Chicago marathon week 7

On Sunday afternoon I got a message from Tara, asking if I would be down for a early bike on Monday morning. I normally start my week with a run, but the offer was tempting. I warned her that I would be slow, but she said she didn’t mind, and I agreed to meet her at the park at 6:20 a.m. the next day. 

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I packed up my bike stuff, and got everything into the car, and after a frantic moment when I couldn’t find my Tri shorts, had everything together and ready to go, so when my early alarm clock went off I just had to roll out of bed, get dressed, and be on my way. 

The alarm went off Monday morning, and I was greeted with a dreary day. I hopped in the car and under gray skies headed to cedar creek park, where a few members of the Tri team were waiting for me to get going. Of course, my bike had lost air in one of its tires, so I had to fill it up before we could get on our way. 

The ride itself was uneventful overall. I thought about how much I prefer running, was thankful that Tara had gotten me out on the bike, eventually was unable to keep up with the rest of the team, got rained on a little bit, and cursed at the bike, which was refusing to switch gears properly. When I turned around at 7.5 miles my teammates continued on, going all the way to tobay, and I rode back to the parking lot solo. 

That night I brought my bike to dad to check out- apparently my derailer wasn’t lined up correctly. I’ll add “learn more about bike maintenance” to my to do list I guess. Once that was taken care of I headed home and hopped in the pool, swimming 500 yds in an effort to flush out my sore legs. 

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Monday rolled into Tuesday, and when my alarm went off my body was not having it. I was still recovering from a cold, and every part of me screamed for more rest. So, after checking the weather and making sure the temperature would be tolerable after work, I rolled over and opted to sleep in a little. 

Tuesday night I stopped and picked up my race packet for the Jamesport Triathalon, which would be my first official Tri, and then headed home to get in the miles that I had promised myself. Dennis and I were planning to head to his parents for dinner, and we decided to take alternate transportation over there- he would be biking as I ran. We took the long way out of our neighborhood, and managed to make it a 5 mile trip. Despite the cold I was still dealing with, this run felt great. We chatted a little, and I just let my legs do the work. It felt difficult at times, but I reminded myself that running marathons isn’t easy, and that I needed to get comfortable being uncomfortable. We had one hill and one overpass that were less than stellar, but I managed some sub-9 miles and was pleased with myself. 

My excitement of Tuesday night was short lived though, when I rolled out of bed on Wednesday morning to head to the track. As I was running Tuesday night I had considered backing off the pace a few times, but I felt so good that I just let my body roll with it. Well, when I got to the track it quickly became clear that I could have used a little more rest between runs. 

I had a ladder workout planned, which would start at a 400m repeat, go up to a 1600m repeat, and then come back down. A total of 7 hard steps, and then a run home. While I hit my paces for the first two repeats, the rest just weren’t happening at the paces I wanted. Dad had met me at the track, and thankfully brought along some water in a cooler, which helped on that hot morning. By the time I was on the last repeats I was going slower than I should have been, but was giving it all the gas I had. The cooldown was arguably the hardest part, because by that point I just wanted to be walking. But I trotted along, getting in a total of 7 miles. 


I knew I was in need of some recovery, so on Wednesday night I met up with Den’s sister, Liz, and we headed to yoga together. We picked out a Yin-restorative class, and I was ready for some relaxation. It was as if the teacher was aware of my chronically tight hamstrings, as she propped us up into deep releases. Did I fall asleep during the class? Well..... yeah. But you try to stay awake when you’re feeling that relaxed!

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Thursday morning called for another run, but an easy one this time. I headed out before work, and met up with Dad as I weaved through the neighborhood. My brother Tom was planning to meet us, but we got a text from him moments after his planned start time that it wasn’t happening for him that morning. I was a little bummed, but it enabled me to get my full prescribed distance in within the pace range I wanted, so we just kept looping, slowly shifting away from my parents house and back towards the apartment. My watch buzzed as I hit 8 miles right in front of the complex, with the average pace coming in around 10:40. It was a solid morning run, and I was glad that I wouldn’t feel like I needed to make up miles later. 

The final weekday run was to be a tempo run, and I decided to plan to run after work. I had races planned for both Saturday and Sunday- which meant early mornings all weekend. So, I let myself sleep in more than usual Friday, and after work only procrastinated the run for a solid two hours before getting out the door (I mean, it was hot out! I had to wait for it to cool off a little, right?). 

