Integrity Run

I'm still convinced I'm going to run this marathon.  I registered, but also paid for plane tickets and an airBNB for my family and me.  It would be cheaper at this point to run the race than not to run, and I'm pretty cheap.  So I'm still in.

But I've had to face some facts.  This is my first true marathon since 2008, when I coughed and sputtered through the Richmond Marathon... in the end in a pretty good time, and with some fun on the way.  I've run some wacky off-road races in Cameroon and Cyprus, but without the festival experience that an American marathon carries.  No one even knows for sure how long the Race for Hope is!

And I'm older.  Undeniably, while some things work just fine, some things are slower, harder, or simply not where they used to be a short eight years ago.  My knee took a major hit last fall, and I'll be running with an awesome looking brace to protect the cartilage that is starting to degenerate in my left knee.  But over the summer when I realized I wasn't hurting that much any more, I realized I could gear up for one more marathon, and set my sights on Portland -- I have a number of life confluences converging there, and maybe I'll mention them later.

After last week's debacle, I was sore the next day.  And the next.  I feared I'd broken myself, irreparably.  I didn't run, I didn't lift at the gym, I didn't stretch.  Carolee might have said I needed to 'DELOAD', and so I 'rested.'  For the first time in a while I went seven days--one calendar week--without any real exercise.  Things were looking bleak. I needed an integrity run.

I couldn't meet the group last Saturday, so Sunday afternoon, after the Washington Professional Football Team won, I laced up my shoes, loaded up with gear, and set out alone for a 15-mile run.  This is generally longer than I've been running solo, but I had to prove to myself I could do it.  And I pulled it off pretty much without a hitch. I was disappointed that I later realized it was barely a 14-mile run, but I think something was off, because my pace was glacial if it really took me THAT long to finish.  (I just went back and found another 0.2 mile I'd missed, so maybe I don't suck.)  Encouragingly, my heart rate stayed well within comfortable range.

And so I did.  I proved that I can handle a distance (and, really, if you can run 15, you can run 26, right?).  I also focused on a few things I will need for success:

1. Food:  I need to carry more food with me so I don't bonk.  The Marathon offers Ultima Replenisher, a mineral supplement that does NOT have carbs.  (In 2003 I saw what happens when people rely on these supplements: they sink into the pavement at mile 18.)  More importantly, I need to gain weight.  Through the increase in exercising, a decrease in eating, and generalized worrying, I've lost a few pounds off my already-rangy frame.  I'm not saying I'll be fat, but I need not to show up hungry.  
2. Pacing group:  I need to latch onto the 4:00 pace group at the race and hold on for dear life.  I'm confident that I'll feel better than that early in the race, but I need to save something for the end.  
3. Leg strength:  my legs are weak.  I used to do squat and lunges and my legs would spring with power.  They're dead now, and because the brace supports a lot of weight on my left leg, my right thigh tires quickly when it overcompensates.  I asked a friend last week if she thought I could considerably increase my leg strength in just three weeks.  She said No, but now I'm going to try.  

My head's back in the game.  To prove that I have a reserve of speed, I sneaked in a treadmill run this afternoon:  30 minutes at 8:00 / mile with a slight incline.  I did it with no crisis, though I can't shake the fact that I once held a 7-minute pace for 26 miles.  But, you know, that was pretty awesome, and I didn't give myself credit for it then.  Now, I'm going to nail this marathon 20 years later.  It's going to be ugly, but I have more of an appreciation of what awesome is.

That's integrity.