Graduation Day

And no I’m not talking about graduation from college. I mean graduation from the IV.

Cool nettting so the IV doesn't catch on anything. I was going to post a pic of the actual IV but my friend told me that not everyone is fascinated with this stuff!

Yesterday when I hit up the ER the doc (who had seen me before luckily so he had a baseline of how it had been previously) told me that even though we were “fighting and winning the battle” (legit his words and he’s a short little man with fuzzy hair haha) he wanted to give me another 24 hours of the IV.  Annoying but I can’t argue with his logic.  Annoying though because it meant another 1300, 2200 and 0500 (this morning) treatments.

So I got up at 0430 (after going to be after midnight! ugh!) and went to the ER.  As much as it sucked getting up with so little sleep and having the extra 3 treatments, the good thing is that I had a hot nurse to take care of me. And lack of sleep sometimes makes me a bit punchy so there may have been some flirting haha. Too bad that the only time I’d ever see him again is if I get sent to the ER.  Bummer

But I got cleared to stop the IV.  I’m on a 7 day oral form of the IV antibiotic in addition to the other oral I’m on.  And since antibiotics are time sensitive in dosage I had to write out a schedule of when to take the drugs and tape it to the bottles because there are so many that I have to take over the course of 24 hours haha!

I did ask when I could return to running.  My body is really recovered from Boston and I’m itching to go. The short answer is not soon.  The infection was really really bad and the doctor told me to wait until the open wound on my toe (from draining the fluid Monday) is completely healed.  Bahhh.  And double bahhhh because I’m a slow healer in general (always have been). But as the nurse told me “You’re young so why risk messing anything up?”

SO TRUE.  Which is what you guys and people in my “real life” keep reminding me of.  And to be honest, I haven’t forgotten it.  I know that my body is still rebounding from the 16+ weeks of intense high mileage training so this downtime is going to be amazing.  I can almost feel myself  getting stronger in fact.  And I can feel that I’m getting back in touch with my bodies needs.  I totally think that my mind and the goal of Boston took over for awhile and I lost that ability to be tuned into my body.

But it still sucks that I have this pent up energy so I did also ask about other activities and the short answer is: not yet.  There is still some redness in the leg and toe, very faint but it indicates that the infection isn’t 100% gone.  I’m hoping that within the next day or so my leg looks 100% normal because, as much as the rest and “relaxation” (because relaxation just isn’t in my vocabulary with < 6 days of classes left!) I’m getting a little stir crazy.  I’ll be able to do anything non-impact or anything that doesn’t pinch/rub hard my big toe (aka the one that this all started with).

On a different, yet still not running related note: this weekend is SPRING WEEKEND! The weather, which has of late been highs of 40* (we even had frost the other morning!) is going to be upper 70s to low 80s.  Perfect for sitting outside and celebrating spring.  There are live bands, games, face painting, inflatable jumping thingy.  Basically a carnival type thing.  AKA drinking from Thursday night and not stopping until Sunday night.  I know of quite a few people who don’t have a sober moment over those days.

Unfortunately this year I will be unable to participate because I get violently ill when I mix alcohol and antibiotics.  Boo.  Not that I’m a huge drinker anyway but having the *option* to taken away from me is a bummer.  And it’s not as though I can go easy on the stuff and be okay.  Literally one glass of wine is enough to make me very unhappy.

But it’s okay because I’ll still have fun.  Assuming I can finish all the work I have in front of me.  Because, with no more ER trips, I don’t have a set time where the only thing I can really do is homework.  I had been so productive during those trips.  Both on the school work front and fun reading.  I read 4 books over the course of the 4 days I was there.  I know I’m a fast reader but I think the fastest of those books was due more from the waiting time 😉

….Okay so I wrote all that this morning then went and finished my work. Yippee! Off to go enjoy the blustery weather.  The physics club is going to a pub in about 20 minutes because an alum (and one of my good friends) is visiting…so duh on the pub hahah.  Obviously I can’t drink like I said but it’s still going to be a blast 🙂

Enjoy the rest of your Thursdays and the upcoming weekend!

Oh Hey

Remember me? Guess I fell off the face of the planet for a second with all my work catch-up and life stuff. And warning, it may happen again in the next few weeks so if I go on a hiatus don’t be alarmed.

I really haven’t felt like blogging because, while still on a semi-Boston high, I have only run two 7 milers since the race.  Which I guess is fine. I really wanted to have run more this week but I do have a good reason for that. As well as not being good at responding to comments or emails and commenting on blogs. Or even keeping up with my schoolwork!

AKA I got cellulitis. Again.  I don’t think I was blogging way back when I had it for the first time in January ’09 but it’s the same deal now but just in a different toe and even a different foot. For those of you who aren’t medically attune cellulitis is the inflammation of connective tissue with severe inflammation in the skin.  It’s most commonly in the legs and feet and needs antibiotics to get better.

Apparently I had/have a bad case as my big toe was red on Sunday morning and by Sunday afternoon I had streaking up into my mid-quad.  Yeah, not to good.  So my friends basically kidnapped me to the ER (I was tutoring and wanted to finish my shift. Oh priorities) and I was started on I.V. antibiotics.

That was Sunday night and as I type this right now (Tuesday afternoon) I’ve had 6 rounds of the antibiotics.  The intense pain from the swelling has subsided and the bright red coloring is fading slowly.  Good thing too.  So far I’ve only been an outpatient, if (at my 0530 round) I hadn’t shown signs of getting better, guess who was going to be admitted to the hospital? Yeah.  Me.

But that wasn’t the case and I’m still an outpatient. It was a close call too.  Last night at the ER the doctor wanted to admit me then and there (because the streaking had reached my groin and lymph nodes) and I fought tooth and nail to sleep the night in my own bed.

I have another round of I.V. stuff tonight at 2200 and then again tomorrow at 0600, at which time I get re-evaluated to see if I can take the I.V. that’s currently in my arm out and go on another oral antibiotic.  Yes that’s right, *another*. As in I was prescribed one this morning in addition to the I.V. bags. And antibiotics kill all bacteria if you get my drift…

So if you could send positive vibes my way that’d be great.  I’m running on no sleep (Monday = 0430 wakeup and 0200 Tuesday AM bedtime with a Tuesday wake up at 0500)…well I guess I’m not really running at the moment but you get the idea.

