10 Day Forecast

It's about 10 days until the 2009 Twin Cities Marathon now, meaning long shot weather forecasts are starting to roll in. I don't know about other marathon runners, but I'm a bit obsessive about checking forecasts before the race since my other two were: 1 Unseasonably Hot and sunny (low-mid 80's for october) and 2 fairly cool and rainy. It would be ideal for me if it were low 60's and completely overcast; the forecasts so far range from 39 degree lows to 65 degree highs with a decent change of rain showers... it's looking like another #2 year. My main concern with the weather is if rain comes when it is very cool, like the mid 40's which is quite possible. This will force me to wear a lot more clothes which will likely slow me down a lot. My other big quandary is what to wear on my feet for the race. My old running shoes with the holes in the insoles began bothering my toe a bit after a couple of 11 milers the past few weekends. Last weekend I ran about 11 miles on Saturday but decided to stop because of soreness in the toe; the next day I went out again and did 13 miles in my teva sandals with socks. It seems a bit crazy but I'm leaning toward tevas with socks for the race, even though they are much thicker and heavier than I'd like, they seem good for my toe. The problem is, if I'm wearing sandals with socks, cold rain would mean soggy feet in a couple of minutes, although they would dry fast if the rain stopped.

As for my four hour time goal, its looking pretty bleak. Between changing my running stride and feeling unable to push off too hard from my toes, my top speed has dropped considerably and I don't feel like I can kick and put in a sub 8 minute mile to fininsh off if I had to. I'm going to have to just go for a steady pace from start to finish to protect my injury and see what happens. I think I can beat my time from last year (4:35), and hopefully beat 10 minute miles (4:20) but 4 flat will take a tremendous effort for me having had too little time to get used to my altered stride and to find a pair of shoes that works better. I wish I had had time to train up my calves and feet so that I could run in my Vibrams; maybe next year. I might go shoe shopping this weekend and take a 10-13 miler in a pair of new kicks to see if I can find a light weight flat that will work.

With 10 days left before the race, I only have time for 3 or 4 more training runs. Its nice to know there's not much left, but in my case, it would be nice to have more time. Apparently the sickness I had that kept me down for a week and a half was probably swine flu. My mom had the same thing (I think I got her sick) and her doctor said it was probably H1N1, since there's no other bad viruses going around right now. I'm feeling pretty much 100% better now though, so its full steam ahead. I ran about seven miles in 1:02:32 and 1:04:14 my last two runs. This is probably 3-6 minutes slower than I was going before I got hurt back in May. On the other hand, I'm not feeling quite as tired at the end, because I'm not pushing so hard or kicking for the last mile. In a marathon things might even out; If I can run as fast as my 1:02:32 time for the whole race, I can make 4 hours. Just do decently fast training run four times back to back... That's not so bad!

I'll probably make another post or two before race day, and definitely the night or morning after the race.