I can't believe I haven't updated the blog in all this time, but I think it's probably related a bit to the fact that the Marathon I'd been getting ready for during most of last year was canceled and Jen and I couldn't run it. We had a freak set of snow storms right around Christmas here in the northwest. The Marathon that we had signed up for was the Olympia Christmas Marathon, which was scheduled for just a couple of days before Christmas.
Once we got a foot and a half or so of snow here in Portland Jen and I started to feel worried. We would check the Marathon website incessantly, waiting for the bad news that finally appeared on the Friday before the Marathon. The Marathon had been postponed for a week.
Even without the snow storm I was worried about the Marathon, since the whole experience was so new for me. The training is kind of weird because you do these super long runs getting ready for the race, including a 20 mile run that I completed a couple of weeks before the race. Then the schedule tells you to do a taper, where you drastically reduce the miles you're running leading up to the race. At the time I finished the twenty miler I was feeling relatively confident, but as the miles eased up and I was having some trouble with my hip I was feeling less and less sure of my ability to do the race.
I tried to take the extra week of training in stride, but since this was my first marathon I began to feel more and more nervous. Unfortunately, it was all for naught because the snow kept coming, and not melting, so much so that the Marathon was eventually canceled. Jen and I ended up going to the bed and breakfast we had reserved anyhow, and it was a nice mini-vacation, but definitely a let down.
On the bright side, because I wasn't putting so many miles in I was able to start riding my bike to work again, which is a really great thing for my mental health. Jen and I decided that we'll run the 15k Shamrock run in March, which we began training for. As part of this training I'm incorporating some speed work, which is super hard, but I am starting to notice an improvement in my time already.
During the marathon training I started using a tool called mapmyrun.com to track my mileage and training. One of the features of mapmyrun is the ability to update my twitter feed with workout information. Since my twitter is set to update my facebook page, the workout information would show up there as well. Since the marathon training was over I went ahead and turned this feature off, figuring that it this point it felt pretty narcissistic to let everyone know every time I went for a run.
Narcissistic or not, though, I noticed that I was a lot less motivated to do the runs & etc without the updates on. After a brief hiatus I went ahead and turned the updates back on. Hopefully my followers on twitter & friends on facebook don't find this too annoying. Think of it as your way of supporting me, because I do get a lot of motivation and support from the great comments I receive.
And yes, we will be running a marathon... it looks like instead of being in Olympia during December, my first marathon will be on Sauvie Island on July 4th. If all goes according to plan, our second marathon will be the Portland Marathon in September.