And since this is a running blog, not a bitch and moan about infections blog, I debated whether or not to post this about my ailment.  BUT I obviously did.  Because I want EVERYONE to be really careful about cuts!! And blisters!! This infection started out as a cut on my big toe and I clearly didn’t tend to it well enough (or possibly for long enough because I definitely was attentive when I got it).

But enough about my toe! Since I’m not running at all (or even working out.  Which means MM = going stir crazy) I’m going to talk about Boston some more.  As in this past week, like I think I mentioned over the weekend, so many people have been congratulating me.  Which is still really good (and I’m clearly still wearing the jacket haha).  But the other night at the dining hall my area coordinator stopped me and congratulated me and was saying that at one of the Student Life meetings, the staff was talking about me and how awesome I did.  Way cool 🙂

AND since I’m wearing my jacket EVERYWHERE I’ve been talking about the race to the staff at the ER.  And, because everyone loves compliments, I’ve been basking in the glow of all the congrats and bug eyes when I tell them my time (sure for some of you it might not be impressive but to these guys it was/has been).  And in a it’s-a-small-world moment one of my nurses today actually *saw* me there at the finish line.  Seriously.  She was able to tell me exactly where it was and who I was with.  I guess she was leaving the Sox game at the same time I was hanging out with my family at the end.  I mean, with all the people in the city of Boston (not to mention all the people showing up for Marathon Monday) she was able to remember me.  So weird but cool in a way too.

Alright.  Need to go lay down and relax.  Per doctors orders.  Send some good vibes for that too because I am soooo New England and relax isn’t exactly in my vocabulary.

Giveaways from Jenna and Matt

Still High

Yeah so I still don’t have much to say lately on the topic of running as I’m not training anymore.  I’m still high off of Boston though 🙂

And still wearing the jacket 8)

My body still seems to feel good post-race. I’ve been sleeping a lot lately, which is really good for my body.  Sleep post-race is just as important as pre-race because sleep is when the body heals and recoups.  Clearly running racing 26.2 miles takes its toll on the body.  Even D+5.   It’s obviously good physically for me to be clocking out early but it’s not so good for my grades.

But then again I’m still riding the Boston good vibes because I’m not fighting myself to stay up (I don’t think I could either if I really wanted to).  Plus the good vibes are also causing me to chill out a bit because I’m not as stressed about getting it all done.  I know it’ll get done.  And in fact I’m typing this as a short break from all the work.  I’ve been going at it since 1000 with only a half hour break for lunch!

Friday I did some more elliptical, easy manual stuff.  The effort was like the past few days too, it felt easy and effortless to do this session and I think that the next session will be something more challenging by changing the incline and/or resistance.  I reintroduced doing core work yesterday too.  It had been a week since my last session and, like most things in life, it’s inertial.  The longer I go without it the harder it is to make myself dedicate the 15-20 minutes to it.

As for Saturday…you know how I’m in a “no running” week because of all the overtraining stuff.  Well it’s more like a “no running 4 days”.  Because I wanted to get out an run today.  I’m not quite sure what got into me but the weather was beautiful when I woke up (~50*), bright and sunny with no wind.  I’ve been really good resisting all this week with weather like that and it’s suppose to rain the next few days so….

I went running for the first time post-Boston.  Again, my body is feeling great and my shins have no tenderness in them.  So I hit the streets for 7 miles.  My quads did feel fatigued by the end so I’m likely going to finish out my “no running” week with, go figure, no running. 7 miles was probably a bit too ambitious for my first run back but like I said my body no longer feels all beat up.

The run was also slow but no more so than my easy/recovery runs during the training cycles so, while seeing slowness sucks, I’m okay with it.  It was just so much fun to be out there and LOVE running.  In the weeks before the marathon, moreso the Monster Month weeks, I never really craved to go out and run.  Yes I felt amazing during and after but getting out there door? Yeah, I’d stand for a couple minutes at the entrance to my building before heading out.

Today (and even in the week before the race when I was doing really short easy stuff)? I was raring to go out and just *run*.  I think I mentioned this in my race recap but racing Boston re-ignited my passion for running.  I distinctly remember thinking at some points that “I love running. This is why I love running.” And today was no different.  Every step was fun.  Listening to the birds and wildlife was fun.

I finished the run, yes with fatigued quads, but with that light feeling that I just did something I love.  It’s hard to describe but I’m sure lots of you know what I’m talking about.  Not a runner’s high but the feeling that I just spent an hour or so doing something for *me* and doing something that was purely for me.

The rest of today is going to be spent finishing up my work as well (hopefully getting outside to do that! Hate to waste this day inside) as doing some babying to my body.  Lots of stretching and icing and massaging.  Maybe I can get one of the physics boys to help out with that last one 😉

Giveaways: Tricia and ErikaH and Emily

T+3

Warning: this post started out all concise but became a bit rambling.  I blame it on my dreading to do the mountain of work in front of me haha.

I still haven’t changed the “D-Day counter” on my phone screen yet.  I initially set it about 100 days out from Boston and it said “Boston : ) D-X” just as a nice reminder that, you know, I was running a marathon in X days.

Now it says “Boston : ) D+X”  as a nice reminder that, you know, I ran a marathon X days ago.

And I’m still so on cloud nine.  And a HUGE thanks to all the continued support I’ve gotten from you guys.  I have just been blown away by all your words.  Knowing that I’m part of such a great community really makes me smile and feel all warm and fuzzy.

Also a warm and fuzzy feeling? All the support I’ve gotten on campus.  I was totally blown away from that too.  I really didn’t advertise that I was running Boston to many people.  I wasn’t secretive about it or anything and if someone asked me about it I readily talked about it. But I didn’t shout from the rooftops or anything. Granted it’s hard to not notice someone who is always running, especially on a campus as small as mine.

I was totally surprised how many people– people that I know well, duh, I was kind of expecting them to track me or look me up as well as people that I don’t know well — already knew about it and were asking me how I did.  Of course the fact that I am still wearing my jacket alerts them to it.  But the fact that a lot of them actually followed me on race day, and even tried to find my name in the paper on Tuesday, just was awesome.  And one of my friends decorated my door with a HUGE congrats poster which made me well up a bit when I got back to campus.

Since the race ended I’ve just been basking in the glory.  I’ve been in such a great mood and smiling to myself a lot.  I doubt this feeling will fade anytime soon. Or at least I hope to hell not.  And when people ask how I did I launch into everything and I’m sure they regret even opening their mouths haha!

