Hard to believe, but Twin Cities Marathon is only 7 weeks away! And just now as I wrote that.. I said WTH. 7 weeks is a lonnng time. Honestly though, I know it’s going to fly. My schedule for the next month is crazy busy. I’m traveling the next three weekends, and then school starts up right after that!
What really prompted this post was this morning’s run – I did the first 20 miler of this training period. If you haven’t read my blog before, I’ll fill you in pretty quickly: in December I had 3 pins put in my hip, and then in April I got hit by a car while running. SO… after PT and rehab I’ve pretty much had to start from scratch with my running. I went from being a 3:19 marathoner to a maybe-I-should-only-do-3 runner pretty quickly.
the pins of doom
With caution and guidance from my medical team, I built back up. Slow as the process was, it was doable. My surgeons told me I could run again. That I can. What they didn’t make any promises about was racing, and that brings me to where I am right now.
Initially, I had some pretty high hopes from TCM. Ultimately I want to run a sub 3 some day, but for Twin Cities I was thinking I’d shoot for more like a 3:15 or 3:10. Then surgery happened and a car happened and I found myself needing to reevaluate. Right now, I would be stoked to pull a 3:19 again. For today’s 20 miler I held an 8 minute pace (which would be like a 3:30 marathon) but if I’m honest with myself, I don’t know if I could have gone a whole lot faster. Not to mention, I would have still had a 10K to do to finish.
My “plan” thus far for October 4th is to line up with the 3:20 pace group. If I feel better than that at the half, I’ll take off. If I feel like I need to pull back, I’ll pull back. The human body is an amazing thing even without running 26.2 miles, so the fact that it will even still let me do that with three pins in my hip is truly a blessing. I will let my body dictate the rest.
So I guess my point of this whole thing is that it’s OK to change your goals. It’s OK to reassess plan. For anyone who is more towards the type-A side of the spectrum (coughMEcough) this can sometimes be a difficult notion to accept. It’s either black or white, right or wrong. I like to know the schedule ahead of time, and I want to stick to that schedule damnit, so don’t go changing the game plan! 
Hahha honestly though… it does get better. Sometimes I need to force myself to be flexible, and this is one of those times. Ya feel me?
So I leave you here my friends. Gotta work dinner tonight, but just a short shift. I’m going to try and get a nap here before that. 
For any readers that are still around.. I know a lot of you are runners – what do you have on your race calendar? I’ll try and post mine soon – I have a lot coming up! Trying to fit in whatever I can before my birthday.. ie before I move up into the next age group!
-E
P.S. My dad visited! And I’m going out to see him two weekends from now. Here’s an update on our tat’s 
*ETA* Run To The Finish is probably the greatest. I hope I can do something like this on MY birthday!!
