Wednesday, February 17, 2010

Marathon Musings

I loved reading all of the comments on my Tricia post.....I have some more profiles in mind so stay tuned!

It always amazes me how you can have one great run, and the very next can be lousy. My Mom is here for a visit this week, so I was able to get outside today for a run. It was snowing steadily, but 33 degrees, so I layered up and started looking for my gloves. I figured they were in my Jeep, which is a disgraceful mess. Found one, and was digging around, wasting time, then I looked down and realized I was holding both gloves. Typical me.

The snow was deeper than I thought, and I had to keep stopping to dig out the snow that was packed under my Yak Trax, which got old fast. I've given up using my ipod for outdoor runs, I took Mike's ipod shuffle. Listened to the Beastie Boys for a while, but lost steam when a bunch of mellow songs came on. I'm all for the Grateful Dead and Bob Dylan, but not when I'm running. After a while I felt like I was just shuffling through the snow, so I switched to the road, but got nervous again about cars sliding into me, so I went back on the trail. It was frustrating, but I ended up doing five miles.

This was such a contrast to my run last Saturday, I met up with the Lake Effect group. I ran with a couple new friends, who run about a 10 minute mile, so we had a great pace going. It was windy at first, but we got right into it, and nailed the scary hill. It was one of those runs where I could have kept going and going, but we headed back, after what I thought was four miles...turned out we did 5.8! I think I'm getting used to this chatting while running thing, it was a fun run.

I won't find out about the NYC Marathon until the end of March, so I decided on a backup plan. If I don't make it into NY, I decided I'll run the Rochester Full Marathon in September. I ran the half last year. Rochester is special to me, I lived there for five years, and go back often to visit friends. The Half was so much fun, I feel like I almost have to do the full. I can start a 26 week training plan in March, to be ready by fall. So that's that! My first full marathon will either be in Rochester, NY in September or I'll follow in my Dad's footsteps and run NYC in November. Whoo hoo!

I haven't posted many pictured of myself lately, so here I am before today's run. I look a little crabby, but I was dealing with flash issues.

18 comments:

tanya said...

After I ran the Portland marathon in Oct I decided that I would have a break and start running in March again. I'm running a half marathon in July and then the full in October again. I am actually really looking forward to running in a few weeks. I'll probably run a few fun runs too. Running is a strange thing. Some days you run great and others just yucky. All you can do is train and not give yourself a hard time when it doesn't turn out as well as you hoped. Happy running.

ajh said...

It's great to have some definite plans made. Good for you. The outside run sounds frustrating. I had to laugh at the gloves story. I was searching for my cell phone as I was talking on it. Nuts!

J said...

Wow exciting news about the marathon. Looks like a win win situation! I sent you an email about the Rochester marathon too just fyi.

Unknown said...

Hello skinny jeans!! I think it's fantastic that you are going to train for a full. One of these days we will get around to running together!!

Emily said...

I think chatting while running makes SUCH a difference! The miles just fly by and you have a blast while you run!

Pining for Pinterest said...

You look awesome in your picture!!! Way to go on the run :-)

Mary Poppins in Heels said...

Have fun, stay warm!

And, yeah, what Staci said, you look great in your picture!

Katie said...

Great pic! Did you like running the half in Roch? I may need to find a new half to run in the area since my guy may be going overseas, which makes the VB half kind of inconvenient...

kristen said...

That's funny. I do that stupid stuff all the time with my sunglasses on my head, or searching high and low for my cell phone that's been in my pocket the whole time. Duh!

Yay for fall marathons! That's awesome.

Liz Mays said...

I love how dedicated and goal oriented you are! I admire you!

Mrs. M said...

Glad you were able to get out for some runs!

Mandee said...

You look great!
It's great that you are able to get out and run even in the snow! Enjoy your visit with your Mom! :)

J said...

I sent the email to MESBaker (at) gmail (dot) com
is that correct?

just send me a quick note at morningrunner12 (at) gmail (dot) com and ill resend it.

Katie said...

Maybe reading your blog will get me back out again...I was doing soooo great running and then, I got sick, hurt my back and then...just never went out again. It's been almost six months and I'm ready to go.

I am following you from MBC. Thanks for my inspiration today!

NY Wolve said...

I admire the effort: I don't even try to run in the snow. I figured out that I have run outside exactly twice this year. The treadmill may be boring, but it is a lot easier!

Good luck getting int NY Marathon!

Anonymous Fat Girl said...

Great pic - you look fab! :)

Mel -Tall Mom on the Run said...

Always good to have a backup plan :) I HOPE you get into NYC

ARUNA said...

Stopping by from Peggy's blog. U have wonderful space here!!