The natural question you guys might have is “how are you physically feeling?” (the next one might be “what’s next?” and I’m trying to come up with that.  But right now? Basking for a good long while 8) ).  Honestly? Not too bad.  Post-Providence last year I didn’t feel banged up AT ALL.  No soreness and I was able to run some miles the next day.

This time around I’m sore but I can do stairs, sit down normally etc.  Here’s the breakdown by day

Monday was tough in general, once my body stopped moving to sit (or even stand still) the leg-os wanted to cramp up.  Going down stairs was tough, I keep remembering with a laugh how my mom had to support 90% of my body going on to the T 🙂  And that night I couldn’t sleep a wink.  And it’s not because of excitement or anything.  My legs just didn’t want to be motionless.  So I laid in bed really really wanting to nod off but couldn’t.  Typical of any type of hard effort but annoying.

Also annoying that night? That I couldn’t regulate my body temperature so I went from soaking my sheets in sweat to cold and clammy.  Again to be semi-expected after such a hard effort.

Tuesday wasn’t as bad as Monday at all.  My hips, IT band, calves and hammys were a bit sore and tight.  But I could walk down stairs normally and even attempt to lower myself to sit without pain.  The legs still didn’t really like to sit still all that much and the drive back to campus was rough when I got out of the car. In terms of sleep, I slept decently that night.  I even nodded off during a commercial break of LOST.  I never do that kind of stuff in general, let alone during LOST.

Wednesday and the soreness was disappearing. I had PT that day and we didn’t do any of the exercises. Because, while the rest of my body was only semi-sore, my shins? Well they are wicked tight.  Like beyond wicked tight.  Especially my left one, which is the one that was giving me trouble lately.  Some self-massage has helped and I had PT on Wednesday and all we did was stretch, massage, ice and stim.  I think that I’m going to keep going to PT next week and then stop.  I have enough exercises to do on my own and I’m obviously not going to be running the volume that I have been.

Thursday rolls around and the only thing that is tight is that damn left shin.  Everything else feels good to go. I guess I did something right with my training and recovery though as I can walk without limping and can carry out my life normally. If you’d look at me, you wouldn’t guess that I just ran 26.2 miles at a PR pace on Monday.

Sleep sure does feel amazing too.  I’ve been crashing hard (aside from Monday).  Annoying because I have to play major catch up with work and I can’t really afford to sleep right now.  But the body wants what the body wants.  And it also wants food. My appetite is still in full force.

And the plan for this week is no running at all.  Granted I’m sure many of you would think that wanting to run after a marathon is crazy talk.  But I know that my body will likely be ready within 3-4 days post-race to run.  But since I am SO incredibly overtrained my doctor has advised me to not run for at least a week.  We’re going to reevaluate after this weekend.  Kind of a bummer because the weather has been gorgeous this week.

I can, however, do some XT-ing in order to keep the blood moving post-race and fight off excess soreness.  On Wednesday I did a short elliptical session.  I didn’t really change much in the elliptical routine (same level/resistance) but it felt so much easier than that type of session did pre-race.  Interesting.  I’m not quite sure why but I didn’t feel like I was pushing that hard at all and I easily was going faster.  Don’t worry though, I kept checking my HR and it wasn’t elevated too much (~60% max). Same thing with this morning (Thursday) too.  Not that I’m complaining. Guess I’m recovering nicely 🙂

I figure I’ll keep doing these types of sessions throughout the week and weekend, adjusting my effort as I see fit.  I want to get in a spin session at some point but I think that, even though my cardiovascular system doesn’t feel strained right now, the smart thing to do is hold off on spin because that gets my heart pumping.

So I’m going to be pretty boring this week.  At least in the running/working out department.  After taking a 4 day weekend I’ve got plenty to do in the work side of my life.  Gotta get cracking on it though because I was informed the other day that after this week there are only 2 more weeks of classes.  Eeeeeek! And I’ve had no desire to do work.  I had an exam Wednesday morning but I just couldn’t bring myself to study.  So I didn’t.  I don’t think it went too badly though.

So I’m off to try and play catch up with life.  Hope everyone enjoys the day! Aside from my mountain of work I plan on trying to get outside.  It’s really pretty out and Earth day after all 🙂

Check out the giveaways EatMoveLove and Bobbi and Mel and HealthHappinessAndHope are having!

Boston Marathon 2010: Race Report

Warning: Very long. Like beyond normal long.  Haha.  But I’m trying to type a lot of this up Monday night.  My eyes are bleary (so sorry for any typing / grammatical stuff — although correct it as it’s going as a race report link!), 24 is almost on but I want to get lots of this out while it’s still fresh.  And clearly I have a lot to say. Like always 🙂

BUT thanks for all your support.  I really feel like you guys have my back, have felt my pain and felt my good times too. Y’all are awesome! It was so amazing reading your comments here, FB messages, RWOL comments and emails.  Granted I read all of them post race but I felt so loved and cared for!

So many emotions going through me right now.

And somewhat surprisingly disappointment isn’t the first.

Sheer happiness and exuberance is. I don’t think I’ve smiled or had as much fun as I did today. Seriously.  I was smiling the whole damn 26.2 miles. No joke.

But let me back up and make you read my report before you see how I did.  Although I know many of you from other networking sites so you likely already know. Especially since there were many who decided to let it out how I did before me. Jerks.  Can’t be too mad though because it just means everyone was excited 😉

And sorry for the lack of pictures.  I think I set the bar too high after my expo post.

Last night was pure hell.  Mentally I was playing games with myself.  Not that I didn’t train hard enough (obviously that wasn’t the case given my monster monthS) but that I trained too hard.  My doctor and I have concluded that I am WAY overtrained and that along with the culmination of my shin splints (an obvious overuse thing given how late they cropped up) made me worry.  And I’m not going to lie, as I was packing my stuff and laying out my race outfit I was thinking that I really shouldn’t even run. For real.  Those thoughts crossed my mind.

But they were just fears and there was no way I was NOT going to run. So I set my alarm for 0514, ate some saltines, hopped into a hot shower to shave then hopped into bed at 2200.  Later than I would have liked (I wanted time off my feet), but even then I had to read for 45 minutes or so before I was anywhere near ready to nod off.

The 6 or so hours that I was asleep passed uneventfully.  A good thing unlike a week ago when I had a dream that the ax was coming down from my doctor and I had to pull out.

