It takes a week to run 8 miles

The final event of an Ironman is a marathon. That’s 26.2 miles for people who are too lazy to Wikipedia it or big fat cheaters like Dane.
Anyways, I’ve never run a full marathon. I’ve run a baker’s dozen of halfs (halves?), but not a full. I decided I need to run a full so I’ll know at IMFL that I can do it.

Originally, I had planned on running Shamrock. It’s pretty there, it won’t be too hot, and I’d have people who are obligated to take care of me there. Even though as they frequently remind me, they have a lot of life insurance on me.
I did not plan on getting sick twice and food poisoning so that plan was kind of screwed.

I got on Marathonguide.com and checked out other options. My logic was, I should travel for it, since it’s a cool way to explore the city. And I don’t really like to travel too far for tris, since it involves packing the bike and a lot of other gear. Running just requires shoes. Although I heard TSA will confiscate “The Stick”.

So I settled on San Francisco. It’s in July which gives me enough time to get settled in my training, not too close to the IM or any planned training halfs. And even in July it’s 50 degrees, so it won’t be miserable. And, you get to run across the Golden Gate Bridge. Awesome!

I hit both Hal Higdon’s site and the RW Smart Coach and came up with what I felt was a reasonable plan. Mostly cross training, since I do have two other sports to work on, with a medium run and a long run each week.

I’ve been sticking to the plan pretty well, not always on the day they’re scheduled, but gotten them done. Then came last weekend’s 8 miler. My last long run before recovery week. I so needed recovery week last week. I had that irrationally cranky burnout feeling.

I should have run on Saturday. I wasn’t feeling it. Biked instead. Went to Cheesecake Factory.
Sunday, woke up late. Abandoned plan to run loops at local park with friend. Watched Psych. No gym.
Monday, sleep deprived. Cranky.
Tuesday, intended to run on treadmill. Instead conference wore me out. Who knew standing was so exhausting?
Wednesday, should have been medium run day. I didn’t have to be at the conference until 10. Planned to get up at 7 and run before conference. Slept until 9.
Thursday. Migraine. Light hurt. Sound hurt. Moving even fractionally made me nauseous. Managed to drive home and ordered Angelico’s. Also, Smucker’s makes the best sugar free fudge ever.
Friday. Gave in to the recovery week. Researched possibilities to run on Saturday or Sunday. Went to swim lesson.
Saturday. Tried to run with Tri team. Made it three miles. Confusing course left me feeling unsafe. Also, eating Friday night and more Saturday morning would have been a better plan.
Sunday. Should have run 15K. Beautiful outside. Swam instead.

Monday. Finally freaking ran the F-ing 8 miles. On the TREADMILL. Really, painfully boring. Took two episodes of CSI Vegas to do it. Came home. Ate leftover Chinese food, ice cream from the carton, Smucker’s from the bottle, and fell asleep in my gym clothes.