Well, the Dallas Marathon has moved in person racing yet again, due to the pandemic. From December 2020 to May 2021, now to December 2021. I however, am sticking to the plan and running my 26.2 on May 2, 2021. It may even be a bit longer, if I do 3 rounds around my favorite weekend trail. White Rock Lake has a 9 mile loop that I can run 3 times around for a total of 27miles. I have done this once before back in 2011 when I was training for my ultra 50k. I remember calling my then husband to drive around the lake and come find me and help peel me off the ground when I was done. Ha ha… There will be none of that this time around though. I have a tribe that I can count on to meet me at the finish line with beer and food (a runner’s favorite two things after a race).
It has been about 35 days since my last blog post, so lets catch up a bit… On the medical front, everything looks good. My follow up tests have returned with positive results. I even had a great visit with the cardiologist. I do have a stress test scheduled for next week, but he was pretty impressed with my numbers so far and the improvements I have made. He said he didn’t want to rush and call me a cardiac patient just yet. I am in a preventative stage because of my family history with heart disease and the level of calcification found around my heart. This was a such a relief to hear. I was so scared after my 20 mile training run in February. I honestly felt like I was going to push myself into a heart attack.
After the February 20 mile run, I met with my doctor and discussed how I felt. As always, she walked me through some possible causes and helped calm my anxiety. I adjusted a medication and made a few lifestyle modifications. One of the biggest changes was sleep. I also had allowed some toxicity to creep it’s way in that was surprisingly adding a different level of stress that I had not been fully aware of. Letting go of what I could not control and regaining control of the things that I could change made a huge difference. I was not about to cancel my marathon goals because of a few setbacks.
I scheduled my next 20 mile long run in March, four weeks after the last. I wanted to make sure that I was comfortable with running that distance before adding more miles. This time, I did not go my usual route around the lake. I stayed in my neighborhood, picked a direction, ran 10 miles out and turned around for another 10 miles back. I rested well the days leading up to my run and tried not to over train during my weekly runs. I also came to terms with the fact that I was facing a possible 6hr marathon. I didn’t realize how much stress I was adding to myself by comparing my current pace with my 10min mile pace 8 years ago. This made for a much more enjoyable and pain free run. Just one more long run (possibly 22-24 miles) in April, before the official marathon day, May 2nd.
Training in general has gone well. Living in Texas, the past few weeks have been interesting with drastic changes in weather. We had our first long lasting snow and freezing days one week and then beautiful Spring like weather the next. I can cross out bucket list items having to do with running in different elements. I have run during extreme Texas heat, on the beach, during light and hard rain, freezing temperatures, and now while snowing and over ice. My favorite of course is in the rain, but the snow was fun.
I am looking forward to the next couple of months of training. I think after my virtual marathon in May, I will start focusing on training for another ultra and doing more trail runs. I met someone that just completed a 30 mile trail run in Big Bend, TX. After Palo Duro Canyon, Big Bend is definitely something I want to try next. There are also some trails in Arkansas that I want to visit. You know what that means… ROADTRIPS!!!
Happy running everyone! Eat well, love much and stay hydrated!!
Runmom_6 
Great news!
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