A Runner’s Balancing Act

Its been exactly 10 days since the marathon and I’ve only run twice. Last Wednesday I did a very slow 4 miles. There was some soreness in my hamstring that night, which I chalked up to residual soreness. Saturday, my running buddy and I decided to hit the greenbelt in Scottsdale since she hadn’t run there before. I was eager to show it to her. It’s one of my favorite running spots but I haven’t been there all summer since I’ve been doing long runs with TNT out in Mesa.

I was truly excited for that run Saturday morning. I popped out of bed easily. We met at 7 am and didn’t start running until we got to the path at around 7:30 am. That’s sleeping in after a summer of 5 am runs! As we started to run, I discovered my legs weren’t quite as enthusiastic as my mind. My legs were heavy and my right hamstring was speaking to me with every step. It felt like such a shame to have a crappy run on such a beautiful fall morning on one of my favorite paths. I was glad to have my running buddy there because I probably wouldn’t have made it without her. We ended up doing just over 9 miles at an average 9:25 pace.

I haven’t run since then. I figure if the hamstring needs time to heal, now is the time to let it happen. I didn’t have any pain in the marathon, but those 26.2 miles must have aggravated the muscle strain. If I keep running through the pain and it gets worse I’ll just have to take time off when PF Chang’s is even closer and it could really de-rail my training. PF Chang’s is just over 11 weeks away now (January 18). I don’t have a lot of time, but I do have some.

So it’s been four days since my last run. And guess what’s happening? I’m losing my mind!!

It happens every time I take some time off and I never expect it. I honestly think, this will be great! I’ll take some time off from running and I will have so more free time. I’ll be able make nice dinners for the hubby and keep the dishes from piling up in the sink and the laundry from taking over my bedroom. Then I’ll make that wedding photo album I’ve been meaning to work on, for like, oh 3 YEARS. I will become super wife, and oh won’t that be so GREAT?!

Funny thing is, no matter how much I believe that keeping up with the domestic duties will make my life better, it always seems to have the opposite affect. I can keep up with it for a while, but after a few days, I kind of feel like I’m not in charge of my own life. I lie in bed at night feeling like I didn’t do a single thing that I wanted to do all day. I think about what the next day holds and I see an exact repeat of the day before. My butt in chair for 9+ hours, my dry eyes staring at a computer screen.

I start to feel bitter towards everyone I know who has free time between the hours of 7:30 am and 6:30 pm. Especially now that those are those are the only hours it’s light outside and it’s cool again. Man, I would just LOVE to have a schedule where I didn’t have to be at work until 10 or 11 am. It doesn’t help that my office faces the canal where runners prance by all day long, taunting me with their freedom.

Sure I have these thoughts when I’m running 4x a week, but they don’t usually bring me down. I guess that’s why I run. Endorphins are my anti-depressant of choice. Not only that, but running gives me something to control when there are so many things that are beyond my control. Running makes my mundane life less mundane.

I’m trying a short run tonight to test out my hamstring. Cross your fingers that it goes ok. I really need to get back to running. I need to get out of this feeling sorry for myself funk. I’m sorry this post sounds so whiny. Hopefully by tomorrow I will be feeling more like my positive self.

Runner’s World listed The Nike Women’s Marathon as one of the 10 marathons “you should do in 2008“. I think I agree, but with some reservations. Here’s my unbiased review of the race:

The good:
• Fun freebies at the Expo. There were free manicures and chair massages. I waited for about 45 minutes for the manicure and just couldn’t bring myself to stand in another line for the massage. The manicures were mediocre. They didn’t have clippers and my nails had gotten long, so it took the lady forever to sand them down with a disposable nail file! They also had a fun button making station, a “post office” offering free postcards and stamps so you could send notes to friends and family, and a Nike branded photo booth (the old school kind that you used to go to at the mall when you were a pre-teen). Also loved the free samples of Jamba Juice smoothies. These were nearly full size smoothies! (probably 8-10 oz).

• The branded Nike race souvenirs and graphics were pretty cool. As a graphic designer this is something I notice. The downside to this is its hard to control yourself at Niketown!  If you are on a strict budget, this is NOT the race for you unless you have incredible self control! I didn’t have this problem at PF Chang’s. Their graphics were pretty generic and less enticing. The Nike stuff was expensive too. I forked out $50 for a sweatshirt and another $30 for a long sleeve t-shirt.

•  The race course was very scenic. Loved the views of the Golden Gate bridge, the ocean and fishermen’s wharf. I think my favorite was the the pacific ocean at the end. Lake Merced, well that wasn’t exactly pretty but it wasn’t ugly either.