I pretty much jumped out of bed and set about getting stuff 100% ready to leave. And I also committed a racing sin: I tried something new on race day.  Actually a few things food-wise but this was number one: I ate a *slightly* different breakfast.  I wasn’t worried though because, although my stomach is finicky, it’s mostly annoyed with timing rather than the type of food.  So as long as I finished eating ~2 hours before the start I knew I was good.  Plus my bowels have been wicked regular lately thanks to a hefty dose of antibiotics.  Oops if TMI there.

Unlike many runners I was lucky to get mi madre to drive me to Hopkington. I live ~40 minutes away from it so it made more sense than traveling into the city only to travel out of it. We needed to leave by 0615 in order to make sure she got out of the town before the roads got shut down.

Oh and I made a pre-Boston mix.  I made it a bit on the long side but these are the songs that I listened to on the drive:

• Walk This Way. Aerosmith
• I Got A Feeling. Black Eyed Peas
• Mr. Policeman. Brad Paisely
• Crazy Bitch. Buckeye Cherry
• Crazy Dreams. Carrie Underwood
• Rocky Road to Dublin. Dropkick Murphys
• Crazy Town. Jason Aldean
• Tik Tok. Ke$ha
• Bad Romance. Lady Gaga
• Electric Feel. MGMT

And as I left the comfort of my mom’s car I was signing that last one.  Which I am obsessed with at the moment so it was a good thing.

I didn’t bring my camera with me (too paranoid about me losing it) so I don’t have any pictures of the Athlete’s village.  Nor did I think to bring any magazines seeing as how I got there so early.  But it was okay.  Time actually passed pretty quickly.  Surprising given how cold I was.  I was very happy I layered up! Note on the weather: ~42* at the start.  ~58* at the finish. Slight tail-wind.  Partly cloudy.  Couldn’t have asked for better weather.

Around 0930 Alison and Donna, whom I know from RW, showed up and we hung out (mostly in the bathroom lines ha!) until race time.  It was awesome to meet them after so much chatting on RW!

Around 1015 we headed to the start (I was in wave 2 with the 1030 start).  I decided to jump back a corral to hang with Alison.  It’s chip timing so I wasn’t worried about my time and both of us were nursing injuries and planned to start out conservatively. And I remember joking around how the elite women were likely halfway by then HA.

The first mile was 8:45 which is faster than I went out last year in Providence.  But no pain from the shins and I was feeling good.  Mile 2 was about 8:10 which felt good but I knew that it was downhill.  At this point Alison and I parted ways and I tried to soak up the experience. I still wasn’t sure what I could expect from myself but I knew that I needed to actually race like I wrote yesterday.

Miles 1-10 were about the same.  Just trying to lock in a solid pace that would put me in a good position to stay strong throughout.  There were the typical early mile doubts of whether I could do it.  Nothing to make me seriously consider pulling out or anything.  But knowing you have so much left isn’t comforting.  At all. I don’t have the splits but I did check my watch after every mile which isn’t something I normally do.  I know I passed mile 10 in 1:23.xx.  Right on tap to BQ again. Which was a pleasant thought.

Around the halfway point I passed through Wellesley.  And man, everything they say about those girls is right.  It was AWESOME to have them SCREAMING at you.  And to read some of their signs was hilarious.  All variations on the same theme “Kiss Me I’m…” My favorite? “Kiss me I’m not going to tell your wife”

So they gave me a boost.  And knowing you’re halfway there is a boost in and of itself.  My split at the half? Roughly 1:48.  Slightly under BQ pace.  Excellent.

Post-Wellesley I don’t remember much until Newton. Until mile 17. And the only reason that sticks out is because Powerbar was giving out gels. I don’t do gels but it was a reminder to take a small Larabar for fuel.  I wasn’t sure if I needed it but it was late in the game and figured an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure.  The flavor I had was Lemon Zest.  And it tasted pretty good.

And yes, this was food mistake two.  I trained pretty improperly but never taking in fuel or water during any of my training runs.  But granola-like substances have always been good to my stomach so when I packed them I wasn’t worried.

Then came Newton.  Apparently there are 4 of them that start at mile 18 and culminate with Heartbreak at mile 21.  I honestly didn’t notice the first one until the guy next to me said “One down 3 to go”.  The next one wasn’t really a hill in my eyes, at least the uphill.  The downhill was rough.  I blame it on the lack of hills in my area and relying on the TM for ’em.  No downhills on that sucker.  The third was a bit tougher but it was the Comm Ave hill that I ran with Lacey back in January. Which was cool that I’d already done it.  Even Heartbreak wasn’t that bad.  There was a guy with a mike up at the top celebrating all of us for getting to the top which was cool.  (And Lacey: bummer you missed me! And that I missed you! I was so looking forward from miles 15-20 to seeing you and having you help pace me.)

And he telling us that the rest (~5.2) was all downhill from there.  Lies.  Because any slight incline was agony to me.  Not any type of sharp pain but the aches that come with running 21 miles and running them hard.  I don’t have mile splits for these guys but glancing at the mile clocks was telling me that I was around 8:00-8:30 pace.   And I know that at mile 20 my time was 2:45.xx.  Which made me happy.  Sure I pretty much knew that my “A” goal was unattainable but I was fairly confident that if I could hold pace or slightly increase then a PR was possible.

But those last 5.2 miles were agony.  I took a Peanut Butter Cookie LaraBar around mile 23 and just gutted it out.  I have no idea if I slowed down / by how much but the effort to keep going was so great.  My hips were starting to get really sore and it became a mental game of “just get to the next mile” and “only X left. You’ve done this before and it was only a fraction of a typical run”.

I don’t really know what mile you see the Citgo sign but anyone who tells you that it’s a sign from God is lying.  Maybe it’s because I’m not familiar with the Boston course but it was like it was taunting me. But the crowd support in Boston rocks (for the entire course too) and that was a boost.  I definitely received a bunch of high-5s.  And I could tell that the party had definitely been going on for awhile with some of those college students ha!

Eventually there was a marker that said one mile left and I tried to turn up the heat.  Although I didn’t increase my speed much (if at all) I definitely didn’t lose any.  I just went for it.  At this point a PR was a legit possibility even though 3:29.59 was out of the question.

