Preparing for Plitvice (Croatia)

As I sit here drinking my karlovacko pivo (beer) I have some thoughts regarding my next marathon.  We arrived here in Bosnia Sunday after a little bit of an arduous journey due to traveling with 2 young kids and maybe 1 or 2 too many complimentary wines from my good friends British Airways ;-).  Oh well I had a nice first flight.  Anyway I always love coming here.  All of Emir's family is here except for his brother who lives in NYC and we have many friends here.  Plus it's so beautiful here.  Not only are there cute little European cities such as Bihac which is where my husband grew up and we usually stay when we are here but there are gorgeous mountains surrounding the cities that take you to another world.  Emirs family has a beautiful house in the mountains just outside Bihac so we get the best of both worlds.  The other piece is the culture.  I love the people, the food, the drinks and lifestyle.  It's just so relaxing and beautiful.

Anyway 2 years ago when we were planning our annual trip here I found via Internet the Plitvice Marathon.  It takes place in the gorgeous Plitvice National Park which is only about 30 minutes by car from Bihac.  As you may or may not remember that is the first ever marathon I ran.  Not that anyone's first marathon is easy but Plitvice is pretty challenging with significant elevations.  I was more than happy with my 4:30 plus the course is just absolutely stunning. 

So now here I sit just 5 days from running Plitvice again.  I have very mixed emotions.  I'm very excited just because I love running marathons and I love Plitvice.  But this is the first time I am repeating a race.  I feel like if I don't improve my time, I will be disappointed. Last week I was feeling terrible during runs.  Tired, stomach problems (yes I pooped in the woods twice!) and cramps.  It was humid but still.  Then today Emir and I ran here up in the mountains and I felt great and we had a great pace.  It's hard to remember exactly how Plitvice compared to other marathons we have run.  I know it's harder than Philly and OD but is it as hard as Blue Ridge?  Is it reasonable to think ill beat 4:30 since that's what we did at Blue Ridge.  I really don't know.  Emir didn't run the full marathon at Plitvice with me so this is his first time.  I know it's only me putting pressure on but I can't help but feel nervous.  I guess the only thing to do is relax ( we are here on vacation) and carb up with pivo! ;-). 

Bear Mountain 50K

I don't even remember how long ago at this point, maybe 5-6 months ago it was when Emir and I signed up for the North Face Endurance Challenge Bear Mountain 50K.  It was timed nicely a week or so after our 9 year wedding anniversary, so we thought what better way to celebrate than stay up at Bear Mountain for a couple days and cap it off with our first 50K Saturday morning.  In the mean time, the two marathons we ended up running this spring just kind of ended up happening and really it was the 50K that our training was focused on.  We didn't taper for the OD Marathon (which I PR'd in anyway!) or for the Blue Ridge Marathon which despite the insane elevations we still finished pretty respectfully.  So FINALLY the two weeks between Blue Ridge and Bear Mountain were a taper!  As much as I have grown to absolutely love and maybe have developed a slight addiction to running, it was nice to have this "break".  It's not even really the running itself.  It's more the hecticness of life when we have a ton of long runs.  Work, kids and anything else going on that week so it was nice to have a couple weeks with just a few short runs.  By Thursday when we were making the trek up to Bear Mountain, my legs felt good.  No aches or pains to speak of and I felt fairly rested.  We dropped the kids off at school (my mom was picking them up and they stayed with my family for four days.  Thank goodness for my awesome family or none of this would ever happen!!!) and we headed first to NYC to pick up our race stuff at the North Face Store.  Turns out we should have just picked it up on race day at the event.  It was a total waste of $13 (yes $13!!!) to go through the stupid Lincoln Tunnel.  All that happened at the pick up was they gave us our bib, shirt and smart wool socks.  So I'm going to complain a bit here for a second.  Up until a week or two before the race, it was advertised that 50K and 50 miler runners were getting North Face arm sleeves.  I know it seems a little silly but I was EXTREMELY excited for these.  That's one piece of gear I have yet to own.  I mean I know they aren't really necessary which is exactly why I have never spent the money to buy them but I always wanted to try a pair.  So anyway last minute they switched it out for the smart wool socks.  Ok yeah they are descent socks but I WANTED MY ARM SLEEVES!!!  Ok I'm done ranting now.  ;-)  Anyway there was really nothing to see or do that made it worth the trip plus as it turns out our hotel was literally steps away from the starting line and the races were so spread out that only the few hundred doing the 50K were milling about which would have made getting our bibs a cinch.  Oh well, you live, you learn. 

