Otherwise Known As 23851

One month from today is the first race of the Dopey Challenge. By this time next month, God willing, I will have finished the 5K. This week things are getting REALLY real. Yesterday they released the race bib numbers. For the next month my identity will be as runner #23851.

A lot of folks in the Dopey Challenge Facebook group I'm in were trying to estimate which corral they will be in based on their bib number. I have a friend who is guessing I'll be in M. And now is when I re-experience the frustration of my 3 failed attempts at getting a good proof of time race result to submit (2 races done while injured and the 3rd cancelled by a hurricane. Thanks Obama).

So now the bib numbers are out and we are under 30 days until we do this thing. I'm excited because I'm ready (or maybe just ready to be done). And I'm nervous because how could I possibly be ready for this?

Meanwhile, I'm thinking....

Can I Get A Bubble Over Here?

I'm 34 days away from Dopey-ness. This is the part of training at which you try to be hyper-vigilant about, well, everything. The thing you dread more than almost anything else is getting injured so you see dangers everywhere you look. Following is a partial list of things that I thought might constitute a danger to me in the last several weeks:

• An icy parking lot
• A dusting of snow on a footbridge 
• A stretch of gravel 
• A pile of leaves

Add to all these dangers lurking about in everyday life, there is also something else you start to fear at this point in your training: sickness. If you are coughing, sneezing, have interaction with a quantity of germ-factories (i.e. children), or live or work within a 3 block radius of a hospital, I will probably be keeping my distance from you for a while. Please don't take it personally. I'm considering attending Christmas gatherings like this:

 

So that is what we want to try to avoid. But anyone who has been putting in the miles a marathoner in training does, is bound to have a crap ton of some aches and pains. Looking around my house, I've discovered somewhere along the way, it started to resemble a cross between a physical therapy office and a pharmacy. Let's take a little tour of Raegan's house of ailments.

Deep Blue Rub is a lotion made with essential oils that is supposed to help with sore muscles. Not sure how much it works because, let's face it, my muscles are pretty much sore all the time. But I think it might help. Even if it's a placebo effect, I don't care - it feels like I'm doing something and that makes me feel better.

I use Perform when I'm experiencing something that is not so much soreness, but more outright "what the hell is that?!? pain. What I always seem to forget is that a little dab will do ya. So minutes after I've rubbed this on, my skin is on fire. I actually think that's how the pain relief of this product works - make something else hurt so much that you forget about the first thing.

They cylinder of death and its little friend

Let's face it - the topical stuff is really like putting a band aid on a bullet hole. It covers up the problem but doesn't really deal with it. So a runner's best friend - and worst enemy - is the foam roller. Putting all your body weight on this torture device and rolling back and over your sore muscles is pretty masochistic. It hurts like crazy but helps if you can stand the pain. The foam roller's younger sibling is the orb. It hurt only slightly less than the cylinder of death.

Here we have an assortment of tools used to make some thing or another hurt slightly less than it did before. The Stick is great for self back massage. This is often necessary after runs of more than 15 miles because as soon as I stop running, my back normally decides it is done too. The Moji hand massager is great to use on muscles that are too sore on which to use the cylinder of death. And the lacrosse ball is used when the cylinder of death doesn't hurt quite enough.

These 2 items are used for my legit injuries, as opposed to my whining over sore muscles. The Moji foot massager is to work on my plantar fasciitis. Try rubbing a sore heal on a group of metal balls and see how it feels (spoiler: it doesn't feel good). The therapy band can be used in a variety of humiliating and painful ways - the most recent of which is strapped around my thighs while I do a toe-tap number that looks like a spastic dance routine.

But let's not forget the best tool of all. The friend to marathoners world wide. The miracle product that I keep in my bag, my purse, my bathroom, and my linen closet. And recently, I've started buying in bulk...

Yes - each of these contain 500 pills

Tales From Physical Therapy

I had a physical therapy appointment today. I have mixed feelings about this. One one hand, I kinda look forward to going because being the regular that I am at this point, I know just about everyone there and it's kind of like visiting friends. I fully expect to receive a Christmas card from Athletico this year. On the other hand, I dread it because the people there hurt me. Often.