As I turned onto Boylston Street (and could actually see the finish at this point!!)  my dad (whom I hadn’t seen) starts BELLOWING my name.  LOVE IT.  Although I didn’t love the fact I almost took a spill trying to turn my head and wave.  But it was awesome to see him and have that lift to gut out the last few hundred meters.

Because my friends (the 3 out of a billion who said they were going to show up) and my mom and sibs missed me.  They were all standing on Boylston near the end and MISSED me.  Haha.  My mom was really worried that my shins were acting up and when I called them after getting my bag my sister was like “uhhhhh you’re done?” hahaha.

But the finish!  I pushed so. freaking. hard.  I didn’t look at my watch.  Just focused on the crossing that line and throwing my hands up for the camera.  Hopefully a good ass picture comes out of it because my mom sure as heck didn’t get one 😉

I knew based on the clock time that I BQ’d again.  And according to my watch I PR’d.  But I didn’t know by how much until I got home.  And the result is

3:35.53

Holler atcha girl 🙂

And from the website here are the 5k splits if you’re into that

• 5k        26.17
  
• 10k     52.21
  
• 15k    1:17.53
  
• 20k   1:43.40
  
• Half   1:49.11
  
• 25k    2:08.45
  
• 30k    2:34.20
  
• 35k    2:59.52
  
• 40k    3:24.48
  
• DONE 3:35.53

Pace: 8:14

Overall place: 8512 (no idea out of how many)
Gender: 1957
AG:  1459

I haven’t run the 5k splits all the way but it looks like negative splits.  My MO.  And I like it 🙂

Post race my legs were shaky.  I found the medic tent and got both shins wrapped in ice.  Down a full water bottle (food/fuel mistake 3: no water all 26.2 miles.  Going to have a WICKED dehydration hangover tomorrow!).  Got wrapped in a mylar blanket.  Grabbed my post-race goodies.  And headed to the buses to get my checked back.

I so needed to keep moving.  Standing still was not an option as much as it sounded to attractive.  Unfortunately I had to stand still in the bus line.  And I started to get woozy.  Luckily I was able to avoid hitting the pavement but I was seeing starts for a minute.  Totally rectified after I got some carbs into me.

I found my mom and sibs and chowed down a bit.  We needed to catch a train back home so we couldn’t stay long and I almost missed seeing some of my friends who were looking for me.  They were troopers and walked us to the T so we could chat and they made me a wicked cool picture:

We made it back to the house really easily although I did NOT want to sit down on the train.  But the conductor made me.  Blah.  Once we got home my mom made my favorite meal and then we all went out for ice cream.  When I walked into the house though I saw this:

Plus I decided to skip my 0830 class tomorrow so I could sleep in Tuesday / not have to drive back to school Monday night.  I emailed both the TA (who teaches Tuesdays) and she was cool with it as long as I checked with my professor who was also cool with it saying it was a “special exception”.  So yay 🙂

AND I’m getting a short blurb in my local newspaper 🙂

So a pretty freaking awesome day.  And as I type this it’s late Monday night and I have yet to take off my medal OR the jacket.

And I’ll leave you with the one picture that my mom did take post race

It’s Race Day

By the time you read this I will be running racing the Boston Marathon.  And maybe having finished the race depending on when you guys typically read my blog. But, as I sit on my couch at 1600 the night (day?) before, I scheduled to put this post up at 1030.  When I, theoretically, begin to race (who knows when I actually cross the start line though haha)

Yes I said RACING.  I decided that I’m going to shoot for that big PR.  Sitting here, ice on the shins and ibuprofen coursing through my system, I’m trying to push through my fears and go for it.

I definitely think that the physical fears for me are valid.  Especially after feeling so much pain after Eastern States, I honestly thought I had a stress fracture in my leg after crossing the finish line.  Totally not the case (my mind tends to jump to the worst — always) but something to keep in mind that, as Lacey told me “shin splints are pre-stress fractures”.  So the physical worries are totally there.

Even 100% healthy cutting 7 minutes and 59 seconds from my debut would be tough but I need to just RUN. And preferably in the manner that I’ve been dreaming of.

But I’ve decided (and having lots of time to do so today sitting on my booty) that, while I need to acknowledge that my body might have limitations Monday and be in legit pain, I can’t hide behind them. Which I think I’ve been doing a bit and mentality and self-doubt is my biggest issue (then again it’s the same for Kara Goucher and she pretty much rocks). And some of you *cough*Rebecca*cough* have pretty much called me on it. Nicely though 😉

Therefore I am taking your advice and throwing caution to the wind.  It could end up an huge victory or a wicked big disaster.  Either way I’m going to “nut up or shut up”.

Sooooo keep me in your thoughts and send good (pain free) vibes my way  🙂

Boston Marathon 2010 Race Expo (and PICTURES)

So yesterday I got up nice and early at 0800.  Maybe for some people that’s early (aka all my friends) BUT for me (and likely lots of you who read my blog) that’s a most excellent sleep-in.

Due to worries about my shin I’ve decided to nix any “shake-out” runs this weekend.  It majorly sucks to not have a 3-5 miler to look forward to in helping me focus in on the race but hey, I’m going to do what it takes to get me, not only to the starting line, but the finish line as well.  And with the left shin being cranky lately it’s probably just as well.

Before I go into the RACE EXPO on Saturday I want to say thanks for the comments, both “go for the freaking 3:29:59” and the “enjoy the experience because you’ve worked so hard” ones.  I haven’t written off a PR or anything like that but I’m just trying to be realistic and accept that “que sera sera”.  Who knows maybe I’ll have the race of my life, maybe I’ll crash and burn.  At this point I honestly think it could go either way and it’s comforting to know that you guys have my back 🙂

Now onto this sucker:

Holler.

Like I said I got up at 0800 Saturday morning and enjoyed a leisurely breakfast as I didn’t have a workout to complete or rush around to get in before leaving.  Around 0930 (after dragging this girlie outta bed)

I told her to smile and this is what I got. Guess she wasn't awake yet

We got to the expo via the T which was the easiest thing to do.  For those of you who aren’t from Boston the T = subway = easiest way to get around.  Plus I hate driving in general so a drive into the city? Pretty basically hell on earth.  So we arrived stress-free (well almost as I though I lost la hermana at the T stop!) and ready to go.