Going into this 50K I was feeling pretty confident.  At this point I have finished 5 marathons comfortably, 4 of them since just this past November.  So I felt pretty good about my endurance.  Elevations I was not nearly as scared of anymore after running Blue Ridge just a couple weeks ago.  That race really helped me to become comfortable with walking when necessary up the impossible inclines and switching back to running as soon as its possible.  For the longest time I never wanted to stop during a run even to pee because I was so afraid of not being able to go back to running after stopping or walking.  Therefore I felt totally fine with all the elevations that would be in this race.  The last piece would be the terrain.  Bear Mountain was my first trail race so that was a bit of an unknown for me.  I had done some training on the upper trails here near our house.  There definitely are sections of fairly technical terrain that reduce those of us "normals" to walking but then there are sections that are completely runnable.  So I felt like ok I have a descent idea of what it will be like and I should be fine.  Apparently we should have noticed that North Face rated bear mountain 5 stars for technical terrain and all the other races in the endurance challenge series are 2 or 3.....  

We had a wonderful 2 days exploring Bear Mountain and the surrounding area.  The Bear Mountain Inn was very nice and everyone was super friendly.  Found a few great places to eat and drink (of course!)  Gotto carb up!  It was nice and relaxing.

Race morning wasn't what we really wanted.  Usually we like to gorge on eggs, bacon, sausage, bread but the hotel we were staying at only offered a continental breakfast which only had danishes and individual cereals.  Unfortunately we were on a mountain with nowhere nearby to grab anything so we bought sandwiches the day before and put them in the fridge.  I ate one and my stomach just wasn't feeling it so I didn't eat anymore.  I still had my coffee but I was just feeling weird in the stomach.  I know I was super excited for the race so that may have had something to do with it as well.  We took care of business in the comfort of our hotel bathroom before heading out to the race area.  Since only the runners for our distance were around it was really nice.  Easy access to gels, bars, pottys, fire pits, water, whatever you wanted really.  The temperature that morning was perfect, really.  It was very slightly cool but in my singlet I didn't feel uncomfortable at all.  I decided to wear my salomon running hat since I knew we would be out there for a long time.  I had lathered up in sunblock and glide before we left the room.  Oh and Emir and I decided to don our trail runner tattoos that our good friends at Tailwind sent to us with our first purchase.  They looked awesome, if I do say so myself! There were a couple differences I noticed from a marathon start area.  Pretty much everyone had hydration packs like us, everyone was lathering themselves from head to toe in glide and almost no one was running around warming up.  I mean really when you will be out on the trails for god-knows-how-many-hours, pretty sure you don't need to run around warming up. 

 

 Dean was there of course so he said a few words to us and next thing we knew, we were off!  In the beginning couple miles there was a descent amount of running however it was mixed with stopping on hills due to the single file of runners all bunched together.  A little bit of a traffic jam a few times but it didn't really take too long for that to get sorted out.  I was thinking "ok this is cool.  I'm having fun.  We are running, we are walking.  We are doing what everyone else is doing.  Things are good"  It didn't take long for that to change!!!  After the first 2-3 miles, the terrain changed drastically.  It was long, very steep inclines but it wasn't just that, it was rocky, like giant boulders that required you to basically rock climb them.  It was crazy!  So we would walk/climb our way, finally make it to the top thinking ok just make this then we will coast down the downhill.  Boy were we wrong!!  Every time we made it to the top of a climb, the descent was even worse.  It was either ridiculously steep that literally if I leaned forward I would have fallen right off the mountain or the terrain was so unstable/difficult to negotiate that you basically were crawling down.  I was a little shocked the first couple of times we encountered this.  I mean I really did expect parts with difficult terrain that would be hard to run but I was not expecting rock climbing to be part of the race!  After a while, it was just like ok here we go again.  Occasionally there would be a runnable portion for maybe a half mile to a mile if we were lucky but that was few and far between with the exception of the 7 mile stretch in the middle of the race between two of the aide stations.  There were a probably about 2 miles worth of this stretch we had to walk however we were able to run a big portion. 

I was feeling my shoes rubbing my left big toe a lot so at the second aid station I stopped to get it wrapped up.  Then during the section that had a lot of running, my left ankle kept giving out.  I had turned it a couple times already and now it was weakened and kept giving out.  At one point I slipped trying to avoid a giant mud pit and it gave out and yes I landed in the mud pit.  I actually enjoyed that because I was feeling hot and it cooled me down.  Then next time I felt I was lucky enough to land mostly in a bunch of leaves so no real injury there.  A girl who was running this section with Emir and I helped me up and said her ankles were doing the same thing to her so she had them wrapped at a previous aide station and that it really helped.  So it was decided that's what I would do at the next aide station.  Before I go into detail about that stop, I do want to just say that everyone at the aide stations were AWESOME!!  So upbeat, so helpful, so encouraging, food and hydration were totally on target.  However when I stopped to get my ankle taped unfortunately I probably ended up with the one EMT who just seemed a bit overwhelmed by this whole ultra running spectacle.  People were puking, bleeding, dropping like flies out of the race so if you weren't expecting this type of thing I could understand why she was so overwhelmed.  Anyway when I said I wanted it taped, she was like why don't you drop out of the race?  I couldn't believe what she just said!  I told her no I would like to keep going and could she just wrap my ankle.  I had to talk her through the whole thing (luckily I know how it's supposed to be done!)  But anyway the important thing was it definitely helped me through the last 9-10 miles of the race that we had left. 

