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Back in 2004 I wrote an “about me” when I entered the Steamtown Marathon, months before I started training, on my general physical shape and running experience. I’m just a few weeks out from my (very minimal) 16-week training period, and I’ve already covered why I’m running the NYCM, my current PR, and why I’m rebooting this blog. Current weight etc. numbers are in the weekly summary posts. But there have been some major physical lifestyle changes since then:

• Soon after Vibram FiveFingers were introduced (2005), I got my first pair. It took years, but eventually I completely changed my running style and by about 2010 had switched to strike mid/fore-foot  (rather than the typical mid-foot/heel strike I used to have). The change was difficult—lots of calf pain when I went too far/fast—but now even in regular running-shoes-with-socks that’s how I run. FiveFingers have been problematic for me in terms of fit and comfort; I’ve bought pairs that felt OK initially and turned out to be wrong, and one pair where the toes were just too short and they always hurt. But overall, my impression is that it’s been super worth it. My running feels much more natural and comfortable. When training for the Rochester Marathon in 2015, I did develop top-of-foot-pain and had to focus on letting my heel touch down, which eventually fixed it, and I ran that race in FiveFingers. I’ll probably do a whole post on shoes. I think I run faster this way; I’m not sure, but it is a big change.
• Around 2014? I started a daily cold shower routine (2 minutes, or rather counting to 60 twice, which probably happens a little faster in the winter!, after the hot water/soap stuff). AWESOME!!! cannot recommend highly enough for life-changing effects, mostly mood but also motivation and health.
• Around 2015? I added an “eating window” thingy where I typically skip breakfast (aside from black coffee), and ingest food only between about noon and 9pm. I’m loose about it—I have breakfast while we’re traveling, eat soon after my long Sunday runs, etc—but it’s really helped keep my diet healthier and it’s now totally routine to run 5-8 miles on an empty stomach without any trouble. I relish my food more, don’t feel the need to control my eating as much, and in general my blood sugar is more stable. Not for everyone, but it’s been good for me.
• Aging has still slowed me some! I’ve mostly let go of the dream of qualifying for Boston by continuing to run just as fast into my 70s (you now need to break 5:10 as a 75-year-old woman to qualify… yeah, not gonna happen), and accepted that despite my Westfield 5K PR, my fastest times are probably behind me. That’s fine, but it does mean that the number of marathons I’m willing to take the time to train for is going to be small. So focusing on enjoying the process and the day makes a lot of sense. I’m so lucky to get to do it!

Miles for the week: 11 (2/2/1/6)
Resting heart rate: 57
Weight: 116
Long run: 6 miles LSD; average HR 134; time 1:16:35 (12:37 avg); splits:

Mile	Time	Elevation (feet)
1	13:12	59
2	13:04	20
3	11:56	-3
4	13:10	66
5	12:04	-138
6	12:11	0

Decent long run, overcast and not too hot. Way better than the same run last week when I got overheated and almost bonked (I was feeling bad and indeed my HR was spiking as high as 180). I’ve been curious to compare to my previous marathon experiences; pre-training week 1 from 2004, when I was a few pounds higher, my pace was almost a minute faster. But from my description, I was running a 2/2 cadence (two breaths in, two out), whereas now my long slow distance cadence is 3/3. (And I can do 3/2 also, so I have three gears now aside from sprinting!) So I was running harder back then and maybe it’s apples to oranges. I’ve been using the great free app RunKeeper for training since the 2015 marathon, so I can compare to that too, and I’m significantly slower than then. Hmm! Is it age? I’ll see how it goes, but I’m really glad I’m doing a light training schedule.

I’ll be doing this route as my long run for the next 3 weeks—it’s my usual 5+ miles with a little extra tacked on—and I love it. When we lived in Pennsylvania I thought I had the best 5 mile route ever, with pastures and woods and hills; although there are no actual cows on this course, and no deep woods, there’s Paradise Pond and the Mill River, the dog park, fields with views, and seven gardens I get to visit: the herb garden at Hungry Ghost, Capen Garden, walk break in the Lyman Greenhouse when I’m not too early (it opens at 8:30am), main Smith Botanic Garden (which actually includes several, like the rock garden, systematics, perennial border, etc.), Happy Chase Garden, the Northampton Community Garden, and the gorgeous small garden in front of the Roundhouse. Plus beautiful yards and architecture!

