Boldly running where I've never gone before

I called it a dress rehearsal for the marathon,  a 23-mile very slow run which would approximate conditions for the big day.  Using my house as a bathroom/food stop with water bottles and snacks laid out on the kitchen island, I made a series of “between 3 and 4 mile” routes on MapMyRun with home as the starting point and planned to do seven of them (which added up to 22.85 miles — close enough to 23 for me). Since the marathon is also a series of short loops (as are all the races offered by the Mainly Marathons bunch), I figured it would be a perfect simulation.  I even started at 8:00 a.m. which is the same time (7:00 a.m. Mountain Time) the actual race will begin on October 29.

I learned a lot.

First: even though there will be an extremely plentiful aid station handy at that race, I will still want to carry my own water.  I always do.  I feel naked without that little hand held bottle carrier thingie. When I tried to ditch it yesterday, I missed it.

Second:  the ridiculously expensive sports-bra-with-front-pocket that carries my iPhone is not the best choice for a very long run.  It caused upper back pain after about the first 10 miles.  I often use the PEAR Sports heart-rate based coaching and tracking programs when I run, but I will skip that during the marathon.  There’s just no place to carry that giant phone easily for such a long distance. The armband carriers always slide down and that’s a big pain in the ass.  The waist carrier pouch thing makes me sweat more in the heat.  And I won’t need the phone for music anyway because I have an iPod shuffle (two actually since I once lost one and then found it a year later).

Third:  it’s nice to have actual food instead of just gel packs and such.  The Mainly Marathons races always have real food, so I made small ham and cheese sandwiches with pear slices and cookies for my mock aid station.  As long as I didn’t eat too much, I had plenty of energy and my stomach felt comfortable.

Fourth:  my legs will be fine (although tired sometimes) but my feet could be an issue. I ended up switching shoes about halfway through because the higher heel-to-toe drop in my Brooks Addictions got to be a problem.  It felt like running in high heels.  The Saucony Hurricanes (even though they’re older) will be the official shoe but I will bring my Hokas along too, just in case.  I can probably stash them by the aid station should I feel the need to change to something even flatter.

Fifth:  you can’t exactly rely on the MapMyRun maps to be 100% accurate on the distance you will run as an individual. Even though I thought I would get almost 23 miles done, it came up barely 21 and 1/2 (per my Garmin watch) by the time I got done.  Being a little obsessive, I considered getting back out there just to get in that extra mileage but decided not to.  It was 80 and sunny, I was hot and in pain, and no added benefit would have come from it.

So now the taper begins.  My right Achilles tendon is a little cranky today but it’s nothing I can’t baby along and stretch out as the clock ticks down toward October 29.  I’m scared and thrilled; confident and nervous; ready yet wishing it was already over all at the same time.

More later.