I Believe in Boston

I come from a family of die-hard East Carolina fans, and in fact, my parents have been members of the Pirate Club and holders of season football tickets since 1980.  We’ve had a few good seasons – for example the 1991 Peach Bowl “Dream Season” and the 1999 season (which I remember a little better – sitting in NC State stands watching David Garrard and the rest of our disaster-displaced team battle back from a 20-point deficit to defeat #9 Miami after Hurricane Floyd and his high waters had destroyed our part of the state).  But mostly growing up an ECU fan meant learning to deal with disappointment after disappointment – My mother calls it “character building.”  However, even though our beloved Pirates seemed to rarely catch a break, my family and countless other ECU fans would paint themselves purple game after game and chant the same mantra – We Believe.

My Parents (Yup-We are that family at the beach.)

Maybe I’m delusional or perhaps I have the confidence of a little punk kid before he gets his you-know-what handed to him, but despite the fact that I was out for almost three months with an injury, have gotten little training under my legs since returning to running, and have been unable to get all my nagging issues healed before race day, I still believe I can have a solid race in Boston.

Certainly the silver lining in all my struggles is the lack of pressure I have put on myself to perform.  I want to enjoy my trip to Boston – I earned this.  And not having put in months of hard training to achieve a certain time goal helps relieve the stress and allow myself to enjoy the experience.

Also, when you got nothing, you got nothing to lose.  Runners go out too fast in races (especially Boston!) all the time, but you can also dig yourself in a hole by going out too slowly.  And in every race over a 10K that I have run, I have felt like I have gone out too slowly.  I don’t completely regret my slow beginning paces – running negative splits can give you a lot of confidence in future training and goal setting, but you can’t run the fastest race that you are capable of if you only start pushing yourself in the final mile.

Thus, Boston may be my first I-went-out-too-fast marathon, but if so I will probably be in the majority.  I certainly plan for my first couple of miles to be slow.  (I read somewhere once that you have to trick your body into thinking it will be an easy run in order to burn more fat than it would if it started kicking in to flight-or-fight mode.  I am not sure if that’s completely true, but I think it makes sense that you have to remain as calm as possible.)  But part of me is tempted to work down my pace sooner and run a more aggressive race than I attempted at the Marine Corps Marathon last fall. 

The other part of me says I should listen to the trigger point dry needling therapist and run at a slow, easy pace.  I agree that a marathon I didn’t train much for is definitely not worth trashing what little I have.  However, the therapist shook my confidence even more by planting a seed that I may need to have my lower right leg looked at after Boston to rule out a potential stress fracture.

Maybe I’m paranoid after being unable to walk for 3 weeks after finishing the Marine Corps Marathon or maybe I just didn’t like the therapist’s answers, but I went to see a sports physician that I will here on out fondly refer to as Dr. McDreamy.  I swear I was trying to get in to see the (older) owner of the practice but he happened to be out of the office on Good Friday.  I had no idea how handsome his younger counterpart was or that there were doctors who actually looked like that in real, non-Grey’s Anatomy life.

But I will spare you my ramblings (Dr. McDreamy was not so lucky) and share that after looking at my x-rays, the sports doc. believed that I do not have a stress fracture on my still-aching lower right leg.  He did see two stress lines above the ankle, but nothing that made him believe my discomfort is due to anything more than shin splints.  He also told me that he thought my pace on Monday shouldn’t matter as much as my cadence.  I can run as fast as I choose just as long as I focus on turning over those legs quickly.

Perhaps Dr. McDreamy was just telling me what I wanted to hear (If so, I’m sure I’m not the first girl), but he confirmed what I already believed and helped ease my mind.  According to McDreamy, if I do indeed have a stress fracture, I will be in enough pain on Monday to put myself on a dropout bus before doing any significant, additional damage.

So how am I planning on running Boston?  As of right now, your guess is as good as mine.  Whether I choose to push it and race the course or chill out and enjoy the ride will probably depend on how I feel on Marathon Monday.  I have been so focused on having a healthy body that I haven’t really thought much about my current ability, but I wouldn’t be surprised at all if I realize my pace feels much harder than it should feel after a few miles into the race.  If that’s the case, then oh well – What did I expect when I barely trained and have run less than 20 miles in the past month?  I also have noted that I can get on a dropout bus at every mile along the course if I decide my body is just not strong enough to complete the race or if I do indeed have a stress fracture (I wanna be able to walk after this one!).  But despite all the setbacks and the lack of training and the possibility of a stress fracture, I’m not giving up hope now – I still believe in Boston.

Boston Experiment Week 15 of 16:  0

Boston Experiment Week 16 of 16:  7.5

Done running till race day!  I ran 1.5 miles on Tuesday morning and 6 miles Thursday morning.  I worked down my pace for about a mile on Thursday and felt really fast.  In fact, I literally giggled because it felt so easy.  I’m sure that grin will get slapped off my face Monday, but I’m just hoping it isn’t replaced with a grimace.

This Week’s Beer Choice: Evil Twin Brewing’s Falco IPA (In hopes that I fly)

Packed my first bag for Boston.  The essentials:  Energy Gels, Gatorade, and Beer.