The Countdown begins...

by Stacy Hogle

Two weeks until the Marathon...my heart beats a little faster just thinking about it. Just over 4 long months of training is finally about to come to an end. It's bitter sweet; it will feel great to get rid of the mounting pressure and finally see our hard work pay off, but I know from past big runs there will be a void and sadness when it is over. This has been a great journey for me, one I will never forget! I can't wait to start the race and enjoy every minute of it, and if I can do math right it will approximately 270 of them if I can finish around 4 hours and 30 min...that's a big IF! ha!

It has been a while since I have posted and A LOT of things have happened since then. Justin and I went to Telluride to see Maria & David and also complete a 16 mile run. The altitude got me and I only finished 12 miles. I was a little down, but glad to at least do 12 solid miles there. The next week was a short long run and then the following Saturday we set out for the 18 miler. That run kicked my tail. It was the first time I have had to walk and it starts to mess with your mind. The conditions to run weren't the greatest but that's not a good excuse. The winds were strong and the temperature and humidity were high...it just sucked. The good thing is, usually when I have a bad run the next long one is pretty solid. Luckily that was the case this time too. Two weeks ago we set out for the big TWENTY mile run. Just thinking about it was very intimidating but Justin was riding that bike supporting me the whole way. We got out to Hatbox around 8:20 and hit the road. After about a mile my ipod crapped out on me... I started to freak a little. I had charged it the night before (or so I thought) but it shut itself off and never came back on. All I could think about was that the next 19 miles were going to be really hard! We made our way back to the truck and Justin stopped to give me his ipod and loaded his bike in the truck. He told me to keep running on the trail and he had an extra ipod at his office and would be back in 20-30 minutes. Listening to someone else's music is definitely an experience. One song would be old school rap then it would turn to Metallica...at least it made it interesting!!! He met me back on the trail and we kept going. I don't know what I would do with out him...having him there was so great. We went all over the place, downtown, ran around the mall parking lots, around downtown again and back to the entrance. When it was all said and done we did 20.15 miles in 3 hours and 28 minutes...not too shabby! It felt great to be done. I was so hungry so we stopped at Wendy's for a cheeseburger and a frosty. I read somewhere that chocolate milk after a hard run is a good recovery drink and I figured a Frosty was pretty close to chocolate milk. I don't know if it was the cheeseburger or the frosty but it turned out to be a bad bad choice of post-run food. I was a sick little girl for the rest of the afternoon. I was able to recover though for a bachelorette party that night though. What a long day!

So...here I am two weeks until marathon and I have only run 3 times since the 20 miler. I have some tendonitis on the outside of my left foot and it makes it hard to even walk without pain. I have been trying to rest it the last two weeks and it has been tough. Lots of ice, Aleve and anti-inflammatory cream... I just want to get out there and run!! I tested it out today on a 3.5 mile run. It did pretty well until the 2.5 mile mark and it started to hurt but after a little bit the pain went away. If I can get a few more runs in this week and do a 10 mile run next weekend I think the marathon is a go! Keep your fingers crossed... I already have my outfit picked out and everything!