First, let's discuss the expo held at Monmouth Raceway. We (me, my mom and Paula) headed down Friday after work. There was some cool stuff and some crap. I got a few new pairs of Thorlo socks to try out and a t-shirt. But the highlight was when the ING booth asked me if I was familiar with them...my response, "Why yes - you didn't pick me for the NYC Marathon lottery!"
Their response, "Crap-you're the 2nd person today to say that to us!" This gave me some satisfaction :)
So - although it would have been smart to stay off my feet on Saturday, that just wasn't in the cards. I took Chris & the kids to my school for the Einstein Science Expo. I wasn't volunteering but I wanted Marley and Sean to experience it and I was chaperoning one of my 8th graders. After this event we headed to Ikea to get Marley her super high loft bed. So I wound up spending a good deal of time on my feet.
Sunday morning comes and I'm up at 3:45am! Too friggin early! But what choice do I have? I need to drink coffee and poop. At least part of the plan came true. My mom picks me up at 4:45 and we head back down to Monmouth Raceway again. We hit NO traffic as we had been warned of. We get on the shuttles and we're the first bus setting out to be dropped off at the start - plus the first bus to get lost en route (my luck). The start area was really nice - oceanfront with tons of space to hang, music was playing, vendors were there making food (probably more for the spectators but I'm sure some runners ate!)...we also walked over to Pier Village to check out all the shops and restaurants. Finally, 8am rolls around and the full marathoners are off!! OH the excitement!! Then it was our time to get into the start position. There were no corrals and although there were two waves of starting - we were really jammed together. And then we were off. I took off a little too fast I think....I don't actually know though since I still don't have a working watch. And since I haven't run enough, I slowed it down and then took a walk break. At this point, all I could think about was pee. I had to go SO bad but the first stop had a line about 20 deep. Surprisingly, I didn't stop - I kept on going. Next stop, I stood in line about 2 minutes and then said screw it...same for the 3rd stop. By the 4th stop I had no choice but to actually wait in line to pee.
All was going just fine...a little slower then I would've liked but this is what happens when you slack off big time on training. Around mile 8 I got a second wind which lasted until mile 10. When my left ankle decided to CRAMP!! Like a charlie horse in my ankle that was so sudden that I almost went down! I switched to a walk and the pain vanished but a tingling/numbness stayed for a minute or so. Freaked me out a bit since in the NYC Marathon I got the numb/tingle starting at mile 19. Anyway, I walked a bit and then decided to run again....the ankle wasn't having it. PAIN! walk...tingle. WTF?? I repeated this pattern until mile 11.5 when I decided it was more important to finish then it to try to run but go down hard.
I don't know what this is about but I'm wondering if it comes down to ankle support. I ran in Asic racers during the marathon which offered NO ankle support...and Sunday I was in Nike Free which also offer no support. I'm going to run my next few runs in my old Saucony pair for my next few runs to see what happens.
I'm ready to get moving! Improve my speed...improve my run time between walk breaks...build my confidence...etc, etc, etc.
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