When I got out the door I debated which path to take. I needed to warm up for about a mile, then the goal was for 6 miles at a pace between 8:30-8:45, followed by a cool down. The thought of picking directions gave me a feeling of major decision fatigue, so I did something unusual for me- I ran towards the track, even though I wasn’t doing speed work. I figured it was a good central point between the apartment and my parents house, so if I decided I needed water I could run either way, and it just felt like an easy choice. 

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By the time I got to the track I was up to a mile and a half, and my second miles pace was tracking in the high 8-minute-mile range, so I decided to start see if I could bring the pace down a little and count the second mile towards the tempo miles. My efforts paid off, and the second mile rang in at 8:37. A good start, I told myself. I listed to music as I ran laps around the track, one mile flowing into another. I kicked a soccer ball back to the group playing in the middle of the field a few times, ran into Mike’s brother, who was also running some laps, and found a really great groove, where I just felt good. I did wish that I had brought some water, but I managed without. At 9:00 on the dot the lights shut down at the track, just as I was midway through the lap that would finish my 6th tempo mile. I panicked for half a second, as the teenage boys that had been hanging out hooted and hollered into the darkness. I called dad on the phone to have some company and reassurance as I left the area, and got on the road to run back to my apartment. I took the long way, that was I would have a two mile cooldown. 

When I reached the apartment I immediately chugged a bottle of water, and then sat outside as I sipped a second. I had run 9 miles at an average pace of 8:57, with the tempo miles coming in at 8:37, 8:27, 8:30, 8:36, 8:39 and 8:41. I was super pleased with myself, and glad that I had eventually got my butt off the couch to get the work done.

The weekend was full of races- which will have their own reports up soon! To give you a little preview, on Saturday I completed the Retro Run 4-miler with the New York road runners, and on Sunday I did something I swore I wouldn’t do: I completed my first Triathlon, at the Jamesport sprint distance Tri. 



Up Next: The Chicago Marathon

Marathon number 6 is fast approaching: the 2019 Chicago marathon

Even though I am a native New Yorker who frequently participates in NYRR events, my plans to complete their 9+1 program in 2018, to earn a guaranteed spot in the 2019 race were thwarted when my cousin Jen announced her wedding date – November 2, 2019. AKA the day before the marathon. Which would totally be ok, if the wedding was local… but Jen lives in Atlanta and, dare I say it, I love her more than marathons, and there was no way I could be fully present at her wedding the night before the race and then somehow catch a flight back to NYC and get my butt to the athletes village on Staten Island before 7:30 a.m. So, I bowed out of the NYC marathon for 2019, since there will always be another race, and started my search for an alternate fall marathon.

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The real bummer of this? I had already made a pact with Mike to run NYC 2019 with him as his first marathon, but thankfully he has forgiven my transgression, and we will make up for the missed shared finish line when we complete the 2020 Dopey challenge together – but I suppose that will be a story for another day.

So, I started clicking about the internet, looking for a new fall goal. Maybe I would aim to complete a half iron man in the fall? I played with this idea, but ultimately felt like I still have so much left to give to the marathon, and found two race options. The local Suffolk county full marathon at the end of October, or the Chicago full, which is in mid October. I entered the lottery for Chicago, crossing my fingers that I would get my chance to visit the windy city, and was pleasantly surprised when my name got pulled the day of the lotto: I would be taking on my second world marathon major!

I then began to consider the logistics: Who would go with me? Where would I stay? When would I head there?

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Well the who was easy – Dennis agreed to head to Chicago with me, as neither of us have been there before. I managed to earn a companion pass with southwest, so it made our flights a bit simpler as well. Thank God for points! The hotel I flip-flopped about a lot, looking at different websites, and eventually booking one through the Chicago marathon housing. I toyed with heading to Chicago a few days early so we would get a chance to take in all of the sights, but ultimately our work schedules lead to us deciding to pick a flight the morning before the race. So with travel plans all set, my next consideration was the really important one: the training plan.

In the past with marathons, I have followed different schedules – sometimes using the runners world plans, or the hal higdon ones available online. After a lot of reading, I ultimately decided to try something new this time around: Hanson’s marathon method. A big part of the Hanson method is the idea of cumulative fatigue, so there are higher mileage weekday runs, but the long weekend runs max out at 16 miles. If we are being honest, I see myself going beyond 16 miles for my own sanity, as that just doesn’t feel long enough mentally, but maybe by the time I work up to them in this training cycle I will have more trust in the method, which has brought success to so many runners.

