Wednesday, August 29, 2012

5 weeks to go until Chicago. AKA blog fail

I am a terrible blogger this season. I'm pretty sure I said that the last time I posted, too--in June (!). Gah. It's late August, and we're just over a month out from the Chicago marathon on 10/7. Hard to believe that the summer has gone by so fast. I'm at the point in training when I don't really want to do it anymore. I just want to get to race day and get going. Then I want to sleep in for a couple of months and get back to running in the spring. Last Saturday, I completed a very hot, very hilly 23 miles in Central Park with my Gallowayans. The thinking behind the route was that if we could run the 23 miler in CP, we could do it anywhere, since most races are flatter than the park. Also, we were able to pass an aid stop several times, easily get to bathrooms, water, etc. Brilliant. The routes this season have been fairly new, since our leadership team (ahem, one member of our leadership team) has decided that this is the season for new routes that preferably include bridges. Don't get me wrong, I love exploring the city, but it can be a bit complicated to do a new route on a long run, especially when it's really hot. People get grumpy. Anyway, Saturday's 23 miler went pretty well. It was much better than our 20 miler two weeks prior, when we ran from Columbus Circle all the way up to Inwood and back. The aid stop was at mile 10, which would've been ok, I think, had it not been so hot and humid. Many in our group ran out of water before we hit the aid stop and we couldn't find water fountains or anything along the route. (We did, however, find a hilarious street sign in Inwood, located at the intersection of Seaman St and Cumming St. In our maturity, we had a little giggle and took some photos). Needless to say, the 20 miler felt ridiculously long, and many people dropped out at the aid stop due to the heat. I came home afterward and spent the rest of the day watching movies in bed. I was wiped. After the 23 miler, however, I went to my birthday party and was festive despite being tired. I felt pretty good, except for a nasty leg cramp that wouldn't go away after mile 18 or so. I've never had those before, but it seemed to get a little better as I upped my salt intake. I commented to someone that I was really glad I didn't have to run as many miles as my age. 23 was quite enough. Plus, I had to cut my celebration on the actual day short in order to go to bed early and get up at 4 on Saturday morning. In any case, my birthday was lovely and I felt a great sense of accomplishment to be done with the 23 miler. We have one long run left in September before Chicago, and then I'll be tapering. Can't believe it's almost here!

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