September 3rd, 2001, I ran my first and only marathon. My training was not ideal, but I was young, and enjoyed running 10k on Mount Royal, and an occasional long run of 20K at most. My fitter less trained brother joined me in Saskatoon to run a tougher race than I had hoped, but we both came out with personal bests. The trail was beautiful. Unlike Saskatchewan's reputation of being flat, the trail was along the beautiful South Saskatchewan river over bridges and on my beloved Meewasin trail. To make it psychologically harder, the race was two identical loops, so that what we did the first time we had to repeat to finish. Despite being lapped by my brother, we were both proud of our accomplishment. His time was 3:36:54, finishing #9 in the 20-29 men category and #50 overall. Mine was 4:01:09, finishing #2 in the 20-29 women and #98 overall. I won a vest which I was very surprised by, but after the dust settled, I was bothered by the idea that had I run a little faster, I could have been on the other side of 4 hours. Since then I have been dream of repeating the race with a sub-four hour time. I have been dreaming this for over a decade.
As time passes, I wonder if there will be a moment that this may not be possible. So this fall I have set out a plan to run a marathon in September 2017. My current run is a total of 4.6 k, that is about half on the street, and half on a trail. My goal is to run on odd days, but so far it has been more like ever other odd day! Still, I am happy that my toe is entirely healed after 6 month of impatient waiting, and that my plantar fasciitis is burning out, making it possible with a brand new pair of Saucony runners to feel very little foot pain, at least until after the run! I have about twenty pounds to lose, and I will most likely have to be better trained this time around.
My goals are as follows:
4.6 km Terra Cotta run 3-4 times per week. When I am doing this consistently, I will run this 3x/week and will add a long run, increasing to 10k over 1-2 month.
then add in 6.5 km loop to Lakeshore (Pointe-Claire village to St. Jean) 3x/week with a long run, increasing from 10-20 k
then 10 km loop to Beaconsfield Yacht club 3x/week with long run increasing from 20-30 k until the week before the marathon, when I run terra cotta route.
I should be able to run a marathon if I can run for 2 hours and average 3-4 hours of running a week.
May 27, 2017 Xtrail (sutton) 6.5 trail (if I have managed to succeed AND do strenght traingin) vs
May 28, 2017 Scotiabank Ottawa 10k
Sept 24, 2017 Oasis Rock N Roll Montreal Marathon!!!!! (FASTER IN MY FORTIES)
Now, go for a run!
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