Overview

Well.  Where to begin. I finished my second marathon, but not only did I NOT finish in under five hours, I took longer to finish than I did last year! How's that for keepin' me humble?!

I had forgotten how truly, gut-wrenchingly painful that is.  It really IS like childbirth.  My theory is that God somehow wipes our memory of childbirth, like, almost immediately after, so that the human race can go on.  But I wonder what His reason is for making us forget marathon pain? Some vested interest in increased marathon participation worldwide?

Plus, the wind coming off Lake Erie was reminiscent of Dorothy in the Wizard of Oz.  It was a killer, head on, gusty wind for about, oh, 9 or 10 MILES. To try to look at the wind as a glass-half-full sort of thing, it did blow the showers out and left some great sunshine behind!

The pluses of this year's Cleveland Marathon definitely included better signage.  The signs were definitely clearer, larger and easier to follow.  If I'm gonna run 26 miles, I ALWAYS want to know I'm going in the right direction! Another plus is the camaraderie of race day.

The minuses included decreased fan support (probably due to freezing temps, rain and wind - just a guess), but the fans that were out were great!  I've also decided I don't really like running the same course more than once. I remembered all the landmarks, and it was just not as much fun to run as the first time through. 

I will also NEVER run without my Ipod ever ever again - USATF better just look the other way.  It was some VERY QUIET miles out there on the second half of the course.

Good news to report, though - my hubby ran his first half and did great (bib #7223); I'm so proud of him.

So hat's off to everybody who ran.  It's been so much fun blogging here and getting your comments and reading your blogs.  Happy running!

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Hey everybody! Good luck tomorrow morning - run hard and have fun.  I'm bib 2140 so if anyone sees me, make sure to say hello!

Can't wait to hear how everyone does and your tales of the road.....

Until then, let's try to get some sleep and you'll ALL be in my prayers tonight!

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My poor baby! I picked her up from dance team practice after school on Tuesday, and she had a fever and chills and a sore throat and body aches.  She's such a trooper.  She didn't even let on in practice.  So I took her home, made her a cozy little nest on the couch, turned on a movie, got her some juice.  All the usual mom helping a sick kid stuff.

Til the next morning. When I realized that  I have a MARATHON TO RUN ON SUNDAY. I can't run a marathon with a fever and chills and a sore throat and body aches, now can I?!?  So I tended to my sick child from a safe distance, with a Clorox wipe in my hand that I only relinquished in order to surgically scrub my hands.  A few hundred times a day.  I wonder what the incubation time is for this awful illness.  Oh, I know.  A few days.   Which would have me coming down with it THE DAY BEFORE MY MARATHON. 

So now while I'm on illness watch, I'm downing Airborne every few hours and continuing to wash my hands as if I'm due in surgery. Which apparently is how I always wash my hands, according to my friend Katie, who pointed this peculiarity out to me recently.  Maybe I've watched too many hospital-based teevee shows? In any case, I'm just keeping my fingers crossed that I'll dodge getting sick and be able to run this race on Sunday.

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Well, my very active (read crazy) dream life had me running in my jammies last night.  I was running along in my subconscious with my lime green flowered PJs on, and in my dreams, I was rationalizing "people will probably just think I'm running in one of those cute, matching jogging suits." JOGGING SUITS!  Needless to say in my waking life, it hasn't occurred to me to run in a jogging suit, or even to buy or wear or call it a jogging suit.  But as I've mentioned here before, there's no making sense of my dreams.  I just go with it.  So down the street I went in my lime green flowered jammies. 

I think part of the reason this happened is that I'm trying to gather up all of my most favorite running clothes for race day.  This requires running this week in my less-favorite items and doing loads of laundry to make sure everything is ready.  I just got back from a 3-miler in 60 degree sun, and I wore long pants.  I was a little warm, to say the least, but my favorite race day shorts are still clean!  Anyone else rationing running clothes at this point? Or is it just me? Again?

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Oh, the taper. I had forgotten how painful (figuratively) and anxiety-producing (literally).  A running acquaintance once told me that by the time you line up at the start of a marathon, you should feel like you've forgotten how to run.  It was his way of reassuring me during my first marathon training season that it was OK to feel like it had been FOREVER since I'd run.  Well, I'm beginning to feel like I have, indeed, forgotten how to run. 

I ran 11 as my "long run" on Saturday, and my hubby ran most of it with me (he's training for the half).  That was fun, and the mileage felt fine.  But during the week this week, when I'm supposed to run 3, 4, then 3 miles, it just feels kind of pointless.  I wanna get my ache on and run 26 already, you know?

And by the way, I need an ipod intervention, because I can't seem to extricate myself from my music.  I guess I'll have to go cold turkey on race day.  I even found myself loading new tunes on it yesterday, even though my mileage these days doesn't even get me through 10 songs.  I've run a grand total of ONE training run without music. That should prepare me, right?!

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Done.  My 20-miler was as good as a 20-mile run could possibly be.  There was a little pain involved, but overall, it was great.  The weather was beautiful and not too sunny; had a little drizzle of rain for a few miles, which helped cool me off.

At about mile 7, I stopped at the corner gas station, picked up some Motrin, which I forgot to take before I left, and I know, I know, you're not supposed to mask you pain with Motrin, people, but I wanted to mask my pain. So I took two Motrin and continued.  I got into this little zen trance sort of thing, and just ran and ran.  It was awesome. Nice cold bath after and now I feel like a million bucks. Or a thousand. But either way, it's done!!!! Yea!

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Did you ever dream about your long run the night before you run it? Today I'm planning on running my 20-miler, and last night, my poor, crazy subconscious was rife with mathematical equations that added up to 20.  In my dream, I was getting dressed, over and over and over again.  Two pairs of socks, leg warmers (??), tights, big cotton sweatpants - as a dream runner I guess I wear some pretty zany stuff.  I no longer try to make sense of my vivid, nightly dreams, but I am pretty fascinated and amused by them.  But the meaning of this one was pretty clear - no deep, dream analysis required.  I'M SCARED to run 20 (and 26.2, too). 

Running my second marathon is like having my second child - I know what I'm in for, and I KNOW it's gonna hurt.  Last year at this time, each training run was the first time I had ever gone that far.  But this year, I know better! So later this morning, keep your fingers crossed, say your prayers, or send me your good mojo vibes; I'll need them.

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In practice for the "big day," today I started running without my Ipod.  It was a very free feeling, leaving my house with nothing strapped to my arm or my ears, and no fuel belt since today was a shorter run. I didn't have high hopes, because I'm one of those runners who really relies on the music to motivate me. 

I don't like the USATF rule banning music players on marathon courses.  I think if you're listening to your Ipod so loudly that you can't hear passersby or traffic or sirens, maybe your volume is a little high.  Just a thought.  But a rule's a rule, so I follow it. 

I was nicely surprised by my music-free run today.  I tried to focus on the sounds around me and the sounds of my body.  The faster my feet go, the faster I breathe, and vice versa, but they always go together.  It makes for a nice beat when you don't have any other "music."  The birds are singing like crazy and I heard a frog jump into a pond.  I heard and saw farmers plowing fields and noticed things I may not have if I had been "plugged in" to my pod. 

So I'm trying to approach the separation from my Ipod in a glass half full sort of way.  But today was only 5 miles; we'll see how happy I am after 20 on Saturday with no tunes!!

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