So for now, my plan is simple. For the next month or so I am aiming to maintaining 25-35 miles of running a week, with regular biking and swimming mixed in. Once training officially begins in May, it is going to mean a lot of early mornings for me, but I like to think that I will be up to the challenge – after all, growth only happens outside of your comfort zone.

Disney Marathon Weekend: The Half Marathon

This post is part two of my recap of the 2019 Walt Disney World Marathon weekend, for which I headed to Florida with my friends Mike, Jennie, and Jude. To read part one of the recap, which is about our first day in the parks and the race expo, click here.

Like every RunDisney event, the 2019 Half Marathon started with an early morning. A 5:30 a.m. race start meant a 3 a.m. alarm, and as much as I love RunDisney, I certainly do not love the early mornings that they require. But they are a necessary evil, made worth it by the fun that is to be had. We planned to be on the bus by 3:30, when the race guide suggested runners be on their way by.

We had set our outfits and race bags up the night before, so it was thought free preparations in morning, that way we wouldn’t forget any race day essentials. We did the best we could to get ready quietly (and if you know me, you KNOW this is not a skill I possess), and were out the door about 15 minutes before the 3:30 cutoff. It was a little chilly the morning of the race, but nothing compared to the freezing temperatures that runners dealt with during the 2017 marathon weekend. Mike brought along an old sweatshirt as a throwaway later, and I had a heat sheet stored in the bag I was planning to check, for when I had to remove my jacket.

It was a quick walk to the bus stop, and lucky for us we were able to get right onto the bus without a wait. I dozed in my seat as the bus took us to the Epcot parking lot, where we would start our 13.1 mile journey.

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As is standard at any RunDisney event, there was a sea of runners dressed up as various Disney characters as we stepped off the bus, and we joined the masses as they made their way towards the start area. Walking through the parking lot we got a quick peek at spaceship earth, illuminated in the pre-dawn hours, and a reminder of the sight we would see just before the finish line. Both Mike and I had bags that we were planning to check, so we had to wait to have them scanned by security before we could enter the area, but the very populated line moved along quickly. When we got into the race staging area, we headed towards the DJ setup, and found a spot behind the bleachers to plop ourselves while we ate our breakfast. We had picked up the runner boxes that all star movies was selling, so we had bagels to eat from there, and I had brought along a Kind Breakfast Bar as well. Once we were finished eating, I organized the stuff in my bag into two piles - the stuff that I would need during the race, and the stuff that I was going to check during the race. I threw my jacket into the check bag, and although it wasn’t too cold, opted to bring the heat sheet I had packed into the corral with me.

We headed towards the bag check, and the green army man was stationed in front of the bag check trucks to encourage the runners to start moving towards their corrals. In previous years, bag check was in large white tents, but this time they had Fed-Ex trucks in place to collect our belongings. Mike and I had to split up, since our last names were assigned to different trucks, but were quickly reunited on the other side. We decided to make a porter potty stop before we headed to the corrals, and it was very dark in those toilets! Since it was still dark out, there was no sun to illuminate into the porter potties, and the parking lot light poles weren’t quite illuminating things enough.

Next step was to make our way into the corrals, and it was about a mile walk to get there. They had a DJ along the way, and photo pass photographers to take photos for anyone that wanted to stop and pose. We still had some time before the race when we got to the corral, so we found a spot that wasn’t too close to the speakers, and started stretching while we waited. Mike found a highschool friend in the same corral to us, and had a quick reunion as we waited. We made sure to each take a Gu before we got going, and I took a precautionary inhaler puff. Soon enough the announcers had Donald on the stage, and the countdown was on to the start time. Since we were in corral D, we got to watch a few sets of fireworks go off as the corrals ahead of us got moving.

At last, it was our turn to start, and with a Disney amount of excitement and fanfare, we crossed the start line as fireworks went off. Jennie and Jude were our official cheer squad for the day, and shortly after we had left for the start area, they got up and made their way to the start line, which would be the first of their four planned cheer spots. We texted them as we started, and Mike had the bright idea to shine his cell phone flash towards the spectators, who were across the street from the runners, so they would be able to spot us, and when we saw two people jumping up and down with excitement, we knew they had spotted us. As we ran towards magic kingdom, they hopped on a monorail to head towards the ticket and transportation center.