Yay! There were so.many.people. Obviously I know that Boston has a huge field but man! Not only do I hate driving but I hate crowds.  Secretly though I was hoping that all the people would make me pumped for the race because I haven’t been feeling nervous or excited. Like I mentioned yesterday, this is normal for me but I still wanted to feel that butterfly feeling that others have been talking about.  Instead the sight of all the people was practically panic attack inducing. Especially considering my last marathon (Providence 09) was a teeny tiny race compared to this beast.  That expo was in a hotel lobby.  With about 6 sponsors and 3 vendors.  Way small.

But it was still way cool to see all the people and such.  It was funny on the T because most of the people were heading to the expo and there was a sense of camaraderie even though it was mildly stressful. I picked up my number and race bag and t-shirt

Doubles as my check-in bag for race day

With these goodies inside, plus a bunch of those annoying coupon/ads

Official program, spectator guide, water, medal and rice. Yes rice.

You'll just have to wait until post-race day (or go online) to see what this baby looks like.

Ditto about waiting ’til post-race to see my actual jacket.  The only reason I opened that packet is because I needed to make sure the size I ordered was correct.

and then hit up the massive expo.

I didn’t take many (read: any) pictures of the expo booths.  Nothing really exciting. Standard stuff.  Although I will say that I didn’t think there was enough FREE STUFF.  Major bummer.  I did walk away with some loot though.  And basically anything that was free I took huge quantities of.

Fooooood.  AKA: 4 (well 5 but I ate one) Odwalla Berries GoMega bars, 4 (lucky number duh) of the following Tea2Gos: Green Tea Pomegranate, Ice Tea Natural Lemon, Lemonade, Passionfruit, Cranberry Pomegranate, Fruit Punch, and Wild Berry Pomegranate, Planters Cranberry Almond Peanut Bar, Everlast Peanut Butter Chocolate Crunch and Everlast E-Drenaline energy shot

So enough to look impressive but given the size of the expo I was disappointed that there wasn’t more. And maybe there was and it was just hiding from me.

There was also some pain management stuff

Topricin creme which is supposed to be anti-inflammatory and help with healing.  Not too sure about it but the guy was really enthusiastic and didn’t object when I loaded my bag full of them.  I plan on using them on my shin.  Anything to help right? And pain relief patches which I plan on using in the week post-marathon.

Children’s Hospital also had a booth and I stocked up.  I’m in love with Children’s, I interned there over the summer and went there for my shin.  I was bummed that I missed the doctor who looked at my shin’s lecture but there were many other lectures on the medicine of running.  Way cool.

Children's loot, en español también

So that’s the stuff I walked away with.  And I didn’t spend a DIME on other stuff.  It helped that I had $1.34 in my wallet and no credit/debit card.  Seriously.

But my sister and I managed to have fun without spending money.  Yay. So here’s a picture medley from that

Yay I win!

Yeah, some friends of mine.

No big deal or anything

And we also found some really inspiration stuff.  Which I had hoped would feed into a sense of excitement and it sort of did.  But I’m going to have to accept that I’m a get-butterflies-on-race-day gal.

Below this guy was a wall where people signed good luck / inspirational / funny messages to other runners. I wish I could have gotten a picture of the whole wall buttttt people don’t pay attention to where they’re walking and I kept getting head shots.  (Actually I kept getting head shots all day.  Or rather my sis did (my camera beyotch). It’s miraculous she got as many as she did!)

My sister wrote one for me.  I’m not going to post the pic I took of it as it has my bib number on it and I don’t want that to be circulated (don’t know who’s reading this aka crazies) but it said “# You run this hard. Good Luck!”.  And too think that I complain about my sibs all the time! Another writer wrote “Whoop Whoop!” For whatever reason I found this funny and laughed and laughed and laughed.  Guess I’m weird.

All in all we weren’t really at the expo for all that long.  Sadly I didn’t get to see anyone that I “knew” although I did keep my eyes peeled.  And since I wasn’t in the mood to spend any money we did a few laps on the convention center and then left.  I did take a picture of myself with the race course in the background but my sis wanted me to hold up my race number so I’m not going to post the picture.  I will say that it’s my favorite one.  So if I know you (aka I’m comfortable to email and text with you and you want to see it then email me 🙂 ) But all-in-all a great day.

[EDIT: So upon the advice of Laura, who told me to photo edit scribble out the number, I realized I could just cut the lower half of me out.  So it’s basically a head shot haha]

Kind of small but you can click to enlarge

Especially a great day since when we got home we hit up the gym for a half-hour of easy cycling to shake out my legs (for me and it really was easy.  I think I only hit 7 or 8 miles) and a half hour of running (for her).  And even nicer was that we went to the gym I work at so it was all free.  Yay.  After our cardio we did an abs circuit.  It felt really great to be able to spend so much time with her today.  As much as the day was about me and Boston it felt fantastic to be with her.  I don’t get to do that often being away at school and when I lived full-time at home my relations were very contentious with la familia.

Holy Word Count Batman! But before I wrap this up (and I thank you for sticking with me in this) I also got a massage today.  Which made me miss the RW forumites dinner.  Oops.  But I think that my shin will thank me because my massage therapist (who is a good friend) really worked my shin real good.  Like I needed it.  She did other stuff with my legs but my shin reallyreallyreally needed this.  So I apologize to the RW peeps!! I didn’t get out of the massage until 1900 and after showering it was almost 2000! But I think some stuff might go down today? *FingersCrossed*

So before I get the hook from you (is that image appropriate for a blog?!) I’ll just leave you with this picture as I don’t know what my plans are for the day.  Obviously rest, ice and massage.  As well as putting together the race day outfit, affixing my chip & bib and packing stuff for race day.  Exciting stuff no?But the next time you’ll hear from me is post-race. Eeeeeeek.

And I’ll say hope you guys are having a great weekend 🙂

Just Release. And A Look Into My Academics

Hmmmm yeah. I had nothing to really say yesterday. Hence no posting. Also my running has been boooooring.

But I did get in the 6 (well really 6.3) miles I wanted too on Thursday.  It was sooo hard to NOT push more miles.  I really didn’t start feeling good until the end — per usual — but obviously more miles with such little time left is silly.

I’m still in a semi-zen state although planning the logistics of getting to the start, what I’m going to wear and (most pressing) what I’m going to pack to head to the hometown for the weekend are starting to get to me. I don’t want to deal with it so I keep putting this stuff off.  But with 3 days to go…well let’s just say that I should really think this stuff through BEFORE race morning.