At one aide stop, the sign said it was only 2.5 miles to the next one.  Up until this point most of them were in the 5-7 mile range.  At first we thought "oh good!"  But then immediately after we thought "Oh no!!"  We knew that meant that section was going to be HARD!!  And boy was it!!!  I'm pretty sure it took us at least an hour, probably longer to navigate that section.  It was like someone took a dump truck full of boulders and poured them down this incline, ridiculous.  And the descent was even worse.  I can't remember but I think this was the section we encountered a rattlesnake.  Emir was slightly ahead of me.  There was a guy just in front of him that almost stepped on the rattlesnake!  Luckily it started rattling just in time so everyone was able to avoid it, after I took a picture of course! ;-)  I'm pretty sure this was also the section were I just started getting mentally a bit beaten.  It was a mix of emotions.  One hand I was mad at myself for not realizing the intensity of this race.  I was thinking that I was stupid for thinking I could just do trail racing.  I mean I did some trail running but now I was feeling that the training I did was idiotic.  I might as well have just not done any trail training.  But then at other times I was just frustrated.  I am a runner and I just really wanted to RUN.  So much of the race was walking, rock climbing and hiking and taking forever.  I was tired of it, I was here to RUN a race and I was mad that I couldn't really do that.

Eventually the last two miles came around and were generally runnable.  And I say generally runnable because there was still a few small sections mixed in where I had to cautiously creep across rocks so I didn't break my neck.  Eventually 8 hours after we had started that morning, I crossed the finish line.  I was pretty dirty, tired and mentally drained.  For a while after the race, I didn't even feel that happy.  I felt like I had failed for some reason.  I was thinking we did awful in this race.  I knew obviously that time in this race really has no relevance.  I mean you can't even begin to compare trail races to each other let alone road races but  we walked ALOT and I think I had myself almost feeling embarrassed.  I was embarrassed that I didn't know that trail running entailed all this craziness and that I thought I could come out and do this with all these other ultra trail runners.  Emir however was pumped.  He kept saying "we did awesome!! I'm so proud of us!!"  I was thinking "really???" 

As we took off our shoes, socks, hydrated ourselves and got some food I was listening to other runners.  It was the same conversation all around me "this race was insane!  Those race directors must just sit there and laugh when they map out this course.  I would love to see how some of those elites could even attempt to run some of those sections!"  I also noticed how almost everyone was covered in dirt or had blood and gashes all over them. Then I also began noticing how many more 50K runners were coming in 30 minutes, 45 minutes to an hour after us.  Just then they started the awards ceremony.  They started with the marathon relay, then the marathon, the 50K and 50 miler.  As I listened to them call out the places and the times, I was struck by the thought " wow these times are not that fast!"  I was also surprised by how far apart some of the top finishers were.  We are talking 40+ minutes between 1st and 2nd places in a couple of the categories.  Emir was saying "see this WAS a HARD race"  Slowly I began to perk up.  After we had our tasty lunch, we went and got our complimentary beer from the beer garden (big plus in my book!!).  We sat up on this hill by the finish line and watched finishers.  To my surprise there was even more from all the categories even 50K.  There was great music, they had a really fun kids race with characters plus all the kids got medals.  And the other runners in general were awesome.  All congratulating each other, discussing falls, how many times they puked, etc.  We met this awesome couple from Canada (Runinpieces).  Heather told us of her ultra running exploits.  Seems like she travels a lot and has run a descent number of races.  She assured me that the race we had just done was by far one of the hardest and that there are many other ultras that are more runnable.  That was just that little bit of extra encouragement I needed to get over that negative feeling I had going for a bit.  This WAS a VERY HARD race and it was our first 50K.  Not only did we FINISH but we finished pretty much in the middle of the pack.  At the end of the day, I was very proud of what we accomplished and that even though I myself had some negative thoughts, we never actually gave up.  I really want to run another 50K and I mean RUN, hehe ;-)  Emir and I already have our sights on one in Reading in early October that seems like will be a more runnable race (hopefully!) 

I want to thank our awesome friends at Tailwind once again for fueling us!  Our only regret was not having more in our bag to refill during the race.  But now we know!  I also want to thank the North Face for putting on a great event (despite not getting the arm sleeves ;-)  )  Everyone was awesome at the start/finish, aide stations.  Food was great during and after and great party atmosphere at the finish.  It was awesome to just hang out with fellow crazy runner people and have a couple drinks.

