Finished.

I ran the marathon on Sunday!!! It was awesome. Really, it was just an amazing experience. My dad, mom, youngest brother, and one of my best friends (KATE!) came up from home to watch me run, too!! 

I was surprised about how calm my nerves were the night before the race. We went out to dinner and I ate so much spaghetti and bread that I could barely breathe, and slept through the entire night. The only slip-up was that I slept through my alarm in the morning -- there's my recurring dream from the summer about sleeping in and missing the starting line -- but luckily I set it early enough that I was able to still get a piece of peanut butter toast and a banana on my way out the door, even after waking up late. 

The starting line was pretty exciting on the Jacques-Cartier Bridge. Everyone around me was just so excited and of COURSE they were playing "The Final Countdown" just before the gun went off. As soon as it went off, I couldn't feel anything but raging happiness. I don't know if "bliss" is the right word, but I was just so happy that for the first seven miles really felt like I was flying. The weather was perfect -- a little bit cool with sun, and it smelled like autumn. I have to say that really the only thing I could've asked to be better weather-wise was the wind. MAN OH MAN we were running against the wind for some parts -- particularly over the bridge going back onto the main island. But everyone around me was just sort of laughing at how ridiculous we all must've looked, leaned forward and giving it our all but probably going verrryyyy slowly. The first half of the race all seemed to just blow by... when I got to the halfway mark I couldn't believe that that distance had been my entire race last year. Not to belittle the half-marathon at all.... it's an amazing feat and I'd love to race it again... but I was amazed at how quickly it went by. 
The second half, however, was not such a breeze. There is a big hill going up Berri right after the halfway mark. I kind of felt like it was the make-or-break point of the race, and if it hadn't been for a couple of my friends at the bottom and my dad running alongside me at the top, I'm not sure how I would've done. There was never a time in the race where I thought "I am definitely not going to finish this" but there were a couple of times when I thought "How am I going to finish this?!" (There's a difference, I swear.) The hardest part was probably miles 19-24... right around the mythical "wall" (although I'm not sure I ever really hit a definite wall.) My arms felt numb and I thought that I could feel every single tendon in my feet stretched to their maximum tightness.... but it seemed that at the right moments there was always a friend waiting around the next corner, or some random person on the street banging on a set of bongos, or something to make me think "This isn't that bad." 
The part that made me laugh at myself the most though I think was the 16-mile mark when I said to myself "Okay good, only 10 miles left." Only ten miles!?!?! I finally felt like a crazy runner person. 
The last two miles of the race were really just incredible. Laugh if you want, but tears were coming to my eyes as I watched the Olympic Stadium get closer and closer. Running through the chute, lined by thousands of people, through the finish line was probably one of the greatest feelings I've ever had. (The second I stopped running was a much different feeling, however...). 


I just want to thank everyone who has read this blog, or helped me through my training this summer in any way. Every bit of support and encouragement really helped. In the car on the way home from the race, my little brother asked, "So... are you going to to another one?" I don't have any doubts that I will... but right now I'm still recovering and need to brace myself to sit down in a chair... so ask me again in about a week.


Ohhh and one last thing... just some stats: 
I finished in 4:28:05 (even though I said I didn't care about time and only about finishing, I still wish I could've broken 4:20!) But.... on a much more positive note which makes me so happy and proud of myself... there were 65 women who raced in my age group (18-24 years) and I came in 26th!! So hey -- above the 50th percentile for my first marathon... I can't ask for more!!! :o)


Thanks again everyone!!!!!!

My only hope for tomorrow is that I finish like this guy:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CFJ8sn225ys


Yes, Tomorrow morning I am running a marathon. Oh. My. God.

Final Long Run!

