I figured it was time I catch up over here on training logs. Where I left off was heading into taper before Boston, which was clearly a while ago! A lot has happened since then, truly a roller coaster of very high and very low’s.

Boston Taper/Race Week

Monday: Norovirus- sick in bed

Tuesday: Norovirus- sick in bed

Wednesday: Norovirus- sick in bed, evening pregnancy test

Thursday: Easy 3ish miles

Friday: 5ish mile track fartlek to shake out legs after the week

Saturday: 3 treadmill recovery miles

Sunday: 3 easy miles + Strides

Monday: Boston, 5 weeks pregnant

Race week started with me in intense pain, and going to the doctor….clearly not ideal. At first they thought it was my gall bladder but turns out it was just a really bad case of Norovirus (stomach flu) going around. So I spent a few days in bed and tried not to freak out about running a marathon a few days later. Wednesday night though, Brian and I also found out that we were expecting our first child. This oddly, had nothing to do with norovirus and was just really bad timing to get sick. But that happy news was honestly going to outweigh anything that happened or was happening at the time.

Once the dust settled a bit, things just made so much more sense. I struggled the last few weeks before Boston with lack of motivation, easy runs were a little more effort than normal and workouts just didn’t have that zing to them. When it came time to think about the race itself, I knew I would give it a shot but didn’t have many feelings either way on how it would go. I wanted to try and I hoped to finish but at the end of the day, it didn’t matter.

How did Boston go? Well the short of it is, I gave it a shot for the first half  and then pulled the plug after that and just ran (much slower, including walks and pee breaks) to the finish. I ran a 3:16 marathon after spending months training for a 2:55, and I truly have no regrets. I ran 17 minutes slower in the second half than the first, and after the final step across the finish line I didn’t run for more than 30 days. I also spent that time incredibly happy, and hopeful.

Brian and I obviously weren’t broadcasting the baby news after Boston, it was still so early even though we wanted to tell anyone who would listen. The risk of miscarriage in the first trimester is higher, even without any complications I had in the past. So when people were asking why I wasn’t running after , or when people were prying for more information about my slower Boston time- it made for a tricky spot to be in. I told some people the truth, and others I just brushed it off with saying I was taking a break. But the more I thought about it, the more I realized that both were true. I was pregnant, but I also was taking a much needed break.

Boston Recovery

Week 1: Nothing, nada, zilch

Week 2: 1 walk (3 miles)

Week 3: 2 walks (6 miles total)

Week 4: 1 walk (3 miles)

Week 5: 1 walk (3 miles), 1 easy run (2.5 miles)

Week 6: 3 walks (9 miles total)

In the end, things didn’t work out the way we hoped. At 12 weeks we found out we weren’t going to be parents anymore, and at 13 weeks said goodbye. There are few words I can use to describe the emotions we are going through together, but the big thing is we have each other. We also have awesome friends/family, including the Salty family who are incredibly supportive and helpful. I could write 1305927351 words on everything right now, but it will all come out eventually. In the mean time, we are wading through the emotions and working to find a routine (and way back to running). I won’t call it a comeback though, because that doesn’t feel right. I guess we will just call it a new beginning.