Marathon Musings

Well I am in training to achieve the status of Marathon Maniac. I have been a little nervous about the whole adventure, wondering if my legs and body would hold out for everything I have planned because I'd signed myself up for Ragnar Las Vegas before any of the marathon craziness was dreamed up.

So anyway, then I missed a critical long run when I was on vacation. The 18 miler. It is all about working up to the distance in increments. This principle works and it worked for me for the Ogden Marathon.

My marathon schedule is as follows: SoJo Oct 15 - Mesquite Nov 19 - CIM Dec 4.

CIM

When Liz texted me a couple of days ago that she might sign up for CIM in Sacramento I was very excited. Someone to run with. She also has a sister there that she can visit. CIM was the last marathon I am running to complete the criteria "2. 3 Marathons within a 90 day time frame " to qualify for Bronze Level at the very bottom of marathon mania scale. (BTW Liz has moved up a level to SILVER (2 Stars) and could be on her way to GOLD at the rate she is going. Way to go Liz, my inspiration for even doing this at all!)

So back to the texts from Liz. Then she asks if I am going to do a long run between Mesquite and CIM. I cannot remember but suggest that she check my blog where I have my training schedule.

Fast forward a day. I think I should check my training schedule and see if I have a long run between those two marathons and realize after reviewing it that it hasn't been completed beyond the Mesquite Marathon. So I do some copy and paste to add the needed weeks between the two. Funny, I think to myself, why do I only need copy two weeks and I am already at December 4? Yikes! Two weeks??? There must be something wrong. I thought I had at least 3 weeks between marathons! But then I have something I need to do and have to leave those thoughts for a few hours. (But keeping them in pondering position....)
Fast forward again to late last night when I get home at 9pm (late for me) and go back to investigating my situation. First, I work on a little fire that cropped up earlier in the day. Ragnar. My van, Van 1 looses a runner. Had a call from Mark this afternoon that Brittiany broke her foot. To be a little more accurate I read on FB later she has a hairline fracture. No running 4 1/2 months. Bummer. I will need to step up to help if we don't get a replacement runner and some of us have to run an extra leg.... Well anyway - that really isn't what I want to think about. After I did some calling and posting on FB on that situation I came back to my marathon plan.

First, I looked at the calendar. Sure enough, 2 weeks. One of marathons was on Saturday. One on Sunday. But no matter how I looked at it - basically 2 weeks. Even without my glasses on I could still see enough and count. So then I went to the internet to http://www.marathonmaniacs.com/criteria.html to look up criteria for MM:

To become a member of the Marathon Maniacs you need to complete one of the following Criteria within the LEVEL. Depending upon which streak you have completed will determine your placement LEVEL.

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BRONZE LEVEL 
1. 2 Marathons within a 16 day time frame.

2. 3 Marathons within a 90 day time frame.

So here is the critical information I needed. My first plan, the three planned marathons (2) had to be in 90 days. No problem, I easily make that. In fact they are within a 51 day time frame. Wow.
So then I take a closer look at (1) which is 2 in 16 days. I go to the calendar and count the days 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16. And then I count again to be sure. I come back to the computer. Then I get up one more time to count. Sure enough, 16 days! YES! It is within the time frame. I only need to do Mesquite and CIM to be a maniac!

Why is this so great? Because this works soooooo much better for Ragnar, my first running commitment. And, for the SoJo I have dropped down to the half marathon, so I am still running. But, before I changed I called Cyndie to make sure she wouldn't be mad at me for not running with her. She was nice and very cool about it. We don't run to be by ourselves. It is a social activity when you are slower.
So the new plan, which goes in effect today is Mesquite Nov 19 - CIM Dec 4. I will be revising my long runs to make sure I get them all in before Mesquite.
Here I come MM.