The return to running

 
(I love this banner by Oiselle)

I stopped running regularly for about two years during grad school and as I'm entering the final stages of my program and the transition to into my 30s (argh!), one of my life bucket list goals looms towards my near future:

Qualify for the Boston Marathon by age 34. 

At the beginning of this year, I returned to one of my first loves and began training again. I'm keeping this blog to document the trials and tribulations I am sure I will face in trying to achieve this tough goal.

The last time I attempted a marathon was in 2007. There were a lot of things going on at the time (moving from Boston to DC for grad school, leaving work, traveling to the Gambia, getting sick two times within the month before my race), so my training fell apart.  Naively, despite having fallen off my training schedule, I decided to give the San Diego Rock and Roll Marathon "a try." Just run it and see how it goes, I told myself. If you need to, you can always walk. But of course, during the race, I didn't want to just "try." It was painful - I couldn't maintain my mental toughness, and legs gave out around mile 18. Despite my frustration, I just didn't have more left to give. So after that debacle, I've had a unique psychological relationship with the marathon. It has always seemed more of a mental endeavor, requiring the ability to commitment to and prioritize months of training, the ability to push your body to its limits through mental will power. It was the challenge I continued to evade for the next 5.5 years.

One of my best friends, Nicole, encouraged me to join a training program held at our local Fleet Feet, and while I've always considered my a solo runner, I watched her take her training from a 10 min mile pace in the half all the way to the sub-8 min whirlwind she is today. (She's amazing!) So, I thought, it couldn't hurt to try. At the very least, they will keep me accountable to my goals. Knowing that my team will check up on me if I quit, knowing that people want me to succeed at my goals and will ask me about them, well, it did work. Plus, I found a community that I felt I was lacking ever since moving down to NC. All in all, I'd say it was worth it. I've built some really nice friendships and I hope to seem them again come fall!  (Highly recommend it, to anyone who is considering training for long distances!) To recap these past 4 months:

The Good:

I ran two races on courses I had never run before - the Cherry Blossom 10 Miler and the inaugural Nike Women's Half Marathon in DC.  I had never run a 10 miler race before, but I exceeded my expectations. And then, coming into the NWHM, I set my expectations to my level of performance in the Cherry Blossom 10 miler and was thus disappointed, but still made a global PR for my half marathon.

The Bad:

I wouldn't recommend ramping up to a marathon training program unless you've established a base number of miles prior. I literally went from doing a 3 mile run every other week to 5-6+ mile runs 4xs a week.  But, being a runner for more than half of my life, I thought, I can handle this. I'll be fine. Of course, around Week 9 of training, all my biomechanical weaknesses caught up to me and one long run on the wrong shoe brought me down!  It got to the point where I had to cut back and could no longer reach the long distances that my teammates were training at and inevitably, I decided not to do a marathon this season after all.  Sigh.  Lesson learned: don't bite off more than you can chew, and don't forget to stretch and strength train properly. It will come back to bite you in the butt (or in my case, foot and knee).

The Ugly:

I would say that I used to be a pretty bare bones runner, but when you're in a training group that's well tuned to all the trends and latest developments in running, you open yourself up to product marketing and buying into the mantra that you need all this new stuff! There are a few things that I think will actually improve my running - fueling during long races (energy chews), carrying hydration (electrolytes, specifically) during runs, and foam rolling (ugh!). And, for the most part, I stay true to my belief that running is quite simple and you don't need to spend a crap ton of money to do it, but my wallet has seen its share of depletion, what with all the races I've registered for, new equipment I've purchased, and my crazy obsession with my new favorite running gear retailer, Oiselle!  Another sigh, haha.  I can't stop buying Oiselle stuff... and ladies, I suggest you try it out for yourself!