February In Review + Marathon Nightmares

February in Review

Total Miles:  141.9 up from 121.9 last month (82.5 in Febrary 2011.)  Highest February mileage ever.  The weather doesn't hurt.  Two hundred mile months down, 10 to go!

Total Time: 22:16:15 up from 19:34:50. Thank God we got that extra day, because I spent it running!

Total Runs: 20

Highest weekly mileage:

2/27-3/4 51.2 miles 8:20:03  Not sure how a half Feb/half Mar works for a February recap, but this was my highest weekly mileage EVER. So brag alert, there you have it.  If that doesn't suffice, then

2/20-2-26 47.1 miles 7:29:39.

Favorite run: I had a lot of fun running my 16 mile long run with 10 miles at MP.  It was a cruddy day out, so I spent it on the treadmill.  And learned that I can still manage to dominate Jeopardy even while knocking out marathon pace miles.  That's a win in my book.

Most hardcore run: All of my tempo runs. seriously.  Uff da.  The last one I did was painful, but I had the biggest runner's high when I was done.  10 miles w 5 at pace.  

8:26, 8:19, 8:14, 8:05, 7:58

Favorite race:  zero.  I've yet to run a race as a 28 year old.  Sad.

Bike Miles: 0

Favorite Jams: I'm loving Katy Perry's new song Part of Me and Kelly Clarkson's What Doesn't Kill You makes you Stronger. I could see that being a theme song on some of my LRs or tempo runs. ;)

_______________

Well I'm approximately 9 1/2 weeks out from the Brookings Marathon, and it's started already.  The marathon nightmares.  I woke up last night in a panic; I was so freaked out.  It was so vivid and ridiculous.  And totally on par with EVERY race nightmare I've ever had.

And here it is:

I arrive at the race start and it's SURPRISE today.  Nothing like a surprise, your race has been moved up 9 1/2 weeks, right?  Fun!  I get up to the start line and the announcer is lining us up by submitted race times, a la high school track when your coaches would send in your race times to get you in the faster heats/best track lanes (I <3 lane 4, FYI.  Sprinting still has my heart, FYI.)  There were 10 people there for the race, and shockingly I was dead last.  Fine, NBD!  I'm already setting myself up to think that I may be all by myself for a good chunk of the race, that's just bound to happen with a really small race.  But bonus!  I'll get to see my family a TON, so it'll be like a long run with spectators.  Huzzah.

Anyway, just as the gun is about to go off, I realize my shoes aren't tied.  No biggie, it's chip timed, not like I'm going to be running with these speedies anyway, right?  And then I realize I'm only wearing one shoe.  Where is shoe #2, you ask?  5 feet across the start line, of course.  SOB!  So I cross, start my garmin, and by the time I've tied my shoes my garmin reads 5:50.  IS THIS YOUR FIRST TIME TYING YOUR SHOE?!? HOW IN THE WORLD DID IT TAKE YOU THIS LONG??!?!?

I get going out of the gym, because most of my race dreams start in gyms and include many many obstacles (yayzies, as if running 26.2 miles isn't hard enough!) and I have no idea where the race course is.  And since I'm a slow poke, and now 6 minutes behind the group, I'm stuck.  I shout to someone who appears to be a volunteer and they point me in the right direction.  Naturally, I'm running through 12-15" inches of snow.  The type of snow that's big and fluffy, but then has a nice layer of freeze on the top of it.  It's just stable enough that someone of my size can precariously walk across without it collapsing underneath you.  However, the force of running causes me to break.through.every.time.  I briefly think about DNF'ing and carting my booty up to Fargo for the marathon next weekend (I mean, come on... dream Jeri is kind of a genius here!  except she keeps going, because she's not a quitter.  oh sweet jesus Jerbear, just be a quitter!)

I run for a little bit and then it's on to obstacles!  Slides!  There are three slide options covered in ice.  But which do you choose?  I choose one and it's a dead end and I'm forced to climb back up the slide to get to where I was.  I finally make it through the right slide and end up in another gym.  And of course no one is around to direct me where to go.  I can't even find my way out of the school.  Finally I get outside and a kid tells me to just "look for Otterbox street."  I knew I should've memorized the course map.  Out of no where a classmate of mine shows up on a bike and says, "I made the trip down from Canada to keep you company on your race!"  I hand off my water bottle and continue on my way.  I end up down by a river and see the bike trails, and vaguely remember that the last half of the race is on the bike trails.  However, I don't know which way to take them.  The super not helpful volunteers tell me I can take either one, they're free for the public to use.  I'M TRYING TO RACE HERE PEOPLE!!  

Luckily I wake up shortly here after, and don't have to go through that torture anymore.  I made it not quite 5 miles in my dream.  Longest 5 miles EVER.  

The good news is that marathon pace was easy peasy.  

So there's that I guess.