Twin Cities Marathon: Spectators wanted!

So, as you've probably heard, the Twin Cities Marathon is this coming Sunday, starting at 8am. The route goes from the Metrodome in Minneapolis to the State Capitol in St. Paul. I'm planning on running a 5:30 (five hour thirty minute) marathon, which translates to about a 12:35 pace (12 min, 35 seconds per mile.)

• Participant guide
• Map of the course [squares on the interstate are ramps]
  
• Road closures

Remembering that the elite runners are in the first corral at the starting line, it's possible it could be up to ten minutes before I actually cross the starting line timing mat and am officially on the course, you can guess what time I'll be at each mile. Here's a rough estimate, assuming I maintain a 12:35 pace. But, avoid the guesswork... there will be a timing chip map updated on the Twin Cities Marathon website that will be updated when I cross timing mats at miles 1, 2, 5k (3.1 miles), 10k (6.2 miles), 13.1 (half marathon), 30k (18.64 miles), and one other spot TBA. But here's a general idea:

1 - 12:35 (12th St/Hennepin Av; 8:22am)
2 - 25:10 (Lyndale/Douglas Av; 8:35am)
3 - 37:45 (Douglas Av and Oliver Av?; 8:47am)
4 - 50:20 (Dean Parkway/Lake of the Isles Pkwy; 8:59am)
5 - 1:02:55 (West Calhoun Pkwy, between 32nd St & 36th St; 9:11am)
6 - 1:15:30 (West Calhoun Pkwy/Sheridan Av S; 9:25am)
7 - 1:28:05 (22nd/East Harriet Blvd; 9:38am)
8 - 1:40:40 (W Minnehaha Pkwy/Humboldt Av S; 9:50am)
9 - 1:53:15 (Minnehaha Pkwy/35W; 10:03am)
10 - 2:05:50 (Minnehaha Pkwy/Chicago Av; 10:15am)
11 - 2:18:25 (Minnehaha Pkwy/Cedar Av; 10:28am)
12 - 2:31:00 (Cedar Av S/E Nokomis Pkwy; 10:41am)
13 - 2:43:35 (E Nokomis Pkwy/52nd St; 10:53am)
14 - 2:56:10 (Minnehaha Pkwy/Nokomis Av; 11:06am)
15 - 3:08:45 (Godfrey Rd/Hwy 55; 11:18am)
16 - 3:21:20 (42nd St/W River Pkwy; 11:30am)
17 - 3:33:55 (West River Rd/36th St; 11:43am)
18 - 3:46:30 (West River Rd/28th St; 11:56am)
19 - 3:59:05 (West River Rd/Franklin Av; 12:09pm)
20 - 4:11:40 (East River Rd/St. Anthony Av; 12:21pm)
21 - 4:24:15 (East River Rd/Marshall St; 12:34pm)
22 - 4:36:50 (Summit Av/Cleveland Av; 12:46pm)
23 - 4:49:25 (Summit Av/Snelling Av; 12:50pm)
24 - 5:02:00 (Summit Av/Oxford; 1:12pm)
25 - 5:14:35 (Summit/Dale, 1:24pm)
26.2 - 5:30:00 (John Ireland Blvd & 12th St/Rice St, 1:40pm)

Spectator tips

• West River Road is known as a vacuum for spectators. If you can be there, your cheers will be greatly, greatly appreciated!
• Don't yell "You're almost there" until mile 25. When you're really tired, a few miles seems like a LONG way!

Cheer suggestions from Twin Cities Marathon:

• "You're looking awesome!"
• "You can do it!"
• "Way to run!"
• "One stride at a time!"
• "Way to focus!"
• "Stay relaxed!"
• "Keep it up!"
• "Way to go!"
• Call out something unique about the runner (bib #, color or logo on the shirt, etc.)

See you there!

5 days to Marathon: What have I gotten myself into, Race preparation, and Spectator's guide

Well, the marathon is on Sunday. My god that went fast. Knock on wood, the weather is supposed to be good - low 60s (forecast is saying 59 today), no rain. Runners dress for temperatures about 20 degrees warmer than it is, so an ideal running temperature is mid-50s. And of course no rain. If any of you paid attention to last year's Twin Cities Marathon (I surely did not), it was cold and rainy. Our current TNT head running coach actually ended up dropping out because she became hypothermic. So do your anti-rain dance - no rain please!

Our race will start at 8am. I am planning on running a 5 hour 30 min (running with the Clif Bar pace group, I think), which would make my pace about 12:35 on average, and possibly as slow as 13:10 per mile. The lowest pace a participant can go without getting picked up by the bus will be 13:44. I should be fine if my IT band doesn't act up. We'll see.

Now's the time: download and print your spectator's guide!

