Tag: marathon

Inadvertent speed session

Jess GuthLeave a comment

I haven’t felt like blogging about running because, well just because. I’ve been plodding along doing my 45 minute maintenance runs and just getting on with it but it feels like a huge effort. I just want to go and do the bloody marathon now. Someone put me at the start line and I promise I won’t stop moving forward until someone hands me a medal, a beer and food – not necessarily in that order. Cheer me up by sponsoring me?

JustGiving Page – click here

This morning was a bit of a fail. I got up and fell into my running gear. I read a silly mantra somewhere about running first thing before your body knows what’s happening – well that was me this morning. The plan was to run to the sheep, feed them etc and then continue and do 45 minutes. We got to the sheep and then I had a little panic attack over nothing at all. We walked home and I sulked, had pan au chocolat for breakfast and sulked some more. Then I thought about the run. We had got to the sheep in under 10 minutes per mile pace. That is insanely fast for us. It didn’t feel that fast though. So I decided to be positive and put this morning’s run down to an inadvertent speed session.

But it played on my mind. I can’t mentally cope with any run fails this close to the marathon. I need to keep positive and I need to keep convincing myself that I can do it. I knew I needed to go out again to take some stuff to mum’s…an idea formed and after a bit more sulking and reading loads of posts in a Facebook Group I joined I snapped out of it. I hadn’t got changed from the morning so I grabbed the backpack, filled it with empty tupperware boxes, a christmas card, some cash, my bus pass and some stuff I’d printed for mum and set off. It was hard. Really hard. I felt puffed from the start. I looked at the Garmin and saw that I was running at a silly pace ‘Slow down you maniac!’. The conversation in my head went something like this over the next 16 minutes:

‘You need to slow down, you can’t run 5 miles at this pace’

‘Haha -you can’t run 5 miles’

‘Yes I can’

‘But NOT AT THIS PACE’

‘Slow down you idiot’

‘What bit of slow down is too complicated for you, just go slower’

‘SLOW DOWN’

‘Oh shit I’m dying here’

‘I told you to slow down’

I hit 18 minutes and walked for a minute, then ran the next 2, then walked 1, then ran 3, then walked 1 and was then going to run 4 but a minute into that run just decided to keep going until the 3 miles beep came. Every time I set off running again I told myself to go slow. I walked for a minute when I hit three miles and then set off again ‘Go SLOW you stupid cow’. I walked for 90 seconds when I hit 4miles and set off again ‘Go Slow, just go… oh F-it just go at whatever idiotic pace you want’. I got to 5 miles. I had done it in just over 58 minutes – a faster pace than the pace I did all running the other day.

I was absolutely shattered, even more of a sweaty mess than usual and it took much longer for my heartrate to come down again. The walks had been slower than normal and the runs faster. But I just couldn’t make myself run slower. I walked the half mile to mum’s and had just about recovered enough to speak when I got there.

Now if only I was preparing for a 10km run – I reckon I could have done another 1.2 miles at the pace I was at and that would mean a new personal best by more than a minute. As for a marathon, having speedy legs really isn’t going to help.

Forgetting Friday

Jess Guth6 Comments

After the giddy excitement of the last two days I suppose the come down was inevitable. Today I can barely make it off the sofa. I didn’t sleep well and this morning had a telephone appointment with the mental health service for a therapy assessment – turned out not to be a big deal and I am now on a waiting list for a stress management /anxiety course in the new year.

After that I was going to go for a run but the weather turned nasty so I didn’t. It’s gone down hill from there. I’ve felt rubbish about not being at work and all the stuff I’m not doing; I’ve been worrying about our sheep, I’ve been worrying about the travel for the trip, weather, delays… I have felt totally incompetent in pretty much everything.

Then I started worrying about the running, then about weight. I started the day quite healthily with muesli but then we had pizza and salad for lunch and then I was still hungry or bored or whatever and had a piece of quiche that was left, then I was still hungry and had a porridge bar… Then I worried about all of that and decided that the marathon was an utterly stupid idea anyway.

I picked up the last issue of Runner’s World to try and snap out of it but it is full of ‘proper runners’ and a marathon plan which just made me cry because it is so different from the one we’ve been following and it doesn’t look like anything I could do (neither does ours though, so…). I thought maybe looking at the Disney stuff would snap me out of it. I grabbed our folder (yeah, I know, we have a folder, how very me) and retreated to the sofa. It didn’t do the trick. I just started worrying about the dining reservations and wether we’d made the right call for pre and post race food, I started panicking about currency and wether we’ve ordered the right amount and when it will come; about what I’ve forgotten and what on earth I am going to take on our trip. Oh and actually, forget the trip because I shouldn’t be going, I should be, oh I don’t know but I shouldn’t be running a marathon.

So let’s just forget about today. Let’s just accept it for what it is. I’m obviously just worrying today – so let’s make today a worrying sort of day, watch crap TV, eat whatever and just start again tomorrow.