So I guess I'll take a couple days off now??? I guess...hehe  However not too many.  Next up for us is the Plitvice Marathon in Croatia on June 4th.  Plitvice was my first ever marathon.  I ran it in June 2011 in 4:30.  It's in Plitvice National Park which is GORGEOUS!!!  When I ran it, I felt that it was pretty challenging due to some elevation in the course however now I'm thinking it's not going to seem that bad to me anymore....we shall see!!!  I just can't wait to get over there!  It's definitely become my second home and I can't wait to spend time with our friends and family there :-) 

"America's Toughest Road Marathon"

This weekend Emir and I ran another marathon. Months ago after we had already signed up for and booked everything for the bear mtn 50k (in 2 weeks!), emir emails me at work exclaiming that he had won entry into the blue ridge marathon through a running blog he follows. I was like "wow cool! But where is it and when is it?" He said Virginia and April 20th. I said "then we have to stay the weekend and its only two weeks before the 50k. We r already staying up at bear mtn a couple nights". Emir was just so excited to have won something, he never wins anything and it would have broken my heart to make him give it up. So in the end we were able to use hotel points and figured what's another race?!?



Bart Yasso and I

 

So Friday morning we dropped the kids off at school and set off for Roanoke. It's a 6 hour drive plus we stopped for lunch, gas etc so 7 in all. It rained pretty heavy at one point once we were in Virginia but by the time we checked in, it subsided. We went over to the expo in downtown Roanoke. First of all the most expensive parking garage was $2!!! R u kiddin me??? AND there were garages that were free!!! Wow. Anyways I knew Bart yasso was going to be there so maybe that's why I wore my runners world half festival shirt ;-). As we walked around Bart yelled out to me that I was wearing the best shirt in the house. I obviously don't really know Bart but being around him the whole runners world festival back in oct. you can just tell what a great guy he is and his true passion for running. I did end up getting a pic with him and he tweeted me later about how great it was to see me again which was nice. There wasn't a whole lot else to the expo but there was a bunch of reminders of what happened this week in Boston. Many people wearing Boston shirts, jackets and the colors. They also were giving everyone "running for Boston" bracelets and stickers. They told us how there was influx of people signing up and wanting to run the race after hearing about Boston. They also gave free entry to anyone who ran in Boston. One lady there ran and finished Boston and then ran a double Blue Ridge. There was probably about 20 or so people who started at 2:30 am and ran the course so they could be finished and back in time to run it again with everyone else, crazy but awesome.
After the expo we found a great place with craft beers for dinner. There was a big music festival coinciding with the marathon so there was lots of great stuff going on around the cute downtown Roanoke. We had a great time and I even enjoyed a delicious beer float for desert! Awesome. That night we were both restless and woke up a lot. Emir said he was hot. I know myself it was nervous excitement. I wasn't nervous for Philly in nov or the OD marathon a few weeks ago. I guess because they were your typical, avg courses. I'm at the point now where I know I can run a marathon. But blue ridge is completely different. It has the title of "America's toughest road marathon". Boasting over 7400 feet in elevation changes which takes place over 3 of the blue ridge mountains. This is not a marathon you can take lightly. I was so excited to get out there and run in this beautiful scenery and also join together with my fellow runners in support of Boston but very nervous if I would really survive this course. Since January, yes we have trained some elevations but lately due to aches and pains, etc we haven't done much. Eventually it was time to get up.

We both felt tired and were dragging from a restless night. Once we had our coffee and gorged on eggs, sausage, potatoes and English muffins we were upbeat and excited. We drove downtown to the start. I decided to go with a race tank and shorts. The temp was supposed to be in the high 50s to low 60s sunny so I didn't want to be hot. The only problem was that at 630 in the morning it was 40 with wind gusts! Freezing! But I saw so many other runners dressed like me I figured I would be fine once we started (which turned out to be true). I wore yellow and blue colors to support Boston as so many others did too. Emir and I also printed out special Boston race bibs we attached to our hydration packs. Some other runners had them as well. It was just such a mix of emotions that morning. This was the first marathon in America to take place since Boston. There was also a pretty intense security presence given the size of the marathon is only 1700(full and half). They checked our bags when going into the start area and we saw them checking spectators as they moved around to viewing areas. There were helicopters overhead during the race and police EVERYWHERE. I definitely felt secure an safe but also sad at the same time that this has become necessary. After words about Boston
and a moment of silence, we were off!
 

