Kathleen's Adventures

So, this is about a month late, but oh well.  My marathon race report in song was a fairly comprehensive report in itself, and fun to write.  I may do more that way. At my last track practice the Tuesday before the marathon, Shawn told me he thought I had the physical ability and fitness to run well in the marathon. He said I just had to get right in my head about it; that he was worried all the crap that had gone on in the few weeks before that could leave my head in another place and less than confident. I walked away thinking (overreacting of course) "ugh! he thinks I'm too much of a head case to run well this weekend?!" But then I also realized that may have been the best thing he could have said. It almost seemed like a challenge - I felt like I had to prove that my head would be in the right place and that I would make it happen. I had to prove it to myself more than him, but it was certainly good food for thought. It was really weird driving to Houston and sta...

Today I completed my biggest week of running yet - 46 miles.  It is sad I'm almost embarrassed to say it is only 46 miles, but before this training season, 38 miles was the most I'd ever run in a week...and that included a 31 mile race!  Many "real" runners would consider 40-45 miles per week as base training, but oh well.  I keep reminding myself I just need to be proud of it and not compare it to others...perhaps others like my friends Vegas and Jerry who ran EIGHTY MILES this weekend!!!  They ran 55 miles on Saturday and 25 today.  They are training for the Rocky Raccoon 100 mile race in February and successfully completed their hardest weekend of training.  We took turns setting up aid stations for them on Saturday and threw them a little finish party Saturday afternoon.  Vegas and Jerry finishing 55 miles   Finish line tailgate party My 20 mile run Saturday was really good.  The weather was perfect.  The girls I wa...

Well rested? Check. Well dressed? Check. Well trained? Oops. If I had spent half as much time training as I have resting or picking out my race outfit, I might have had a chance to do pretty well. Not so much though. Having bronchitis as an asthmatic is just a whole load of joy. It lasts foreeevvvvvver . As in since Thanksgiving. Sunday I will most likely be running with 5 extra lbs of snot in both my head and chest - isn't that a lovely thought? But hey, after all the wardrobe prep, I'll at least look good while I'm out there, and I'll likely be out there much longer than originally planned. Oh well. Really though I am looking forward to Sunday, not for my prediction of a less than stellar performance, but for the day in general. The Houston Marathon is just awesome, and one of the best there is. You can feel the excitement in the air all around town leading up to the race, and it is always so fun to see sooo many familiar faces out there. This year I...

Warning: Don't read any further if toenails/feet gross you out. Last Tuesday afternoon I had surgery to hopefully permanently fix my ingrown toenails. Oddly, my toes looked better than they had in years when I went in. For quite a while I did not have enough of a nail on either of my big toes to cause much trouble (i.e. getting ingrown). Now that they seem to be growing better again, presumably from better shoes/orthotics/running gait, etc, I'm excited to have close-to-normal looking toes again, but not so excited about the ingrown toenails coming back. I had never gone to a podiatrist for my toenail issues until a few months before IMFL. I was always able to "fix" them on my own, but this time around they were becoming too much for me to handle. Everything hurt on my big toes, always. I went in twice to let the dr. dig them out which was super fun, but did not get them fixed for good because you cannot swim for 2-3 weeks after which was not going to work heading int...

I keep having random thoughts here and there about the marathon, and finally decided I should jot them down. I'm sure I will keep adding to this post in the next few days when the mood strikes me. 1. I've been sandbagging for a long time, but I just wasn't really aware that is what I was doing. It wasn't even really in training that I was sandbagging, but in actual races. To continue running at a certain pace for 26.2 miles takes guts. Plain and simple. Or you can give up somewhere along the way and say you know you will finish in however long it takes you to get there. That was the old Kathleen. She is no longer around, and apparently left sometime over the last few months. I think she is somewhere happily walking to a finish line, being sure to make friends along the way. I am sure I will run into her again one day, as she is a good person, with good intentions, but for now I've had to say goodbye. 2. My nutrition plan worked perfectly on Sunday. I had no stom...