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!  

On the Trail - Mayor's Marathon Part 5

I love running on trail. I also love racing because in the back of the pack you meet so many nice people. The ones in the back of the pack are slow. We are not in any hurry! And so it is common for people to talk to you as you go by. Some of them go further than the quick greeting like "beautiful day eh?" or "Keep it up!"

I was running at a good clip and did not want to stop to chat. As I passed a man he saw my team singlet and asked, "Where are you from?" I, as chipperly as I could, replied "Santa Maria. In California."

He kept talking. I didn't want to seem rude and not reply. But I did not want to stop to chat. The girl in blue was God-knows how far ahead. I already had to knock down to the half course from the full; I did not want to suffer another disappointment in not coming in before the girl in blue. So I saw only one option.

I ran backwards.   

This way, I could keep running in the right direction and chat a little with the guy thus preserving the camaraderie and friendliness known to us "back of the pack-ers".

It's really stupid to run backwards. Especially on a trail with uneven surface as well as rocks and such. But I was also hoping that my running backwards would also cue the guy into the fact I wanted to keep moving. It helped. He asked a couple more questions which I answered cheerfully. Then I was able to gracefully turn around and kept moving forward. 

Something scared me though. I still hadn't caught sight of the girl in blue. "Damn!" I thought, "She's probably a 'dirty girl'". (A dirty girl (or boy) is someone who likes to run on dirt.) This was bad news for me. Some runners don't like trails and actually slow down on dirt. The fact that I love trail running was a small advantage I had in this race. But if the girl in blue is also a trail runner, it didn't matter. Crap!

It was afraid to push my pace because I knew the critical factor would come down to who had enough juice in their tank at the end. Especially because I knew the toughest hill on the courses was in the last mile. I needed to be sure to get to the top of that hill first if I was going to have a chance at beating her. And I would need juice to tackle that hill. Ugh! I wasn't sure what I should do. 

So I just made sure I pumped my arms and checked my form to try to be as efficient as I could. Then I made sure my pace stayed just where I could keep it up without running out of breath. The only other thing left to do was to keep scanning ahead praying I'd see a flash of blue!

Five and a Half Months of Training Down the Drain

I won’t be running the Mayor’s Marathon in Alaska next week. That’s the bad news. After five and a half months of training, I have three over-use injuries. 

Count ‘em; three: 

Plantar Facitis 

Patellar Tendonitis

Achilles Tendonitis

On top of that, my ankle I sprained at the beginning of the season is hurting again.  Not cool. 

I’ve spent the last several weeks trying to cut back and recover. But so far, each time I try running again, my body complains loudly. And it’s obvious if I run the marathon I risk not finishing or if I do finish, I think my injuries will be much worse. I do not want to spend the next six months off running to recover from multiple injuries. So after lots of consideration and consternation, I decided it was not wise to run the full marathon. That sucks!

However, our team manager told me I can still switch to the half marathon. Thank God! That means I can still earn a medal without tearing up my body... as much. Theoretically speaking I should be able to finish a half and the recovery period should be much shorter even going in with injuries. That is if I take it easy and not push it during the race. 

That’s hard. You get wrapped up in the excitement and energy of the race. I always find myself trying for a PR (personal record) in a race no matter what I tell myself at the beginning. 

But Alaska will be different. Really it will. My plan is to take in as much of the crowd and sights as I can. The race sight said there is a lot of wildlife to be seen on the route. Like bald eagles and moose. I think the bald eagles will leave me alone and I can probably out-run a moose. (I’ve never seen a moose run). But if I see a grizzly I’m going to have to play dead. I couldn’t out-run one of those! 

So I plan to stop and take a lot of pictures and just make it fun. 

I have never had to step down from a marathon and it sucks to have worked for so long only not to be able to run the race. But I have to think long term. I have to keep the bigger picture in mind. I always say, “The point is not to kill yourself. The point is to live to run another day.” 

Besides, the goal of my running is to raise funds for cancer research. The length of my race doesn’t change that. After race weekend I’ll fill you in on how  much we raised! Thank you all. Please send me good thoughts for a good race for all the runners this Saturday! 

PS. If you’d like to help me fund cancer research you can still make a donation by clicking the “Donate Now” button. Every little bit makes a big difference!