So when the blue ridge marathon people say there are some flat parts, they are lying! Haha. Supposedly the first couple miles leading up to the first mountain are flat. To us normal people who don't live in the mountains, these are hills and not that easy. But the views leading to the mountain were breathtaking and with the brilliant sun that morning just stunning. The first mountain we encountered we kind of skirted the side of it going uphill then broke away from the halfers and headed to Roanoke mountain. Wow what a long climb that was. One section was particularly steep so we walked a minute or two as was EVERYONE. Eventually we made it to the top. I had been snapping pics along the way since it was so beautiful and we agreed this marathon was totally for fun since the thought of doing it for a specific time would be absolutely ridiculous. At the top of Roanoke Mountain was a large aide station with lots of volunteers.  Two of the volunteers saw me taking pics of the view from the top and asked if I wanted them to take a pic of me.  So of course I stopped and posed for a pic on top of the mountain.   The descent down was almost as hard as the ascent.  It was so steep!  It was hurting different muscles than the climb up! 


 

The race continued on in that fashion.  We had a few miles between each of the 3 mountains that were nowhere close to flat.  Then it would be a long climb up and long descent down. The climb on the second mountain was a real struggle for me.  Both Emir and I had the feeling he was going to be leaving me behind.  My legs were feeling so tired and I was just feeling overall dead.  Awesome, I wasn't even halfway done yet.  But at the top, I stopped for a minute took in a GU, had some water.  We both had our packs full of Tailwind (of course) but I just needed something else too.  We started the descent and in a few minutes I started feeling much better.  Luckily it carried over to the rest of the race.  Of course the 3rd and final mountain didn't arrive until around miles 18-19.  They say Peakwood is the smallest and easiest of the 3 but once again, LIARS!!!  Ok yes it's the smallest in terms of height but let me tell you, it was by far the steepest and it felt like it went on forever!!!  But there was an awesome party going on at the top with water, GU brew and tons of fruit and PB&j's and awesome, awesome volunteers who you couldn't help but smile and laugh with.  We took one of our two potty breaks up here (there were port a potty's every station! which was every 1.9 miles or so).  I was waiting for Emir to come out and Bart Yasso enters the party scene.  He's high fiving everyone and comes over grabs my hand says "darlin, I'm so proud of what you are doing!  you are awesome!!"  This coming from a man struggling with lyme disease who just ascended this crazy steep mountain.  Bart is just amazing!  After we descended the last mountain we still had somewhere between 5-6 miles left.  But I was feeling good and I could tell Emir was too.  I mean were our legs hurting? hell yeah!  But we knew we could do it and could finish strong.  Of course there were some more ups and downs those last miles but felt like nothing compared to what we had been through.  On that homestretch I drank my tailwind, some water, ate a snickers some spectators left in front of their house for runners and Emir and I did a shot of Boston Lager.  And the last .2 mile stretch down to the finish line that was lined with everyone screaming for us, we ran holding hands and lifted our hands together as we crossed the line.  Even more awesome was the announcer who announced each person as they crossed.  He yelled "Husband and wife, Emir & Amy Dedic from Flourtown, PA coming in strong together!!  Look at them holding hands crossing the line together!"  I hope they got a good pic of it!! :-)  We finished in 4:30, which both of us could not believe!!  We totally thought for sure it would take us way longer to do a marathon of this difficulty not to mention I stopped for a pic, we stopped twice to pee, walked up a few of the steeper sections and stopped at a couple aide sections.  We were both so proud and beaming at our job well done!

So yeah this race was hard as hell but I'm still on this crazy high from it.  I just don't even know what other words to use other than awesome and amazing.  What made it so awesome not only were the views but the people.  Roanoke and the surrounding Blue Ridge Mountains are not extremely populated places but there were crowds throughout the whole race.  Besides the official aide stations which they had a ridiculous number of with tons of enthusiastic volunteers, tons of the locals also set up their own "stations" in front of their houses.  People had music blasting for us from their boom boxes, they were cheering, had cowbells, signs, bubbles, you name it we probably saw it.  Not only that but the local spectators had water and food for runners too!  There was fruit, pretzels, peanut butter and jelly sandwiches, candy, frozen grapes and that's only what I saw.  They were all so motivating and told us how proud they were we were doing this.  The only city race I've done so far is Philly.  And while I'm sure in total there were way more spectators along the course, it was nothing like this.  In Philly there were huge sections with nobody cheering and it just didn't feel as genuine as this.  These people loved having us there and in return we loved being there.  I would do this race again in a heart beat. 

One would probably assume after a tough race such as this that we would be taking at least a few days off however once again we are so smart and our first ever 50K at Bear Mountain is next weekend May 4th.  We had the two days after Blue Ridge as rest then run Tuesday, off Wednesday and run Thursday, Saturday and Sunday.  Thank goodness at least it's taper time!!  Even though these two extremely challenging races are so close together, I'm really glad we did Blue Ridge.  Yes one huge reason is because it was just such a great race in general but also we were able to treat it as an "ultra" training run.  It had plenty of those steep inclines that we will face in the 50K.  So we were able to get practice walking up the parts that are impossible to run and being able to switch back into running mode.  We also got practice at taking a minute or two to stop at aide stations to pee, eat, drink whatever we needed at that time which just what I expect will be needed at an ultra trail race.  Emir and I both agree that we are feeling more confident going into the 50K now and we are really looking forward to it!

