Crazy Post Marathon Ideas

On the drive home from the Twin Cities Marathon, we spent a lot of time talking about our races (duh). And it didn't take too long into the drive for the wheels in my brain to start turning. And to think about another marathon.

Perhaps a redemption marathon.

My next scheduled race is the Dallas Half Marathon on December 9th. Last spring I signed up thinking that I'd have a monster endurance base after TCM and a short cycle with some extra speed might lead to a speedier half marathon. Plus it's always nice to get out of South Dakota in the winter. 

But as I got to thinking, the more that I felt like TCM was like a 26.2 mile long run. My heart rate stayed nice and comfy because I wasn't able to open up and really run hard due to the stomach/side cramping. I thought that maybe I could recover and do a VERY short marathon cycle.

So the past few weeks I've taken very easy. Probably focusing on recovery better than I ever have before after a marathon. I know my odds of training for another marathon in such a short time hinges on recovering to the best of my abilities first.

I have a plan that gets me from now until race day, and the option to switch to the full marathon basically at any time (the race crew confirmed as such when I was nervous about pulling the trigger quite so soon). I was worried if I changed but still felt really tired and extra labored on long runs, I'd be forced stick with 26.2 even if my body, heart, and/or mind weren't in it. Luckily I can wait!

So barring any crazy disasters (knocks vigorously on wood) I'll be lining up for one last 26.2 miles in 2018. I really hope that I can have another attempt at proving where my fitness is over the marathon distance this year. I worked incredibly hard for Twin Cities and really thought I would hit the 4:02-4:05 range. I thought on a rough day, I'd still snag that sub 4:12 for a PR. So I'm really hopeful that I can have another crack at that in just a handful of weeks. Gulp.