In 3 days, I'll be running my first marathon up in Pinckney, Michigan. Tyler and I rode the course on our bikes so I know exactly what to expect. I've trained about as well as I can for it considering my slew of injuries this year. I'm pretty excited that it's finally here to say the least!
Jennifer and I are taking the girls up and we'll be enjoying our first family camping trip as a family of 5. We've taken Lizzie and Jazzy camping before down in Georgia, but this will be Daizi's first camping experience sleeping on the ground in a sleeping bag. We have all of our bags packed and we are heading out tomorrow night to get setup and checked into the campground. We have a huge 3 room tent that we will be setting up and we're taking all the necessities with us (bikes, food, fishing poles, bug nets, screen room, etc...). We were going to take our canoe with us, but decided that we probably won't have much time to enjoy it, so why bother hauling it up there.
These last 4 - 5 weeks of training have been very hard on me. I've had some major problems with my left knee and it has been very difficult to run on. I found that running on a treadmill helps, but it still causes some pain. On Saturday, I have a 5 mile race and if I notice that my knee is bothering me, I will not hesitate to walk the rest of the course so that I don't ruin my knee for my Sunday 26.2 mile race. The way I look at it is that I'm going into this weekend with 80%, so I need to preserve my knee as much as possible for the grueling Sunday run.
At the end of the weekend, I just want to be able to say that I gave it everything I had while still enjoying a family vacation with my girls. I have a 2 mile trail run scheduled for tonight, just so I can see how hard it will be on me. I figure that if I can make it 2 miles tonight, then what's 6 more miles? Right? 2 + 6 = 26... Once I finish this 31.2 mile weekend, I plan to come back home and start training for my next big race in July. My buddy, Rob (who just kicked ass in Connecticut) is going to help me create a training plan for my Grand Island Trail Marathon in July. My plan for that race is to drop 30 pounds so that I'm in tip-top condition to finish with a respectable PR.
The next time you see me, I'll be an official "Marathoner"... Not only that, I'll be an official "Trail Marathoner", and that sounds a little more bad-ass if you ask me.
New me, here I come...
4 comments:
Best of luck with your race! I hope you don't have a time goal; your first marathon should be to finish, and a trail race will be slower than most marathon finishes!
You need to join www.twitter.com so you can let us know how the race went. My ID on twitter is kimba90.
Have fun with the girls and camping, that will be an experience! We will be thinking of you this weekend!
Lucas,
"Family vacation with my girls" it just does not get any better. Have fun, be safe, enjoy and just finish slow.
I will be looking forward to the post.
Rob
Luc, best wishes on the race. Enjoy the experience.
Hope your camping and trail marathon goes well. Anyone who can run 8 miles on a treadmill can handle a sore knee and 26.2 miles of trail.
I like how you have your schedule posted with your runs. I will have to see if I can incorporate that in my blog.
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