I Am Marathon Strong

The picture above just about sums it all up!

But I'm not the type to make it that simple.  Through my training I kept a journal that documented just about everything.  The good, the bad, the ugly, and the GLORIOUS!

I followed Hal Higdon's intermediate guide for marathon training.  During the first week of training, my sister and I encountered quite a bit of rain.  Trudging through mud and puddles wasn't ideal but since there is opposition in all things, we also encountered beautiful...

RAINBOWS!



 

We saw real ones though! Haha.

In the first week, I also encountered KNEE PAIN.  It totally bummed me out because I thought that my body was telling me that I wasn't cut out for marathon training.  I died during my "long" run which at that time was only 8 miles.  How was I going to run 26.2 MILES??

Well, my sister gave me a knee support band and that helped tremendously.  Looking back now, my body was taking quite the beating.  I mean, I had JUST had a baby and I was pushing my body to suddenly run about 30 miles a week (after only running 10 miles a week while pregnant).  Silly me! 

By week #2, my knee pain subsided.  Thank goodness!

Besides rainbows I also saw a few other delightful things like.... A DEAD CHICKEN.  Yuck.  I had to run by this dead chicken for a few weeks.  I had to plug my nose as I ran by each day.  The thought crossed my mind to "clean" it up but I'm too much of a chicken myself (alive and well, thank you!).

To cross train, I enjoyed doing Jillian Michael's "No More Trouble Zone's" video.  Her "Six Week Six Pack" is a pretty great work out too.  I saw a change in my body and it was constantly a challenge.  If it began to get easy, I just increased the weights I was using.

I also did a yoga class a few times which I think helped cross train my mind.  It was uplifting and helped give me strength emotionally (which you actually NEED for marathon training... it takes a lot out of you).  I highly recommend yoga to anyone!  It can be a spiritual experience.

Unfortunately, yoga wasn't something I attended regularly because it was hard to find the time to fit everything in.  So, really, my sister was my biggest emotional support for training.  She knew exactly what I was going through and we spent a LOT of time together.  I mean we would run hours on end together.  It was a great way to spend my time.  Afterall, she is one of my very best friends!  We would have mornings where we bawled together and other mornings where we laughed hysterically together.  We would talk a lot and some morning runs were spent in utter silence.  But even in silence, we understood each other and we always made the other want to improve.  It was a beautiful experience.



My sister and I on a 12 mile training run that turned into a 10.88 mile run through rain and hail! We were crazy!

We did a few races throughout our training to work on pace and we set a lot of PR's.

Color Run 5k with the Hubs.  This one was all for FUN!

Cherry Garcia 5k: PR 26:37 (8:50 pace)

If you're wondering if we got ice cream, the answer is YES!  We got ice cream and pizza.



Rio Grande 1/2 Marathon: In 1:52 (8:54 pace)

 (I also did the Chips & Salsa 1/2 marathon and set a PR of 1:46 (8:10 pace). I don't have pictures from that race though.)

 During the training, I ate a lot of food. Unfortunately I would grab burgers or pizza quite often because of it's ease.  While training for Disney, I hope to better improve my eating habits.

I would have to say that Starbucks got us as regular Saturday customers because we would run there to get their blueberry oatmeal...OMG, yum!

We ran in the dark and through sunrise; We got caught in spider webs; We enjoyed sights of the mountains and fields of sunflowers; We saw our little town of Los Lunas at it's quietest during foggy mornings.  We laughed down the mountain in Red River as we acted out of pure silliness because of the lack of oxygen to our brains.  We did sleepovers to be sure we didn't miss any runs when my husband was out of town.  We were encouraged by running quotes like, "It's a hill, get over it."  And we even discovered our own mantra:

I Am Marathon Strong

And it's true.