A (Race Week) Letter To Myself...

Dear Body & Mind,

It's RACE WEEK! Congratulations on making it this far. It's been a long season but you stuck with it and trained hard! The moment you've been waiting for will be arriving this weekend and by next week this time you'll be able to hang your 4th marathon medal on your wall of bling!

There were several "milestones" during Pittsburgh Marathon training that made this cycle stand out from others. First, you got through more distance this season than previous seasons and had 100+ miles months in January & March (congrats)! You did a good combination of solo and group runs with most of your mileage done before 6am (thank heavens for night lights)! You also strategically mixed in a few races as training runs to get that well needed crowd support and disproportionately mixed Gatorade ;)

And yes, you may have single-handedly kept Au bon Pain open with the amount of blueberry muffins you purchased. It's also possible that your "new found appreciation of Merlot" might not have been the best claim to fame this marathon season. And I know you're not happy with the whole marathon weight gain situation, but substituting your weekly hour of cross training for that glass of wine may have had a little to do with it.

Although last week was plagued with aches & pains and strict orders to rest (and not run), getting the official "OK" to toe the starting line on Sunday makes up for all the nights you cried yourself to sleep out of frustration and sadness. Yes, things looked grim for several days... even up to this morning you were worried about stress fractures and whether or not your bones loved you enough to keep themselves together. And while your legs may not be up to PR attempts on Sunday, your new mindset to "just have fun" will hopefully get them through the 26.2+ miles without giving up. 

With that in mind, here are some last minute words of advice and motivation:

1. Run based on how you feel (there will be other marathons to PR at when you are not recovering from an injury).
2. Enjoy the race (everyone's finisher medal looks the same so just enjoy the journey to get yours).
3. Stay grateful (and hydrated) in each mile. So many people are unable to run, to run a marathon, to afford to travel for races. You are blessed to be able to do this so don't forget that.
4. Warm up gently before you start (compression pants are great but they aren't magic). Warming up will help decrease injury risk.
   
5. Fuel properly (you've done this before so I don't need to tell you how important it is).

You are ready. You've trained hard (next time we really need to fix that cross training plan though) and worked hard to get here. Do your best... run with your heart... and remember to smile. 

Always and Forever,

Your sense of satisfaction after the race.

P.S. Pittsburgh I can't wait to help you celebrate #10YearsRunning!

A Million Eye Rolls...

I was doing a routine scroll through my Instagram (IG) feed the other day and came across a runner who was lamenting about the "excruciatingly slow" pace of his last run. It was around an 8:30min/mile pace. And he was "devastated".

I totally get it. I would be devastated if I ran an 8:30 pace too; since the only way that would happen is if I died... (and then got reincarnated and came back as a fast runner)

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On some level I understand not being excited about how you performed on a run. I mean, if you normally run a 5-6min/mile pace then 8:30 will feel slow. I'm just not sure "devastation" is a necessary emotion for anyone that runs a sub-10 minute mile (unless you're a professional/sponsored athlete at risk of losing all your funding and not being able to feed your children...or buy new running shoes).

I mean, no one wants to run slower. The goal is always to get better right? And for some people (dare I say most people) that means running faster...

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