Kathleen's Adventures

Pre-Race I came into this race feeling unprepared compared to last year. I had just run (sort of) the Chicago marathon three weeks earlier and I had trained for that for four months. I knew I had a decent running base, but was not sure that mattered if I blew up before even getting to the run. I had not swum 2000 meters since my Ironman in April, I think. I did not hit the pool until a few weeks before Ironstar – I was exhausted from training for Chicago and just could not get motivated to do it. I also knew I could “cram” the last week or two there. I had also had mono much of the four months leading up to the race, so I was fortunate to even be doing the running that I was. The swimming and biking were just hard to find the time and energy for. Biking is where I really felt unprepared compared to last year. Running Chicago meant not biking two of the four weekends before Ironstar, and 48 miles was the farthest I had ridden in the two months before the race. I did manage to swim four ...

I started training for the Chicago Marathon in June, four months ago, just six weeks after Ironman Arizona. Many of our training runs were before 5am to try to shield ourselves from the Houston Summer heat. If I had a dime for every time I told myself “just think how great it will be in Chicago” when things were getting tough, hot, or just way too early, I’d be rich now. However, I am now trying not to dwell on that prospect since weather is something I just have no control over. I’m not telling myself I wasted four months of training and sacrifice to go out and run over an hour slower than I wanted to. I’m trying not to remind myself I was in better shape for this marathon than any other and that I have trained harder for this one than any of my previous five marathons. I’m not telling myself I failed either, because on that day I did the best I could given the circumstances that presented themselves. I (along with Karen and Charmaine) happened to make several right decisions about th...