Colorado Marathon 5K: Catching Up

I don't know what I would do without my friends. As one of them said this week, when you think about things alone, you get into this vortex, and you keep coming back to the same place. When you share your ideas and thoughts with others, you can find tangents to throw you out of the downward spiral.

I'm picky about my friends. I like intelligent, creative people. If there's no spark in there, when I look in someone's eyes and soul, I'm not going to pursue it.

When I take down time from running, I also use the time to catch up with a lot of people I haven't seen in a while. My running schedule can limit my ability to socialize, especially with my non-runner friends, simply because I don't have the energy to stay awake when most people do things, in the evenings or weekends. I'm either running or sleeping.

I didn't run a step for myself for two weeks, I did jog with the girls several times but never more than 2 miles at a time. I went for one bike ride. I decided earlier this week that I wanted to run in the Colorado 5K or 10K held with the marathon this weekend, so I went to the expo and signed up yesterday. My friend Connie, who wrecked on her bike last weekend, is home and recovering from her fractures and surgery.

Earlier this week, Dennis Vanderheiden, who runs Athletes in Tandem, and Connie's running partner Dan Berlin, who is blind, decided to push Connie in one of the strollers Dennis uses for challenged athletes. Connie has been Dan's guide many times in marathons and other races. They planned to run the 10K. I wasn't sure I could keep up with them, even pushing the stroller, and 10K was a bit longer than I wanted to push myself if I had to run hard, so I signed up for the 5K and waited around until they came through the finish line.

It was a cold morning and I warmed up a bit along the Poudre Trail after the buses dropped us off at the start. I did a few strides and felt awkward and clunky on my feet, but I didn't think I'd be running very fast. I just wanted to get out and move, run as hard as I could, with no goal, no expectations.

When the gun went off I was close to the front of the pack, and I only saw maybe 5 women ahead of me. In the entire race, only one guy passed me, no one else. I followed the nearest woman I could see for the first mile and scared myself when I looked at my watch at the one mile mark, it said 6:56. I didn't even think my legs could do that right now.

Of course my pace went downhill from there, progressively slower 7 minute plus miles to splits of 14:22 and 22:07 at the next two mile markers. But I was completely surprised when I could see the finish line and the clock was ticking 22 minutes and change, and I got in under 23 minutes. 22:51, my watch said. It was uncomfortable, but I wasn't dying...a pleasant surprise, I guess you could say. I won't start working on speed again for a few more weeks yet. Next week the plan is to get all of 20 easy miles in.


As it turned out I was 6th place overall woman, and 18th overall of everyone. There were a couple of women at the bottom of the 40-49 age group, like 40 and 42 or something. But I don't think there were more than one or two women under 20 minutes.

The race seemed well-organized, it was the first year under new management and I was impressed that they seemed to have put it together seamlessly. It's always been a good event, looks like it will continue like that.

I stood with Connie's husband Doug and her daughter Marissa waiting for the team of Dennis, Dan and Connie to come across the finish line.

Soon they did, and we stood around and talked a while, it was freezing and the sun wasn't warming us up very fast. I waited for my friend Joanne, who is a psychiatric nurse with the VA, to finish her half-marathon, and then we went for coffee along with her husband Hunter while I waited for Wheaties Boy, who was pacing the 3:15 pace group, to finish.

Joanne and Hunter are planning to crew for me at the race in Oklahoma City this fall. We talked a little bit about North Coast, and about Joanne's marathon plans, and of course the topic of nursing came up. Joanne has been a nurse for 35 years and she's seen the same cyclical changes and the same problems over and over, and things never change.

It's the theme that keeps repeating itself. This past week alone, I have spoken at length, literally for hours at a time, with four different nurse friends, and had shorter conversations with as many non-nurse friends, about nursing. It's disturbing as hell, yet somehow comforting to hear the things other people have experienced, not much different than my own, and it validates what I'm seeing, feeling, and experiencing. We're all fighting dinosaurs. And we all know what happened to dinosaurs.

What was said about the definition of insanity?

Soon it was close to the time I expected Wheaties Boy, so we went outside, and in a few minutes, I saw him flying in with the 3:15 marathon banner. As he approached the finish line chute, I yelled "GO WHEATIES BOY" and I could see him crack up.

After hanging out for a bit longer with Hunter and Joanne, and Wheaties Boy, I went home.

Refreshed. Caught up. Ready to push forward.

Relentless Forward Motion

Busy week.

Today I ran the Colorado Marathon which starts up Poudre Canyon and finishes in Old Town Ft. Collins.