Saturday was my final long run before the marathon! It was 20 miles, and once again, my totally awesome little brother did it with me on his bike. There were a few minor trip-ups, however....
So I arrived back home the night before at about midnight, after a six our roadtrip home from Montreal, and I really did NOT want to be waking up at 7:00 am to run for 3.5 hours, but I decided that I could suck it up one last time. So on Saturday morning, I woke up and opened up my suitcase to get out my running gear. I grabbed my water bottle belt, headphones, sneakers, and went downstairs. When I sat down to put on my sneakers though... I realized that I had two left shoes. I brought the left sneaker from each of my pairs of running shoes from Montreal. I could NOT believe it. I was so angry... how could I have POSSIBLY done something so STUPID!??! It would've been a little less stupid if I had at least brought a right and a left shoe. So after I was done yelling and swearing about my shoe situation, I went to my room and found my old Asics that I ran in during my senior year of high school cross-country. I reluctantly put them on and went outside to start my run. Then, my one and only hair elastic broke... and then I realized that the tiny sharp pain I'd been feeling on the bottom of one of my toes was actually a tiny piece of glass that I'd stepped on and had gotten lodged in there.

So... after jumping over all of these hurdles... I finally hit the road to start my run. It was a gorgeous day and the first seven miles that I ran by myself could not have been happier. (sidenote -- Janelle Monae: wherever you are and whatever you're doing right now... I just want to say that your music is one of the most amazing things in the world and not only makes me happy day-to-day but also really gets me through some of my tough runs.) I tried to start out faster than I did my last 20-miler, and I held up pretty well.
Sam met up with me in the Devens Army base like last time, and we chatted for the rest of the run. The only downside to talking to Sam while running is that sometimes he makes me laugh so hard that I can't run!!

The old shoes definitely did a number on my feet, and I could feel hot spots as early as mile 10... which turned into popped-in-my-socks blisters... gross.

But... after ALL OF THAT... I ended up running my LONGEST RUN EVER -- 20 miles -- in 12 minutes less than I did 19 miles 3 weeks ago!!! YAY FOR GETTING STRONGER! I'm so so so happy with myself, and although it's now Tuesday night and I'm still sore, I'm READY FOR THE RACE.   :o)

Winding Down

So this past weekend was my last long run in Montreal before the marathon. I was supposed to do 20 miles this weekend, but decided to switch two weeks around so that I can do my last 20-mile run at home again, with my brother when I go back for vacation.
This past weekend, though, my brother was actually visiting me here, in Montreal, and I have to say that I probably made a mistake by doing my long run on Sunday, after he left, because the weekend with him really did a number on my legs and made me feel not ready at all for 15 miles on Sunday. On Saturday him and I rented Bixi bikes and rode around the city, went to the Farmer's Market, and through the plateau quite a bit. I also did a short 3-mile run afterwards, so by Sunday afternoon, when he left, I did not want to run 15 miles. I dropped him off at the bus station and started my run from there. When I was standing in line with him at the station I said, "Sam... I really don't want to run right now. Like, I've never wanted to run less I don't think in my entire life. Well, maybe except for that time at my high school league championships when I knew I was set for last-place out of about 100 girls." Sam laughed and said "Just don't go then. You'll probably be fine if you don't go, you've already done 20 miles before." I thought about it for a while... and his offer was so tempting. I could so easily just hope back on the metro and curl up in my bed and watch the Sopranos and make up for the hours of sleep I'd lost staying up late that weekend, and avoid the looming thunder clouds.
But then... I thought of something. Back in May, when I had a 12-mile run only 3 weeks into the training program, I remember having this thought: "Oh my god. I trained ALL SUMMER for this distance last year. I'm never going to be able to follow through with this for the whole summer. I'd better not tell too many people that I'm 'running a marathon' ...'cause I highly doubt I'll be able to go through with this whole thing." And then, that weekend, I ran 12 miles. And 10 the weekend after that, and 14, 16, 15, 18, 12, 20, 12, 15..... and as I stood there in the bus station, looking up at my 6' 4" brother while wearing my dorky water bottle belt and Red Sox hat... I thought "Wait a second.... I haven't skipped a beat yet." and it's true. I hadn't missed a single day all summer and there was no point in starting then.
My run wasn't even that bad. I was really really sore afterwards, more so than normal, but I did it. And I never have to run for hours in the city of Montreal again (besides the actual race) if I don't want to. But I probably will want to, and I'll probably look back one day and say "hah. that program was easy." But right now... It wasn't easy to me, and I'm proud of myself because I did it and I didn't give up.
I have one more week left of serious training, and then two weeks of tapering... and then the race. I've run around the world 0.02 times, burned enough energy to power 988.5 TVs, and burned the equivalent of 203.45 donuts. So, thank you, dailymile.com, for putting my grueling work into real-world information for me, so that I can grasp it with reason a little more tightly, and not just feel like a monotonous running machine.