• Coat check at mile 2.5. This was new to me. You could actually take off your jacket and have it transported to the finish line. Of course you had to stop and sign a piece of paper, but the option was there. Its a nice feature if you aren’t running for time.

• They served Gatorade endurance formula. This was a plus to me, but sports drinks are a personal choice. I usually train with Gatorade since its inexpensive and readily available. The PF Chang’s races I’ve done in the past have served Excelerade, which I don’t particularly enjoy and its expensive to buy to train with.

• Downhill from miles 13 to 17. Those are some good miles to have a downhill!

• Weather was FANTASTIC. Low 50′s and overcast the entire time. After a summer of hot, hot runs it was so nice to feel some cool air.

• Tiffany’s necklace and hot guys in Tuxedos at the end. Everyone knows about this, and I have to say it really makes for a memorable finish.

• The finisher shirt they give you is a nice girl cut with a cute design. They said it was going to be a “dry fit” which I automatically assumed would be some kind of wicking fabric I could train in. It’s really a 50/50 cotton poly blend and a casual cut not really meant for running. Still cute to wear when I’m not running, so I’m not complaining too loudly.

• Good sized Jamba Juice protein smoothies at the end. Its about the only food I could handle at that point. I took two!

• #1 reason to do this race: San Francisco is a really fun place to visit, and you can see a lot in a short amount of time (a long weekend), without having to rent a car. Ladies, I suggest saving up some spending cash and doing this trip with your girlfriends. The shopping in Union Square is awesome.

The not so good:
• The expo didn’t have any shopping and the free samples were limited to Jamba Juice, Luna Moons and Bare Naked Granola. I’m used to Elite Racing races where you can find tons of specialized running gear and free samples. I especially love seeing all the new products that innovative runners have come up with. I love all the 26.2 stickers and do-dads. Okay, so I rarely buy this stuff but I like to look! There was absolutely no shopping at the NWM expo. Even the official gear was sold across the street at Niketown. I guess I should have expected that. Its not like they were going to let Adidas and New Balance come set up a booth!

• Corrals at the start line were not well marked or enforced. I was in the broad 9-10 min mile group, since they had half marathoners and full marathoners lined up together, they couldn’t do it by projected finish times. I had a hard time figuring out where I was supposed to go before the gun went off. There was a TON of jockeying around in the first few miles and it really slowed us down.

• I never saw any pacers, although supposedly they were there. In previous races I’ve been in I’ve never had a hard time finding them. At PF Chang’s, the pacers carried sign on a big stick that could be seen for at least a quarter mile back, sometimes farther.

• Not a lot of music or bands. The Rock n Roll marathons definitely know how to do this right.

• Hills at miles 6 and 8-10 were tough.

• Friends and family couldn’t track your splits or results online. The results weren’t posted until the following day!

The Average.
• Crowd support was good in some spots, spotty in others. They had a spectator bus that was supposed to drop friends an family off at different points. Unfortunately those buses left late and my friends family missed us at the 3 mile point because they didn’t get there until after we’d gone by.

• Post race food was average. The best was the Jamba Juice smoothie. If you didn’t want that, you were stuck with a banana, a package of granola and a luna bar.

• Race food was Luna moons. I’m not big on having to chew my food while running so I opted to skip it and go with gels. The chocolate was kind of fun, but it tasted terrible after 23 miles.

In conclusion, I would definitely recommend putting this race on your to-do list. Look at it more of a social event than a typical race event. Go with your girlfriends and see the city, try the legendary Sourdough bread and get a Garhdelli hot chocolate down at the pier (you’ll have to carb-load, and eat for recovery after all). Don’t stress out about getting setting a PR because the course is so hilly and crowded (especially at the beginning). But don’t let that discourage you. This is an incredibly scenic race that has a fun “girl power” attitude.

I really enjoyed making a little vacation out of this race. I’ve never been to a city like San Francisco and it was fun to experience what life would be life living in a city like that.  If you decide to do it, here’s a tip: leave some extra room in your suitcase when you pack. You’ll be coming home with a lot more than you brought, and an empty bank account!

Garmin Data

There seems to be a correlation between my race expectations and my race results. If I don’t expect much from myself, I usually end up doing surprisingly well. If I expect good times, I’m usually disappointed.  I really expected the Nike Women’s marathon would be exceptionally difficult and my time to be slow. I’ve run two flat marathons before this, and both were incredibly grueling in the last 10 miles. In both of those marathons I had to alternate walking and running a lot to get through the last 6 miles.

Well I finally got my chance to finish a marathon running strong. Wow. Completely and utterly exhilarating!!!

The memory already seems like a dream.