The Official Race stuff

Jess Guth

First a quick sponsorship update – we are over half way on our JustGiving site and have a couple of pledges offline. Thank you! You can donate by clicking here.

I mentioned in my last post that the race guide has been released and the corral info is now also available so I was a little bit (ok, a lot) excited. It felt like the first day in weeks that  was not somehow dulled by the fog of depression. I ended up having a pretty good day with a 6 mile run and doing some useful stuff like sorting out expenses claims that have been lying around for ages. I was going to do more but I ran out of ‘brave’ pretty quickly – still, progress.

Anyway, the race guide etc:

When I ran the half marathon all I really wanted to do was make sure I didn’t have to start right at the back for this marathon. And look at this, I am in corral J based on the the half marathon time I set at the end of September. So so pleased with this

Corrals

The event guide is 36 A 4 pages… I keep picking it up every now and again and sometimes I giggle with excitement and sometimes I just wimper.

Mickey event guide
Snapshot from the cover of the event guide

The guide contains all the info we’ll need, like start times, recommended arrival time, transport options… It’s all there. Here are some of my highlights, scary things and ‘oh my goodness’ moments

  1. The Marathon starts at 5.30am, transport starts at 3am
  2. The Cool Down Party starts at 2pm – I will just about have finished the marathon!
  3. We have to pick up race packets at the expo and the floor plan for that looks insane. Kath will have to get one of those toddler leads for me so I don’t accidentally wander off!
  4. The Pasta in the Park Party we’re going to on the Thursday before includes a viewing of the Illuminations: Reflections of Earth at Epcot from a reserved viewing area. I probably knew that when we booked but had forgotten
  5. They say there will be clocks at every mile marker – nothing like keeping the pressure on!
  6. 19 water stations, 5 food stops (bananas, Clif products and candy at 22.5 miles), sponges at mile 17.1.
  7. The Course. Oh the course. Of course there are long stretches along the road etc but basically we go from the Epcot parking lot to and through the Magic Kingdom, to and through the Animal Kingdom, to the ESPN Wide World of Sports Complex and on to Hollywood Studios and finally to the finish in Epcot. If I can do a marathon then it will be here. Course map below.
  8. Disney bans selfie-sticks. That makes me very happy
  9. There will be photographers everywhere on course – so there will be evidence of this total and utter madness.Course map.jpg

So reading all this has given me a bit of a final boost. Body and mind have been pushed quite hard over the last few weeks and now there is only one long run left before we do this for real. I am more excited than petrified – but it’s a fine line!

 

Look, no walking

Jess Guth2 Comments

Ok, I don’t know how to ask you all to sponsor us for this run without hassling, without it sounding really naff or annoying or whatever. Please please please just do it if you are able to. We are over half way if we count money pledged off line. No amount is too small and you wouldn’t believe the boost it gives my runs to see the total creep up. So click the link if you can, do it now. Thanks you

Our Just Giving Page

So today has been a good running day. I ran 6 miles without stopping to walk. Yep. I sort of wondered if I could. I headed out on my own, downhill for the first stretch. I did have to stop abruptly because I was suddenly faced with an alsatian not attached to a human and it came bounding up to me, circled me and then jumped up – paws on shoulders. I don’t know how I didn’t curl up in a ball and scream. Turns out its human was trying to catch it – wasn’t going well then… I also had to stop briefly twice to let cars go before I could cross the road (rude, don’t they know how hard it is to get going again). I was pretty happy until 3.5 miles and then I suddenly thought I may have been a bit ambitious. I thought I might as well keep going to 4 miles though. 4 miles seemed a bit of a silly distance to stop at though and I wasn’t anywhere sensible to come off the canal to head home so I kept going. I had to keep telling myself that one I got to 5 miles I could stop. 5 miles is respectable. I got to 5 miles and decided that I could probably run for another 12 minutes and therefore get to 6 miles – so I did.

20151209_135624[1]
My ‘I just ran 6 mile and there’s something distracting to my left’ face

Then I walked the 2.5 mile loop from where I was to feed sheep and get home.

In other news – the official race guide for the marathon has been released, I have printed it and the waiver forms. I got stupidly excited about being in corrall J and I have done 2 lots of yoga and 80 squats today. More on the race guide etc next time. It’s well passed my bedtime!

Numbers

Jess GuthLeave a comment

24471. Yep, 24471, that’s me. That’s my bib number for this crazy adventure. 2-4-4-7-1. It’s a number I think I can make friends with, I already have. It’s a number that doesn’t put me right at the back. It’s a good number. Here are some others:

30 – days until the marathon weekend madness begins

34  – days until marathon day

29  – days until we fly out

38 – weeks of training  – which means about 45 ish weeks since I started running again

450 – approximate miles run in training

93 – approximate miles left on the training plan

1 – number of really long runs left on training plan

15 – number of runs left on training plan

492.90 – amount of money raised online so far. (This is a number I’m happy to see increase – you can donate here )