Big Bear (Half?) Marathon
September 4th - Should I switch to a half?
I signed up for the REVEL Big Bear Marathon back in May. The closer I get to this race, the more I think I want to drop it to a half, and run it super easy because I don’t want to (re) injure myself. A huge PR coming out of this race wouldn’t mean as much to me as a PR from a flat course or a slightly downhill course. I don’t know - I’m really in my head about this one. I’ll probably talk to my therapist about it. Haha.
My coach loves me so much… I think I might run the full? Maybe the half. I have until 11/10 to figure it out and transfer to the half, if that’s the route I go.
I just got injured and… I am not really sure I want to push for the full marathon. Having a hip impingement was no fun. Revisiting that injury would be hell on earth. Or something akin.
(Update below video)
November 15 - Day before FULL MARATHON
Yep, so. Like I said back in September: I got injured, met a Physical Therapist (hi, Dr. Jessica!), kind of fixed my injury, began doing a lot more strength, and…. decided not to switch to the half marathon. Yolo and all that. Heavy emphasis on the all that.
I’m still hella nervous about tomorrow. Super hopeful, super nervous. My paces aren’t back to what they could be had I just not decided to get injured while ramping for this race. My PT said I could probably get sub 3:40 on this course without being injured. I believe her, so I’m going to pretend that I’ve already done it and this is just a run for funsies. It kind of is.
My running coach and friend Beth Shaw knows I’ll finish tomorrow, and we have a plan for me to go out with a conservative start. Probably 9:30 miles. It’s going to be hard to run that slow at the beginning of this race, and I’m probably going to be super hyped up and want to run faster. To future me: were you an idiot who went out too fast, or did you listen to your coach?
For my last 20 mile training run, I started downhill and it was beyond hard to hold a pace above 9:00/mi… But, I need to. I need to run slow to sustain the legs and glutes, and make sure my hips are okay because my long run last week didn’t feel great. I’m hoping for negative splits after mile 10 or so. There are a few little rolling hills during the first six miles tomorrow, which will be totally fine for me. I’m way more nervous about the long downhill after them...
I’ve never run downhill for this long. And, it’s a somewhat steep downhill. Here’s a sheet with the elevation loss and grade. I downloaded the info from Revel’s website then math-ed a little to have the percent grade.
I’m typing this while my legs are being squeezed in some Normatec compression boots. I have to do a shakeout run soon, then eat some carbs and drink a lot more water.
Alright, goal setting.
Goals
Goal #1 - Have fun, don’t get injured
Goal #2 - Sub 4:00
Goal #3 - Sub 3:45
It’s weird to have goals in reverse order for once. Idk, crossing the finish line will feel good tomorrow. I’ve been carrying some anxiety for a while about this race.
TTYL and love ya lots fam,
st
