The Road to the LA Marathon 2015

Well, it's the day after the 20 miler.  Thank goodness for Aleve, Epsom Salts and Hot Yoga.  I am not too bad.  The 20 miler is a mental thing. Anyone who tells you it's not, is lying and you have every right to tell them to their face that they are a liar.   I heard a song in my  hot yoga class this morning. It resonated with how I am feeling right now, in this moment.  Plus, it's an old school Counting Crows song.  Therefore, I may also feel like putting on a flannel and hitting a college class tomorrow :-).  Enjoy.

Color Blind

I was a little nervous for the 20 miler.  It's the last of the real long runs.  It's the run where you have been on your feet the longest.  20 milers take no prisoners.  It took me two days to shake our 18.5 miler.  I feel apart at 15.5 miles.  It was hot and we hadn't trained for that yet.  I was dehydrated, behind on my fueling and I walked more than I had yet on any run.  That combination mind fucked me for two days.  But, I finished.  My partner finished.  It took me 4 days to feel normal from being dehydrated.  You have to let the bad runs go and move on.  Our next 14 miler was great.  Our 20 miler went well.  I am very happy with it.  That does not mean it didn't hurt.  That does not mean I didn't want to quite at 11 miles.  I just told myself, "One foot in front of the other.  Keep pumping your arms."  It was nice that my training partner and I stayed together and talked the whole way. Someone to distract you and just talk for over 4 hours was needed.  We then celebrated with food at Steve's Cafe.  Then I went home and recovered, napped and eventually showered.

This is the first race that I have really trained for while working a full time job.  I started the job and training essentially the same week.  That was challenging of itself.  Finding time to train for the marathon, keep up some form of Triathlon training and keep sane-proved difficult at times.  Anyone who has trained for a race knows there are ebbs and flows of emotion-ranging from happy-tears-hungry-hangry-beyond exhausted.  There was one point I tried not to cry in Old Navy...yes actually had to tell myself not to fall apart in Old Navy because I was hangry.

But, all through the soreness and the above-mentioned emotional distress, I am glad I have a friend who asked me to do this.  I am not running for time, I am running to finish.  We have had cooler temps here and snow-where LA has had heat.  By 7 am there it is already 60 degrees if not close to it. I know we have the advantage of training in altitude and sea level will help, but it will be hot and we may melt.  But you can't change the weather, you can only change your attitude.  So, I will enjoy every minute and embrace the pain and smile.  I have enjoyed the journey and I will in enjoy the trip to LA and the trip to the finish line.  Thank you to everyone who has shared miles with us.  Thank you Kelli for our talks on our runs and pushing me to complete this with you.

Best part of winter training-Cookie Runs!  Here are just some of the pictures we took after our runs!

Just like the song says-I am ready, I am ready.  We are ready.  #LA2015