Post Chicago Marathon

What a fantastic weekend! I really love Chicago. I haven't been to many big cities but it's just the most beautiful city I've ever seen. I was in New York City when I was 13 but my memory is fading of that trip. So, how am I feeling 2 days post marathon you ask? This was my third marathon and I'm not as sore as my first but I think a little more sore than my second. It all just depends on how much you push your own physical capabilities on the day of I think. I realized by mile 17 that my gooal of 4:30 (still trying to get back to where I was pre-second child) was a little too ambitious. I found myself questioning that capability from mile 1 through mile 17 though I was right on pace for those 17 miles and by right on I mean exactly to the minute. I also wasn't taking any walking breaks which I had been doing for all my long training runs. Every 5 miles I would do a gel and water and walk for at least a minute of 2 but not during the marathon. I think I was scared of being trampled by the mob of runners! :O) Chicago was definitely my favorite marathon so far. So much to see! People lining the entire route and you are in a crowd of runners the entire race. The 2 other races I did were Appleton and Green Bay and the crowd is very spread out very early and it can get pretty lonely. Not this race!

Anyway, by mile 17 I started beating myself up mentally. I was angry that I wasn't going to get my goal time of 4:30 (although the more I think about it now I didn't earn that time anyway since I didn't train to hit that time) and I was also angry that I strongly needed to walk for a little bit and stretch and didn't like that my legs were fatiguing already. I pretty much counted down every mile from here on out just walking for a minute at each mile marker. This makes for a long finish when you just keep looking to the horizon for the next mile marker. You can do this at Chicago to because it's a remarkably flat course! That was another reason I expected to hit my goal time I had been running hilly long runs through all my training and expected to be able to clip along a bit faster without the hills. Ah well, all in all it was a fantastic experience and it was the fall marathon I needed to do for my Ironman training.

Speaking of Ironman... There was a point toward the end of my marathon that I began to tear up and felt if my legs are this dead after only running today how the hell will I accomplish an Ironman finish. I had to remind myself that it's still a year away and I have a lot more training ahead of me. People have trained with far less base training than what I have done and I know in my heart that I will finish IM if I need to crawl across the finish line with 1 minute to go! Although I'm hoping for a much more honorable finsh than that. :O) I plan on doing a walk/run training method for my Ironman marathon. I'm not a strong enough marathon runner in my book to be able to run the entire thing so I had better train with the walking breaks so I don't set myself up for disappointment!

Okay, now what... on to a 90 day strength training with P90X starting next week and I'll be continuing my boot camps which I always participate in. I'm also contemplating an indoor 1/2 marathon in January.