I am anxious - not only because it's my first marathon, but also I've had a nagging IT band injury that's prevented me from running my short workouts during the week (hello pool jogging, the most ridiculous-looking exercise you will ever do.) I've tried to keep up with the longer weekend runs, but have had to cut the last three short. Been to a chiropracter once on Friday, once yesterday, and will probably go once or twice again this week. Did I mention that while he's excellent and helped me a great deal, the office is not in network? Yep. Thank goodness for my Health Care Flexible Spending Account.

So my time these days is spent on the following priorities, at work and at home:

* Taking two to three naproxen a day to keep down swelling (race day, this will become acetaminophen, as I understand this is a better choice for the kidneys during the marathon);
* Icing my knee and left quad (I feel like such a jock talking about "icing my quad") as often as I can during the day - my chiro says apart from the anti-inflammatory properties of icing, this also acts as a "pump," telling fluids to leave when it's cold, and pumping them back when the ice pack is removed, accelerating healing);
* Drinking at least 64 oz of water a day;
* "Grazing" carbs starting on Wednesday;
* Getting up around the time I'll get up on Sunday all this week to get my system, ahem, going at the proper time. (Runners are a very, very earnest and upfront bunch.)
* Getting to the chiropracter at least one more time, and possibly two, before race day.

To add to that, I have the following regimen to squeeze in twice a day:
* Rolling my IT band with a roller (big foam roll) - also an awkward exercise
* Massaging the bejeezus out of my quads, calf muscles and IT band with "the stick"
* After 5 minutes of a warmup activity, stretching my IT band.

Off to my stretching routine. More soon!

Cheer me on at TCM Oct 4!, thank you, hills, 18 miles and knee injury

Mark your calendars - cheer me on at the Twin Cities Marathon on Sunday, Oct. 4, 8am! TCM is a mere 28 days away,. I'd love to see you at a Team In Training cheer station! I'll be finishing around 2pm. More details soon - they're all in my gmail which seems to be down now. Boo. Here are the details!

Thirty-five TNT athletes - including myself - will be racing on Sunday, October 4 and could really use some TNT fans out there to support them.

Leukemia and Lymphoma staff are looking for people to man cheer stations and the finish area tent. If you can help, please contact Kim Mitchell. We will need help from 7:30 a.m. to about 2:30 p.m. Please let her know what times you are available and preference of cheer station below. We need every station to be loud, crazy and fun! TNT gear is a must!!! Wigs, crazy hats, TNT logos, signs, cowbells, etc. - the more purple and green the better!

Mile 4.5 (Cheer Captain: TBD) - 8 a.m. Located in Minneapolis at the northwest corner of Lake Calhoun near the Calhoun Beach Club (corner of Lake St. & Dean Parkway)

Mile 10 (Cheer Captain: TBD) - 8:40 a.m. Located at the intersection of Portland Avenue and 50th Street.

Mile 17 (Cheer Captain: TBD) - 9:15 a.m. The TNT cheering section will be just prior to the official mile 17 water stop of the marathon. We will set up at about 34th Street and West River Road. Park along Edmund Boulevard. It runs parallel to River Road. You will need to walk down a small hill to get to River Road. (It is about 4 blocks south of Lake Street)

Mile 22.75 (Also Mile 6.75 of the 10 miler) (Cheer Captain: TBD) - 9:35 a.m.
This is our official Honoree Cheer Station. Located at the intersection of Summit Avenue and Snelling Avenue.

Finish Area Check-In (Captain: TBD)

Wow... it's hard to believe that the marathon is less than a month away. I am increasingly excited and especially anxious. I know that my training is preparing me, but at the same time... I've never done this before. I just started running in January, for heaven's sake. But I should remember that even in that amount of time I've come so far. I remember when we first started training on lock and dam hills - we did two and I was exhausted. Our last hill team training I did six!

First things first - a tremendous thank you to fellow TNTer Jennifer Koper for her contribution towards my goals. Jennifer was a participant in the Lifetime Tri for Team in Training and a veteran of Team in Training. Thank you so much, Jennifer!

I haven't run for about a week - on my last long run a week ago, I had a lot of tightness and some pain in my outside left knee. I've been taking it easy, and even had a NP look at it when I was in for an unrelated condition (viral conjunctivitis - good times) - she suggested if it continues, to go into a sports medicine specialist. I am hoping that rest and naproxen will do the job, but I might end up in a doctor's office yet.

In any case, I went on a long-ish walk yesterday - hoping that lower intensity would be charitable to that knee. Today I ran hills - 1 mile warmup, 6 reps of hills at the cabin we're at (up and down BOTH sides of the hill - the lock and dam hills that regularly test my endurance in team runs are only ONE side of the hill!), and another mile cooldown. Still felt tightness in my left knee, and my PT friend suggested a technique to "recruit" my inner knee muscle to hopefully reduce the strain on the outer knee (thank you Jen!). I'll try that for awhile and see if it takes care of the problem.

