My next marathon is in 16 days. After Sunday’s 20 miler I am tapering. I love tapering. But I hate tapering too. Sometimes I feel like I’m being lazy when I’m tapering. And my bragging rights begin to go away. Who doesn’t love to say “oh I’m just running 16 miles this weekend”? The Vancouver marathon will be my 7th marathon. I have to say, I have never been more laxed about marathon training. Not that I’m ever super aggressive, but I do usually follow a schedule with about 80% accuracy. This time I am all over the place, especially during the week. I have been completely off track. But I am still tapering.
My first marathon was in 1999, in Washington D.C. I had classified myself as a runner only a few years prior to this race. I started running to trim down from the college freshman 15. My first career was in wine sales, calling on restaurants in D.C.. I needed something to balance out all of my drinking and late night eating. And I needed a goal. A marathon sounded right up my alley. I was 23, so I could still get up in the morning and run 18 miles on 3 hours of sleep after a night consuming a few bottles of wine, a couple martinis and a steak dinner in 98 degrees with 90% humidity. Things have definitely changed.
My second and third marathons were in Chicago, when I was living there. Chicago puts on a great marathon, and has some of the best fans. I took a year off between those two races to get into kick-boxing and Yoga. I find all my time is consumed running when I’m training for a marathon and I don’t give myself time to do some of the other fun aerobic, healthy activities. Actually I am in much better shape when I’m not training for a marathon. I seem to gain weight when I’m training because I give myself all sorts of excuses for eating. Like eating an entire pizza after running 13 miles is not okay. And drinking mass quantities of Gatorade (sugar) probably doesn’t help either. Pizza isn’t the worst thing I eat while training. I have to say my favorite indulgence after a long run is eating an enormous breakfast that consists of pancakes with bananas and butter and syrup alongside 2 scrambled eggs and a few pieces of bacon. Bacon is GREAT after a long run. Then I like to lay around on the couch watching old re-runs or some reality show marathon for the rest of the day.
My fourth marathon was San Diego. Not much to say about this one. I was living in Phoenix while I was training. Phoenix happens to be one of my least favorite places in the world, but I won’t get into that. All I know is that I was grateful to have a big huge unheated pool in my backyard that I could use as my “ice bath” after my long training runs. San Diego was just weird. I didn’t enjoy running on the freeway, and I wasn’t too impressed by the fan fare.
So I went on a marathon hiatus for a couple of years. I moved out of Arizona, back home (literally into my mom’s house at the ripe age of 30!) to the Bay Area. I ran a few ½ marathons here and there just to prove to myself that I still had it in me. In 2007 I decided it was time to try to get into Boston. So I ran one of the “fastest marathons in the country”, CIM – Sacramento. I don’t want to bash the CIM too much, but it is NOT the fastest marathon in the country is far as I’m concerned. It is HILLY! And quiet. But some of my biggest fans were there to support me, so I can’t complain. Oh, and I qualified for Boston by 2 seconds after nearly giving up at mile 23.
Boston was number 6, 5 months after number 5. Really this race deserves its own blog entry, but since I’m new to this whole blogging thing I’m not sure if you can make entries that happened in the past (I know what you are thinking – I just gave my 10 year running history. BUT I’m tying it all into my run today….) Boston was an AMAZING experience, and I’d say it was worth the ten years of training I had to do to get there. And next year my qualifying time is extended by 5 mins, so I know I’ll do it again!
This morning I ran 7.5 miles, according to mapmyrun.com. It was a gorgeous sunny day, but a tad chilly for my taste. I hate running in pants, even short pants. That’s one of the main reasons I moved from Chicago. I couldn’t run outside for the majority of the year, unless I wanted to wear pants or ear muffs. Gloves I don’t mind, although if it does start to warm up, I really hate when my hands start to sweat. It was a good run, I felt strong and had positive thoughts. And I was good and ate steel cut oatmeal for breakfast when I got home. So I am officially tapering, even if I do have a 12 mile run this Sunday.
My first marathon was in 1999, in Washington D.C. I had classified myself as a runner only a few years prior to this race. I started running to trim down from the college freshman 15. My first career was in wine sales, calling on restaurants in D.C.. I needed something to balance out all of my drinking and late night eating. And I needed a goal. A marathon sounded right up my alley. I was 23, so I could still get up in the morning and run 18 miles on 3 hours of sleep after a night consuming a few bottles of wine, a couple martinis and a steak dinner in 98 degrees with 90% humidity. Things have definitely changed.
My second and third marathons were in Chicago, when I was living there. Chicago puts on a great marathon, and has some of the best fans. I took a year off between those two races to get into kick-boxing and Yoga. I find all my time is consumed running when I’m training for a marathon and I don’t give myself time to do some of the other fun aerobic, healthy activities. Actually I am in much better shape when I’m not training for a marathon. I seem to gain weight when I’m training because I give myself all sorts of excuses for eating. Like eating an entire pizza after running 13 miles is not okay. And drinking mass quantities of Gatorade (sugar) probably doesn’t help either. Pizza isn’t the worst thing I eat while training. I have to say my favorite indulgence after a long run is eating an enormous breakfast that consists of pancakes with bananas and butter and syrup alongside 2 scrambled eggs and a few pieces of bacon. Bacon is GREAT after a long run. Then I like to lay around on the couch watching old re-runs or some reality show marathon for the rest of the day.
My fourth marathon was San Diego. Not much to say about this one. I was living in Phoenix while I was training. Phoenix happens to be one of my least favorite places in the world, but I won’t get into that. All I know is that I was grateful to have a big huge unheated pool in my backyard that I could use as my “ice bath” after my long training runs. San Diego was just weird. I didn’t enjoy running on the freeway, and I wasn’t too impressed by the fan fare.
So I went on a marathon hiatus for a couple of years. I moved out of Arizona, back home (literally into my mom’s house at the ripe age of 30!) to the Bay Area. I ran a few ½ marathons here and there just to prove to myself that I still had it in me. In 2007 I decided it was time to try to get into Boston. So I ran one of the “fastest marathons in the country”, CIM – Sacramento. I don’t want to bash the CIM too much, but it is NOT the fastest marathon in the country is far as I’m concerned. It is HILLY! And quiet. But some of my biggest fans were there to support me, so I can’t complain. Oh, and I qualified for Boston by 2 seconds after nearly giving up at mile 23.
Boston was number 6, 5 months after number 5. Really this race deserves its own blog entry, but since I’m new to this whole blogging thing I’m not sure if you can make entries that happened in the past (I know what you are thinking – I just gave my 10 year running history. BUT I’m tying it all into my run today….) Boston was an AMAZING experience, and I’d say it was worth the ten years of training I had to do to get there. And next year my qualifying time is extended by 5 mins, so I know I’ll do it again!
This morning I ran 7.5 miles, according to mapmyrun.com. It was a gorgeous sunny day, but a tad chilly for my taste. I hate running in pants, even short pants. That’s one of the main reasons I moved from Chicago. I couldn’t run outside for the majority of the year, unless I wanted to wear pants or ear muffs. Gloves I don’t mind, although if it does start to warm up, I really hate when my hands start to sweat. It was a good run, I felt strong and had positive thoughts. And I was good and ate steel cut oatmeal for breakfast when I got home. So I am officially tapering, even if I do have a 12 mile run this Sunday.
Cool. Good luck and enjoy your marathon in Vancouver! It's a beautiful city.
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