Nurse on the Run

Time flies when you live in NYC!  I’ve been super busy ever since I moved here a month ago, and I can’t believe that the Chicago Marathon is on Sunday!  My time has been filled with moving, working at the new job, and meeting new people and doing new things that the marathon has kind of crept up on me.  I always knew that it was on October 10, but I moved at the beginning of September…and then suddenly it was October…and now it’s marathon time!  Yikes!

You would think after running five marathons I’d be a little more calm, cool, and collected about this whole marathon business…but that’s simply not true.  Every time I stand at the starting line, I think to myself, “Was this a good idea??  Can I really run 26.2 miles?  How’s it going to go?”  Perhaps I need to work on my mental game.

For some reason, although I’ve been training for this marathon, I don’t really feel READY to run it.  This a bit odd since for the Boston Marathon and the Philadelphia Marathon, I took at least a month off of running for both of them.  My main goal in training for the Chicago Marathon was to not get injured.  Showing up to a starting line in April having not even run ten miles in the past month is a bit tough to swallow, but I’m happy to report that my IT band has cooperated and I will be showing up on Sunday morning with no injuries.  I followed my training plan perfectly and had some rocking runs.

I mean really, twenty awesome miles in hilly Central Park?  When I felt like I could easily run six more?  Chicago has nothing on me.  I hope.

GOALS

Many people have asked me what I want to run in this marathon, and I honestly didn’t go into training with specific goals in mind other than not getting injured.  Mission accomplished?  I wish it was that easy!  In the past week, I’ve been dishing out specific time goals to people on the street, so let’s break it down:

Goal E:  Finish and have a fun time.  Because I LOVE TO RUN.

Goal D:  3:40…Requalify for Boston.  I’m not necessarily sure I want to run it again in 2011 (which I’ve already qualified for), but I would like to have a 2012 entry safely under my belt.

Goal C:  Sub-3:30.  I have a mental barrier with running sub-8 minute miles for a marathon, although I don’t really know why since I do it on training runs all the time.  Also, I’ll feel more legit (for myself only) if I have a 3:2X marathon with my name on it.

Goal B:  3:25.  This is the number I’ve been throwing out to people when they ask how fast I want to run.  This equates to 7:50 miles.  Piece of cake, right?  I told Erika to come pace me for the last six miles, but Minnesota isn’t quite close enough.

Goal A:  3:20.  I would cry I’d be so happy.  However, I’m not sure it’s realistic for this marathon given the lower mileage and absolute lack of speedwork.  But I’ll just throw it out there for fun.

I think I listed those in the opposite way that I should have, but good enough for me.  Rumor has it that the high on Sunday will be 85, but the low is 59 degrees and I figure I’ll be done running before it hits 80.  Right?  We better not repeat the 2007 Chicago Marathon, that’s all I’ve got to say.

MENTAL GOAL:  Stay strong.  I think that my problems in the last few miles are way more mental than they are physical.  My best marathon ever was the Wisconsin Marathon in 2009, and if you look at the mile splits near the end, I stayed pretty consistent with all my miles under nine minutes.  I would like to do even better than that this time around because I know I’m better than that.  I’m a great runner and I love distance running, and…it’s time to put all my training into action.

TRACK ME

You know you have nothing better to do on Sunday morning (other than your own long run), so you might as well eagerly anticipate my runner updates!  You can sign up to track me on this website.  I’m bib number 4061!  You best be yelling for me wherever you are. 

But really…I thought about everyone tracking me during the Boston Marathon, and it was so inspirational to me to know that my online running community was following me and cheering for me from near and far!  I really do think about you guys during my runs and races, and how much you support me is really indescribable. 

10-10-10…let’s do this

Can’t wait to see this on Sunday morning!