New muscles?

I think my legs have new muscles. Or my legs were mysteriously replaced with someone else's (which can run 12 miles at an 8:40 pace and feel nothing) overnight. I seriously cannot believe how effortless my run felt today, and was especially not expecting it with small amount of sleep I was running on. 

But yeah... my 12 mile run today was a piece of cake and I find it funny that it was the end-goal of last summer's entire training. 

Awesome things about my run today: 

1. I ran up the mountain, which I haven't done in a long time, so I find it a small feat in itself that I started this long run with a 3-mile uphill. 

2. At the bottom of the mountain there was a group of bagpipers having their own little concert together in the park. 

3. When I got to Parc LaFontaine, there were so many artists and musicians everywhere -- cellists, violinists, french horn players, painters....

4. While running the last mile back to my apartment, I looked up at the top of the mountain and it seemed so far away and I could not believe that I had been up there only 90 minutes before. 

Great run.    :o)

Numbers

By the end of the week, I will have run 400 miles during this training period. WOO!

The marathon is also exactly one month from today. I'll do almost another 150 miles before then... I just can't believe how short of a time it sounds like, yet how many miles I have left to cover in 22 runs. Nerve-racking...

Oh yeah, and dailymile.com also just informed me that I have now run 0.02 of the distance around the earth's equator (since May). That's a small number... but the earth is pretty big....

I have the best little brother ever.

So... I'm home, back in MA for the weekend, and it's the weekend of my first 20-miler. I was really nervous last night, and my dad made me eat a hamburger AND spaghetti.... I thought I was going to explode. Anyways, I mapped out my route last night, into town center, down the bike path to the neighboring town, into the old army base, 6-mile loop, and back home on the bike path again. My little brother, Sam, goes to school in the old army base and helped me plan out the route. Then, he told me that he'd wake up this morning, bike out to meet me at the 7-mile mark, and bike around the 6-mile loop with me. So anyways, I downloaded Harry Potter 7, started out at an easy pace, and by the time I got to the end of the bike path I was already dreading finishing the run. I was just so... alone. And sort of bored. So then I see my brother and dad in the car, and I felt a bit better. Sam had on his backpack full of bananas and water bottles for me. I told him that he didn't need to stay right next to me, considering that I was running so low that he almost had to WALK his bike... but he did. He stayed next to me, biking right alongside, chatting me up, for the whole 6 mile loop. And then the next 7 miles back. SAM BIKED NEXT TO ME FOR THIRTEEN MILES ON A SATURDAY MORNING. He was so awesome. And I didn't listen to Harry Potter at all once we'd met up. We talked the entire time. The surprising thing was, I was ABLE to talk that whole time while I was running... and that helped me to keep pace. It was so awesome and Sam was my hero today. Maybe for the next month even.

I ended up running really really slow today. When I started my run, I decided to go at it with this mindset: "This is all I have to do today. I just need to finish, there is no rush." So I tried to run at (what I thought was) about a 10-minute-mile pace. It ended up being more like 11-minute miles at the end, which is really slow-sounding to me, but I'm so glad that I did it now. It was a great learning experience, because at the end I didn't feel nearly as bad as I'd anticipated feeling, so now I know that I can definitely do that distance faster than I did today. The only thing I feel a bit disappointing... is that we took a little detour and I ended up only doing 19 miles... OH WELL!! Great run. Great, great run.

