Running My Little Legs Off

First of all, I want everyone to know I am NOT crazy! I didn't mean to sign up for 2 marathons in 3 weeks. After the Boston bombings in April I felt like I really wanted to run a marathon to show all those who would want us to hide in fear that they cannot stop our love of running, cannot stop our desire to come together, cannot stop our need to make this world a better place. So I signed up for the Budapest Marathon with the intention of running it in support of a cause.

A month later I got an email saying: Congratulations, you have been accepted to the NYC Marathon! (and your credit card has already been charged!) Well I wasn't going to pay for a race and not do it...so I ended up with a training schedule that had me running the Budapest Marathon as my last long run for the NYC Marathon.

I was a little nervous about doing two 26.2 mile races so close to each other, but my friend Zara did two marathons last year in one week, so I figured I could do 2 in three weeks! (Of course she did not look very happy during the second one...but she did it and that's what's important!)

So I began my 84 days of training. I began to track my progress on instagram using the hashtag #84daystonycmarathon (which I realize now might have been confusing because people thought each time I used it I still had 84 days left until the NYC Marathon...but it was really describing the number of days I was taking to train for the race).

This was day 19: 4 mile run and core

So day 63 of my training finally arrived, which was October 13, or the day I had to run the Budapest Marathon. We had arrived in Budapest 4 days earlier and I had unfortunately come down with a bad cold. I was coughing and sneezing. I felt weak and I was being pretty crabby. I was also really worried about the race. The Budapest Marathon only allows you five and a half hours to complete the race. I had create a pace band for where I needed to be at each 5K and I was pretty confident about being able to complete it on time. But then I got sick and I read the race brochure and it turns out they had 6 different cutoff times and these times were actually faster than they should have been if you divided the five and a half hours evenly. After some crying and feeling sorry for myself and considering just running the 30K (about 18 miles), I decided I would just suck it up and do the best I could. I was going to run as fast as my little legs would take me!

A big motivator for helping me commit to the full 42.2K (26.2 miles for those of my metrically challenged friends) was that I had been fundraising for the Diabetes Hands Foundation by telling all my friends and family I was running 2 marathons in 3 weeks. So many people were supporting me because I had taken on that challenge, so I had to do it. I at least had to try my hardest. The night before George also decided to help me out by running the whole thing with me to pace me to make sure I made all the cutoffs. (See, I'm not the crazy one...I'm not the one who decides to run a marathon the night before and then does it like it was nothing!)

So with George's help, and all the support of my friends and family at home I ran the marathon and finished with 14 minutes to spare!

Day 63 of training! I was all smiles once we were done!

I had run my little legs off and the next two weeks I couldn't believe I had to run another marathon on November 3! The weekend after the marathon I was supposed to run 14 miles (according to my training schedule) but I could basically only manage 4 miles a day for the following 2 weeks! I have to say I was getting a little nervous.

Luckily last Friday my legs finally started to feel better. I ran 7 miles on Friday and 7.5 miles on Saturday. My back was a little tight and I could tell my body was probably a little mad at me for pushing it so hard so soon after it had just seen  me through an entire marathon...but again I couldn't give up. I still haven't reached my goal of raising $1500 for the Diabetes Hands Foundation, and even if I had, everyone donated to me because I had committed to running these two races, not one of them, so I have to keep going.

I fly to New York on Thursday. I'll check in at the expo on Friday, eat lots of pasta on Saturday and then get up Sunday morning, take the subway to the ferry to Staten Island and at 10:55 am start another 26.2 mile run. I'm excited and I'm nervous, but mostly I am determined, determined to do this no matter how much it hurts because it's so important to me to help raise diabetes awareness and help create a world where no one with diabetes ever feels alone.

If you haven't donated yet and want to help support an amazing foundation please make a donation today!

www.runemborun.com

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