Friday, February 13, 2015

Pre-race Thoughts - Myrtle Beach

My trip to Myrtle Beach has gotten off to a roaring start (knock on wood). Security was practically a walkthrough, and my luggage didn't need to be searched, even though I've crammed a space blanket in there. I even got to hear TSA discuss how someone was a "GIANT TOOL" - somehow he sent his jacket with ID through the X-ray before his boarding pass was checked.

There was also a scare last night when US Airways called saying the second leg of my flight was delayed, but then immediately called back saying it was now on time. Jokes.


I'm supposed to start boarding in about 40 minutes, but considering our plane is still not here...I thought I would whip out a quick post. (ETA - plane has arrived while I've been editing the post!) I had planned to do this last night, but I was too busy spending quality time with my parents. (And big shout-out to my dad for interrupting his work this morning to drop me off at the airport!)

I've struggled a bit with what I want to cover in this post. It would be easy to accidently turn it into a review of Run Less Run Faster. That post is definitely on my to do list, but I want this to be a more simple reflection on what happened and what I hope to have happen tomorrow.

I've talked about my injury on the blog (and in person) until I was blue in the face, and everyone reading/listening was probably ready to injure me further to make me shut up already. It certainly didn't feel like it at the time, but the injury was probably very good for me. I've always struggled to skip runs, even if it's for an extremely good reason, but now I feel like I have a more laid back approach. This is obviously a work in progress, but I'm making steps in the right direction.

I did lose some endurance during the lay-off, but my cardio capacity seems to be right where I want it. This is what I typically struggle with: I'm okay to suck it up buttercup when my legs hurt, but the minute I start sucking wind, I'm done. The race tomorrow is obviously not a sprint (thank God), but I'm glad my lungs are prepped for the challenge, nonetheless.

Image result for puking while running
I just truly don't understand people who feel this way.
I am a little nervous about how my legs will hold up. My long runs following my break weren't exactly stellar, but my 13 miler at MP two weeks ago was awesome. I'm hoping running on snow-free streets, in the sun, in ideal temperatures will be just the boost I need to outperform my training runs.

The plan at the moment is to run with the 4:45 pace group. I had been planning to run a 4:30ish before, so I feel like scaling back five minutes per week of injury is a reasonable adjustment. This will also be my first time running with a pace group, but I hope it's a good experience. While my Garmin can be programmed as a pacing crutch, which I love, I hope having a leader to stick with will keep me motivated. Maybe I'll even make some new friends!


All the tracking for the race is via the Myrtle Beach Marathon app. I think I set it up correctly to have my splits auto-posted to Twitter. (Follow me @myeagerfeet.) If not, you can always download the app and track me that way. My bib number is 696. It's such a boost to know people are tracking my progress when I hit timing mats! But the race does start at 6:30 AM, so no judging if sleep through most of it.

There is also a live stream at mile eight, which really makes no sense to me. I'm definitely on the slower end of the spectrum, but it's going to be right around 8 AM when I get there. If I were fast or people tracking me were not in the Eastern time zone, this would useless. But it's there if you're interested.

Good luck to everyone else racing this weekend!

(And good luck to everyone staying warm!)

2 comments:

  1. Hoep the race went well! Scaling back is a good idea at the start when training hasn't been perfect. I went in with the same plan. :)

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    1. Thanks, the race went really well! I hope your race went well too. Slowing down was definitely a good decision - I'm glad I had a strong finish rather than blowing up from starting way too fast.

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