Now that I have so many many cultivated flowers to look at, the wildflowers don’t register as much, but I’ll try to still pay attention because I like reading that in the previous blog posts. Garden-wise there were still some irises, but astilbes, roses, and clematis were in full bloom. I saw goldfinches swooping over the little pond next to the greenhouse, and an agitated mockingbird squawking like a grackle or a titmouse.

After my first marathon, and again when I found out I got into the New York Marathon, I thought for my next I’d do a more rigorous training plan than the Non-Runner’s Marathon Trainer, which I used for the two previous marathons I’ve done. It’s the most basic possible plan, with even less mileage than Hal Higdon’s Novice 1. I was thinking five running days, longer long runs, speedwork, more total mileage…

But when I got down to actual planning and read this Runner’s World article which says that beginners “may start with 15 to 20 miles per week total and gradually build to a peak week of 35 to 40 miles” and “More experienced runners may start at 35 or more miles per week and peak at 50 or more miles,” I rethought. My typical weekly mileage is only 10-12. I’m going to be working extra hours this summer and only have two weekdays where I can get in a little late. Plus I already bike commute whenever I can, which is about 50-80 miles a week, and walk/hike plenty. When my mother helpfully asked what the benefits of a more strenuous plan would be, I realized for me there wasn’t much. I’m not likely to beat my time from Steamtown, which is a faster course anyway, now that I’m a decade and a half older. And no way would it be a big jump, like getting to 4.5 or under 4.

Having used the NRMT plan twice, I know it will get me strong enough to run another one with enjoyment, which is my primary goal, and full of confidence that I will finish. I’d love to break 5 hours again (which would mean improving by 8:20 over Rochester in 2016), but really I just want to savor this experience to the fullest. Since I’m so slow, even adding one more short run per week is another hour or two.  Not worth it! But I will add some tweaks:

1. I’ve been doing intervals once a week; keep those and make that part of the first short run (Tuesdays).
2. The first part of the short run could be a tempo run. This seemed like a good idea until I read articles on combo workouts (“Michigans“) that mention how challenging they are. I think it’s worth trying, though. I’ll have a rest day on either side of this short-but-hard day.
3. I’ll do the second short run back-to-back with the long run (Saturday/Sunday), instead of having a rest day on either side. Jen Miller gave me this idea when describing the Hansons Marathon Method of “running on tired legs.” But no six-day weeks for me!
4. Strength training is something I pick up for a while and drop again, but I know it’s valuable. Whether weights or kettlebell, I’ll try to do one session a week.

But I will listen to my body and drop back to basics if I need to. In both previous marathon ramp-ups a minor injury cropped up, so I’m prepared that might happen again. I’ll be flexible!

NRMT is a 16-week schedule and I need a few weeks to ramp up from my current mileage to 15, so it times out well to start mid-July. I have a few races fitted in already, plus I’ll hope to add the Frozen Yogurt 5K if it happens for the 5th year—no, we’ll be out of town—and Kestrel Land Trust’s 5K for Farmland once they announce the date—rats, no, it’s the same date as the Happier Valley Half!

	date (Mon)	Tue	Thu	Sat	Sun	Total
week 1	Jul 16	3	3	3	6	15
week 2	Jul 23	3	4	3	6	16
week 3	Jul 30	3	4	3	7	17
week 4	Aug 6	3	5	3	8	19
week 5	Aug 13	3	3	5 – Bridge of Flowers	10	21
week 6	Aug 20	4	5	4	11	24
week 7	Aug 27	4	6	4	12 – Faxon Law 20 K	26
week 8	Sep 3	4	6	4	14	28
week 9	Sep 10	4	7	4	16	31
week 10	Sep 17	5	8	5	16	34
week 11	Sep 24	5	8	5	16	34
week 12	Oct 1	5	8	5	18	36
week 13	Oct 8	5	8	5	18	36
week 14	Oct 15	5	8	0	13.1 – Happy Valley Half	26.1
week 15	Oct 22	3	5	3	8	19
week 16	Oct 29	3	3	walk 3	26.2	32.2

 

My marathon goals for May are to plan my training routine and figure out some baseline/benchmarks. I don’t have much of the month left! As benchmarks, I want to find my accurate heart rate monitor (not the Fitbit, which is fine for a general impression but not reliable for high heart rates) to see what my max HR is these days, and run a track mile for time, but I also wanted to get an idea of what my current 5K best is. I ran the RunWestfield on May 19th.