The morning began with my usual routine of 2 bowls of honey nut cheerios, a cliff bar and a strong cup of coffee.  I took some time to zone out in front of my laptop while sipping my coffee. It’s my usual routine before long runs. Before long the coffee worked its magic (if you know what I mean). I was overjoyed because this did not happen before the PF Chang’s marathon earlier this year and it cost me some time in the porta potties.

Our team met in the hotel lobby at 5:30 am. We were all nervous and exited. I felt like I may have drank too much coffee because I was quite jittery.

Some of our East Valley Team -hotel lobby before the race

Arizona Team in Training - Hotel Lobby before the race

We walked the mile or so from our hotel to Union Square together. At Union Square Team in Training had a really nice tent set up that was toasty warm. We stretched a little bit there and then headed to the porta potties. After that we checked our bags and headed to the start line.

walking to the start line in Union Square

All bundled up in trash bags

Start line!

Stretching before the race in the TNT tent

I was thankful for the long sleeve shirt which I had bought at Goodwill for $2. It kept the chill off my arms and cushioned my full water belt quite comfortably. The gun went off and Sheila, Liz and I struggled to stay together in the mass of humanity. It was a slow start in the massive crowd. The “corrals” were pretty lame compared to what I was used to in the Rock N Roll marathons. They weren’t well marked or separated. I don’t think many people followed the corral suggestions because we had to weave around so many slower people in the first few miles. It was frustrating. I wanted to make a fast start but we were having trouble just maintaining a 10 min/mile because of the crowd.

When we reached the Embarcadero, things got better. The sun was starting to come up by that time, but it was heavily overcast so the transition from night to day was almost subliminal. It seemed like a dream running by all the tourist spots down at the fisherman’s warf in the semi-darkenss.

Around mile 5 Shelia, Liz and I were all still together. We saw a photographer in the middle of the road and since Liz and I still had our long sleeve shirts over our TNT jerseys we decided to lift up or shirts (just the top layer) to show him our TNT purple. I’m sure it was a funny picture.

Liz and Sheila – an action shot!

I finally ditched my long sleeved shirt a little before mile 6 since I didn’t want to overheat on the hill. The cool air felt invigorating. We lost Liz at a water stop before the hill (Sheila and I had our hydration belts so we kept going). Liz was planning on parting ways with us at some point so it wasn’t a surprise.

Somewhere before the hill at mile 6 we got a foggy view of the Golden Gate Bridge.

Golden Gate Bridge

Sheila and I had planned to walk a little bit half way up the hill to take our first gel. But once we were there, neither one of wanted to break our momentum by walking. We opted to wait until we crested the hill.

We took the hill at a conservative pace but we did not walk. Many people did stop to walk, and we felt like we were darting all around the road trying to avoid running into the backside of walkers. After a while it was nice to hear the people in the crowd telling us we were almost to the top.  We were very happy to crest the hill, take in the view and and see the course turn quickly into a decent.

The view from the top of the hill

I don’t remember it being a particularly difficult hill, just long. Either I was well prepared, or I’m not remembering the pain – probably a little of both! It was a big boost to be running with Sheila at that point, some how knowing we were tackling it together made the effort easier.

We happily slurped down our gels as we jogged down the back side of the hill. The next thing I remember was encountering another hill around mile 10. It was harder but not quite as long. Some girl who had run the course before told us it was the last hill. That seemed to help me. I think she was right. The hills that came later were smaller.

The miles between 10 and 17 kind of blur together. Around 11, the half marathoners went one way and the full went another way. It was amazing how wide open the course felt after we lost the half-ers. Between 12 an 13 we could see the people ahead of us coming back down on the other side of the road. It was a gradual uphill and it seemed to take forever to get the turn around point.

The middle miles through golden gate park. Loved the park.

Right at the turn around point someone was handing out socks. I tried to grab a pair but they fell out of my hand in the transfer. I was bummed. Free stuff is one of my favorite things! Then we started a long gradual down hill that lasted for at least 3-4 miles. It was awesome. I remember thinking, this is too easy! I hope we don’t have to regain this elevation later in the course. Luckily we didn’t.

At mile 16 the half marathoners joined us again. It was really weird because I forgot that their course did that. We started seeing people with the wrong color bibs and we wanted to tell them that they missed their turn a long ways back! After a little while, they split from us again. We were so close to the finish line, we could already see people walking back with their mylar blankets.

Miles 16 to 20 were some of the hardest for me. We were running away from the finish line and heading towards the dreaded “lake” I’d heard so much about. It seemed to take forever to reach that lake which was supposedly the most boring and mentally difficult part of the run. As we ran towards it, we saw the some of the elites heading back towards the finish line on the other side of the road. They were on track for a sub 3 hour marathon. Wow. We cheered loudly as they ran by one at a time. “You go girl!” Sheila shouted at one. She waved back and it was a nice little boost.

