June 2020 Monthly Running Challenge

Joining a bit late , but hoping to get 10 miles per week in.

i don't like heat. speed demon doesn't like heat. it's been hot. but i managed to get in 3.3 miles
it would have been faster but i was monitoring speed demon's panting.
i've been busy. mulching. lawn mower shopping. saved a fledgling from speed demon. working on the inside of the house. got a slip cover, curtains, curtain rods. looking for a new tv. foster dog got adopted. teaching classes. i'm tired.

Race report: virtual Grandma's Marathon (seventh marathon overall, first unsupported)

I did it! Overall, it went really well. I set a specific start time for myself to try to replicate the actual race experience and to avoid afternoon humidity/possible storms, so I woke up and was on the road by 6:45 AM. I put a lot of thought into picking the course and finally went with my normal ten mile out-and-back route (which is along the Mississippi River), stopping by the lobby of my apartment building to fill my water bottles and use the restroom, and then doing my normal three mile out and back loop. Advantages: I knew the course really well, it's pretty flat, and I enjoy the scenery. Also, if I needed some minor medical care like vaseline or a band-aid, I could pop up to my apartment. I was worried about the psychological impact of stopping by my apartment building at mile 20 - what if I was hurting or tired and decided to quit? In the end I decided to trust myself and have confidence I could do it.

Miles 1-10: I was worried about the lack of race excitement, but I was actually pretty pumped. These were the miles where I had to keep telling myself to slow down. It helped that I was seeing lots of other runners and cyclists (not an unsafe number, but just enough to feel like I wasn't alone). I was feeling so good that I almost didn't turn around at mile ten because I thought I could probably just do a pure out-and-back. But I decided against it because I wasn't sure where I could get more water, I wasn't exactly sure of what lay ahead in the next three miles, and I decided I needed to trust my plan.

Miles 10-20: This was a perfect steady ten mile chunk. I didn't have to think much to maintain my pace. I was purely in the zone and was grateful for how closely I'd stuck to my training plan because it was one of the easier mile 10-20 experiences I've had in a marathon. I did two twenty milers during this particular training and I could tell that it had really helped me.

Mile 20: Back home! My bottles had emptied around mile 18, so this was nice. I was getting excited about feeling close to the end (for some reason I always forgot how hard the last six miles usually are, which explains why I keep running marathons) so I had absolutely no problems hitting the road again. I think overall I spent about five-six minutes in the lobby, but I forgot to time it.

Mile 21-22: Woo hoo, I feel great! I'm going to do it! I don't even care that I'm soaked because the humidity is high. I usually hit the wall after mile twenty but clearly this time I won't hit a wall at all and ---

Mile 22-26: Oh no, what have I done? When will this be over? Mile 22-23 was the worst because I was still running away from my house. The only thing that kept me going was that I wasn't going to be the dope who almost ran a marathon but didn't because she just didn't want to run a couple more miles. In retrospect, I probably should have brought one more Gu pack - I took in about 500 calories overall (200 in Tailwind, 200 in Gu, and 110 in Swedish Fish) during the race and that left me with a gap that was a bit too long towards the end. Once I turned around around mile 23 it got mentally easier (after all, I did have to get home somehow), but physically it was rough. I didn't have cramping (which is something I often experience during a marathon), but the tops of my feet hurt and I just wanted to not be running anymore. Once I got back to my building, I did one more loop around the block to complete the marathon distance and then I was done!

Final time: 4:48:33. I was hoping for 4:30, but given the humidity and it being just me, I'm not at all unhappy. If it wasn't for the weirdness of this year, I don't think I ever would have thought of doing this and knowing that I *could*, that's a big deal. It took me way outside my comfort zone.

My tips for anyone contemplating this:

1. Having a specific start time helped me capture a bit of race spirit.
2. If you're the kind of person who is taking advantage of course offerings like fruit or little cups of beer or candy, make sure you're accounting for the absence of those when you're running an unsupported race. I am the kind of person who usually takes in 1-300 calories of "fun stuff" during a typical marathon and I didn't think about how the lack of those would impact my fueling during the last six miles.


6/1: 1.75m
6/2: 5.5m
6/3: 6m
6/4: 5m
6/5: 2m
6/6: 10.5m
6/7: 11.75m
6/8: 1.75m, 1.25m
6/9: 4m
6/10: 2.25m
6/11: 4m
6/12: 2m
6/13: 3m
6/14: 8m
6/15: 1.5m
6/16: 3.75m
6/17: 4m
6/18: 3m
6/19: 5.5m
6/20: 2.25m
6/21: 26.25m
6/22: 1.75m