Clearly I'm not any good at keeping up with my blog and posting when I say I will. I think this is my 4th time I've started (restarted, actually, I guess) trying to write in here regularly. Part of the problem lately has been that I've waited so long, I have no idea where to start! I still don't really know where to go with this, but figured I needed to start writing something, or I'd never come back to this thing.
There's been a lot that I've wanted to write about recently, and I hope that now that I've restarted my blog again, maybe this will be the outlet that I've been looking for. Running, of course, has essentially consumed my life, and I never tire of talking about it. However, my family and friends most definitely have tired of listening to endless race reports and race schedule planning sessions. So perhaps I will turn to my trusty blog instead!
So very much has happened since I last wrote in here. Last time I wrote was July 2012 - I was at the very beginning of my PGY-2 year and had just recently returned from my June trip of the Northwest. Now, I am approaching the END of my PGY-2 year and looking forward to starting my psychotherapy PGY-3 year in just a little over a month and a half. I still can't believe I'm almost a PGY-3. Where has the time gone?
PGY-3, while a little terrifying due to it being unchartered territory for me in psychiatry, should be a wonderful blessing for my race schedule and running life. I will have approximately 6 24-hr buddy calls, which should all fall on weekdays (and Friday). Aside from a few weeks of pinch scattered throughout the year where I might get called in for back-up, I should have every weekend free! This opens up a whole new world of possibilities for me. I am so very excited!
But before I get too carried away talking about all the things I want to do, maybe I should mention what's been going on since I last wrote. I am now up to 31 states and DC done. 31 states! I can barely believe it myself. It seems like not long ago this challenge was just a twinkling in my eye, and now I'm coming up on the end. Well, not quite the end, but it's getting pretty close. It's close enough that I'm starting to plan my 50th state half marathon and how I want to celebrate the completion of my challenge. I've already picked out a running skirt and headgear to wear for my final state. It's starting to feel like a reality!
But I'm gonna try not to go too crazy talking about state #50. I still have a good number of states to go first. And lately, I've been working on another challenge I set for myself. I've been a member of Half Fanatics (a running group for people who are pretty crazy about running half marathons) since last summer. And last November, I did something that a couple short years ago, I never would have thought I would do: I ran another full marathon. My first marathon in almost a decade! It was an incredible experience. I came in at 5:17:xx, which was a ways off from my PR set when I was 17 (4:56:17), but not my slowest marathon either. But just finishing felt like an unbelievable accomplishment for me. While the half is definitely still my favorite race distance, I just can't stay away from the marathon! So, this month, I have challenged myself to qualify for the Half Fanatics' sister group, the Marathon Maniacs. To do this I am running marathons on back-to-back weekends - something I NEVER thought I'd be able to do. The first of the two races was this past Sunday. I ran the New Jersey Marathon on the Jersey Shore. Training for marathons is still very difficult for me, as my schedule is pretty hectic, and I'm pretty slow...which means 20+ mile training runs take half of a day! But I set out Sunday to just have fun and finish. I was having a fantastic race, cruising along at 4:33 pace, which was absolutely beyond my wildest dreams. I was still feeling good and was starting to pick up the pace a bit, and at mile 16.5, I fell. Hard. I hurt both knees and both hands. A couple guys carried me off the course, and EMTs checked me out. Nothing was seriously injured - I was just banged up pretty bad. They offered to drive me back to the finish, but I told them I wanted to keep going. I felt so defeated...not to mention completely overwhelmed by the possibility of having to walk the next almost 10 miles on hurt knees just to finish. Just as I had gotten up from the curb and rejoined the race, a nice runner named Scott came by. We'd been kind of leap-frogging for the past 16 miles. I told him about my fall, and he offered to walk with me for a few minutes. I hobbled along, wincing with almost every step. We talked and swapped stories - he is such a nice and amazing guy! After a few minutes of walking, he asked if I wanted to try jogging. Honestly, I didn't. Walking still hurt. But he was so encouraging that I wanted to give it a try. So I did. I found that I could actually jog. It wasn't super fast, but it definitely beat my walking pace! When he went back to his walk intervals a little while later, I kept going. I was too afraid to walk for fear that I wouldn't be able to start running again! So I kept at it as best I could for the rest of the race. It was probably one of the hardest things I've ever done in my life. But I finished! And I crossed the finish line in 4:54:47...a 1.5-minute PR! And 23 minutes faster than I ran my marathon in November! Setting a new PR was something I thought was a long-shot, but might be a slight possibility if I had a terrific racing day. And instead, I suffered a bad fall and ran the last 10 miles injured, and I still managed to PR! I don't think the smile has left my face all week. :)
But my knees are doing better now, thankfully, and I'm heading to Delaware in the morning for the next race in this little challenge. I don't think any PRs are in my future this weekend, but as long as I can finish, enjoy myself, and avoid another fall, I'll be satisfied! And once I finish this quest, I'll get back to posting about my original challenge and my upcoming states. I've got a lot to look forward to! :-)