But I think that I’ve got some plans underway.  I think the lack of planning is because I’ve thrown out all expectations for this race.  Seriously.  I think I talked a bit in the beginning of the training cycle how I wanted to get 3:29:59.  Well I just don’ t think that this is going to be that race for me.  And I’m not saying that out of taper doubts or being all self deprecating or fishing for compliments.  I really just don’t think my body is in the right place to gun for a spectacular time.  And it’s my own fault really.  I got caught up in the more is better bug.

I kept trying to push and push and push.  I think I wanted it too much. But like I’ve said all along: I’m a newbie at this.  Sure it’ll suck to not PR (I think that every race I’ve ever run has been a PR) or to smash goals.  It’s a learning curve though.  I’m only 23 years old and have plenty of running years ahead of me (*knockonwood*!!).

Oddly though, as soon as I realized over the weekend that 3:29:59 is likely not in the cards, I was at peace with things. Releasing all that pressure just made my life feel really good and less stressful.  It’s been like a weight has been lifted off my shoulders.  And who knows, maybe going in with little expectation (other than have fun) might just make a good day and wonderful things happen.  It’s not like I’m purposely going to keep things nice and easy if I’m feeling good.  But I think that I’m a bit overtrained, so I guess I’m just trying to be a little more realistic.

Although as much as I’m not feeling like a stellar time is in the cards I’m feeling more self-assured and confident in myself.  It’s like I’m very comfortable in my skin at the moment.

Guess the taper is making all philosophical. Hahah.

I also feel more at ease and on top of things in my school life too.  Obviously training for a marathon is a huge deal and I’ve been obsessed with it for the past 4+ months.  Now, I’m not saying I’ve been slacking on my school work butttttt the combo of trying to do hardcore studying and hardcore training has been so draining.  But once I released the running tension, it was like I got renewed focus and productivity.

I talk so much about running here that I think many of you suspect all I do is run.  I mean, I know I bitch and moan about school sometimes but I wanted to take this time (since I’m still not running much) to share a bit of two projects I’m working on.

My Capstone: I’m continuing my research into Adhesive Capsulitis (frozen shoulder) that I was doing last semester.  In the fall I look at what it was and who was affected.  Kind of boring, but at least I was able to find information and literature on it.  Now I’m trying to look into the mechanics of it and it’s not known.  Like at all.  And I’m the kind of person that likes to be able to find information.  Not cool.

BUT I was able to do research on mechanical and chemical stress in the body and how that affects cell growth (which A.C. is characterized by huge amounts of cell growth).  The way it works it that a stressor (be it a hormone or increase in pressure) can change the way a cell responds to it’s environment.  For my purposes I’m looking at stressors that cause cells to grow uncontrollably and unchecked.  It’s kind of (really) cool but still frustrating because I can’t run experiments or trails or have access to real patients.  I guess this is good for me to learn that life doesns’t happen in a bubble the way college is set up.

Plus it strengthened my resolve to want to go into endocrine as well as try to pursue research in a diabetes research facility next year.  Fingers crossed for me — it’s really hard to get the kind of position I want. But that still leaves me sitting at my computer trying to put together a powerpoint presentation. Ugh.

Experimental Physics independent lab: The first half of the semester this class was all about doing pre-selected experiments to solidify our knowledge of physics concepts.  The second half my lab partner and I get to design our own experiment to study something physics-y but of our choosing.  And since my lab partner is basically a slacker (which I am SO trying to not be bitter about) I designed a lab to measure the effect an increase in pressure has on the human heart.

I tried to base my model on obese people vs. “normal” people (that sounds so bad to type out like that!!). The lab was taking tubing and creating a closed circuit (it ended up not being closed due to the difficulty of making the tubing stay) and varying the amount of pressure being placed in a particular spot on the tube — aka like fat around the heart.  Placing a marble into the model I was able to measure how fast it traveled with the different pressures.

I’m still not quite sure what my results mean (the more outside pressure lead to an increase in velocity) so I’m trying to find research on hypertension and obesity and what exactly causes the two to be related.  Like with my capstone I doubt there’s a lot of literature out there on the mechanism, so I’ll likely be looking more into the physics behind hydrolic pressure and fluid mechanics.

So hopefully you found this post to be interesting.  Since I use this blog as a way to talk about my running (because no one in my “real life” gets running) I tend to ignore the other things.  But I swear I’m more than one dimensional!

And here’s a giveaway from Run Girl Run. And from ErikaH

P.S. I do apologize for not getting around to responding to comments.  I hope that once I’m off campus I’ll be able to catch up on them!

D-5 and No Worries

And not a whole lot of taper madness.

No obsessive weather checking…at all really. I figure the weather is out of my control and with all the stress I have it’s not worth it to worry about whether or not I’ll get “perfect” weather conditions.

No worrying about nagging aches. Sure I had/have enough worries to make a doctor’s trip yesterday worth my while but I don’t have the taper worries.  Everything I’m worried about I’ve been worried about for awhile and I just had my last PT appointment before the race and things are a-go. Yes, there’s still inflammation but I’m at about 98.4%.

No loss of sleep.  In fact, I’ve been actually sleeping.  Of course this means my school work is suffering a bit because I’m using my time to sleep rather than work but hey, I figure I won’t sleep at all the week post-marathon in my attempts to get caught up.

No worrying about my pace on the “runs” I’ve had yesterday and today.  Yup my pace is slow but mentally I feel okay with everything.  After 15 weeks of huge runnings going out for a 3-6 mile run is sooooo refreshing. Running for under an hour?! That just seems so easy to wrap my head around.

No worrying about my ferocious appetite.  It seems that after I eat a meal I’m full but 20 minutes later I need another. I’ve never experienced this level of hunger before, not even during my 100 mile weeks. I think that it must have suppressed my appetite a bit.  But it’s all good now.  Good because I now have an accurate gauge of what my body wants energy wise.  And also good because it lets me know that I’m taking in lots of food to fuel my 26.2 mile endeavor.

No worrying about plans for race day.  Which is odd because I don’t have any. Probably should make some and figure out how I’m going to get there.  That’s pretty important. Plus I ordered my jacket last night.  Holler.

No worries about post-Boston social plans.  My friends are planning a drunken festival for whenever I get back to campus and I’m so all over it.

