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Last Sunday I ran the Portland Marathon. It was my fourteenth completed marathon and my first successful Portland Marathon attempt.
Completing this marathon was a big deal for me, because last year I DNF'd the Portland Marathon when I strained my calf just after mile five. Last year's Portland Marathon was my first attempt to run a marathon outside of California. (I acheived that goal last February when I ran the Austin Marathon.) Shortly after that DNF, I signed up for the Portland Marathon again, right after I got home.
So you could say this time it was personal, only it wasn't going to be easy. In a case of history repeating itself, three weeks before this marathon I strained my calf during my 20 mile long training run, right before I was going to start my taper. You can imagine how I felt about that. (Portland Marathon simply cursed for me?)
So in the three weeks leading up to the Portland Marathon I was stretching, foam rolling, visiting my PT once a week, and eating Naproxen like they were M&Ms. I also got some advice from my original PT, who had sinced moved out of my area. She cautioned not to take this Portland Marathon personally, to not look at it as a grudge match between my strained body parts and this race. Instead, I should just try and see it as a another race, and to not assault my strained calf with all of that negative energy that was just going to bring about bad hoodoo and make this event less than what it was supposed to be: A challenging and fun race, and another opportunity to challenge myself, rather than fight my past.
I tried as much as possible to take her advice to heart. Her suggestion was to envision how I wanted the race to go. I decided on an easy race in which I would simply try to have fun.
( On to the race! )
Completing this marathon was a big deal for me, because last year I DNF'd the Portland Marathon when I strained my calf just after mile five. Last year's Portland Marathon was my first attempt to run a marathon outside of California. (I acheived that goal last February when I ran the Austin Marathon.) Shortly after that DNF, I signed up for the Portland Marathon again, right after I got home.
So you could say this time it was personal, only it wasn't going to be easy. In a case of history repeating itself, three weeks before this marathon I strained my calf during my 20 mile long training run, right before I was going to start my taper. You can imagine how I felt about that. (Portland Marathon simply cursed for me?)
So in the three weeks leading up to the Portland Marathon I was stretching, foam rolling, visiting my PT once a week, and eating Naproxen like they were M&Ms. I also got some advice from my original PT, who had sinced moved out of my area. She cautioned not to take this Portland Marathon personally, to not look at it as a grudge match between my strained body parts and this race. Instead, I should just try and see it as a another race, and to not assault my strained calf with all of that negative energy that was just going to bring about bad hoodoo and make this event less than what it was supposed to be: A challenging and fun race, and another opportunity to challenge myself, rather than fight my past.
I tried as much as possible to take her advice to heart. Her suggestion was to envision how I wanted the race to go. I decided on an easy race in which I would simply try to have fun.
( On to the race! )