CATCHING UP – PART 1 - Left on Hereford….Right on Boylston.

OK honestly I’ve been thinking about taking time to catch up our blog for hmmmm…how long has it been now….a year and a half?  Ugh, seriously!  So many noteworthy things have taken place but we have had little time to catch our breath.  So I’ll try not to skip over to many important parts and, in 3 parts, explain to you how back in June of 2011 a sequence of events lead us today, on the beaches of Negril, Jamaica in December of 2012.

This is going to be difficult to summarize but here goes nothin’

CATCHING UP – PART 1 - Left on Hereford….Right on Boylston.

So after a long battle with an IT band issue in the spring of 2011, Mark and I were both gunning for BQ times at the 2011 Grandma’s Marathon.  I was in an extreme nervous state at the start line since I spent the spring rehabbing an IT band injury and not being allowed to run more than 13 miles at a time.  I figured a BQ time of 3:40 was a ridiculous pipedream but I did what I could to put in quality training miles and hoped for the best.    Long story short…..the stars aligned.   The weather was perfect with a wind at my back and somehow I managed to zone out my brain just trying to catch the soles of the person in front of me and managed to cross the line in 3:37:51.  I was a mush pile having realized what just happened.   But at the same time, feeling a heavy heart for Mark as he just missed his BQ by exactly what I made mine in.  2 minutes and 9 seconds.

Now with as much as I just wanted to say I ran the 2012 Boston Marathon, I spent part of my training feeling like I had something to prove.  You see, after I ran and qualified at Grandma’s in 2011, the standards were pushed up.  Meaning my 3:40 qualifying time became a 3:35.   So I felt like I needed to run Boston in 3:35 or better to prove I deserved to be there so that’s how I planned my training.  Well….at least until all hell broke loose…..

I was feeling really good about running a low 8:00 and change pace until exactly 8 days before Boston.  I remember it and the great amount of fear that took over.   I was on my 8 mile taper run and about 6 miles in, out of nowhere came that unmistakable IT band ‘snap’.   Best part is that it was in the OTHER leg.  Not the one that was injured prior to Grandma’s in 2011.   I was beyond devastated.   I rushed as fast as I could to my PT for treatment and nearly begged for Tria to give me a cortisone shot.    I had no idea if it would help but I didn’t know what else to do.  I spent about 4 days in complete depression, feeling like all the work I did was for nothing.  Hell….I might not even be able to finish Boston.  But again I will summarize the ending for you and state that while I did manage to get through about mile 18 or 19 until the IT band pain starting setting in hard…..Mother Nature didn’t really want any of us to have a good marathon that day anyway.   I think Boston 2012 will forever go down as “that really hot year.”   The marathon for the first time was allowing deferrals to 2013 due to the extreme heat and was actually urging runners to take the option or plan to walk.   So even if I was in perfect condition to give ‘er hell, NO ONE was able to consider new PRs that day.  It was over 70 degrees at the start and by time I finished the heat index was over 90 degrees.   Honestly, I don’t remember my finishing time; 4:20 or 30 something.  All I remember was the heat, the crowds and spending lots of extra steps going all the way across the street to grab a handful of ice when I saw it available.   

And might I add how super awesome it was to have Brandon and Theresa out there cheering for me as well!!  Thanks a million you two!  It made it so much more memorable to have you there with us!

Boston 2012….check.

 

There are just too many great photos and it takes too long for me to upload them one by one (Thanks Blogger....) so here is a link to the PhotoBucket album from the entire trip.  After the marathon, we explored up the coast to Maine and spent a night in Cape Cod.