A few (long winded) random thoughts ;-)

Forgive the length, this is what happens when I don't blog for a few weeks!!! ;-) 

Since our marathon a few weeks ago, I've had a couple rough patches.  The following weekend we were supposed to run 20 on Saturday and 14 on Sunday (I know!!, crazy!)  I was still on a high from my PR.  I noticed a twinge in both my hamstrings on the shorter runs during the week but I was like obviously you can't run your fastest marathon time ever and then not be sore.  Normally we would have taken at least a few days off then a bunch of short runs but since we are in the middle of 50K training no rest for the weary.  Anyway on Saturday's 20 miler.  I started off right away with some pain in my left hamstring.  So I kept the pace down and kept going.  I was feeling sore and slow but not unexpected.  Around mile 16 I began having sharp pains in my low back and left hip.  It became debilitating.  AHHHHH I was so frustrated!!  I ended up walk/running the rest of the run.  I made my 20 miles (mostly because otherwise I would have been stuck in the middle of the trail)  I knew it didn't look good for Sunday but I wanted to at least try.  Emir convinced me to at least just use the treadmill so that way if I had a problem I could easily just stop.  Sunday was also Easter so I woke up super early to try to get the run in before church.  I woke up a few times during the night because it actually hurt my left hip to lay on it :-(  I took a few slow run steps on the treadmill and couldn't take it.  I also knew that it was most likely in my best interest to not run Sunday and have my off day Monday to hopefully overcome this.  At first I was really disappointed to be missing this run completely.  I was just excited to run so many miles in the last few weeks but I got over it. (BTW even with missing this run, 200 miles for March!!! My highest ever in one month) Then I began to really start to worry about how bad my hip hurt.  We have two more marathons and our 50K coming up.  I didn't want to be sidelined now!  So I took action.  I foam rolled the crap out of my legs and iced my hip many many times over that week.  I stretched many many times that week and I began a glut and hip abd strengthening program.  Yes of course I know how important these muscles are and that yes I should be doing strengthening exercises a couple times a week buuuuut  what can I do sometimes???  I am a working mom of two young kids.  We have been logging a solid 45-50 miles a week for a while now which some weeks can be challenging just to get our runs in.  One of us will literally run in the house as the other one is running out.  Then run back in barely get a shower and off we go to whatever we have that day.  I'm not complaining.  I love running, love my kids, my husband but sometimes something has to give and usually that's any other physical activity other than our runs.  Anyway lucky for me I was only still a little sore come Tuesday so I was able to get back on my schedule and complete all my runs.  By the following week, my hip and back were pain free, THANK GOODNESS!! :-) 

Last weekend we went to our shore house for a 3 day weekend since they were forecasting beautiful weather, for once they were right.  We had a few wonderful runs down there.  There's nothing like running on the boardwalk, sea wall and ocean drive in the beaming sun reflecting off the sand and ocean.  I had some instep soreness on my longer run but I was wearing my Altra Torins which I don't tend to wear all the time.  They also aside from the Zero Drop don't have any instep support the way all my other shoes do.  I think I need to stick to shorter runs for those unless I decide to gradually work them in so that I can do long runs in them.  Today I did my 16 miler in my Saucony Viratta's which also are 0mm offset however I never have an instep problem with them, I'm guessing they have more support in that area.  I just want to say how much I freakin love my Virrata's.  I'm not one to obsess over gear, shoes, etc but I have fallen madly in love with these shoes.  They are light, comfy and I ALWAYS run fast in them.  Of course they were what I was wearing for my 3:59 marathon.  While on this topic of running gear, I wanted to take a minute to discuss something.  Like I said I'm not really a "gear freak" per say but at this point I do have a ton of it.  I'm lucky enough to have an awesome running connection.  My sister-in-law is the Fitness Editor for Fitness Magazine ( @FitnessJenna )  She not only gives me the latest and greatest gear for birthdays, Christmas and just because occasions but she has also hooked me up with some gear testing opportunities, hence the 6 pair of running shoe rotation I have going on right now.  Honestly, if it wasn't for her I would still be running in cotton t-shirts, mesh shorts and the cheapest running sneakers that I would prob wear for 600 miles +.  One of the reasons I got into running in the first place was because it was affordable.  I didn't need to belong to a gym or a pool to get my workouts in.  I didn't need tons of equipment or gear to work out.  And if I wanted to do a race, it's not hard to find reasonably priced events locally.  However lately the running gear/shoe market has been booming and going CRAZY!!!  I mean I did realize that for marathon/ultra distance training/racing it is necessary to have a few "running" pieces of apparel for the longer runs.  I learned that the hard way with some MAJOR shafing episodes.  I also know that you really do need a pair of shoes that suits your running style and yes I do admit they can't last forever or you will get injured.  But is it really necessary to spend SO MUCH on this stuff?  Before Jenna was able to start supplying me ;-)  I would find extremely reasonably priced running things at Kohl's and Target that weren't usually any "special" brand.  I never really had any problems with any of this stuff.  Now that I have the higher end name brand things, yes it usually looks nice and feels nice but is it really that much better?  Is it worth the money?  I don't really know the answer.  I do know however that the last couple of weeks I have been testing sports bras for Fitness Magazine.  They are all higher end running bras.  3 of the 4 bras are in the $30-40 range.  The 4th is actually $75.  Can you believe that?!?  I would NEVER spend that on a sports bra but maybe I'm just a cheapskate ;-)  Anyway I've been pretty happy with most of them.  However would you believe that the $75 bra has shafed my back pretty bad TWICE!?!  So it just proves my point that "name" and cost don't always mean better.  Ok end rant ;-)

