You may have heard me mention a few times in passing that I somehow decided that it would be a smart choice to sign up for Goofy's Race and Half Challenge in Disney World, which takes place on January 12 and 13 (for those who don't know about this race yet, it's a half marathon on Saturday followed by a full marathon on Sunday). Technically, I've been training for the Goofy challenge since early September when we kicked-off the Team in Training winter season. I've been attending Saturday long run practices and Tuesday strengthening and speed practices. I've been trying to fit in my weekday runs and Sunday recovery runs. I've been following the schedule the best I can and going through the motions.
But my mind has been elsewhere. To simplify things, here's bullet list of all the other things I've been thinking about:
- starting school after an amazing summer
- my first triathlon
- becoming a "morning" person
- the Nike Women's Half Marathon
- figuring out how I want to eat
- dealing with stress (both good and bad) at work
- being sick for a long, frustrating time
- holidays
- the Seattle Half Marathon
- etc.
The one thing that I have certainly not been focused on is running 39.3 miles in one weekend. But now, pardon the expression, shit is getting real.
Because suddenly, it's December. And December happens to be the calendar month that comes before January. Which means that I have just a short month and a half until I'm headed down to Orlando to run through all the parks in Disney World. Twice.
There are a couple of things that happened this week to suddenly make Goofy seem real. First of all, the Seattle half was my last big distraction race before Goofy. Now it's over, and the only thing left to focus on is Goofy. After just a day of rest on Monday, I've run every single day since then (it's Sunday again now) and it feels like running the Seattle half happened eons ago. According to my Dailymile log, I put in 41 miles this week. For me, that's a pretty heavy mileage week.
On Tuesday, we did an hour long "tempo" run where we kind of just ran fast for a long time. My tummy wasn't feeling too happy with me by the time I finished (eating half a box of cheez-its as a mid-morning snack = bad news bears for evening run) and my legs were still sore from the half, but I pushed through 6 miles.
On Wednesday, we had our somewhat belated "half-way" party for TNT to celebrate being half-way through winter season. But due to scheduling issues, it was really more of a three-quarters-of-the-way party. Another reminder that the race is getting closer. I squeezed in a quick 30 minute run with Lucy before heading to the party.
On Thursday, Erica and MacKenzie met me at my place to go for a girls' night run with Lucy and Lottie (MacKenzie's furry four-legged best friend). I'm sure we looked awesome with our headlamps and flashing collared dogs running around Green Lake. We tried our best not to bowl anyone over, including ourselves, for the 5.4 mile run.
Then on Friday, I went for a completely solo run (not even Lucy joined me). Usually in TNT training seasons, Fridays are rest days. But for Goofy training, we've been running Friday runs to get our legs nice and tired for our Saturday long run. Kind of a simulation of what it will feel like on marathon day after we've already run a half marathon the day before. This Friday, it was absolutely pouring rain, but as I drove home, I realized I actually wanted to get out there and run. This was huge.
If you've been following along, you know that I've been not feeling so positive in the past 2 months or so. I can't really remember a recent time when I had that innate urge to really want to get out there and run. That urge is what got me running in the first place and what has kept me running for so long (and so far), but I just haven't felt it in a long time. I haven't felt the bodily need to run like I usually do, I just got out there because I felt like I had to. And when I was out there, I felt awful both mentally and physically. But Friday, suddenly I wanted to run. Pouring rain and all. I decided to leave Lucy at home, because puddle jumping in the rain is hard enough, and even harder with a pup who loves to go splashing through the puddles instead of avoiding them.
I just wanted to get out and run. For me and no one else. I wanted to feel that feeling again of just running and loving it. And I did. I was soaked and I was cold, but in my mind I felt like I was in a place I haven't been in far too long. And of course, to make it real, I had to declare it so on Facebook.
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| Which people seemed to like. |
And then Saturday, with my new realization under my belt, I tackled 17 miles without too much worry. I've gotten used to typical Saturday long runs ranging between 8-13 miles, but this was the first time I'd run longer than a half distance since San Diego training last spring. At TNT practice, me, Erica, and our teammate Annemarie ran together in perfect running weather (the weather report called for rain, rain, and more rain--but it held off just for us). We ran up and down Lake Washington, starting in the middle at Genesee Park, running down to Seward Park, back up again all the way past the 90 bridge, through Leschi, and past Madison beach. Then we turned around and headed back to Genesee Park. Minus some water stops and bathroom pit stops, our average moving pace was 9:00 min/mile. I believe those would be the fastest chunk of 17 miles I've ever run.
And mentally, I was there. No, it was not easy the whole time (anyone who thinks 17 miles could be easy the whole time, go try it), but when things started hurting and my body got tired, I had a fight in me that I haven't had in what feels like a very long time. In the final miles, when my legs didn't want to run any farther, I told them to, and unsurprisingly they did. It was just what I needed.
I even tolerated my post-run ice bath better than I have in past weeks, knowing it was healing up those tired muscles, getting them ready for the next run.
Today, I went on a 30 minute recovery run. My legs were tired and tight and I took it slow with Lucy, but I still felt great. However, I oddly felt like people were staring at me as I was running around the lake, and when I got home I realized that I looked like this:
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| Not my best running clothes outfit combo ever. I may have blinded people as I passed them. |
Because I have just 6 short weeks until my biggest challenge yet, and I hope this current mental uptick I'm feeling stays with me solidly until then. Because there are still a lot of miles to go before I even get there. But when I get there, if I survive it all, I'll get to come back to Seattle wearing these three shiny medals around my neck:
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| Donald for the half, Mickey for the full, and Goofy for both. |
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