For me, the highlight of the first leg of the run, which consists of the highway between the start and magic kingdom, is getting to run under the Magic Kingdom entrance sign. There is just something magical about getting up close and personal to a sign that normally you only get to drive under, especially in the dark, it just looks magical!

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There were a few characters on the highway as we made our way towards Magic Kingdom, including Lightening McQueen and Mater, some leading villains - the Evil Queen, Maleficent, and the Queen of hearts, and Wreck it Ralph with Vanellope. They also had a DJ, and a few High School bands playing to keep us entertained along the way. Soon enough we had reached the ticket and transportation center, where Jennie and Jude were waiting to cheer us on. We managed to spot them quick enough, and ran in for quick hugs before we were on our way. They were planning to walk over to the Polynesian, while we made our way into the Magic Kingdom. The next time we saw them we would be more than half way through our journey!

The bus stops were all lit up as we ran through the station, and they had big blow up lights set up to lead us into the Magic Kingdom through the main entrance. We had managed to make it to the park before the sun came up, so when we got to main street we could see the castle beautifully lit up in the distance, still covered in its holiday lights. Mike played to the cheering spectators that lined the road, interacting with their signs and even hitting a power up boost that one held and zooming off.

We then entered tomorrow land, where they had Mike with Sully and a Buzz Lightyear character stop. We decided not to get photos, and kept moving instead. The white rabbit was out neat the tea cups, and the evil step sisters held their usual spot just before the castle. We ran through the castle, and then stopped to get our photo taken in front - and to our dismay, that castle photo never did make its way into our race photos.

From there the course took us though liberty square and into frontier land, where we made a pit stop to get a photo with Woody and Bullseye, since they are Jude’s favorite characters, and we wanted to get a photo taken to show him. Then as quickly as it had begun, our time in Magic Kingdom came to an end, as we left the park through a back stage exit, and got to run by some festival of fantasy parade floats on our way out.

The park exit lead us to cone alley, a stretch of highway known for squeezing runners into a more narrow than preferred run way. At one point Mike and I both got a chill as the air froze momentarily, a event that is still a mystery to both of us. We sang along to the disney and pop songs that they had playing, as the sun finally began to climb into the sky.

As we got to the resorts that are nearby, they had Chip and Dale out with Clarice, and a group of Grooms near the grand Floridian. Just after mile 7 we approached the Polynesian, and spotted our cheer squad once more. We couldn’t believe how fast the miles were slipping by. For our second strech of highway, we passed by Mr. Incredible, and then after passing mile marker 9, which featured a photo of Anna and Elsa and played let it go, Mike serenaded me with his own rendition of Let it Go.

Mile 10 had a highway ramp that the green army man was positioned on, and as we ran by he shouted to Mike - “Keep going Lilo, you have me in stitches!” and Mike was very happy that he had recognized his costume. In what felt like the blink of an eye, we were entering Epcot, and stopped for a photo with Doug, Carl, and Russell from “Up” as we headed in. There was a DJ playing as we entered the park near the imagination pavilion, running by Journey into the Imagination, then onto Space Ship earth. Just a few more turns, and less than a half mile, and our race would be finished.

They had a gospel choir out singing as we approached mile 13, which of course featured Donald Duck, and then we turned the corner and could see our destination: The finish line! We crossed it with joy, and collected our metals - Mike was officially a half marathoner. We walked through the finish line chute, collecting cooling towels, power-aide, and of course, the coveted runDisney snack box.

After getting our finishers photos and collecting our bags, we found Jude and Jennie in the parking lot - they had made it there in time to watch us cross the finish line, even though Mike and I had not successfully spotted them as we ran through.

After hanging out in the Epcot parking lot for a few minutes, we headed into the park to get on a few rides, since Epcot was just opening for the day, and the lines would be relatively short. We managed to get on the Frozen ride, and soarin, then grabbed breakfast before hitting a few more rides. We had fastpasses in Hollywood Studios in the afternoon, so eventually we boarded the bus that would take us back to the resort for showers and naps, and after resting up for a bit, made our way into Hollywood Studios for another day of fun, and to celebrate completing the race.

After we had finished off all of our fastpasses I decided to head back to the room before everyone else, as I was pooped from a busy day, and had a big day ahead of me - my 5th marathon, and day 2 of the Goofy Challenge!