Back to running, today I tried a different route that Emir found online.  It included around 3+ miles of uphill.  It was challenging but it was definitely the confidence booster I needed before we head to Virginia next weekend for the Blue Ridge Marathon.  Blue Ridge has over 7200 feet in elevations over 3 mountains (yikes!!)  It has been deemed America's Toughest Road Marathon so it's no joke.  Today's run was nothing compared to this marathon but I hadn't really done any hill work in a while so I had really been questioning what it would feel like.  It actually felt pretty good and I enjoyed it.  I think at this point with all the miles and miles that we have been putting in, our legs have a pretty good base.  We aren't going to break any records but I feel confident that we can do it.  I'm also feeling pretty good since we just got a huge package from Tailwind Nutrition to help fuel us up those mountains! :-)  LOVE THAT STUFF!

My unexpected 3:59 marathon :-)

On Sunday Emir and I ran the OD Marathon at the shore.  We had signed up for this marathon because we needed to run a marathon distance run in our 50K plan and this one fit nicely in the schedule.  It also is a very convenient race for us as we have a condo in Wildwood and the race shuttle bus picked us up/dropped us off only a few blocks from our place.  The OD Marathon was Emir's first ever marathon.  He ran it last year while I was pregnant with Una.  His training for it had gone extremely well and I was anticipating he would  be close to a 4 hour marathon.  Unfortunately the day before he was running a fever and barely made his 2 mile shakeout run.  The morning of the race he took some Tylenol and felt a little better but after about 10 miles or so it wore off and he hit a major wall.  Also on a bathroom stop, something happened and his knee was killing him.  Then to top things off, there was a constant headwind the entire race.  Needless to say he was so disappointed.  He finished which is awesome but he felt like he could have done so much better than his 4:36. 

All last week leading up to the marathon, Emir kept saying that it was just a training run and its no big deal.  I was a little nervous just because of that awful 14 miler turned 10.5 mile run last weekend with my throbbing ankle/foot.  I rolled and iced and the rest of the week my runs were good, pain free.  I had been thinking in the back of my head for a few weeks that this marathon would be my only chance until the fall to improve my marathon time since the rest of our races this spring are those of the nature that just finishing will be a major accomplishment due to the 1000s and 1000s of elevation ;-)  I didn't want to go out and immediately sprint but depending how I felt I did want to try to improve my time.  I knew Emir was probably worrying about this race due to his experience last year and the fact that he also reads endless amounts of blogs, posts and listens to running podcasts and that our training program specifically said that we could run a marathon race but we should NOT RACE it due to the fact that this is part of our training.  I grew up participating in sports where Emir didn't have that opportunity in Bosnia.  It's just my nature that I'm competitive, I can't help it.  I have this urge/desire to constantly get better, improve and beat opponents.  Emir is cautious and always worries that if he does too much now, it will affect him later.  Even within a marathon itself I know he is always worried that if he goes to fast, he will die later in the race.  My logic is I want to go with how I feel.  If I'm feeling really good, I run as fast as I feel comfortable.  If I get tired later in the race, I get tired.  I know that if I don't go as fast as I comfortably can, and then later I'm not trashed, I will always wonder, could I have done better in that race? 