My long run this weekend - 18 miles, which will be a new personal record - is scheduled for Tuesday. And next weekend, right before the Autumn Brew Review, I'll be completing a 21 mile run - the longest run in our training. Onward!

48 days until TCM: 16 miles (and more) and new shoes

Well, race day is officially less than two months away. I'm nervous and excited all at the same time. Training has been going well. I did finally defeat the evil plantar fasciitis, but not before it made a point of moving to my cuboid bone (who knew I had one), and then to my knee before it finally succumbed to a rigorous regimen of naproxen and coldpacks. One of the great things about living (and training) in a well-established running community are the community running stores and their fabulous workshops and deals for people belonging to running clubs. Marathon Sports on 50th and Penn in Minneapolis, for example, has a free sports podiatrist every first and third Tuesday on site to examine foot injuries and give advice. Hence, my icing and naproxen regimen for the pain on my foot. Hooray for neighborhood running stores! Dr. Langer told me to try a shoe insert if the pain didn't go away, but fortunately it has. Hooray!

Two Saturdays ago, I ran a new personal record: 15 miles! However, I got horribly lost, so I'm sure it was closer to 16 or 17 miles. My cartographical war with South Minneapolis continues. That old axiom about Minneapolis being easier to navigate than St. Paul? Complete and utter crap. I have never been so stymied by city geography in my life - this from a woman who has learned the nooks and crannies of St. Paul over the past ten years - trying to maneuver around South Minneapolis lakes.

On the bright side, though, it IS the longest I've ever run, and I felt pretty good - better than I did at the end of my 13 mile run a couple of weeks ago, anyway. This Saturday, our team run took us 16 miles. It was so hot, though, that I started getting dizzy around mile 14, so I just did the last two at home on the basement treadmill. Works for me. I felt something snap in my left knee, so let's hope that doesn't stick around.

I have officially put over 200 miles on my shoes that I just got in May. Team in Training advises us that shoes last about 400 miles, and that would put me square on my marathon date, so I bought another pair to alternate during this last leg of training. Onward!

Plantar fasciitis conquered?, Cutback week: Ten miles tomorrow, and Ice bath!

Well, I had my first running-related injury - I developed a pain in my left heel following my 13 mile run, which I thought might be plantar fasciitis, inflammation of the tendon that connects your heel to your toes (a very common affliction among runners.) It's not that I can't run 13 miles, or even longer, mind you - it's just that I put on those miles too quickly. I ended up going out of town for a couple of weekends. While I religiously found routes to run, it never occurred to me that I needed to keep up with the long distance schedule - an incredibly obvious mistake, now that I look back on it. I went from my longest run ever at 9.5 miles to 13 miles with only my shorter weekday runs in the middle, and it was just too much. Cautionary tale - never increase your mileage by more than 10% a week!

In any case, Tony and I decided to go swimming on Monday, in part because I wanted to give my foot a chance to heal but still get some activity in. The heel certainly slowed up my Tuesday and Wednesday running (of course, in re-reading "Marathoning for Mortals" last night, I learned I was supposed to be not training on that foot for four days - oopsies!) and I took Thursday off. All this week I have been taking ibuprofin and icing during the day at work alternating cold packs. As recently as about noon I still felt its twinge, and now this afternoon, I suddenly realized - hey, I'm walking without pain! I even jogged in place for a few seconds - no pain there either! Of course, I'm going to continue to be cautious - nothing worse than reinjuring an almost-healed condition - but things are looking bright, and now I know! All of this inspired a long walk with the pup... and now the pain has moved to the side of my foot. Probably not plantar fasciitis, but still. I am icing it tonight in the hopes I'll be able to take on tomorrow's long run with the team.

Speaking of tomorrow's run - this week is a cutback week! Cutback weeks are built into the schedule to allow the body to rest, repair and get stronger. We will be doing only 10 miles on the long run tomorrow. On Wednesday, we did an interesting team track run - everyone ran 1 mile at their marathon pace (so we were dividing our goal time marathon pace into quarter mile segments) and then took 1 lap (quarter mile) to recover, then repeated two more times. My goal is pretty modest - I hope to finish without getting swept up by the you're-too-slow-to-finish-in-the-maximum-time bus. That pace is 13:44 per mile. If you ever visit my cubicle, you'll see a map of the Twin Cities marathon with "13:44" written on it in bold numbers.

The good news was that even with 1/4mile walk breaks, I was doing MUCH better than 13:44! Now, that's not to say I could maintain that pace throughout 26.2 miles - running a mile is a far cry from running the real deal. But it did give me a feel for running at the pace I need to be at or beat, which was more than comfortable, and that was fantastic. Also, I have been moving onto 8:2 run/walk intervals, which I'm actually finding quite comfortable. I think it will be awhile before I give up my two minutes of walking recovery but I think I could move into a 10:2 ratio comfortably.