Runners take the bus up the canyon to get to the start, and that means catching the bus at 4 something in the morning. I woke up at 3:15, had coffee and ate breakfast before driving downtown to catch the bus.

When you get off the bus, it's cold outside, the campground where it starts is right next to the river and the air is cold. This year didn't seem as cold as last year, but I froze the whole morning, I didn't even warm up until I hit the bike path in LaPorte around 21 miles.

I headed for the portapotty line which was long and moving fast (young crowd again?) and heard someone call my name. I turned around and in line behind me was Donnalee, I haven't seen her in 10 years. I knew her and her family through the running club. She moved away to Montana about the time we moved to Arizona, we used to run together back then and today she was running her first marathon in a long time, since law school, getting married, having two kids, etc. They moved back to Fort Collins recently too.

We ran the first two miles together and her plan was to run about the pace I ran last year. I had no idea how I was going to feel, and we started out together for the first two miles, but I couldn't stay up with her. I never saw her again which means she must have had a great run. I haven't seen the results yet.

I started out at about an 8:45 per mile pace but backed off of that when I realized how flat my legs felt. My legs weren't tired or sore, they just feel like they have no turnover, no spring. I settled into a 9 minute pace and stayed there. I went through halfway in exactly 9 minute pace. In the early second half I did two long powerwalking stretches of about a mile each and that helped a lot, after those I'd bounce back and pass dozens of people.

I felt good again around 18 miles and ran with Ron from the running club for a while until I had to take another pee break. He was trying to get in under 4 hours and I didn't feel like pushing myself that hard, I wanted to stay strong. I had told Dennis I'd be done between 3 and a half and four hours, so I told Ron before he got ahead of me if he saw Dennis to tell him not to worry about me, I was upright and moving forward.

At one point on the bike path I passed this guy who was having problems, probably in his first marathon. He was bent over, then he'd stand up and look around behind him, not moving forward. I yelled, "Relentless Forward Motion! You can finish!" One of the spectators out there on the course started echoing me. I hope it sunk in and the guy finished. At that point he had enough time to crawl and still make it under the cutoff time.

When I got to the finish line I couldn't see the clock but I shut off my watch. Dennis saw me and called to me. I looked at my watch after a minute or so and it was still running, so I don't know what my finish time was, but it was 4 hours and change. Probably 4:02 or something, but I'll find out when I see the results. I ran fairly even splits the first and second half, with those two powerwalking miles.


After I finished, I saw a co-worker who finished her first half marathon, and told me that another one of our co-workers finished the half marathon in a fast time. We didn't stick around long, we picked up my drop bag and talked to a few people. We went home and took the Buffaloes for a few miles and got 32 for the day. Then I took a nap. Not a bad week, 60 miles, no breaks. Unfortunately, I neglected my sauna training this week, there were not enough hours to do everything. I can't get away with that anymore after this. The race is only 10 weeks away.

Saturday from 10 am to 5 pm I was at the Expo at the Hilton for the Colorado Marathon. I had a display set up to call attention to my fundraiser for the Foundation. I was located outside the main room so everyone saw me on their way in and out. I got a lot of interest and got a donation, and quite a few people picked up flyers after I talked to them about why I'm doing the fundraiser. I also gave flyers to everyone I knew.

I had my foam board display with the powerpoint slides on it, my laptop set up with the video of "Running on the Sun" the whole time, and a big basket of candy. People are fascinated by the idea of running Badwater, but most of them say they would never do it, they think it's crazy. I talked to maybe half a dozen people who said they might want to do it someday.

My location was ideal except at the times when things got busy and the place was packed with people. I ended up being the greeter all day as a result of my location, which was good, but exhausting. At 5 pm sharp, Dennis helped me break everything down and we ordered a pizza and took it home. I was too tired to think of cooking.

When I got home from the marathon, Dennis had the article in the Coloradoan spread out on the table in the kitchen. I saw Miles before the start and he told me a few things got edited out, but Dennis and I both thought it was good and he got a good laugh out of it.

I need to start this week making heat training a big priority. The weather has been too cool for Badwater training. I'll have to start overdressing on my runs and hitting the sauna every day I'm not at work. I have 6 weeks of training left before the taper, and 9 weeks to heat train. I feel like at this point, I could run the Badwater distance if I had a few weeks to taper. But I don't feel ready for the heat.

One of the articles I read about heat training said that if you're short on time at this point in your training, it's better to hit the sauna and spend time baking in the heat than running. Good advice.

Time to eat again...