Minor Scare...

So I say that this was a "minor" scare, but I was pretty freaked out when it happened...

To preface this story: On Saturday morning I woke up feeling too weak (both mentally and physically) to do my long run, so I decided to switch Saturday and Sunday's workouts, and do 5 miles at the gym on Saturday. I ended up doing part of it on the elliptical, which I haven't done yet through this whole training program, and honestly, cross-training felt kind of good.
Anyways... so on Sunday I woke up feeling bit better and decided that 12 miles was doable, so I strapped on my water bottle belt, plotted a map through the plateau, and set off. It wasn't hot out at all, so I didn't end up drinking too much throughout the run. The run itself was fine, not particularly difficult, but I've got some nasty blood blisters forming.
After my run I sat around my apartment, read, showered, watched TV, for the rest of the afternoon. After dinner I started to feel strange... the muscles in my torso really started to hurt -- like that feeling you get on Thanksgiving after eating too much and you're just stuffed. I didn't feel nauseous, just.... in pain.

So I went to bed, woke up Monday, still felt pretty bad, had breakfast, went to work. Around about 11:30 I had to go home.... I felt so bad. Pain, dizzyness, weakness, a touch of nausea... but I couldn't think of any reason why. I fell asleep for about four hours, woke up, had some gatorade (I thought it would help with the weakness 'cause I didn't feel like eating yet) and sat around some more. A few hours later I felt a very strange painful feeling in my abdomen, but realized I just had to pee. And there it hit me.... my pee was dark and thick.  I freaked out. I called my dad, thinking I had some crazy kidney problem. But... after rethinking the previous 24 hours since my long run I realized how little I'd had to drink during and after that run. I looked up "dehydration" in my running handbook... and there was an anecdote written by the author about his biggest scare with dehydration: "Once, after a 20 mile run when I'd barely drank anything, I had one of the biggest scares of my running life.  I felt very weak, and several hours later I went to the bathroom and my pee was purple! I freaked out at first and then remembered that after my run I'd chugged two grape sodas, and my body must've been so dehydrated that it didn't even have time to filter out the artificial coloring."
So... I can only assume that this is what happened to me with my dehydration and red gatorade.

Feeling a bit better now, had a lot of water last night, but still a bit sore and tired. Moral of this story: after running, drink 'til you pee.

Daunting Week

So this week will be by far my biggest challenge, I think.
I have three 6-mile runs in a row, and I've only got one of them down so far. My long run coming up is only 12 miles, so that's not too bad... it's just the wear-and-tear that I know will build up over the course of this week that I find daunting. It has started on a good note though! I came home from work in a not-so-great mood and really really didn't feel like running (which I usually WANT to do when I'm in a bad mood...) but I went anyways, and it was hot. The funny thing is, that despite this whole mind-game I'm playing with myself about how hard this week will be, the 6 miles just passed. They were started and over just like that, in the blink of an eye. I think I'm going to have to re-listen to the chapters of Harry Potter that played on my MP3 player today because I really just zoned out. The run didn't feel particularly long or hard or anything. It just.... went. 
There is this whole branch of thought about running and how it is a form of meditation, and I think I am only now just touching on what those people are talking about. Your mind really does leave your body sometimes. An hour that I spend sitting at my desk at work feels ten times as long as that 55 minutes of running did. 
So what does this mean? I'm not sure. Have I hit some new level that you can only get to by experience? Do casual joggers feel this and I am just far behind the crowd? I'm not sure, because I've definitely felt "in the zone" or whatever you want to call it before... but this is something new. 


