Grandmas Marathon

Last Wednesday, I may have temporarily lost my damn mind. I was feeling wistful about my winter/spring training cycle and feeling a little bummed with how my race turned out. That led to my brain thinking about 26.2 miles and considering Grandma's Marathon in 2018. I went on to the website to see when the race was in 2018, and realized that 2017 wasn't yet sold out.

Wait.

What?!

[insert gears starting to turn here]

If my legs recovered from this half, asap, I could squeeze in two long-long runs and a taper to do Grandma's. My training for the Brookings Half was really strong, with consistent weekly mileage, and mid-week long runs. At one point, Toni and I were on a run and I told her the only difference between our training and marathon training was that our long runs were 2 hours on the weekend instead of three. Hmmm.....

I sent a text message to Toni expecting her to jump right in. AND SHE SAID NO.

What?!?!?

This was unexpected. She's gone along with all of my crazy hair-brained ideas for the past six months, and is even on board with my insane 3 year running plan for us. No?! I'm sorry, I'm unsure what that word means.

[It should be noted that at mile 11 of Brookings, I thought, VERY LOUDLY, as thoughts often are during a run/race, that I was SO THANKFUL that I wasn't running 26.2 miles.]

We went for our run, my first since the half, and my left knee hurt. I mentioned to Kyle that I was considering running a marathon in a month, and he said no (to be clear, I never listen to him and his opinions, but it was worth noting, I suppose), and I'm scheduled to work that weekend. All signs point to no.... I think.

I think I'm just bummed that I didn't hit the time I feel like I was capable of for Brookings, and wanted to use my training for another goal. I should be (and am) excited about taking 11 minutes off of my time from 2016 to 2017 on the Brookings course, AND that's in 20 degrees warmer. It's also 4 minutes faster than my half in October on a much cooler day as well.

The next time I toe the line for a 26.2 mile race, I will do so with the confidence and training to back up a PR marathon effort. So I just need to remember that every mile between now and then helps to work toward that goal.