Tapering and Cinnamon Rolls

I’m happy to say I am almost 100% over my cold—hooray!  I stopped taking the antibiotic on Tuesday, after my sister (who works for a doctor) informed me that it may cause “tendon ruptures.”  Seriously?!  How does anyone develop a medicine that’s supposed to cure a virus but also just happens to cause tendon ruptures?  And how did a girl who is training for a marathon get lucky enough to have it prescribed to her??

At any rate, that’s all gone and out of my system—and good riddance!  My coffee finally tastes good again, and I’m not waking up feeling hung over without the benefit of actually enjoying some alcohol. :p  I skipped one run last Tuesday, but since I’m officially in taper mode now, I figured it couldn’t hurt.  I ran the prescribed 3 on Friday and then, on Saturday, I had my last long run scheduled.  “Long” being a relative term, since it was “only” eight miles. (Any time I have a long run that doesn’t really seem that long to me, I can’t help but chuckle about the time I ran two full miles for the first time—and then promptly went home and took a nap!)

As I’ve mentioned before, I have a team of relay runners that are going to help “pace” me for my marathon. Each one will run a leg of the marathon at my pace (around 11 minutes a mile) to keep me company.  I got the idea from my friend Katie’s sister, who did this for her first marathon last year (also Glass City).  Four of the runners are friends I know from various walks of life, all of whom also happen to be runners, while the fifth runner, my very own “anchor leg” runner, is none other than my son, Jamie.

Now, I’ll be honest…I debated long and hard as to whether it would be a good idea for me to have my 13-year-old son, the least experienced runner on my team, run the last 5 miles with me.  I know this will be the hardest part for me, and yet, I also know that running 5 miles, even at an 11-minute per mile pace, will not be a cake walk for him, either.  Sometimes over the course of the last 18 weeks, I’ve debated whether to have him move up to an earlier leg, just so that he doesn’t have to feel the pressure at the end.  But every time I’ve thought about it, I have dismissed the idea, for a couple of reasons.  The first is because I am really looking forward to finishing the race with him.  As much as I love all my runner friends, I can’t imagine a greater feeling than crossing the finish line of my second marathon with my son beside me.  The second reason is because I had promised him this opportunity last year, and he was excited about it, and I don’t want him to think I don’t have faith in him.  He’s at an age where his psyche is probably a bit fragile (teenager…ugh), and I feel like he can use this boost of confidence as much as I can use the extra motivation of knowing I don’t want to let my son down in the final miles of the race.

Over the course of the last 8 weeks, he’s been training for his 5.3 mile leg as best he can with hockey and school.  I won’t lie—it has been a challenge at times to get him to actually get out and run. 🙁  I’ve had many days where I had to remind him when I got home to go put his miles in.  And then, there have been some runs he’s had where his times were so slow, I was seriously concerned about him keeping up with me, even at the end of a marathon, when I’ll be at my slowest.  He’s had more than a few runs where his pace was 12+ miles, even for the shorter ones.  He’s not in the shape he was a few years ago when he starting running (I’m sure teenage hormones aren’t helping), and it seems like he’s really struggling.

Last Thursday, I came home from work and found that he had forgotten to run. I know this isn’t the end of the world, but this has become a fairly common occurrence of late. I got really frustrated and told him that, after this race, we weren’t doing anymore races together because he lacked commitment. He apologized and then immediately went out to run.  I almost told him not to, because I felt like his heart wasn’t really in it, but that he was just doing it because he thought I wanted him to.  But, I really do need him for the relay team, so I went ahead and let him go.  He came back about 20 minutes later, and he was dripping in sweat. (It was a warm day.) He proudly showed me his Garmin with an average time of 10:44 for 2 miles.

That was the fastest he’d run in months!  He even said that he’d started out at an 11:19 for the first mile, and he decided that just wasn’t fast enough, so he ran the second mile in 10:09! I was very impressed, and I could tell he was really proud of himself.  He detailed every step of the run for me over the next ten minutes, ha ha!  I hugged him and told him I was really proud of him.

On Saturday morning, Jamie had his last long run—five miles! Since I had 8, we agreed that I would run 3 miles on my own, then we’d do five together. I ran three at an 11:30ish pace, which is kind of fast for a “long” run for me, but I knew that I’d be running quite a bit slower when I ran with Jamie.

I over-dressed for the run, and when I got back at 9am, I went inside to change into shorts and a t-shirt and instructed Jamie to do the same.  Then we set out down the road.  He brought shot blocks and the hydration belt (which I wore).  I asked if he would mind trying something my friend Katie had suggested to me a few weeks ago—she said that it might help me if I simulated walking through water stations during my long runs.  Since we only had 5 miles, I suggested to Jamie that we walk for 10-15 seconds every mile, and use that time to take our water and his shot blocks. He suggested doing a mile and a quarter, and I said that made sense, so we did.

Our first walk break was at 1.25 miles.  He had a shot block and some water, and I tried a shot block, too (fruit punch).  It was really sweet, but I choked it down, and then we started right back up after a few seconds.  We actually talked quite a bit during the run, which we normally don’t do.  We stopped again at the halfway point (2.5), and he took water and another shot block (I skipped it that time).  On our way back up the road, we discovered we were going a little faster than we probably should have, and although we slowed down, I could tell Jamie was beginning to struggle. I asked if he wanted to walk, but he said he could hold out until the 3.75 mark.  True to his word, he did, although he did walk a few extra seconds for that break.  Still, he started up again and made it the rest of the way home without stopping. I could tell by his breathing that it was hard for him, but he didn’t give up, and when we were done, he ended up with a great pace!

That includes all the walk breaks—that’s a great five-mile long-run pace for him!  When we were done, and he had a chance to rest, he even agreed to pose for a picture (he normally hates the post-run selfies).

I knew he was proud of himself by that big smile. Once again, he was happy to go over all the details of the run and how he felt and even how hard it was for him at the end. I was so proud of him for not giving up!

Later in the day, I took him to a church youth group activity, and when I picked him up, I surprised him with a trip to Monica’s Bakery, a place that Katie has often raved about.  I’d never been there, but I figured that a 5-mile run by a 13-year-old hockey defenseman was worth a special treat.

It turns out that everything at Monica’s is HUGE.  For instance, this cinnamon roll:

That picture doesn’t even do it justice—the thing is just enormous, and it only cost me $1.25!!  And holy heaven, was it GOOD.  I did share some with JJ and my husband, but although I gave Jamie a bite, he wasn’t that excited about it.  He’s not a big fan of cinnamon rolls, as it turns out (how can he be my kid?!), but he did enjoy the cinnamon twist he picked out (which, incidentally, they didn’t even charge me for, since they insisted it was “super tiny”—which it was not!).

All in all, it was a good run and a good day.  In fact, later in the day, my son who had run five miles suggested we all go for a bike ride.  Sounded like a good idea, until we turned around and biked home 3 miles in 20mph headwinds!

And yet…Jamie had no issues and beat both JJ and me home. :p

I weighed myself yesterday, and I wasn’t exactly ecstatic about it.

That’s up 2.4 from last time, boo.  And yet…I’m really not going to worry about it, because, damn it, I have to run 26.2 miles in just 5 days!  I’m focusing on trying to get plenty of rest, take my last few runs really slow, and yes, eating a few more carbs leading up to the big day.  I’m nervous but also excited (mostly excited to get it over with, ha ha!).  I can’t believe I’m running another marathon, ha ha!

That’s it for now.  Thanks for reading!!