I'm reading a book right now called "Once a Runner" by John L. Parker Jr., which is supposed to be the best novel ever written about running, and the main character is a track runner whose life-goal it is to run a mile in under 4 minutes. He runs over ten miles every day, but doesn't buy into the whole zen-meditation running idea, and his only true motivation is to be faster than his fastest. One of the chapters is a long, internal monologue that he has while running at night, about the loneliness of running and why he sill does it, and as lame as this sounds.... it spoke to me:

"The true competitive runner, simmering in his own existential juices, endured his melancholia the only way he knew how: gently, together with those few others who also endured it, yet very much alone. He ran because it grounded him in basics. There was both life and death in it; it was unadulterated by media hype, trivial cares, political meddling. He suspected it kept him from that most real variety of schizophrenia that the republic was then sprouting like mushrooms on a stump.

Running to him was real; the way he did it the realest thing he knew. It was all joy and woe, hard as diamond; it made him weary beyond comprehension. But it also made him free."

lots and lots of miles

So I did 32 miles this week, over half of them were all done in ONE BIG 18-MILER on Saturday. 32 miles is a new week record for me, and so is 18 miles in terms of long runs. I'm pretty proud of both! My only two big hurtles left are the two 20 miles runs that I have (one in two weeks, the other in four).

The 18 miles was... interesting. I decided that instead of doing a big loop I would take the metro out as far as I could and run home. This meant literally taking the metro OFF THE ISLAND of Montreal early on Saturday morning, and zigzagging a very long ways home. I decided to make a little map for anyone who is interested...

The red star is where I took the metro too... and the dotted line is an (approximate) path of where I ran all the way home, to Peel.
I took a lot of time preparing for this run, I drew out a map of all of the roads to turn on and carried it with me in my WATER BOTTLE BELT (and proceeded to lose it once, having to jog back and retrace my steps to find it). I also carbo-loaded on baked penne the night before, and even brought one of those running gels that are just a straight shot of 100-150 calories of carbs with me... I'd never tried them before but ended up eating the raspberry one at about mile 8. Despite all of this though, something about the run just wasn't good. Maybe  I didn't mentally prepare enough or something... but my mood just wasn't right for the entire thing. I didn't want to be out there running for so long, and I didn't find myself taking joy in the new sights I was seeing or the constant rhythm that I so often take pleasure in while running alone for a long time.
It's okay though, I'm not discouraged. Out of this entire training period which has consisted of at least 60 runs now, I really think that this is only the second one that I haven't felt too good about. I'll take a 97% success rate!!

Even better though, is despite being very sore and tired after that 18 miles for most of Saturday, I went on an easy 3-miler today (Sunday) and felt like I was flying.

A reason to keep running

Progress

So, despite all of the brutal heat and humidity last week, I still ended up totalling 28 miles and my goal was 30, so I'd say that a shortage of only 2 is pretty great, considering.

I had to do my long run on Sunday this week, and it was only 12 miles, so I didn't think about it too much ahead of time. I didn't do my normal carbo-loading with pasta the night before, or get myself particularly mentally prepared... I just sort of thought, "oh yeah, I have to run 12 miles tomorrrow." And the run was fine. I (stupidly) went at about 1:00pm, at peak heat/humidity, so that was really my only problem, but my legs and lungs and everything felt fine. I sort of had this feeling that I have tuned my body well enough to just make it do what I want, and the whole preparation ritual that I've been doing and psyching myself up isn't as necessary anymore. I mean, it's definitely going to be necessary this coming weekend when I have to run 18 miles but now, for twelve, it's just another day of running.

I suppose I am starting to understand those weirdos out there who, after running several marathons, become bored and seek new challenges like ultra-marathons and super-ultra-marathons and death races (yes these actually exist) but don't worry mom & dad -- I'm never going to get that crazy.