There were a couple things of note with today's appointment.

1) When your physical therapist touches your calf to see how tight your muscles are and his eyes get really big and his eyebrows shoot upwards, I'm thinking maybe that's not a good thing. Either that or he's really impressed with my 'calf guns'. Yeah - that's probably it. I'm going with that.

It feels about as good as it appears to feel.

2) I had my first session of ASTYM on my heels today to help relieve the plantar fasciitis I've been experiencing. ASTYM on any part of your body is no picnic, but as I discovered today, it's especially sadistic to have it done on your heels. This is what I felt like during my treatment. It was so bad that a nice older lady who was doing her exercises near my table stopped, bent over and said "Here - squeeze my hand." She stood there and let me squeeze the ever-loving crap out of her hand until my torture was over. When he was done, my therapist remarked about my heavy breathing and semi-jokingly asked if I wanted to put on his heart rate monitor watch for a while.

3) I had graduated to only going to PT every three weeks. This week, I guess you could say I was demoted. Now I'm back to weekly sessions, because as my therapist says, I "have a couple of issues." You don't even know the half of it dude.

Rest and Reconsidering My Shoes

I did not run today. Or the day before. Or the day before that. In fact, the last time I ran was the "Blizzard Run of 2015," also known as last Saturday.

My heels have been hurting quite a bit since my 16 mile run several weeks ago. So considering this week was a distance pull-back week, a holiday week, and included a family funeral and visitation, I figured maybe this would be a good week to cut myself some slack and rest a bit. Apparently this was a much-needed situation because the last 3 nights, I've slept approximately 12 hours a night.

During my rest week, I've been taking stock of where I am. I've put in most of the training. I've planned out my race outfits. I've read books and watched movies to inspire me to run with heart. I've booked my flight, confirmed my room reservations and started making a mental packing list. My race countdown app says I have 40 days until the first Dopey Challenge race and I've felt like I'm pretty well on track. I have several more long runs and one more long, long run to go. Things are going according to schedule. And then...a shoe crisis struck.

See the last time I ran a full marathon, my shoe of choice was not the Mizuno Inspire I wear today. I love my Mizunos and have worn them for countless half marathons in the last 4 years. However I've never worn them for a run longer than that. After several long runs in the last month or so, I think my heel pain (likely the dreaded plantar fasciitis) is due to running in the super stiff Mizunos. So now I'm about a month out, with only a handful of long training runs to go and I have no idea what shoe to wear for the marathon.

Yikes.

So many shoes...so few options.

Here are my choices:

1) Run in my Mizunos and hope all goes reasonably well. I'm not keen on this plan because my heel pain has been pretty bad and I don't think I could tolerate 26.2 miles like that...especially after I've already run 22.4 miles in the days leading up to it. I know I had planned on my Mizunos being my main shoe but I think I'm going to need to make some revisions if I want to survive this with a minimal amount of cursing.

2) Switch out my half marathon and marathon shoes. Most Dopey Challenge veterans recommend bringing at least 2 pairs of running shoes. One pair will be for the 5K and the half marathon and the other will be for the 10K and full marathon. That way you switch up how your feet fit in your shoes every other day, and you have a spare if there is a rainy day or something. I was planning on running in Nike Lunar Glides for the 5K and half marathon and my Mizuno Inspires for the 10K and full marathon. Now I may switch the two. I haven't run more than 10 miles in my Lunar Glides though so if I want to do that I need to decide quickly so I can get some long runs in them.

3) Buy new shoes. I don't really want to buy a new pair of shoes because I already have 18 pairs of running shoes. Sadly, most of them won't work for the challenge because they aren't the right type for my feet. I was given most of them due to my job in a running store so I'm not out a bunch of money, but it still seems wasteful to buy another pair. Plus, what kind would I buy? I could buy the model I wore for my last marathon but shoes go through a lot on incarnations in 6 years - who's to know if what worked for me then are the same things on the market today?

Right now I'm leaning towards option #2. But at 40 days out, this really isn't a decision I was thinking I would have to make. Ugh.

Earning Some Badass Points

I have been so lucky with the weather for my training. That luck ended Saturday.

