Days Until Burlington: 76
Wow! So much to catch up on. To be honest, I'd rather be slacking on my blogging than my running.
I finished week 5 yesterday with my first 10 mile run since 2010. The last 10 miler I really remember doing was in April of 2010, to peak for my half marathon in New York. I remember there was a wicked headwind and it was hovering around 45.Thankfully, winter just flat out forgot to make it to Boston this year, so it was already in the high 50s yesterday when I headed out.
Per my training plan, I should be hitting my miles at an 11:08 pace. I don't know if it's just me being stupid, or me being stronger than the past, but hitting 11:08s seem impossible. I'm hovering more in the 10:40s - which would have me running 9:40s (theoretically) for the marathon. 9:40s used to be my race pace for 5 milers/10Ks, so it's a little jarring to think that now I could keep that up for 4 to 5 times the distance (in fact it's crazypants to me).
So, the 10 miles went pretty OK. My legs started to ache at about 8.5, but it was the ache I get at like...20 or 21 miles during the race, so I felt a little satisfied with the pain (masochist) and my ability to push through the last 1.5 despite the pain. I finished up last week with 22 miles.
I think the other big news (other than a 10 miler I didn't cry after) is I decided against the Marine Corps Marathon. The travel costs were really the biggest factor - the flying, the hoteling, the race fee. It also always bugged me that I would be running 3 days after my birthday, instead of finishing the 5 marathons before October 25. So after a lot of thinking and researching, I decided to run the Amica Marathon in Newport, Rhode Island on Columbus Day Weekend. Reasons why this change is bad ass:
(a) Look at this view!
(b) I run marathon #5 eleven days before my birthday. Just make it!
(c) It's the same weekend as Chicago, which means I can do the bulk of my long runs with my running buddy/BFF Val.
(d) I will have finished marathons in 3 of the 5 states in New England. I don't know if I'll ever be one of those crazy "50 marathons in 50 states" people (looking at you, Alaska, and most of the states in the South) - but this is a decent start.
(e) MCM sold out in like 4 hours. What?
And lastly, I am really impressed with RunVermont, which is the group that organizes Burlington. They have a segment in their blog to meet the pace group captains - which is a pretty neat idea. I never really thought about the pace group captains before; there were leaders in Chicago, but I was more focused on other things. To be a pace leader, you really have to be in tune with internal pacing, which is something I'm kind of terrible at. It's been fun reading about the journeys of the pace group captains, and how similar their stories sound to mine. The 4:30 leaders are Jen Sorrell and Laura Skladzinski - these are the women I will follow to my marathon PR.