I am also officially half-way through my 16-week training program, meaning there are 8 weeks left until the race. I'm getting really excited, and I know that this second set of 8 weeks is going to be more difficult than the first, but I think I'm ready for it.

hot hot hot

Yesterday and today have been brutally hot... and humid. I think the temp has been in the low 30's both days but with humidity it's been closer to low 40's (haha I'm using Celsius now -- so Canadian.)
Yesterday was not quite as bad as today, and my 4-miler felt great, actually. I made sure to drink at least 6 bottles of water throughout the afternoon before I went, and ended up drinking a whole bottle during the run slash pouring the remainder all over myself when I got back to my street. Also, there was a park in Westmount that I ran past with a big wading pool and fountains coming up out of the ground with like, a hundred little kids in it, that I proceeded to run straight through -- sneakers, MP3 player and all. It felt great.
Today, however, was worse. I think I drank even more water leading up to my run today, but the heat was just too much. Even when I was trying to stay running in the shady parts, it didn't help. I was planning on doing my normal weekly 4-mile speed workout today but ended up just doing a flat, straight, slow 3 miles down Sherbrooke. 
Today I was first aid training and I was learning about heat stroke and apparently yesterday in Montreal there were 300 more heat stroke cases than they had anticipated (they predicted 800 but got 1100) so I can't even imagine what it was today -- and I definitely don't want to be one of those numbers. 


One last thing.... on my 16-miler last Friday (the one where I fell) I started listening to the Harry Potter audiobook during my run instead of music -- it has seriously changed my running. It's amazing. (And hey... now I'm FINALLY going to "read" those last two books....)

Milestones

1. Bought one of those goofy water-bottle belts. It's awesome.
2. Hit the 30-miles-per-week mark -- woohooo!!!!

Thick Skin

No but seriously, I must actually have physically thick skin. At about mile 14 out of 16 this morning my foot got snagged on an unnoticeable piece of plastic binding that was laying on the sidewalk and sent me skidding on all fours across the sidewalk. At this point in my run, I was already feeling pretty tired and weak (although not awful) and when I hit the ground, the water bottle in my hand exploding everywhere, I just thought "Oh man, I'm gonna have to take the bus home and there's gonna be blood everywhere." I was wrong on both counts. Because as I laid there, staring at the sidewalk right below my nose, I felt two hands on my shoulders. I took my headphones out and there was a man, about 50, in running shorts and a tank top speaking to me in French, asking me if I was OK.
"I don't speak French... sorry..." I replied.
"Oh, you don't speak French? Are you alright? What happened to you? You trip on this thing here?" He pointed to the plastic binding with his foot.
I looked at it and laughed. Such a small, stupid, unsuspicious thing on the ground couldn't have possibly sent me flying like that. But it did, and I laughed, and then looked at my skinned palms and knees. No blood.
"You are not bleeding!" He exclaimed. "I saw you fall though!"
"Yeah... I can't believe it..." I laughed again and got up.
"Are you ok?" He asked. "Come. Walk fast. Don't slow down." He walked with me for a few minutes.
"Are you training for the marathon?" I asked him.
"Yes! I just did one hour and a half. You?"
"Yeah," I replied, "I just did about two hours.... I have only two miles left to go."
"Ohhhh, will you be ok?" He asked.
"I think so! Thank you so much for helping me!"
"Good for you! You will be great, you are young!" He replied before I took off again.

So even though it didn't come quite as I had expected it to, I think I got the morale boost that I was looking for, that I wrote about in my last post.
See, after I got up and dusted myself off and walked with this man for a minute, I suddenly had the energy to keep going. The weakness from the previously 14 miles that I had felt before my fall was gone, and the end seemed so much closer and the long run so much more doable. What I guess I am trying to say is that sometimes you have to fall before you realize how easy it is to get back up.