I’ve had two annoying experiences over the past year where I ran a proper timed race with a chip, thought I had set a personal record, and discovered that the course was short. Up until 2017, the only time I had broken 30 minutes in a 5K was at the 2003 Chris Thater Memorial in Binghamton, which is a flat, fast course. I keep thinking I could do it again. Last year, as part of a goal to run all the races that are close to home, I ran a new-ish 5K, the Splash of Color (it had been a fun run for a number of years and started a timed race in 2016). It was a flat course and I was in good shape, but it was a very hot and humid day and I didn’t think I was doing particularly well. When I got to the finish line and saw 27-something on the clock, I was ecstatic! Jonathan was waiting for me and I kept telling him, “Wow wow wow, I can’t believe it!” and we were both so proud. It was only a few hours later that it occurred to me to check the course on Map My Run. Sad trombone… it was about 2.8 miles instead of 3.1. So I might have been close to 30 minutes or even under, but no way of knowing. Then, I ran a perennial favorite, the UMass Dash & Dine, in April. It was a new course last year and I remember thinking it was a great time for me (not a PR), but again this year I was astonished and psyched to come in at 29:12. This time I didn’t let myself get too excited, and soon, as I was chatting with another runner in the dining hall (the Dine part of the Dash and Dine is the all-you-can-eat award-winning UMass dining hall, which is a real treat), he said “I think it was a short course.” Sure enough, when I got home, it turned out to be just shy of 3 miles. So again I might have broken 30, but not officially. These races are fundraisers and I don’t begrudge the money per se, but what’s the point of using all the fancy timing equipment if the course isn’t accurate?

So although Westfield is a little further than I would normally drive for just a 5K, when I saw that the course was USATF-certified and also marketed as “America’s Fastest 5K,” I thought this was my chance to get an actually-accurate 5K time. And yes, I broke 30! My official time is showing as 29:54, two whole seconds faster than 2003, but based on my watch I think that’s gun time and not chip time. I contacted them to check and didn’t hear back, but it’s likely that it was closer to 29:35 (still annoying not to know for sure…)

It was a miserable start, in a giant parking lot associated with Westfield State University but out of sight of any interesting buildings. The weather was rainy and cold so I huddled in the car until close to the 1pm start, trying to decide if I wanted to run in a jacket or not. I’m glad I didn’t; this is part of gearing up for the marathon, getting back in the habit of running no matter the conditions. Look at the poor Boston Marathon runners this year! In the starting corral, I found the Walkers post and tried to wiggle a little beyond it. Then I was drawn by this ridiculous-looking thing, a “Beer Guy” sculpture on a jogging stroller base:

    

The top has a bubble machine and there’s a sound system on it too.

Finally we were off. After a slight uphill from the parking lot and the turn onto the main street, the route goes straight down Western Ave, past the nice campus, Stanley Park (where a weekly trail run is held on Mondays during the summer), and beautiful homes and yards. It’s pretty much a gentle downhill the whole way. There was a digital readout at mile 1,  which was absolutely great—so much better than trying to peer at my watch or listen for a volunteer calling out times. I was at about 10:40 for the first mile which seemed OK. I heard “Shout” coming from behind, interspersed with loud horn beeps, and it was Beer Guy gaining on me. He passed fairly quickly, just as the song changed to “Do The Locomotion,” and I yelled that it was motivating to try and beat him. I was able to pass again a little later, just because one of his doo-dads fell off, but pretty soon he was way out ahead.

I’ve been starting 5Ks a little faster but still conservative. At mile 2 there was another digital clock—thank you,  RaceWire!—which as I recall was around 21, so  I knew I was doing well and a PR might be in reach. I had no idea where the finish line actually was but I figured we had to be close once we passed the shuttle bus stop. We turned left on Elm and the finish was in sight. There wasn’t anybody in particular to pick off in the sprint but I tore into it (and it was crowded enough that the camera didn’t catch me crossing the finish line, but here I am between two people right before). I was sure that since the clock was just under 30 that I’d be safe with the chip time; thank goodness it wasn’t closer, so it’s still a PR!

