Long Beach Marathon one step at a time

The 30th Anniversary of the Long Beach Marathon and my 7th time at Long Beach thanks to Kool n Fit who have made this possible every year...

Renate, Preston, Ed and myself after the run at the KoolnFit booth

So just a few thoughts to share about my amazing 7th times the charm experience...

• with hind sight the 13.1 mile probably would have been the perfect distance...
• Because I am Suzy I chose the 26.2mile version.....pretty darn smart after 4 weeks and 2 days post vein surgery....
• training really helps, it conditions the body to stay upright and move forward for a few hours without getting cramps, and having to walk......
• mile 15 was my magical number.....after 8 weeks of no running and just walking after surgery and not even cycling I thought at least I would be well rested!!!
• Mile 15 is when my brain registered several warning signs that my feet my knees my back my shoulders really did not care to keep moving forward as fast as I was moving....
• Walking is an option and as long as you are moving forward the miles will keep on passing by!

I was prepared for a longer than normal day I had my fuel belt full of the good stuff, Hammer Nutrition montana huckleberry gel in one of the bottles,  and another the expresso Hammergel gotta love my caffeine fix. I also had endurolytes, and racecap supremes and anti fatigue caps...
To order Hammer Nutrition products the first time..

I had my legs sprayed with Kool n Fit and my insoles before the event and during the event at mile 9, I also with Ed and Preston helped the Kool n Fit booth at the expo and after the race.

the last 10 miles were LONG.... I dug deep into my bag of tricks,...I felt fine!! just my body had forgotten how to behave after 2hours or so! I smiled I handed out hi fives, I called out to other runners looking strong, way to go....yup I had to walk and jog but I had NO pain.

The finish was sweet as I managed a sub 4 hour marathon that was certainly not expected the bigger news was my left leg were I had the saph vein removed was NOT swollen, NOT itchy, NOT purple around the ankles and was NOT aching!
My race pace.....

It was an awesome day to jog and very grateful to be able to do what I do. Big thanks to Kool n Fit for their friendship and support. Big SHout out to Hammer Nutrition for fueling me pre during and post race with Hammer Vegan bar and recoverite. To Rudy Project for making me look cool in the yellow fluros, Polar USA for the awesome V800 which told me numbers I really did not want to see but at least I have for reference and gave me a generous recovery time too! Brooks Running and Ocean Potion and of course my husband for letting me do the event so soon after my operation!

Thanks to Ed and Preston for the lift to and from the marathon good times for sure.....its still a long road back to being 100% but I see the light I really do.
V800 information...

Getting back on track

Getting back on track with my four legged kiddo Hammer.

So it has been a rocky on 6th August 2014 my $10,000 road bike was stolen from my garage while I was home! So 2 months and one week I have not ridden a road bike.

I went into a depression for 2 weeks with doing nothing at all!!! then I signed up to do the 5km pool swim for US Masters Swimming....that is 200 laps of a 50 meter pool with one pool swim prior...on 24th August

successful swimmers of the 5K

All I did was swim and we decided to move so boxes to be packed and un packed etc...

On 12th August I had Vein surgery to eliminate a saph vein and improve my blood circulation.....No running, no cycling and allowed to swim very happy!!
The surgery was good and only allowed to walk and jog until I see my surgeon for a final okay on the vein and leg...So on October 12th I jogged the Long Beach Marathon with NO training! and four small runs a week before, as I do every year I also help Kool n Fit with their expo too.

Getting back on track is not easy! I miss the competition I miss the training and I really miss my Road bike! So jogging the 26.2 miles seemed like a plan to see where I am with my fitness.

Made triple sure I had great Hammer Nutrition for the marathon

I felt like an athlete again as I took my Fuel belt and filled it with Hammergel, Endurolytes and Recoverite for afterwards!
So off the gun went and I began to jog, it was one step at a time and go easy the humidity was high and I was soaked in sweat, each mile was ticked off like winning a battle.....I was running a conservative pace and then BAM mile 15/16 my body let out a disapproval at the amount of stress EVERYTHING was tightening up....I heeded the sign and walked stretching out and carefully listening to my calves that were playing chicken....."dare you to run.....see if I spasm.... " So began 11 miles of jog walking...every mile was a woo hoo moment....as always the last mile seems to be the longest and then I won the War I finished Long Beach in my 2 nd slowest marathon time ever a 3 hour 54min.....but oh man HOW lucky am I to be able to participate 4 weeks after Vein surgery I will happily take that time but tomorrow I will pay dearly for this marathon!

I will have a new road bike soon thanks to the amazing friends I have that contributed to a fund raiser and I will begin in smaller increments to get stronger again.

Getting back on track is not easy but when you already have an active life style it is mind over matter to begin training again....small baby steps and looking forward to a stellar 2015!

resting and recovery are important to my comeback!

Long Beach 2014