Okay, this might have not been the best idea ever. At all. It would however probably place high in the 'Top 10 Stupid Ideas'.
Think, than sign up for a race.
Yeah, about that...
I honestly didn't know that I would be nutso enough to register for the Swiss Alpine Marathon K78. I knew I wanted to race one of the distances of the Swiss Alpine Marathon, though, but I figured it would be the K42 again (fingers crossed that I'll make it to the K78 start line in one piece...). The ignorance...
So, I filled out the registration for the Edinburgh Marathon on May 22nd 2011 (as in, 5 days from today) - back in September (lower fees). Said to be the 'fastest course in the UK!'. With a decent marathon training cycle and a 3-week taper, this could be a PR-course. Yeah...woulda coulda shoulda.
A few months later, I clicked 'register' on the Swiss Alpine Marathon K78 registration. And decided to focus on training for that one.
Guess where I'm going?
Long story short: a friend of my mom's offered me a place to stay in Edinburgh, and since I hadn't cancelled my registration...well...I said 'That's so sweet of you! I'd be happy to stay with you!'. She even offered to cheer me on.
Yep, I'm screwed. I ran 2 marathons in April. I'm training for the Swiss Alpine Marathon K78. That includes building my mileage. Adding miles to my long runs. Running back-2-back weekends. Doing hill work. And spending a lot of time on the treadmill at the gym, set at 15% incline. I did not taper. At all. My legs don't feel fresh. I'm in no shape to race a marathon (and this comes from a girl that's sloooooow to begin with). I'm fully aware of the fact that all these hardcore marathoners and ultra runners are ready to race a marathon any day of the week, but I'm neither hardcore nor ultra ready.
I'm trying to look at this as 'a great chance to run a fun training run'. What doesn't help is the voice in my head telling me 'You suck. You're slow! You unprepared!'.
The one thing that might get me through this marathon: What IS underneath those Kilts? :)
2 comments:
Haha, that's some excellent motivation!
Maybe you should go into this marathon with a "training run" mentality. Plan on taking walk breaks and try to maintain a slower pace than usual. You'll hurt if you try going for another PR, but you could totally have a fun and awesome 4:20-4:30 marathon!
Well, you don't suck. that is for sure, and really you are more then prepared to run this marathon. Maybe just don't focus on a PR and just see what your body can do. Treat it as some kind experimental training run on tired legs. Just give it what you've got and feel great that you are able to run all these marathons and such! I have a friend who always tell me that 8 miles is a lot of peoples marathons, so look at what you can really do regardless of how you preform
Good luck =) -Jen
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