Chevron Houston Marathon Blog

The Last Run

 

I don’t know how far I ran on this last training run for the Chevron Houston Marathon. Three miles, maybe. I didn’t wear my Garmin and I didn’t worry about pace or time or distance.

Instead I suited up in my obnoxious outfit for Sunday and laced up my shoes and headed out the door. Since I was in an inward sort of mood, I wended my way around my neighborhood, dodging raindrops and people out walking their dogs, instead of fighting traffic through the Galleria and going to Memorial Park.

It felt good, as all last runs should feel. If I had to guess, I ran three-ish and worked my way up to an 8:30ish minute per mile pace. I’m as ready as I’m going to be.

But back to the outfit. I’ve chosen a hot coral tank top, red running shorts and red-and-white striped sleeves that I made out of some knee socks that came in the goody bag for a 5k I ran a few years ago that benefited the Ronald McDonald House. I’ve never worn the socks because they’re, well, obnoxious. But when I was mulling over my need for long sleeves that I could possibly remove should I warm up enough and my need to be very very visible to my co-workers who will be working the race from the sidelines – you’ll see reporters and photographers all along the route –  I remembered these knee socks. I cut out finger and thumb holes and took them for a test run.

It looks like they’ll do the job just fine on Sunday. I may wear a garbage bag at the start as a windbreaker and to trap some body heat in the cool morning air.  I expect by the finish, I will have lost the garbage bag and the sleeves and will look more like a runner and less like a heap of Raggedy Ann dolls thrown in the garbage.

Another important point: I have decided to pace my husband for the first half of the marathon to keep him on pace. If I qualify for Boston, awesome, but I am not gunning for it.

Don’t forget, we’ll be carrying the first three hours of the marathon live Sunday morning – and we’ll have a marathon special airing at 10:35 Sunday night, anchored by Tom Koch. I”ll be stopping (gingerly) in the studio to talk about the race and we’ll be Skyping with runners from their homes. We’ll even Skype with my husband, who is running his first marathon.

And until then, it’s water, water, salt, carbs and more water.  See you at the finish!

The Taper Begins

The twenty-milers are done!

We ran our final twenty mile run on Christmas Eve, in cold temperatures and a gusty wind that nearly blew my feet out from underneath me on Allen Parkway. I also under-dressed - wearing just shorts and a short-sleeved shirt in 40-something degrees (minus the wind chill factor). Around 8 miles, I thought about detouring past the car to pick up a fleece. Later I was sorry I didn't.

I had also decided that I had been finishing the long runs with a little too much energy at the end. I know that sounds crazy but I finished my 18 and first 20 miler fast and without that "concrete leg" feeling. About halfway into the last 20-miler, I SERIOUSLY picked up the pace. At one point I looked down at my Garmin to see I was trotting along at a 7:06 minutes per mile pace and decided that was too fast. But I finished mile 11 in 8:11 minutes, and miles 12 and 13 about 7:40 minutes apiece.

Needless to say, my legs were a lot heavier from mile 15 thru 20!

John wasn't too happy with me at the time, but afterwards agreed that it was a hard training run -- and it really should pay off in the marathon.

I have some thoughts on how John might perform on the marathon, but I'm afraid to put them out there. Running is a very mental thing; running one's first marathon is extremely mental.  His legs absolutely have the training and the conditioning it will take to get him to the finish line. It's going to be a matter now of how he expends his energy out on the race course on January 17 and how he manages the mental part of it.

The training part is almost over, after all. Now it's a matter of focus, discipline and carbs.

Running Company

Doing a little catchup on the holiday break. I kept running! This is from December 19th.

"There's a reason running clubs are so popular. Even though running can be a solitary, head-clearing activity, it's really more fun when you have someone along for the ride.

With the exception of the long runs with my husband, because of scheduling conflicts, I have done every other run by myself. I don't have a place in my schedule to make it to running club meetups and my husband and I are trading off childcare when it comes to making time for running, for the most part.

To be honest, my motivation to train for the marathon was waning a little bit, withering from lack of company.

Of course, that's not all there is to finding a running buddy. Compatibility helps. As does speed. And scheduling. When reporter SOnia Azad agreed to do nine miles one Tuesday night, I was excited. She's training for the Houston half, as well as another half-marathon, and she's got a zany schedule too -- and she'd been saying it was tough to find the time to work in some of her longer runs.

We chatted the whole nine miles - about running, and training and general runner-geek stuff.

We agreed to try to get in a couple of more runs together before race day, and when I left, my marathon motivation had perked up. I had a good 20 miler with my husband, and at this point< I'm in pretty good spirits about the upcoming race.

One more monster week to go before the taper... "