Hi friends, it has been a while!
So, uh, last year was a thing, huh? Like most people, now that I am vaccinated and starting to rejoin the world, I am ready to pretend like 2020 never existed…. It was a YEAR.
If you have made it to a running blog, I am sure that to some degree you are aware that when the world shut down, races were cancelled – from local 5ks to world marathon majors, all cancelled. I was poised to run two marathons last fall – Chicago and NYC. Heck, my entry to the 2020 Chicago marathon was from a deferral in 2019, when I hurt my knee while training.
When both of those races cancelled, they eventually announced that runners’ entries would roll into either 2021, 2022, or 2023. I wound up with two years of guaranteed entry for the NYC marathon, as in addition to the cancelled race slot, I completed the 2020 9+1 program, mostly through virtual races. When it came time to decide my races for this fall, I opted to elect for the 2021 and 2022 NYC marathon, with plans to run Chicago in 2023.
Here is where things get a little hairy – the well laid plans of mice and men don’t always pan out. While I chose 2021 and 2022 as my preferred years when the New York Road Runners started their selection process, when they announced to runners their acceptance, I got emails saying I was accepted into the 2022 and 2023 races. Womp womp. The Chicago deadline for 2021 had already passed, so it looked like I was either not running a fall marathon, or I was finding another race. I emailed the road runners, asking if there was anything that could be done, but after a week of not hearing back, I figured I was out of luck.
Just as I was considering registering for the Baltimore marathon I got an email from the Chicago marathon, saying that they had opened more slots for the 2021 race and I could claim my deferral to run in 2021 – I JUMPED at this opportunity. It was a “first come, first serve” basis, and I would hear back 10 days after applying, but I was hopeful that I had found my race.
Of course, the next day I heard back from the New York Road Runners… and they had adjusted my race acceptance, and I was in for the 2021 marathon.
Suddenly, I went from no fall marathon to two fall marathons. Whoops.
Honestly though, I can’t say I am upset. If I am putting in all of the work with marathon training, why not have two 26.2 mile celebrations?
So that is where I am now – at the start of a new marathon training cycle, ready to show up and put in the work, and freaking excited to finally have races on my calendar again!
When I have marathon trained in the past, making weekly blog posts helped me to stay accountable, and helps me look at what is working and what is not. Plus, on days when I feel like I have gotten nowhere, they are a reminder that I can do hard things and that showing up and putting in the work will get me to that finish line. So welcome to the space on the internet that I come to ramble about putting one foot in front of the other, on a weekly basis.
I will once again be making a run at training with a plan from “Hanson’s marathon method.” The last time I really trained for a marathon (in 2019… which is weird), I was using that plan until I got hurt on a cruise ship treadmill. I felt so strong, and the half that I ran just days before I got hurt, was within 20 seconds of my half PR. The first week of the training program starts with a Thursday run, which feels a little weird, but I am all in, and ready to start moving!