Back to the Marathon

Back in February, I had to put my plans to run an April, 2017 marathon on hold while I dealt with a hip injury. I was gentle with the hip for about 8 weeks total, including during our honeymoon where we went hiking/surfing/horseback riding (ok, so not so gentle) but avoided anything very high impact, a.k.a. running.

So, instead I got back into running a few weeks before the marathon date and instead transferred my registration to a 5K from the same company on the same day. I also signed up for a 5K the weekend before with Charlie. The first one went well, I ran slow (for me) at a 32:42, but I was just thankful to be back on my feet — and, the race was so small that I actually won my age group! So funny. The second, I did a bit better despite a beast of a hill, and finished in 31:40.

A few days later, I was reminded by a Facebook post by the Marine Corps Marathon that the lottery for spots in the 2017 race was being drawn the following day; I completely forgot that I had entered the lottery, as I have every year for the past handful of years. My thought process has always been, if I get chosen then it’s some higher power telling me that it’s time to run a marathon. The next day, the charge for the 2017 MCM hit my credit card, and I officially got into the lottery to run 26.2 miles in DC on October 22nd, 2017!

So, I’m back at it now! My long run this weekend is 8 miles, a distance I haven’t tackled since the end of January.

Between now and October, I have a Ragnar Relay (next weekend!) and I plan to run a few halves and other 5k/10K races to switch up my training a little bit. (anyone have recommendations?) I’m also planning to start running with the local running store on Tuesday nights, and hoping to re-join my running group (though they switched to 6 AM on Wednesdays, which doesn’t work out for me most of the time) so that I can avoid logging all of my miles alone. Charlie is also now training for the Army Ten Miler, which is a few weeks before the Marathon.

Wish us luck!