No worries about post-Boston running plans. Unlike many of you bloggies who are either running Boston or another marathon soon, or even those who have run them in the past and immediately signed up for the next, if you asked me right now if I’ll ever run another one I’d have to say NO.  But I felt like this last year too. I always thought that I was in the majority with my train of thought but reading some blogs lately I think I’m in the minority.  Oh well.

So I’m actually pretty calm.  And like I wrote yesterday, this is normal for me.  Granted I’ve only gone through this once but even with my shorter races it was the same way.  These past few days have been eerily calm in other aspects of my life too.  Now that I say that I’m going to jinx myself hardcore and my life will fall apart. Like tomorrow.

But I think I’m just learning to accept and not let negative shit affect me as much.  Or like in my first “No Worries” bullet point: I’m just letting go of things that I can’t control.

So I’m going to leave you with that. Nothing exciting going on in my world so nothing much to write about.  Hence a boring no-new news post haha. I’m going to try for a short run tomorrow.  According to the plan I have a tempo but I haven’t done speed in so long I think it’s silly to try and “cram” for the race.  I’m allowed up to 10 miles (the range is 7-10) but I think I’ll cap it at 6.

If I’m running slower because of lack of speedwork I have to consider time spent running and a lower mileage is appropriate. It’s totally going to be hard to *not* go far but that’s been the story of this week. And I’ve been successful so far.  Like I mentioned above, it’s mentally relieving to not have a huge day and that I can stop after one of my routes rather than building up longer ones.

And thanks for all your kind words and support in the past few days as Boston inches closer.  Hope everyone is having a good (and zen) day 🙂

Cleared To Go

Yes you read that right.  And some of you may be scratching your heads. At least when it comes to the real reason behind the title of this post.

I had a doctor’s appointment today to make sure it was 100% okay for me to be running 26.2 miles on Monday.  With all the stress going on in my life, physical and emotional, I honestly wasn’t sure if I was ready to run.  I know that part of that is the taper talking: who hasn’t had doubts with 6 days to go?

But because I’m a paranoid freak I made a doctor’s appointment to check out:

• Shins duh they’ve been bugging me on and off for awhile.  Pain free now with one PT session to go before the race and I’ve got one scheduled for post-race in case anything major happens
  
• Toe Because the infection was so serious.  Good news though: the infection is 100% gone and now all that’s left is ugly damaged tissue. It looks hideous and scary but there’s nothing wrong with it.
• Electrolytes and other lab work I’m on some serious antibiotics right now that are really dehydrating.  I’m obviously upping my water intake but I was worried that things would be out of whack.  Not the case though

I was having serious anxiety over all these things.  I probably didn’t *need* to go but my brain wouldn’t rest until I had the proof (I am a scientist after all) and hard data to tell me that it’s okay. I still haven’t even ordered the jacket yet or made plans for the weekend because I didn’t want to jinx myself. But guess what I’m doing tonight?! Haha (By the way I still have no idea on sizing and fit.  Or whether I should get a man or woman one. Help?)

And just to fend off some worries you might have: this appointment was 100% voluntary and to silence my own doubts. There wasn’t any event that caused me to rush into the office.  Just my own brain and confidence (or lack thereof). I even had a dream that I had to pull out of the race on Sunday night.  That was how high my anxiety level was.  I started to cry because I was wound so tight when I got the go ahead.

But enough about that.  My mind can now rest (somewhat) easy the next few days that I can handle the 26.2 miles.  Or at least when I have doubts I can battle them with concrete facts.

Like on my run today which was on the slow side.  It wasn’t very long (just a few miles to blow off some steam) but my legs weren’t feeling very springy.  I highly suspect that my 100% voluntary rest day (as opposed to rest days that I’ve taken off for injury or my toe which are really the only rest days I take) is to blame.  I firmly believe in Newton’s First Law: A body in motion stays in motion and a body at rest stays at rest.  Okay, I may take things to the extreme with all running all the time but I’m a huge proponent in moving EVERY DAY.  So to do nothing yesterday (while I’m sure my legs overall are happy and are storing those carbs) really made today really hard.  Even getting out of bed to go to class.  But, like I said, my legs need to soak up energy and training to race is different than moving to live day-to-day.  So I’m not too upset about the lack of  pep in my step today. When I think back to my last taper I don’t remember my legs feeling very springy either and that’s comforting.

Also comforting is that recognizing that my lack of nerves or excitement over the race is normal for me too.  I honestly do not have those butterflies that others get in the days before a race.  One of my good friends reminded my the other day that this is how I was during the days leading up to my debut marathon last spring.  But once I got to the race and could feed off the crowd things changed.  So I’m anticipating more of the same.  Especially since I’m not going to be on my own this year.

Yes so many people are running Boston that I’m sure I’ll be even more amped that usual on race day.  Lots of people from the marathon daily forum at RWOL as well as a bunch of bloggers.  Plus a bunch of my friends are skipping their morning classes to come see me. One of them even downloaded the spectator’s guide for the marathon to set herself up in prime seeing spots.  And my PT place is having a banner at Heartbreak Hill AND my doc (the one I saw today) will be there as well (on her own not with the office or anything).  I also think some of my family is coming, my sister is even skipping an exam!

And I know that I’ll have you guys rooting for me (or at least I hope so haha).  Gosh I’m getting all sentimental here 😉

Okay I know this is getting lengthy — per usual BUT I was tagged from MarathonMummy with

So the point is to say 7 things about yourself and then tag a bunch of people. But I’ve done these posts so much in the past that I think I’m running out of new things to say to you! So here are the links to things similar to this that I’ve done in the past and I tag anyone who wants to do this because over the course of these things I’ve likely tagged all y’all

Kreativ Blogger Award from 3-October 2009

Beautiful Blogger Award from 13 – January 2010

Gorgeous Blogger Award AND Creative Writer Award from 28-February2010

Oh and before I forget: thanks for the suggestions re: Open Office. I did download when I got my computer back per suggestion of the Geek Squad but I HATE the way it looks and feels. Maybe I’m just not used to it yet? I have the feeling that I’m going to end up spending the $$ to get Office.  Because I’m a name-brand brat like that 😛

Hope everyone is having a fabulous Tuesday.  It’s LOST tonight.  And it’s starring Hurley.  I’ve been so impressed with the past 4 weeks of episodes that I really didn’ t have any doubts that tonight would be a good one but it’s also Hurley.  So I’m anticipating fantastico stuff! 🙂