I can still remember the day Bridget came home with a bag in her hand. She escorted me to the bedroom, and I excitedly followed. She reached her hand in the bag, and pulled out my present… I was hoping for something else, but was still surprised to see a new running shirt and shorts. She looked up to me, and said… “Now you have to do a marathon because you have a new outfit.” I sighed, slowly nodded my head with a fake smile, and then crawled into the corner to figure out what just happened.
A few months earlier, I had finished the Odyssey with Bridget. I couldn’t find motivation to stay on a training schedule. My knee was aching (I actually got it checked out in July), and I was looking for any excuse not to run. Running wasn’t much fun without any goals. Bridget on the other hand was sticking to her runs, even running with NSET on Tuesdays.
Suddenly it was August. And then Bridget’s foot began to really hurt her, and she was suddenly on the DL. The muscles in between her toes had become inflamed from all the training she had been doing. Luckily, the doc prescribed her some time off.
And this is where our true training began. Well, after our trip to Athens… but then it really started. (We had good intentions for running in Greece. They never came to fruition.)
We had already had a pretty intense schedule of runs this year. Santa Cruz Half, Reno Half, Lungs on Legs Half, Reno Tahoe Odyssey, and the sprint up Squaw…. all finished under 2 hours.
So our plan was to add two miles each week, starting with a six miler on October 3rd, a few days after we got back from Greece. Also, Ron and Rob we’re going to join us in this journey to 26.2, and I know I could use them for support.
We heard that we needed to touch a 20 miler once, and with this schedule, we’d be there about two weeks before the race. Our usual sche
dule would be to run a long one on Saturdays, run 10 miles on Tuesday, and do a short run on Thursday. I remember on our 14miler, I had a few beers from a Halloween party without a decent dinner the night before, and this did not settle well with my stomach on the run. That was the longest run of my life (and at the time it really was since I never ran 14 miles.) We also found a dog on the way, and tied it to a tree so his owner could come pick it up. The next few runs were smooth up to the 20 miler, which started at Eclipse and went all the way over to Patagonia and back South. I even ran into my friend, Laila, on the way. That was a long run, and I remember wondering if I had six more in me after I finished (see the route above).
And another run, a 17 miler a week after our 20 miler, my knee locked up after stopping at an aid station. Meanwhile, Bridget and Nagisa went on to have the best run of their training. Thankfully, this was the last long run before the marathon. So here we go, Anya, Nagisa, Ron, Rob, Erin, and Bridget. I think we’re ready to do this.
We’ve had to run through streams, in the snow, in the freezing cold, near sunrise, in pitch dark with headlamps, in the summer heat, and in the perfect conditions. And now through the water blisters, blood blisters, fallen off toe nails, chapped and bloody Rob nipples, Erin’s stress fracture, foot tendinitis, knee tendinitis, and upset stomachs – it all add up to this… for 26.2 miles.