I’m less than a week away from the Philadelphia marathon, which means weather forecast is available. Imagine my shock when I saw that it will be 28F (-2C) on the starting line! As the race goes on, it’s supposed to warm up all the way up to 42F (or 5C) 😮 . I will admit it: I don’t feel very well prepared to races in the cold. I always stuck to running during somewhat warmer times of the year. The part that’s tricky for me: anybody who sat next to me on a boat on a cold day can tell you that I produce a lot of heat, but I radiate it all out. That’s how I’m always FREEZING. But if I wear something that doesn’t breathe, I overheat instantly. I think I chose the clothes right. And at the starting line, I will be wearing an old, shrunk sweater I can throw away. Funny story on the sweater: previous owner of my house (a construction worker by trader) connected washing machine, switching hot and cold water hoses. I would say he was being passive aggressive, but based on shape of the rest of the house, I will say it: no, he was that stupid. The sad part is that it took me forever to figure it out! So yeah, I boiled all of my sweaters, since I tried to wash them on cold. Oh, irony! Let’s go with an optimistic spin: I got to replace old sweaters with newer ones 😉
🙁 Bad news for the race: my hip has been hurting. I think it’s about time I explain the hip thing. It’s one of those moments you wish there was a camera, even if it would have provided me with plenty of embarrassment. But think of going viral on youtube! About seven and a half years ago, I went on a run on a treadmill and some woman got on the treadmill next to me. She was on it for less than a minute, then got off of it, without turning it off. She looked at weights for another minute and left the gym. Strange behavior, but whatever. And that’s my ‘genius’ happened. I leaned over to turned it off… Yeah, I am sure everybody can figure out what happened next: I lost my footing and flew off the treadmill. That must have been site to behold… It took me a long time to figure out something wrong. In fact, I started to realize something was wrong with progress of my pregnancy. Many years later, I am usually ok. However, since I started this new training plan and I have been diligent about stretching and that makes my hip act up. I did 10 miles today and I sure felt it. So I guess some icing it down and rest until the race day!
🙂 Good news for the race: I did those 10 miles at 9:11min/mile pace, which is good for me. I used to use 10min/mile as a standard conversion for the longest time. I am psyched about this improvement in pace! I know I won’t be keeping it for all 26.2 miles, but even if I slow down a bit later in the race, that should still let me PR. A friend of mine is going with me to Philly and he promised to keep me company for the last few miles to help me stay motivated. I am lining up in the 4 hour corral and let’s see what happens! Keep your fingers crossed for me! 🤞