I knew days in advance that the forecast was calling for snow on the morning of my 18 mile run. While not ideal, I thought it would be ok. It might even be peaceful. What I was picturing was gently falling flakes indicative of a typical late fall/early winter snow in the Midwest. I was even uncharacteristically positive minded about the endeavor as you can see in the photo below, right before I started running.

Hopeful, optimistic and expecting a "Normal Rockwell run"

That did not last long. 

From the very first step, snow was pelting me in the face. I had thought putting on a visor would keep the precipitation out of my eyes. Turns out that doesn't really work when wind is blowing from every direction. where was the Norman Rockwell run I had envisioned in my head?

I ran the first 3 1/2 miles solo on my way to meet up with some brave and kind-hearted friends who agreed to run part of the way with me. My heels hurt from the very first step and I realized I was probably nursing a pretty decent case of plantar fasciitis, a runner's nemesis. The snow was stinging my face, my feet hurt and I had hours of this ahead of me. I honestly didn't know if I would make it the whole way. Needless to say, I was not a happy camper. Thank goodness soon I would get some company.  

I couldn't have been happier when I saw my friend Barb running towards me with a bottle of Gatorade. Well, I could have been happier if it was 70 degrees and sunny, but I'm trying to be realistic here. Barb joined me as we ran to a local park to pick up my friend Jessica and her teenage daughter Kiersten. I stopped at Jess' van and she handed me some Sport Beans which I washed down with some of Barb's Gatorade and then the 4 of us set off. 

It was nice to have people around me chatting and laughing. It took my mind off the slushy trail, my wet clothes and my aching heels. Our little group ran together for 4 or 5 miles and even enjoying a few brief stretches of clean pavement. This wasn't so bad after all.

This isn't so bad with company!

A bunch of runner-sicles

 Before I knew it, it was time for Barb, Jess and Kiersten to leave me and hand me off to my even braver friend Angie, who would be running the remaining 11 miles with me. Now Angie should be given a medal for what she endured for several reasons: 1) she had absolutely nothing to train for and was running with me just to be nice, 2) the weather was about to get really bad, and 3) I'm really stubborn determined. 

So I'm now about 7 miles in, already soaking wet, have 11 more miles to go and now the weather is starting to get worse. We get to a park shelter and set down my bottle of Gatorade and a bottle of water that Angie brought me. Jess hands me a few more Sport Beans before she takes off. Angie and I set off chatting, well at this point, Angie is mainly trying to convince me to take one of her hats because she's sure I'm gonna catch pneumonia. (Don't worry mom - I've apparently got surrogate moms out here.)

We did see a few things that amused us as we ran along the trail. The most intriguing to me was this little guy. After all, it was only at 9:00 am on a snowy Saturday morning near a college campus. Who is ambitious enough to have built a snowman by that point?

Who builds a snowman this early in the morning?

As Angie and I put a few miles behind us my cold, wet clothes and shoes are now starting to get heavy. Finally I asked Angie if it would be ok to make a small detour from the trail to run to my house so I could go in and change into dry clothes. She said, "I was HOPING you would say that!" so off we went in search of clothing that didn't drip. Once at my house, I changed my socks, shoes, shirt, jacket and hat for dry versions and we took off for the remaining 8 miles. A couple weeks ago was the first training run during which I stopped to buy a snack. This was the first training run that involved a wardrobe change.

We headed back in the direction we came from and found our way back to the shelter where I stashed my drinks 7 miles earlier. Keep in mind I set them on a park bench that was covered by a shelter. This is what I came back to.

Now the wind had picked up substantially. It was biting and made for whiteout conditions at several points.  We also narrowly missed by inches getting hit on the head by a five foot long branch that had cracked and fell onto the trail right in front of us. To add insult to injury, the accumulating snow on the branches was getting knocked off in chunks now and it felt like the trees were pelting us with snowballs. Several times Angie and I looked at each other and shouted over the howling winds "This is INSANE!"

This is insane.

Really insane.