There wasn’t anything besides water for the runners, which was disappointing, but a bank handed out popcorn and I got a sample of kettle corn (“French Toast,” surprising good). I would have gotten beer but the stand also offered bottled “margarita” malt beverage, surprisingly decent. I checked out the “Westfield On Weekends” art classes gallery, a few shops, and the beautiful and historic Westfield Athaneum public library. One of the coolest sights was this “Unlimited High Fives” artwork:

Postcards promoting a race series for Westfield’s 350th anniversary were all over. I thought it was this year and would have integrated it into my training, but it’s 2019. I might try to do that (if you run 5 races you get a jacket… I’m all about the swag!)

 

When I started this blog about my Steamtown marathon experience, in March 2004, blogging was very well-established already (I had Blogger to use and didn’t have to hand-code all the links!), but not so ubiquitous that every possible niche was overfull. I found the original Running Blog Family, or they found me, that summer, and wow, mine is one of the few on that list of 35 founders that still exists (not continuously because the Blogger –> WordPress multisite -> regular WordPress migration resulted in years of outages)—but I can’t imagine how many running blogs there must be now. Even “marathon blog” in quotes gets 43K+ results. Back in 2004 I didn’t expect many readers and my expectations were confirmed. Why on earth blog now? In order of likelihood:

• Primarily for me, as a journal. The platform gives me links and search and cloud storage and images and legibility, all missing from my (still-extant) handwritten journal, so that I can refer back to how my training went etc. As an Obliger (Gretchen Rubin’s classification which I personally find very helpful), the public-even-if-nobody-reads aspect is enough of an external obligation to get me to finish and somewhat-polish the writing, which is really tough for me otherwise. The Rochester marathon is a blur in comparison with Steamtown—partly because it wasn’t the first time around, but I think mainly because the exercise of writing and the ability to re-read cemented the memories in a way non-documented recall just doesn’t. It even feels more recent in time, in a weird way! And finally because the discipline of writing is inherently good for me. I’ve finished one book (unpublished, natch) and have two more projects in the works; the act of describing anything in words, whether it’s a real or imagined scene, uses the same muscles.
• A distant second (because everyone is so busy): for friends and family who might be interested.
• Even more unlikely: for web searchers who might find something useful (I’ll design my own training schedule, and post about using dates instead of energy drink, minimal shoes, etc.). My concentration grid game actually gets a few thousand visits a month so it’s not impossible, but it was up continuously since 2004, and the search stats for any of my blogs are quite pathetic.
• Finally and least likely: I will always remember how much Hollie’s 2003 marathon blog (long long gone) helped and inspired me, and maybe there’s one person out there who needs something like that and will find this. I loved her level of detail and her frankness, and it convinced me I could do it. Really, truly, if you can run at all you can complete a marathon—although I always follow that up by saying you shouldn’t force yourself if you don’t like running!

I ran my first marathon, Steamtown in 2004, to see if I could do it once. It was a great experience, but I was happy to wait a decade to do another—the training is so time-consuming! I quickly reverted to my weekly long run being 5 miles and my typical race being a 5K. At 50, in 2015, I ran the Rochester Marathon with my sister-in-law. It was fun but I didn’t take the time to blog about it, and it’s so much less vivid to me now! Somewhere along the line, when I realized that New York wasn’t one you could be sure of getting into, I started entering the lottery almost every year (more consistently now that it’s free), figuring if I got in, it would be totally worth it. Despite the time and effort. Despite the cost (this is by far the most expensive race I’ve ever entered). Why? A bunch of reasons, in the order they come to me:

• The biggest marathon in the world! I can’t really imagine what that’s like. The largest field I’ve been a part of is probably the Hot Chocolate Run, with 6,000 runners and walkers. NYCM is more than 50,000! The size alone is fascinating to me.
• My home town! I was born and grew up in Manhattan and my mother and step-father still live there.
• All five boroughs! Someday I want to do the Five Boro Bike Tour but I haven’t made it yet. I love the idea of seeing the whole city and crossing so many bridges.
• Bedford Avenue! It’s the longest street in Brooklyn. My brother lived in Williamsburg for a long time and founded Nada Surf there; he’s the one who told me how cool it was to watch it go by.
• The race director greets the last finishers! And now the elite racers join him. I’m slow enough that that really means a lot to me. At Steamtown I felt the pressure of “the course closes in 6 hours” (even though I ultimately broke 5 hours). I hated the one time I had the pace car right behind me in the Montrose 4th of July 10K (tiny field, pouring rain) and I now pick races so they’re big enough that I won’t be dead last, but I really sympathize with people who are and know they work as hard as anyone. A slow runner spends as much time on a marathon as an ultra! Races that treats slow finishers with dignity are special.
• The crowd support! A million spectators? Wow. I love the description of the roar on 1st Avenue coming off the Queensboro Bridge. I really fed off the crowd energy for Steamtown, not that the smaller scale in Rochester was a negative—in fact, I enjoyed the peaceful stretches, and it was just a different experience—but I’m excited to feel it on a completely different scale.
• The expo! I’ve enjoyed all the ones I’ve been to, but again they’ve been tiny compared to the Javits Center. 100+ exhibitors!
• It’s an international destination event! I’ve yet to run a race that had participants much beyond the US. This draws people from 100+ countries!
• The swag! The bigger the race the more there must be, and the poncho looks fantastic. I am prepared that there might not be much variety for food… hard to beat the beer/cider donuts/veggie dogs type of spreads I get in the Valley.

All in all, a mass participation spectacle—I’m there!

I am incredibly excited to be running the TCS New York City Marathon on November 4th! I got in through the lottery, which I’ve been entering for years. This will be my third marathon; I didn’t blog the second and I sort of regret it, because it’s so valuable for me to do so. But it would be silly to start a whole new blog, so I’ll revamp this one from Steamtown/”a record of my 2004 adventure” to New York, keeping the old posts. If you want to read the original, it starts with About Me in March 2004 and ends with many long posts about the marathon and the aftermath in October 2004. I’ll probably follow a similar format. More to come!

I moved to WordPress in 2010 but ran into issues – all straightened out now seven years later. Whew! I’ll keep this up because I go back to it sometimes myself, and when I was training for my first marathon I read as many of these blogs as I could.

One more post because this site is still getting visits (thanks for stopping by) and I’m experimenting with Google ads to see how they work.

Coming up on five months post-marathon, and my toes are still funny-looking! (I’ve hardly been running–too much snow–so it’s not because of ongoing training.) Two toes are still partly black and three more have distorted nails. Now I really get why Marisa calls her blog “Ugly Toes.”

The Running Blog Family has 188 entries now! Way to go Mark! If you’re a runner, don’t miss it–the collective amount of knowledge and support is outstanding.

P.S. I did successfully complete NaNoWriMo and now I’m embarking on NaNoEdMo. I’m a marathoner, I can do anything! :*)

Three weeks post-marathon, and everything is back to normal. I’ve started a new on-going blog about running and writing and everything else at salticid.com/kogblog called “Keep on Going,” so this is the final post in this blog. Here’s a link to the interactive Number Concentration Table game (as recommended in The Non-Runner’s Marathon Trainer for learning focus), because that’s a small but I hope lasting contribution to the online running community.

I have one more marathon-related anecdote (it’s gross if you’re not a runner, so consider yourself warned). The week after the marathon we visited my family in New York. I did quite a bit of walking in my everyday shoes and must have irritated the middle black toe on my left foot. It started to feel warm and sore the day after we got back. That night I couldn’t get to sleep because it was hurting so badly. I saw that behind the blackened area, there was an inflammation with pus building up under the nail and causing the pain. I didn’t want to have to go to the emergency room (especially because the nearest one is still half-an-hour away) for something so trivial, and anyway I knew they’d prescribe antibiotics which I try to avoid whenever possible. (Please, let’s save them for when we NEED them & not help generate resistant bacteria by overprescribing antibiotics for minor ailments! Don’t get me started on antibiotics in animal feed–how could that EVER be considered a good idea…) I remembered someone saying he drills a hole (!) through the top of the nail to relieve the pressure, but that sounded a little too drastic. I soaked my foot in hot water for 10 minutes, then sterilized a sewing needle and pushed it in just under the nail–to my surprise, it didn’t even hurt because of course the black area was dead anyway. Some pus flowed out, I worked on it a little more, and soon it felt much better and I was able to go to sleep. The toe feels completely normal now. All four black toes have kept their nails so far and the color has faded a little bit.

Happy running, all!