I should also belatedly mention that at the end of last week's thirteen mile run, I took my first ice bath, and it was wonderful. "Ice bath" is actually a bad name for it, as the bath has very little ice in it, and only cool water, a bit cooler than room temperature but NOT as cold as the tap will go. You can add ice, but if you do, add no more than a few cups and add it after you're in the tub. You fill the tub up enough that you can submerge yourself from the waist down, and then you get in the tub and submerge everything below the waist, especially your hips, knees and ankles. Some folks wear a sweatshirt to lessen the shock, and let me tell you, you will be breathless with the shock! Then, you sit in the tub for seven minutes - no more or you risk hypothermia. All of this helps your joints recover - mine felt the best they ever had after a long run. I will definitely be using this as we head into the August and September training runs.

Onward!

13 miles and the training "plateau"

It's been awhile since I've updated this blog - my apologies. These days seem to just zip by.

First, a belated thank you to our latest donor! Eleonore from Minneapolis donated some time ago, and I have been woefully late in thanking her - thanks, Eleonore!

The good news: yesterday, I completed our team run of 13 miles - a whopping 0.1 miles shy of a half marathon. I completed it in about 2:53 - a smooth 18 seconds under the minimum pace for the Twin Cities Marathon. Woohoo!! Even with the distance, it was quite the route - we started on Mississippi Boulevard in St. Paul, crossed at the Ford Parkway bridge and commenced up the river on River Road. What we didn't know was that a good two to three miles of the River Road path was under construction! Much of the trail had to be run in tire tracks, on a small dirt path (where it existed) or just on the road (which made me uneasy, as that's not an especially safe place to run.) We finally just crossed the road and ran on the other side on an informal footpath.

On our way up the River Road trail, we also ran past what I can only assume was bridge infrastructure wreckage from the 35W bridge collapse, still on the riverbank, fenced off from the public - a sad reminder. We continued up River Road to cross the bridge at Washington Avenue (close the University of Minnesota) and back to our starting point.

In other training news, I think I've also hit a training plateau. This is apparently common, and especially for people new to running. Training felt so good that I was regularly going above and beyond my training schedule - a classic first-timer mistake. In mid-July, though, I found that what were easy runs before now became much more difficult. This was probably compounded by a busy schedule that didn't allow me to run as often as my training schedule required (even though I was still running!) I'm hoping that being able to attend more of the team trainings and a running club that one of our mentors attends, along with adherence to my training schedule, will help me get back on track.

Onward!

9.5 miles & cheer for TNT athletes this weekend at the Minneapolis Lifetime Triathlon!

It's been awhile since I've written here, so I thought I'd give you all an update.

First, I can't believe it, but donations are still coming in! Thank you all for your encouragement. A big thanks to

Jannette, NY

for her contribution last week (and for being a steadfast running partner, even when I wasn't quite running yet. Thanks, Jannette!)

I am also excited to report I have set a new personal record for myself - 9.5 miles yesterday.

Finally, as I wrote about a week ago, I am planning on cheering no less than 110 TNT athletes at the Lifetime Fitness Triathlon in Minneapolis this coming Saturday sometime between 7am and 1pm, and you should too! This is a great way to see what race day will be like in October as a spectator, and of course to support athletes running, biking and swimming for a great cause.

Please email Julie at Julie dot Freniere dash Gibson at lls dog org if you can join me in cheering on TNT athletes on Saturday.

LLS is looking for people to man cheer stations, the finish area tent, etc. LLS will need help from 7 a.m. to about 1 p.m. Please let Julie know what times you are available and preference of station below. LLS will also need one person to be the Cheer Captain for each spot.

LLS needs every station to be loud, crazy and fun! TNT gear a must!!! Wigs, crazy hats, TNT logos, signs, cowbells, etc. - the more purple and green the better!

Cheering stations:

1. Swim: Lake Nokomis Beach -north side of the lake
7:30 a.m. - Cheer for swimmers as they enter/exit the lake.

2. Bike Location 1 / Run Location 1: Cedar Avenue & Nokomis Parkway
8 a.m. - Cheer for bikers and runners on Nokomis Parkway. You will see the bikers starting out and returning.

Also, the runners will do 1 - 2 laps around the lake.

3. Bike Location 2 / Run Location 2: Lake Nokomis - south side of the lake
8 a.m. - Cheer for bikers and runners. You will see the bikers once and the runners 1-2 times.

4. Bike Location 3/Finish: Minnehaha and West River Road
8:30 a.m - Bikers will pass you on the way out and back, so you will see them twice.

5. Bike Location 4/Finish: West 50th St. and Minnehaha Parkway
9 a.m - Bikers will pass you on the way out and back, so you will see them twice.