The branch of death

I managed to get another 2 miles or so before my new shoes were completely soaked. By now I had to go to the bathroom so we sought out the warmth of the train station restroom. It was going to be great - there they had heat, and flushing toilets, and water fountains. The thought of these things kept me going for the half mile to this mecca of modern conveniences. As I ducked into a stall, Angie stood in front of the hand dryer and waved her hands under the hot air in an attempt to warm them up. Once in the heavenly warm bathroom stall I went to pull off the various layers of wet clothing but soon discovered every time I looked down, snow would drip off my visor and onto my bare legs. Not a pleasant surprise. 

Post bathroom break, we only had about 2 and half miles to go. We. Could. Do. This! It was becoming clear that the temperature had dramatically decreased by this time. I decided to run past my car so I could pick up some gloves that I left in there. I also getting hungry and looking forward to breaking into the banana I had stored there. It was hard to break off bites because it was almost frozen. 

We ran on. Angie tried to get my mind off how miserable we were by asking me what I wanted to eat when we got done. The prevailing idea was a cheese pizza. (Sadly, I never got said cheese pizza. Maybe next time.) We were ticking off more and more distance and the wind was blowing harder and harder. Angie starts asking me if I'm doing ok and if I "just want to be done" and stop right then and there. I decline, thinking this madness has got to end at some point. 

Mercifully it does. 

Angie helps me scrape the snow off my car and hops in for me to drive her back to her car. It's only about a half mile away but we've both gone far enough on our feet. As I prepare to drive out of the parking lot, I look in the mirror and see how ridiculous we look. 

We make snow look good

This is the face of determination....and snow

Thus ended probably the most miserable marathon training run of my life. I honestly don't think I could have finished it without the help of my awesome friends Jessica, Barb, Kiersten, Angie...and my friend Jeffrey who was desperately trying to get there to meet us for the last few miles. I feel like these folks earn even more badass points than I do because they didn't HAVE to be out there. They didn't have a marathon to train for. They were simply there because I needed them. And they answered the call. I am so grateful. Thank you all.

Oh - and when I got back home and checked my phone for messages, I discovered my niece Addison is a lot like her aunt. Turns out she doesn't like running in miserable weather any more than I do.

Addison is NOT impressed.

Shedding a Little Light on Running in the Dark

Sadly, we're entering the time of year when we lose daylight. I hate this time of year. By the time I get off of work, it is dark and my internal clock thinks it's about time to go do bed. On Tuesday I was in my PJs and snuggled into my bed watching Netflix by 5:30 pm. Regardless of daylight hours, there are mile to run. Having a winter marathon scheduled at least gets me out the door when the only thing I really want to do is sit in front of my fireplace and veg out in front of the TV. But it's a different game running in the dark.

When you have to get in most of your miles in the dark there are dangers out there that aren't a factor during those daylight runs. You suddenly need to be worried about being seen, about being able to see, and about the safety of your surroundings. Having embarked on many a dark run in the last couple of months, I've come up with a few rules I try to abide by to increase my odds of making it safely back home.

1. Lights. Running in the dark presents 2 major problems. One - you can't see where you are going, and two - other people can't see you. The answer to both these problems: lights! In the past I tried a head lamp. It gave me a bit of a headache so after wearing it twice, I started wrapping it around my upper arm. I tried the reflective vest but it kept inching up as I ran. I wrote about my visibility options back when I was training for my last marathon. Luckily since then, more products have flooded the market. My current favorite is my set of knuckle lights.

Knuckle Lights

I love these because I hate carrying stuff with me. They strap onto your hands in a very natural position so it doesn't feel like you're actually holding them at all. They have 3 settings: almost blinding, what the heck is that?!, and strobe.

While the knuckle lights are good for seeing and being seen there are also a variety of products that make you more visible. These items include reflective vests, belts and water bottle carriers, blinking lights and a whole manner of clip-on items. Make sure to stock up!

2. Apparel. Just like lights can make you be seen more easily so can your wardrobe choice. I know most of us run in black tights or shorts because that is the color the majority of these items come in. I try to keep that in mind when I select my top. If I must wear solid black on the bottom, I try to pair it with a more colorful shirt. But now there seem to more colorful options for running clothes, at least for women, so it's a little easier to avoid the invisible black outfit. One new pair of tights I bought is this fun pattern. It's much easier to see. (Disregard the fact I'm lying on the ground - it was a long day of running.)