So Saturday we dropped off the kids at my parents and made our way to the shore.  When we got there we gorged a bit on the famous Mack's pizza (it was there first open weekend of the season) and picked up our bibs.  In the end we probably walked 2-3 miles very leisurely.  That night we went to our favorite spot around the corner from our condo and had a couple beers (good for carbo loading, right?!?).  I'm very into the IPA scene these days but the last few times I had a couple, I woke up during the night with a splitting headache.  So smart me had two different, pretty strong IPAs.  When we got back then I filled up on my pasta with buffalo meat (our favorite).  And can you guess what happened???  Yup woke up around 1 AM with a splitting headache.  I got up and found an Advil bottle (yes!) but it only had one pill.  I took it.  I fell back asleep but woke up an hour later with a worse headache.  I was so mad at myself #1 for drinking those beers but even more importantly for not bringing some pain relievers from home! ugh!  In the end I found infant's Tylenol drops and yes you guessed it, I sucked down a few droppers full.  After suffering for a bit trying to get back to sleep, I must have passed out and woke up to my alarm at 5AM and amazingly headache free although feeling pretty tired.  We went through our usual morning routine coffee, me still having to pump and then our breakfast of eggs, English muffins, avocado, cheese and bacon. 

It was freakin freezing that morning (we got snow today!).  We both went with a couple layers of long sleeves and long pants.  The first few miles, I felt fine.  Not overly great not bad though.  We were probably averaging 9;30-9:45 minute miles.  Emir kept saying "don't get sucked into the race!"  I was like "yeah ok, mmm hmmm"  I'm not sure when it happened maybe 5 or so miles, I just felt like I needed to go faster.  I just let my legs take over.  Emir knew we were going faster and started making comments again.  I kept on prob at a 9:15-9:20 pace.  Somewhere between mile 8 & 9, we ran under the boardwalk real quick to pee ( I really really need to figure out how to run a marathon without peeing!!!!)  At this point a descent headwind had picked up.  Emir was saying that we needed to slow down due to the wind.  He said it would be like this the whole way and would wear us out.  I just really wasn't worried about it and really didn't care.  I just wanted to run how I felt.  A couple of times he said if I kept going how I was going he was going to have to let me go. I really, really did not want to leave him behind.  I wanted to do the race together.  We train together, we are partners in life and running and I love running together but I was almost getting tired of holding myself back.  Somewhere in mile 12 I just let go and let my legs take over.  Before I knew it Emir wasn't next to me anymore.  At the halfway point I checked my watch.  I was at 2:03 and overall 9:28 pace.  I was like this is great!  My time for the Philly marathon in November was 4:19 so even if I start slowing down when I get tired/hit the wall, I should pretty easily be able to beat my PR.  I don't even know how to explain it but my legs almost felt like they weren't apart of my body.  I would check my watch and I was comfortable in the 8:45-9:00 mile zone.  The miles were flying by way faster than I've ever experienced during a long run.  When I reached 20 miles I was still feeling great.  I checked my overall time.  I can't remember exactly but I'm pretty sure I was around 3:06.  I thought to myself "holy crap, if I can keep up this pace, I might make under 4 hours!!!"  That thought sent me soaring.  The next 3 miles I kept on what I felt was a good pace.  I checked my watch again at 3 miles to go.  I was at 3:34.  I had started feeling a bit labored those 3 miles from 20 -23 but overall nothing that I have experienced in each of my previous marathons.  I was like "ok Amy, you can do this!!!  It's only 3 miles, that's nothing.  Just give it your all and you get to die in only 3 miles!!!"  So I kicked it into high gear and I was determined.  I was definitely the most labored I was all race but it was almost over so I wasn't worried.  With 1 mile to go I was at 3:51.  Once again I found some higher gear.  I kept checking my watch that last mile and kept pushing myself.  I knew it would be close.  I hit my watch as I crossed the line and it said 3:59.55!!!!  I yelled out loud when I saw it.  Later looking at my stats I had many miles in my second half less than 9 minute pace but more impressively I paced 8:30 the last 3 miles.

Then and even now I just can't believe I broke the 4 hour mark.  I have had that goal in my mind but I kept thinking it was something I wouldn't achieve until the fall or next spring.  Let's face it, it hasn't even been a year yet since I had my second C-section and I've only been running overall a total of 2.5 ish years, 9 months of which was spent pregnant followed by 5 weeks no running after surgery.  I can be silly and unreasonable at times unlike my practical husband but usually overall goals like this I'm pretty grounded. I still don't even know how I did that!!  And to top it off, I wasn't crippled like the usual after marathon cripple.  Two weeks ago I could hardly stand or walk afterwards but this day, I felt great (relatively speaking).  It feels awesome to know that all this training has been for something.  I am not only getting into great shape but I'm improving.  And that's really what I want and it's what will keep me going and working so hard.  As I had written the last few blogs, I had been feeling a bit down, tired, sore, etc.  I was beginning to feel like my speed would never change, I was always the same pace sometimes way slower.  This was exactly what I needed to show me that none of that is true.  That is just part of training especially intense 50K training.  I have the motivation I need to get to our next event at the end of April.  More on that later.  For now, YEAH BABY!!!!!!!!!