Saturday Long Run... posted a couple days late

Saturday's "long run" was really a bit of a cut-back last week. I did 10 miles, which at this point shouldn't really be all that long for me. But... it felt pretty long. For some reason my body has just not been working with me lately. Almost every run longer than 4 miles has been both a mental and physical struggle, and I've been soooo tired, despite getting enough sleep.
On Saturday I planned out my 10-mile route as a loop around the base of Mt. Royal, a route I've never done before. I started out running through the plateau a bit, which was nice but I'm used to it. Then, as I left the plateau my run went into Outremont, which is somewhere I've really never run before (with the exception of running straight up Parc.) I ran on Cote-Sainte-Catherine pretty much all the way around the mountain's base until it ran into Cote-de-Neige in Westmount. The unfortunate thing about my route-planning was that this loop was a gradual uphill for the first seven-ish miles and then a very steep downhill for 8, and then flat for 9 an 10. I would like to think that it was the gradual seven-mile-uphill that really killed me, and it's not that I'm backtracking in my progress.... but MAN that felt like longer than 10 miles.

The coolest part about Saturday's run was the diversity of location. I ran through three very major and very different parts of the city: the plateau, outremont, and westmount. Outremont is really cool, and like I said, I've never really run through there before. The houses are GORGEOUS (just like in Westmount) but the vibe is much different. I'm not sure how to explain it... it's just different. I ran on a new street in Westmount as well, where I saw even more ridiculously extravagant mansions (not to mention one with multiple fountains in the front yard...) I also ran on Sherbrooke a pretty far ways into Westmount. Everything there is just so... nice. Even the Dairy Queen doesn't look like a Dairy Queen but more like an old-fashioned upscale ice cream parlour.

The funniest thing I saw on my run was this:
While running along Sherbrooke in Westmount, I was approaching this huge castle-like building with a green, rectangular lawn in front of it lined by chest-height perfectly-sculpted hedges. On the lawn there must've been at least 50 people... all over the age of 65... all dressed in white shorts, white polos, white visors, with knee-high white socks and white sneakers. They were all holding these long sticks in their hands, and from behind the hedges I couldn't quite make out what they were until I was just passing them..... it was a CROQUET TOURNAMENT. I don't know why but I just found it so funny and I had no idea that such things actually existed, let alone 2 miles down the street from where I live.

One thing that's kind of bumming me out is the loneliness of this whole training process and my long runs. It never used to bother me, in fact, I still would usually prefer to run by myself and on my own time. But on Saturday's run I passed this running group as they were crossing the "finish line" of their Saturday morning long run. They all had matching t-shirts and were high-fiving each other and handing out Gatorade as the members came in to the finish. As I ran past (I was running in the opposite direction of them) I saw some stragglers at the end of the pack who couldn't quite make the whole distance running, but were walking with each other, or jogging along and encouraging the last few to finish strong. It just made me think back to high school cross-country where, even when I was usually in last place, there were always people there at the finish line when I was done.
I've always been a very independent person and been happy to do things on my own, but this whole training experience is a push on my independence level and hopefully I can find the motivation from somewhere.

Sore, Sore Legs

Note to self: Leave more than 12 hours between speed workouts and the next run.

Woke up this morning to run before work and beat the afternoon's humidity.... definitely was a lose-lose situation.
a) It was stupidly humid this morning anyways
b) I had definitely NOT recovered from last night's speed workout

Totally awesome things about this run?
...It wasn't so awful that I had to walk and be late for work.

Speeeeed

Today I was supposed to do a 4-miler, and I've promised myself that I will start doing speed workouts once a week, so I decided that today was the day. I went to the gym to do it on the treadmill 'cause I've got a great treadmill speed workout on my iPod that was done by the lead singer of the band 'OK go'... The band got together with Nike and created a 30-minute track called "Master the Treadmill with OK Go" and it's their music mixed in the background with the lead singer's voice coaching you through an interval workout. I've had it for a few years and do the workout occasionally, it's pretty awesome. Download it.
I did my intervals at a 7:30 pace with my in-between running at a 9:00 pace, so I'm pretty happy with that. My legs sure feel a lot stronger than when I used to do that workout a few months ago. I ended up only doing 3.5 miles instead of 4, but I'm gonna cut myself some slack on that one considering it was sprinting.
Tomorrow is supposed to be 34 degrees with humidity, and i have a 6 mile run -- ouch. Looks like I'll be waking up early to beat the heat...

