Race worried

I’m trying not to go into my race with a negative attitude, but I can’t help but be a little worried. On the registration page it says not to register for the race if you know you can’t finish in under an hour and a half. I checked the recorded times from previous years and there are plenty of people who ended well after that…but I worry they’re making it a new rule?
I decided since I have yet to make it to 15K to map my run and do it today. I know the Boilermaker’s course is hilly and running on the Charles is not, but I wanted to get the distance done and out the way. Next week I can focus on hill work.
I mapped out my route (it’s actually a 9.2 mile loop on the map so I made sure to run past my starting point to what I think was a little more than .1 miles just to be safe) and made sure I had a good breakfast. I ate an oatmeal pancake  and coffee.

I brought a great big banana to eat as my post run fuel, grabbed some water, a towel and a change of clothes since the forecast called for tons of rain today (which surprisingly we didn’t get…just really dark clouds all day)
I started out feeling OK, not great but OK. I didn’t want to overdo it, but I got passed by a couple who was running at a pace just a little faster than me. I thought, what the hell? I’m never going to get faster if I don’t push myself…right? They didn’t stay on the same path as me for more than a mile so I didn’t get to follow them for very long (which is probably a good thing)

I was doing fine until I started to get close to the bridge that I was supposed to cross (which was about 5 miles from the start) and had to stop twice to ask for directions. One person sent me the wrong way (figures-but she seemed a little unsure so I shouldn’t have listened) and then about five minutes later I asked three BU girls for help (they were awesome! Thank God for the iphone) they looked up where to go and gave me perfect directions.  It’s not like following the Charles river is hard, but sometimes the bridges and streets aren’t labeled and it can get confusing if you’re not 100% sure which is what. (Boston has streets that aren’t labeled??? Noooo…)

Anyway, stopping and running out of the way broke my rhythm, and I started to get tight in the calves and hamstrings. Uh oh, I started thinking, I’m screwed now. I have like 4 more miles left…how the hell am I going to finish this? I slowed the pace down a lot at this point because my body just started to hurt. My hips, my knee, my calves, my hammies….I started getting upset but then I started shifting my thoughts into positive things. I started thinking about how awesome the race celebration will be, how great I’ll feel when I’m done, what I want to eat before and after the race, what I wanted to eat for dinner after this run…and before I knew it I was coming up to the finish line. Phew! My time was a little off because I had to stop twice and my MP3 player got reset in the process (UGH!) so I went by my cell phone time which said I ran it in 1:37.

As soon as I got back to my car I grabbed my banana and wolfed that down in record time, drank some water, and stretched for a few minutes. I couldn’t believe how much better I felt after eating the banana…which makes me think FUEL was my problem. Now I realize that even though I didn’t feel hungry, I need to eat while I’m running this race! My friend (and fellow blog reader who ALSO will be running the Boilermaker with me) Ann said she ate sport beans during her recent 1/2 marathon. I found some Clif Shot Bloks at EMS and although I was hesitant about them at first, might have to give them a try at this race.

I had a hard time recovering after this run. My calves are super tight and I felt cold, shivery, and tired for about 2 hours after I got home and showered. After I made my favorite Sunday Night Pizza and had 2 double cheese (mozz and goat cheese) and spinach pizza and a chocolate chip cookie, I felt better. But even though I keep stretching, the calves are still pretty tight.

This week I’m planning on taking it slow. I want to run some hills to get ready for the ones I'll be greeted with on race day but I don’t want to run more than 12 miles this week. I figure my workouts this week will look something like this:

Monday: Rest (much needed!)
Tuesday: Walk (or swim if I have a suit by then)and strength training, plus PT strength moves
Wednesday: Run 3 miles, PT strength moves
Thursday: Walk (or hopefully swim!) strength training plus PT strength moves
Friday: Run 3 miles
Saturday: Rest
Sunday: Breakheart two times around (6 miles)

I haven’t gotten the foam roller yet but I stretched the crap out of myself after the run today. I actually was able to find my IT band by rubbing my thumb hard up the side of my leg to my hip and I massaged myself as well as I could.

13 days until race day!!