Such a small community... of crazies

It is a lot of fun meeting other people who are endurance athletes (dude, I just called myself that. ROCK. ON!!) and talking to them.  It’s like we are this bunch of frigging crazy nut jobs that just love what we are doing so much and are drawn to each other. Immediately, we are best friends.  And huge supporters of each other. And it happens everywhere.  Someone will hear you talking, see you in a t-shirt, notice you limping… and ask the inevitable “did you do that race?”, “are you training for XXX?”, “when is your next XXX?”, and then it’s over.  My husband immediately excuses himself as his eyes glaze over. He knows the next 15 minutes are about to be spent talking about splits and transitions and this and that… I love it.

This weekend I met a woman who started her triathlon career last year and on a whim did a 70.3 (that’s a half Ironman) at the end of the season.  That’s pretty hardcore, but don’t let me tell you I haven’t thought long and hard about it.  But she is a swimmer while I am a runner.  I have learned that most everyone has their strongest event.  And while my weakest is the swim, my definite strongest is the run.  So she adding another quarter mile to her swim wasn’t a huge hurdle for her after she had trained for the Olympic distance (1 mile), while that sounds like such a killer to me.  But she dreaded the 6 mile to the 13 mile running distance.  That is nothing to me. 

We each have our own. 

Last week was a really positive week for me.  And made me feel much more confidant up my upcoming Sprint tri on the 15^th.  I had two great swim practices and am FINALLY seeing a noticeable increase in my endurance.  Thank goodness because I’m going to have to do my swim in a wetsuit. UGH!  Still not feeling uber confidant, but I know I will finish and be okay, even if it means some of it isn’t pretty and a bit of dog paddling… I’m okay with that.  Really.  And I may surprise myself and just do it.

It was also my first week back running after almost 4 weeks off because of my shin splint.  I was SO nervous – nervous it would hurt again and I’d have to stop.  Nervous I’d be back to drawing board when it came to my time and endurance.  Just nervous.  But, it was almost like I hadn’t stopped. Almost ;-) 

I put in 32 miles last week (Saturday-Saturday), including 10 miles on Saturday at a pace I’m pretty happy with.  No pain, no nothing. This is really comforting to me.

AND, it made me (almost) make a decision. 

So – my running times are very consistently improving.  I do not wear a watch and do not to drills to increase my time.  I don’t look at them until I finish – maybe next year I will but right now I’m just in the “I want to finish this distance” mode.  I really just started to run in December so I can’t deal with all of the rest right now.  But, I’m noticing a pretty good increase in my times even as my distances increase.  And this is good.

Welllll…. I am signed up for the Marine Corps Marathon in October, after I turn 35.  And 35 is an “age up” year to qualify for the Boston Marathon, a REALLLLLLY big deal for runners.  But I think that it will be too intimidating to try to do if it is my first marathon.  You tend to run too fast, to hurt too much, etc. on your first marathon.

So, I am very much considering adding a marathon to my races this year.  There is one on August 19 in Pennsylvania that I am looking at.  It is pre-age up, and there is NO way I’ll make it to Boston until after I age up, but I think it will be good to have one under my belt.  It IS kinda close to my 1^st Olympic tri, but I have it figured out I think… I’ll start marathon training end of April, and keep tri training, but focus more on the run.  I’ll do bike training on my off days for running only (2 days a week) and keep swimming 2 days a week, which should be fine. 

That’s my news!  I’m pretty syked.  Won’t be disappointed if I don’t make Boston, but will be kinda cool to get 2 marathons in my first year out! WOOT!