Post-marathon musings

Earlier today I read the last post I'd written for this blog and felt shock. It went back to September! What, exactly, had I been doing those two and a half months between the half-marathon and my big marathon day in November?

I was running, of course! Lots of running. More importantly, I'd set a new pace goal. After the half-marathon I knew, if all went well, with no injuries, I could finish a marathon. So I raised the bar---I wanted to beat my half-marathon pace. I planned instead to go for a 9:10 min pace as my stretch goal for the full 26.2 miles in Philly.

I reworked my training program to focus on speed. I gutted out hills and flat speedwork, increased my protein intake immediately after runs to rebuild my leg muscles, and cut back on carbs to lower my body fat content. I felt what it was like to move my legs faster and breathe harder. And to keep going even when I thought I'd barf. I found my aerobic threshold. I fell a few times.

Even so, going into Philly I was nervous. It was dawning on me that I needed more training time to run the race as fast as I imagined. And in the end I failed. Hitting my time goal, that is.

But training for and running my first marathon turned out to be one of the best projects of my life.