Wineglass marathon week 11
Total Mileage: 41.2
Come Monday morning, I was a bundle of nerves. Was I going to be cleared to run? Was this podiatrist going to tell me I needed to take a month off? Of course, my appointment wasn’t until after work, so it was naturally the longest work day ever. When I finally got to the doctors office, I was full on stress sweating as I filled out the intake forms.
They put me in a patient room, and when the doctor came in she checked out my foot, which was clearly swollen. I was lead to the x-ray machine, and half held my breath as they ran it. The results popped up on the screen instantaneously -
“Yes, that is definitely broken,” the doctor said with a smile on her face.
“But, it’s not a bad break. You can run on that.”
YES! Instantly rejoicing in my head began, as she set up to take one more x-ray from a slightly different angle. From the second angle, you couldn’t even see the break - it was that minor.
She lead me back to the exam room and showed my how to buddy tape it, and I felt the need to clarify the running thing with her, so she would understand just how much I wanted to run on it - stating that I would be doing a 22-mile run in the coming weeks - and she gave me the full go ahead, and just made sure that I had all the supplied I needed to tape it for the next few weeks. She said running on it was probably going to hurt, but I wasn’t going to do any more damage, and it would heal in about the same amount of time either way.
I was so relieved that I was still in the game for this marathon, and headed right to the pool after the appointment to get in a swim, which I had planned beforehand in case I wasn’t allowed to run, that way I would have something to take my mind off things…. And then right to a yoga class with Mike and Emily. It was a busy Monday night, and I had a big week ahead of me.
This week was a lot of “running by effort” and trying to just let go of my paces, because between my foot sometimes screaming at me and thick, humid, summer air I wasn’t keeping up with my usual paces. And you know what? That was okay, because I was still out there, and I was just so happy to be able to be running.
Tuesday morning I dragged myself out of bed earlier than usual, intending to make up for some of the miles that I missed over the weekend. I managed to get outside before Dad made it to my apartment on his bike, and we met along the road. Soon after we found Kasey as well, and the three of us fell into our regular groove. It was a particularly humid summer morning in NY, and boy was i feeling it. I employed every bit of positive thinking I could, and recited mantras to myself as I pushed to move forward. My pace slowed a little as the miles ticked on, but I managed to get through 8.4 miles that morning, which is a solid morning for me. But I was miserable at the end of that run, and made sure to immediately re-hydrate. I rounded out my day with an hour of strength training after work, despite really just wanting to go home and crash - I knew that in the coming weeks like was going to get crazy, and I needed to make the time while I could.
Since I was feeling defeated after Tuesday’s run, I promised myself I would take my run super easy on Wednesday, and just focus on getting the miles under foot. Dad and I chatted throughout the run/ride, and I made sure that my pace was conversational that way. We got to see a really pretty sunrise, one of the first of the season, and even though the miles were hard, and i melted a little, I felt great when I was through them. A quality run in terms of feel, even if it was slow as molasses. Seven miles closer to the race. I also may have totally made my fastpasses for my October disney trip during this run. And by may have I mean I totally did. But at least I moved onto a scarcely populated track instead of running in the road while doing so - and it was worth it because I got TWO coveted slinky dog dash fast passes!
Thursday morning the humidity calmed down marginally, and Dad and I got in another 8 morning miles. We looped through the neighborhood, and stopped at a track again. This time so that he could get some walking in, rather than time on the bike, and I even threw in a few pushes on the straights. Overall it was still a slower paced run, but with a few faster miles sprinkled in. After my successful morning run, I followed up with a successful night at the gym, focusing largely on core strength this time.
The sweet relief of Friday rolled in at last, and I got up to run to make up for some missed mileage the previous weekend, and Dad joined me once again. We kept it a little shorter this time, logging just over 5 miles that morning, as I had to do some last minute packing before work - Den and I were heading right from work to the airport, as we were traveling to San Francisco to visit his sister that weekend.
Despite traveling across the country, you better believe that I packed my running shoes! This would only be my second trip ever to California, and as Greg is always bragging about their superior running weather, I knew that I needed to experience it first hand.
