jodi turned to me and said, "We didn't run a good time."

I looked right back at her and said, "No, we didn't.  We ran a great time!"

Sometimes a race isn't about the race at all.  It is about the journey.  This was one of those.

A couple of fellow marathon maniacs!

I didn't expect much going in to the marathon.  The last two months of my training have pretty much been non-existent.  Battling two lung seizing colds took most of my energy; the last time I ran long was at Lumberjack, and that was only 26 miles over 10 1/2 hours.  Not exactly a run.

I was really hoping just to come through the other side with good spirits and no injuries.

The lead-in to this race was filled with some drama, so by the time race morning came, it was just Jodi and I lining up to toe the line in a very, well, intimate race.  Less than 100 runners were signed up, and I worried that the course would be low on aid and that cars would be buzzing us the entire time.

Needlessly.

By the time we hit the first aid station, we could tell that this was going to be a first class event all the way.  Clean porta-potties every two miles, plenty of water and Gatorade, and Clif bars at every stop; this was the real deal.

And the views!  We were ooing and awing right out of the gate, and by the time the day was done, our oohers were just about broken.

We're already messing around with photos and we aren't even 4 miles in.

 For many of the faster runners, this gravel road was their least favorite part. For the photographers like us, it was the best.

A photo worthy moment.

 We stopped to pet the horses, photograph the unusual art along the way, comment on the prairie dog towns and inspect every porta-potty along the route.

Later on I started asking the horses if they would give me a ride.

We weren't blazing any trails, but we were having the best time just talking and laughing and enjoying the day.  When we were running, we were actually moving right along.  We just didn't keep going very steadily.

This guy was adorable. He even had a "guard"-horse to protect him.

We loved this.

We even got to know the support along the course. She was our cheering buddy.

In the end, it took us 5 hours and 40 minutes to complete the marathon.  Not my fastest time by a long shot, but you know what - it was by far my best time ever :)

If you are interested in running the Three Sisters Marathon next year, I highly recommend it.  The course is stunning, with mountain views nearly the entire way.  We enjoyed comfortable temperatures (better than Newport - though this was probably just a fluke).  The race organization did a first class job, and these folks are some of the nicest people you will ever meet.  The race director took the time to talk to all of the residents living along the course to let them know what was happening; you would not believe how friendly everyone was.  It is an open course, but there was a heavy police presence patrolling to keep everyone safe.  It is not flat, but it is not super hilly either.  For more information, check out their site: http://www.threesistersmarathon.com/

suttle lake hike

One of the great things about the Three Sisters Marathon this past weekend is that it takes place in beautiful country - I come alive over there.  I have spent quite a bit of time in Central Oregon, but it still holds plenty of places to explore.

I've stopped at Suttle Lake countless times to use their nice restrooms on our trips over the mountains, and I've always wanted to hike the three mile loop that circles the lake.  This weekend, I finally made the time to do it.  Here are a few photos:

The trail beckons.

Black Butte in the distance.
I have hiked to the top of that cinder cone.

Mt Washington peeks over the lake.

The beaver IS our state animal, after all.

committed

Perhaps I should be.

Because I just received confirmation of my entry into the Autumn Leaves 50 Miler in October.

Looking forward to checking another experience on my "big honkin' to-do list of awesomeness", but I'm processing just what exactly I will be expecting my body to do.

I'm sure there will be some good training tales coming out of this one.

Strange things I saw on my runs in the past two weeks:

A dude running completely barefoot and wearing jeans.  And he wasn't running slow.

 A guy riding his bike pulling his child's baby carrier - which was not carrying a child but rather an enormous Great Dane