Where is THAT Girl!! Mayor's Marathon Part 6

I did not see the girl in blue for a long time! I thought I had lost her. I figured to catch her, she would have to take a long break at one of the rest stops or I'd have to hope she went out too fast in the beginning and would gradually run out of steam at the end. As it turned out, she did the latter.

We were at about mile eight and a half when I finally spotted her! She was way ahead of me still. We were on a bike path along the ocean side and going through a beautiful park land. I realized rather quickly, she was slowing down! Woo hoo! Here was my chance!!


I still had to be careful. We were still five miles out. That would be plenty of time for to catch me again if I sped up at this point to pass her and then ran out of steam myself at mile 11. She could totally rally and pass me on the finishing stretch if that happened. 


So instead of passing her now. I vowed to keep her in sight and follow behind. Then I would over take her in the last half mile and come in ahead of her. 


That was the plan. 


But as I followed behind, she kept slowing. I realized I was going to have to pass her. Which is ok as long as she doesn't rally. So the pressure was back on to stay in front of her. 


As I passed, I gave a little greeting about how nice the weather was. She turned to look at me and I was stunned!! This was the first time I really saw her face and she was just so pretty!!! Her eyes were so big and blue and her perky ponytail was just bouncing behind her. She smiled back at me and I melted at the sweetness like sugar in the rain! Such a totally barbie cutie! 


I must come in before now! My ego demanded it! (Ego is such a b/tch!)


So I pumped my arms and kept pressing forward hoping my steam would hold out!  

A Rock and A Hard Place

I am in between a rock and a hard place. 

After starting this marathon season with injuries, I managed to over-train in the last quarter  of the training cycle. That resulted in me missing the 18 mile training run as well as the 20 mile training run. Not good. So basically the farthest I have ran in training is 16 miles. And not very well. The 16 miler really kicked my butt and that’s when my coaches told me to take a break.  They said I needed time to let my body re-coop and I had trained enough that missing the 20 would not jeopardize my chance of finishing the marathon. 

I totally agree. However, after taking a week off and doing a ten mile run rather than the full 20, I still had trouble keeping on top of the training schedule. Not only did I still feel sore when running. But the week after I took a week off, my narcolepsy decided to flare up. I mean like a huge super-nasty solar-sized flare that knocks out whole power grids on earth. Which makes sense as it totally knocked out my power. 

Yep. I have narcolepsy. I was diagnosed back in September. But I haven’t blogged about it until now for several reasons. First, marathon training takes up a lot of time.   Second, and primarily, I haven’t wrapped my head around it. Very little research has been done in sleep disorders. Especially when compared to the research on well-known/publicized disorders. Not even my sleep doctor or neurologist could tell me that much about it. 

No one’s 100% sure of the cause. However, the theory currently in the lead is that it’s an auto-immune deficiency that causes the body to kill off brain cells near the hypothalamus that regulate sleep. 

Incidentally, studies have shown that a high percentage of narcoleptics are over weight and don’t respond well to dieting. The theory on this is that the area that is damaged contain cells that regulates weight. So “HA HA!” It’s not my fault I’m fat!. Ok, the jury is still out on the fat theory. But still, it’s fun to say that.  

So since the diagnosis, a lot of things are making sense now. In fact, it’s apparent I’ve had narcolepsy since I was a kid. But there is still a TON of things I’m still trying to figure out. The main thing is how to best manage it.

But all that for another time. It’s Sunday evening, I have a ton to do and I’m really really tired. 

Oh. I do have to mention one thing before I end here; In my research into best practices for managing narcolepsy symptoms a specific diet was suggested. That diet?.......VEGETARIAN!

HA! So all you well-meaning(?) friends, family and strangers who have been worried about my vegetarianism can ......... oh, sorry. Fell asleep there. 

Good night!