Somehow, The Marathon Returned - comments welcome!

[nancipants]

I really admire your commitment to training and doing these crazy long runs in the heat! WAY TO GO on that 20 miler, seriously. Sorry to hear about your blisters -- other than that, did your feet hurt? I know the goal was to fix the long run aches and pains, so hopefully they at least resolved that issue. Also sorry about your mom. Aging parents are stressful. ::hugs::

Thankfully, the rest of my body felt fine (well, as fine as you can after running 20 miles!). My feet didn't start hurting until the second half of the run, and other than the specific pain near the blister, it ws just general "you've been on your feet too long" soreness. So I consider the shoes a success! I do want to try a 5.5 wide instead of a 6 and see if there's much of a difference.

And thank you. I'm the only caregiver for my mom and she insists that she's fine, so it's doubly stressful.

 

[nancipants]

Catching up before my race tomorrow:


September 23: 30 minutes easy. My legs felt a little heavy still and I didn’t want to push with race paces, so I just did a nice slow run. My ankle was bothering me, but felt better the more I ran.

September 24: 2 mile progression walk and core workout.

September 25: Drill run. Just did the drills, no hills or race paces, since I wanted to keep taking it easy before my race.

September 26: Rest. Picked up my bib for the Margaritaville10k!

The race starts at 7 am tomorrow so I’ll be heading to bed soon. Thankfully it’s only 20 minutes away so I can wake up at 5 and have plenty of time to get ready.

I don’t have a specific time goal, because it’s super hot and I reserve the right to slow down if needed, but I would like to keep a steady pace throughout the race. I’m going to alternate 60/30 and 30/30 intervals and run according to feel, and see what that gets me. I figure this will be a good baseline for later in the season, when the weather is much more conducive to racing.

 

[jmasgat]

Good luck and have fun!

 

[RuntheMouse]

Hope you had a great race!!!

 

[nancipants]

course was long, but I still beat last year’s time.

 

[Erika10021]

90 degree weather!?! You are a machine, I am super impressed with finishing and with that time too? I would have been a puddle.

 

[WillRunForPizza]

Great job!

 

[RuntheMouse]

Way to go! That heat oooffff!

 

[nancipants]

90 degree weather!?! You are a machine, I am super impressed with finishing and with that time too? I would have been a puddle.

To be fair, I think that was quoting the high for today. But it was a feels like of 75-78 while I was running.

 

[avondale]

Great race in those conditions! Congrats!

 

[The Expert]

Awesome job, Nanci!

 

[nancipants]

I should do a race report before my next race, right?

Margaritaville 10k was a fun time, as usual. It’s definitely a “vibes” race, as it’s way too hot to try for a fast time unless you’re the dude I saw in the lobby wearing a Boston Marathon shirt. This year was the inaugural half marathon, and I was very skeptical of how it would go considering the time of year and it did not look like they had enough water stations on the course map. Plus, I have no idea if they had porta potties for the half course. Anyway, I did the 10k and the course was slightly different than last year. I liked it better overall, although it still just gets way too hot once the sun rises. We started at 7, earlier than last year, which was greatly appreciated. My goal was to keep as consistent pace as possible, I mostly stuck to that goal until the last mile. I set my watch for 30/30 intervals and basically alternated 60/30 and 30/30 the entire race (although with a few extra walk breaks later on). I started to get annoyed near end of the race when the 10k course merged back with the 5k course. Because they started half an hour later, the course was filled with walkers and it was so hard to maneuver around them. I’m not used to having to do that so late into a race and expending extra energy when I was getting really hot really threw me off. (This is by no means criticizing walkers, but rather how the course was set up. Although there were several annoying groups just like at Disney.) also, the mile markers were off and the course was long. Despite that, I beat my time from last year! And if the course hadn’t been long, I would have been below 1:20. So overall, a good start to the race season!