At about mile 21 there was a steep but short hill up to where the lake was. It was kind of tough. I was so happy that we had finally made it to the lake. I just wanted to get it over with. I didn’t find those 5 miles around the lake to be all that bad. It was so nice to have Sheila’s company even if we weren’t doing a whole lot of talking. We tried to exchange jokes to pass the time but they kind of fell flat on our fuzzy brains. My vision started to narrow and it felt a little like I was drunk!
Self portrait as we go around Lake Merced – trying to keep my mind occupied.

Mile 21, going around Lake Merced. You can see that we were sharing the road with traffic. Loved this girls running dress. Maybe I’ll get one for my next marathon?

About mile 22 I told Sheila that this was the least amount of walking I had ever done in a marathon. That realization really pumped me up as I realized I didn’t feel half bad for being so close to the finish. Up to that point we had run through every single water station, with the exception of one where I quickly refilled one of my bottles with very minimal walking.  I was tired as we ran around the lake, but it wasn’t as bad as it could have been. It seemed to actually go by kind of fast (or maybe I’ve blocked out the memory, not sure!). Sheila and I talked about the the poses we were going to take for the camera at the finish and how excited we were to see the guys in their tuxes and receive our Tiffany necklaces.

At mile 23, right before we exited the lake, they handed out garhdelli chocolates. I was excited to try it. For some reason I thought it might be enjoyable. Ha. I took one bite and spit it right out. The grossest chocolate I’ve ever had in my life! Literally tasted like chalk. I was given two, so I put the other in my hydration belt. It was wonderful about 4 hours later.

As we descended out of the lake area and back down onto the great highway we’d run in on, I started to get really excited. We were between the 23rd and 24th mile and I felt good! I asked Sheila if she could handle a slight surge. That’s when my marathon brain got the best of me. I got a little ahead of Sheila and I tried to keep an eye on her. I wasn’t sure that I wanted to leave her, but I really wanted to run hard. Then I looked back and I couldn’t find her. At that point I just figured I couldn’t change my mind now. I’d lost her and I should just finish as hard as I could.

The last few miles on the Great Highway. You could see there was still a steady stream of runners heading into the lake Merced area.

Getting close to finishing!!

The last mile was AMAZING! The race was lined with a short metal fence on both sides where a large crowd pressed against the fence cheering loudly. Since there weren’t many runners around, I felt like they were all cheering for me!  My name was on my shirt and I heard many many people yell “go Alissa!” “the finish line is right up there!” and “Great job Alissa!”. I know there was a huge grin on my face and I was pushing hard. I started giddily saying “thank you!” to everyone who encouraged me. The weird part was I really couldn’t see the finish line until right before I got there. My garmin was about a 3/10th of a mile ahead of the course so I really never knew how much farther I had to go. I could see some white tents for at least a mile and finally people started to tell me that the finish line was at the tents.

At last the finish line came into view and I ran my heart out. The crowd was huge and I felt like they were all cheering for me! There was a song playing loudly that brought tears to my eyes (although now I cannot remember what it was). I think they also announced my name, although I’m not sure.  I flew over the timing mats and made sure to smile for the camera.

A picture of the finish line after I crossed the line.

My feet came to a halt and I found myself face to face with a group of HOT guys in sunglasses and tuxedos. Oh my gosh my knees almost buckled beneath me. One of them placed a little blue box in my hands and said something like “you did a great job out there. You deserve this” and I was so emotional I just stood there and looked at them. In my mind I was thinking “oh my gosh, they must have seen how hard I ran today, they KNOW that I ran so well!”, like they weren’t saying that same thing to every one who came across the finish! I think I stood there a little too long trying to drink it in before I said “thank you” and moved on through the finish line to get the rest of my goodies.

I got really cold after that and ended up sitting in the Team in Training tent shivering uncontrollably for about 10 minutes waiting for Shelia. When she never got there, I finally got up and went to find the truck where my clothes were. After that I started seeing people I knew and eventually met up with Liz. Somehow I missed Sheila completely, even though I found out later that we finished only 50 seconds apart! I’m kicking myself for not staying with her so we could have experienced the finish together.

Hanging out in the TNT tent after the race. I was cold! Me, Liz and Melissa

Liz and I before boarding the bus back to the hotel.

All in all, it was the best marathon I have ever run. If those hills hadn’t been there, I would have easily broken my 4:08 record. But despite the time, it was just a good race for me. I really needed to know what it felt like to finish a marathon feeling strong.

Later this week I’ll post my review of the the race in case you are considering running it in the future.

Thanks to everyone who commented on my last post. It was a real treat to come back to read through all of them.