It took eight days, but I have finally emerged from the odd, not quite myself, post-Ironman race week Twilight Zone-esque sensation of sleep/overall body fatigue/Thanksgiving joviality just in time to line up for my final race of the year, the California International marathon this Sunday!
Sipping Sister Shrub with my sisters, Sarah and Mary, at my Dad and Stepmom's house in Palos Verdes on Thanksgiving.
I am blissfully leaping into uncharted waters because I’ve never run two marathons two weeks apart, however I have run them three weeks apart on two occasions: In March, 2014, when I was ripping through my 35 By 35 quest, I ran the Los Angeles Marathon on March 9th, and then followed it up by running the Griffith Park Trail marathon three weeks later. I am happy to report that both marathons went well. That said, trail races tend to have much more forgiving terrain, so even with plenty of hills I wasn’t beat up too much after that mini-version of March Madness and was ready to run another road marathon the following May.
Finishing up the Griffith Park Trail marathon in March, 2014. My arms were so puny back then...
Next, I took on the Ironman/Marathon combo by racing the Ironman World Championships in Kona three weeks before racing the New York City Marathon in 2018. That Big Apple long run went very well. However, I completely bombed the workout one week prior to New York, (which landed two weeks after Kona). Therefore, this Sunday’s race in Sacramento is tossup.
Nevertheless, I feel good (a massage earlier today did wonders for my still too tightly wound post IM bod), I appreciate the novelty of this challenge, and I am beside myself to finish this packed year of endurance fun/nuttiness by competing in my favorite event of all, the marathon!!
How I started the year, running the Surf City Marathon in February. PC: Lynne Fiedler
Speaking of marathons, I will be running the Boston Marathon again next April alongside the person responsible for my marathon career/obsession, my brother Tim!!!
Many of you know the health hurdles Tim has jumped over the past year which makes the fact that he is running the Boston Marathon in support of the Dana Farber Marathon Challenge (DFMC) that much more inspiring and downright BADASS!! To learn about Tim’s story, and fuel his fundraising efforts, please CLICK HERE:
Tim and I at the Basel Marathon start in 2014.
Tim inspired me to attempt the fabled distance after he raced four marathons in his twenties, (he still holds the Kelly PR of 3:08:24, a record he set at twenty-something that his forty-something little sister is still chasing down), he was the first person to tell me I had potential to run the marathon well after I finished my first sub 4-hour marathon, (San Francisco, 2003), and he cheered me on at my first marathon win! (Basel, 2014).
I can’t wait to share the entire Boston Marathon race experience with Tim, trotting away from the start near Hopkinton High School, to feeling the vibrations of Wellesley girl's screams, to chipping our way up Heartbreak Hill, and then taking that final left turn from Hereford onto Boylston St. toward the finish line...
Running toward the finish line on that epic rainy race day in 2018.
It will be an awesome, hard, but awesome (and hopefully sunny) day in Beantown to run a marathon next April.
But first, marathon #61 in Sacramento this Sunday!!
The song and video choice this week was a gigantic hit that I cannot believe I have not chosen in the (nearly) five years I have been writing this blog, but the timing for it felt juuuust right this week. Enjoy.:)