Patterned tights are a better option for running in the dark.

One bonus of wearing running-specific clothing is that most items have at least one reflective element on them, making you visible to cars.

3. Alter your running routes. One of reasons I bought the house that I currently live in is that it is close to a great running/biking trail that runs through the twin cities where I live. I love running on that trail. But in the dark, the section of trail by me is fairly dangerous to run on. Being surrounded by mature trees, when it's dark outside, you can barely see your hand in front of your face out there. So as much as I hate to leave my trail, during dark runs, I change up my routes to well-lit streets. It's not as pretty but it's much safer.

4. Run with someone else. Shockingly, this isn't always possible. I mean, I can't imagine why many of my friends aren't keen on getting up at 5:00 am and trekking 8 miles around town before they have to get back home and ready for work. Odd. But luckily I do have some friends who are as crazy - or crazier - than I am and have offered to join me for my early morning dark runs. I'm not one of those women who worries about going places alone or anything but I just feel a little better having company during these runs. If I were to trip and get hurt, I'd have someone there with me, and of course, there's strength in numbers in case we run across any 'unsavory' characters. This hasn't happened yet - I think the unsavory sorts tend to be sleeping at the oh-heck-no-o'clock hours.

Even though running in the dark is a sad reality in the winter months, there are ways to make the runs a little safer. And at there is a winter running bonus - if your running outfit doesn't match, nobody will notice!

Inspire Me!

It's time to separate the women from the girls.

I say this for 2 reasons. 1) The training is starting to get interesting now. Long runs take me out for most of the day: the morning is spent running and the rest of the day is split between sleeping and eating. Medium length runs are now what I would have considered a long run a month ago. It's gotten to the point where I've started taking a couple hours off work once a week to squeeze in that 'medium' length run on a weekday. Add to that, the fact that every couple of weeks I have to do back-to-back long runs. Essentially what I'm saying is that running is taking over my life. 2) It's supposed to be 35 degrees on Saturday. For a high. And snow might happen. Ugh.

So what's a girl to do when she's staring down the barrel of a couple long runs in the middle of winter and she's kind of over it? Get inspired, of course. So here's what I've been up to lately.

Read "My Year of Running Dangerously" by Tom Foreman. This book follows CNN correspondent Foreman as he goes from fairly sedentary suburban family man to marathoner to ultramarathoner. He eloquently describes how he fit in crazy long runs and what it felt like to run for hours and regularly get lost doing it. As I read the sections where he describes 30+ mile runs, it made me think I'm really glad I only have 18 miles to do this weekend. And also that I'm a slacker.

Watched "Spirit of the Marathon II". Years ago when I ran my last full marathon, I watched "Spirit of the Marathon" and it was so inspiring. The documentary follows a handful of people as they train for the Chicago Marathon. This second installment follows a group of runners as they prepare to run the Rome Marathon. I've been wanting to watch this movie for a while now and I finally made the time to do it. I didn't like it as much as the original but it's still a heartwarming set of stories that make you excited to run again.

Reading "Born to Run". I know I'm late to the party on this one. Most runners have already read this book. For whatever reason, it just didn't appeal to me until now. I'm about 2/3 the way through it now and am finding it hard to put down. Like the earlier book I mentioned, there is a lot of discussion about running an obscene amount of miles at a time. Reading about people who regularly run 100 miles at time kinda makes my training look like preschool.

Ordered a copy of "Spirit of the Marathon". I loved the original movie so much I decided I needed to watch it again. When I saw I could get it on Amazon for less than $10, I decided to buy it so I could get inspired whenever I want to. As I mentioned earlier, the original installment of the documentary follows runners as they train for the Chicago Marathon. Since my first marathon was Chicago, watching this the first time brought back a lot of memories. Seeing the featured runners putting the work in to realize their dream really made me want to get back out there and get a run in.

So I've done my part to inspire myself to keep putting one foot in front of the other. It definitely takes a village though, so in the next couple of weeks, any extra inspiring or encouraging messages would be appreciated. This is where things start to get real.