The trip started off smoothly, with Den’s best friend, Alfred, giving us a ride to the airport. I was nervous leaving as late as we did, as everyone had panicked for me when I told them that I was flying out on the Friday night of labor day weekend, to the point where I was half expecting to miss my flight. But despite a little traffic, we got to JFK without a hitch, and even had time to have a sit down dinner at the airport. I even had a glass of wine with dinner, as we would be visiting Napa on our trip, and I figured that was an appropriate start to the weekend.
When it was about time to board the plane we headed over to our terminal, and were able to get our seats changed so that we would be able to sit next to each other on the flight, score! We usually fly southwest, but this time were on American Airlines, and hadn’t wanted to dole out the extra cash for adjacent seats when we were booking, and our gamble paid off. We even would up in a row with an empty third seat, so I was able to stretch out a little during the flight. I watched a movie, and then promptly passed out, and managed to be somewhat asleep for the rest of the flight. When we landed it was almost midnight California time, and Rachel and Greg picked us up from the airport and drove us to their apartment, where we were staying for the weekend. I promptly passed out, happy as a clam on the pull out couch.
Greg and I agreed on a Saturday morning run, and when my alarm went off at 6 am, it was lovely that it felt like 9 am to me. Now technically, I was supposed to be running 20-22 miles this weekend, but had booked this trip to CA before signing up for the wineglass marathon. Since we were only in town for the weekend, and the plan was to spend the day walking around the city, it would have been unwise of me to commit 4 hours to a run, especially when so much of the days plan was walking around and exploring. So, Greg and I decided to head out for 10 miles at a comfortable pace. They have a running path right by their apartment, and we headed out with the sunrise.
I warned Greg as we began that this was not going to be the speediest of runs, as Greg is a speedy person. Like, super tall with long legs, former high school cross country team member fast. So, I was a little worried I would spend the whole time trying to catch up to him. But we managed to settle into a pace around 9:30, and the weather was perfect for running, with no nagging humidity bearing down on my being. The first few miles were a little tough, but then I just settled in, and it turned into one of those blissful runs, where everything just kind of clicks. When we hit five miles we turned around, and the magic continued. The pace dropped, and it just worked. The pace kept dropping, and by the time we were in that last mile, we were just under an 8 min/mi. When we got back to the apartment, we had managed 10 miles, at an average pace of 8:53, and I was really pleased with that.
Dennis and Rachel were up and getting ready for the day, and once we were all fed and clean, we walked to the BART (local train system) station. We had the rotten luck of juuust missing a train, as it pulled out of the station while we waited to buy our tickets, but at least we got to check out some mountain top views while we waited for out ride. BART eventually trucked us from Walnut Creek To San Francisco, and began our day of adventure, that included ramen, walking the golden gate bridge, exploring the bay area, seeing the sea lions on pier 39, and making so many memories. We were all utterly exhausted by the time the day was through, and we had walked 14 miles! So that was a total of 24 miles on our feet for Greg and I, and I think we well deserved the In-and-out that we all scarfed down for dinner! It was my first time ever trying the fast food chain, as it does not exist in NY, and it was just about as good as the hype that everyone attaches to it.
Despite our super long day on Saturday, Greg and I dragged our feet out the door on Sunday morning, as I was so close to my goal of 40 miles for the week, so we just needed to get a few miles in. We headed in the opposite direction than we had the day before, and ran a total of 2.6 miles, the highlight of which was a bridge that we got to run over. We both felt the effect of the high mileage the day before, but were glad to sneak a few more miles in. The plans for our second day in Cali? Rachel and Greg were bringing us to Napa, where we went to Mumm and Miner to do some tastings and to take in some views of the valley. After plenty of tastings, we went to a pizza place for lunch, and while it was nothing like NY pizza, I am happy to report that it was still delicious, as carbs usually are. Our final stop in Napa, before heading back to walnut creek, was at Greg’s family vineyard, where his parents gave us a tour, and showed us how they check the sugar levels in the grapes. All in all it was an adventure filled weekend, and I was ready for many naps, which was exactly what I did once we were back in the car. We kept the rest of the night easy, having pasta for dinner and watching a little TV before calling it a night.
All in all, it was a successful week of running, and an amazing weekend trip to California.