Longest run.... ever.

So, I woke up at 6:30 this morning, and I did it. I ran 15 miles. That's further than I've ever ran before, ever in my LIFE. In fact, I can remember back to when that was how much I ran in a week!!
The run was pretty rough. I didn't feel too great even at mile 3, but there was no way I was going to turn around after dragging my butt out of bed on a Saturday morning, especially since I have been mentally preparing myself for this all week. I am sore now. Very sore. Worse than the physical toughness of the run though was the mental part. I really think it was one of the most mentally difficult things I can remember doing. I really had to talk myself through that whole 2 hours and 20 minutes, forcing myself to continue and telling myself that slowing down was O.K., just as long as I finished. I will definitely remember this run when race day comes and I will hopefully be able to see how far I've come.
One thing I decided to do though, was to run in a new, different place on every long run. I have sort of exhausted the plateau (even though I do love running there) and there's a lot of different areas of the city that I think I can use my long runs as an excuse to see.
Today, I really think that I did the Tour de Montreal and saw at least half of the city sights that they list in guidebooks for tourists. So I'm going to have to give you a list of the totally awesome things I saw on this run, that even I, after living here for three years, had not seen.

1. Early morning set up for the Atwater Market. Similar to the Jean-Talon Market that I am quite fond of, I have never actually been to the Atwater Market but it was beautiful this morning, especially the flower stands!
2. Habitat 67.  This was originally built as a low-income housing complex in 1967, and was designed by a McGill architect. It is so cool looking, with sunlight coming through holes all throughout the buildings at all different angles... it kind of reminds me of something you could build out of Legos. Very cool to see up close, and I'd love to go inside one day.
3. The F1 Racetrack located on Ile Notre-Dame, where they hold the Canadian Grand Prix every year. I actually got to run on the track which was really cool. In the photo, you can also see the crew-racing basin that they built for the Olympics in '76. There were teams out practicing on the water when I ran by this morning.
4. The Biosphere is on Ile Saint-Helene, in Parc Jean-Drapeau, and it is an environmental museum with an observatory that is open to the public. I've only ever driven past this before, and never actually been inside.
5. La Ronde is also located on Ile Saint-Helene, which I was also running on this morning, but I got a good view as I was running right over it on the Jacques-Cartier Bridge (which you can also see in this photo).

So... now it is pouring rain outside, even though it was OF COURSE hot and sunny when I ran, even so early in the morning.
I really can't believe that I did it this morning. I will admit that I had to do 3 or 4 one-minute walk breaks in there due to the heat, but nonetheless I ran 15 miles and I'm truly proud of myself.

Run up the mountain, the heat is starting...

Today I came home from work and ran up the mountain, which is seriously SO beautiful, no matter how many times you go up it. The heat is really starting up in the city though. I have a feeling that it's going to be hot/humid from now on, and I might have to start doing most of my runs in the morning to beat the heat (ugh, I hate running in the morning... usually...)
So... on that run I saw two totally awesome things (besides the view from the top which I will take a photo of with my digital camera one day while I'm running).
1. An Asian family with a little girl, maybe two years old, and the little girl was walking a tiny little poodle which was... wait for it... pink. Yes. wow.
2. At the top lookout point, there was a line up of guys dressed like this on either side of the running path with bayonnets and rifles. I felt like I was being saluted or something. Pretty awesome. 

Last night I had a strange dream... that I ran a marathon. It wasn't Montreal though, I don't know what city it was. The strange part though, was that I felt like I was running fairly slow, yet the entire thing felt so easy. When I crossed the finish line I just said "That was it?" And I don't know how to take that dream... because it wasn't good and it wasn't bad. Well, it was both. Good in the sense that it felt easy... but bad because I was running at almost a walking speed. So... yes I believe that I am psyching myself out and I still have 79 days to go. Great.