I've been a bit remiss in not adding a post from this Saturday's training. It was bring a friend day to practice, and I had two friends lined up but unfortunately were not able to make it. It was very cold and windy on Saturday and I didn't do the usual warm up lap with the rest of the team, instead I started early with the two other half marathoners. However I quickly realized that our paces were completely different. They were walking and I really wanted to jog. So I said bye to them and started my new my jog/walk pace. My cousin Jamie wisely told me that although pacing myself between telephone poles was a good place to start, it will be highly doubtful that there will be telephone poles marking the path during my marathon. I had already bought a Timex sports watch but hadn't taken the time to learn how to work it. Well earlier in the week, I had made sure to make the time. And learned how to set a repeating two minute alarm, which is what I use to track my pace. So I jogged for two minutes, walked for two minutes and so on.

This Saturday we went from three miles to 4 miles! 4 miles! I can't tell you the last time I ran or walked four miles in a row. Honestly I don't think I ever have! Even in my most athletic, best shape ever I never ran four miles at one time. So I was really anxious and started to think four miles...I'm freaking out about four miles when I've signed on to do 13! I better get over myself and just start moving. So I set my trusty Timex and couldn't wait for it to beep for my walking interludes. OMG...there goes my left toes again feeling numb (I really need to call my podiatrist) there goes that left knee...oooh, that hurts a bit. Good news is that I didn't feel the burning lungs like I did last Saturday. So Coach Bobby told me to that 32nd street was my two mile mark and turn around point. Well in addition to my fancy Timex marathon watch, I also bought a Nike iPOD adapter that tracks my miles, pace, calories burned etc! Was I excited to use this thing. So I'm jogging/walking/jogging/walking/walking/jogging when I reach 32nd street. I look down at my trusty Nike iPOD adapter expecting to see that I had completed two miles. Well wouldn't you know it, it said I only completed 1.25. So I thought well maybe Bobby was mistaken so I decided to continue until my iPOD say two miles. So I get to a point where I am so ready to turn around, I'm running into the cold wind, my hands are freezing, my toes are numb, now both knees are hurting and I cross paths with a teammate and I noticed she's got a Garmin watch. I asked her if she's able to track mileage on it. She said yup, I asked how far did it say she had gone? It was at 2.05 miles...guess what my Nike iPOD said....1.5something or other!!! What! I ran a .05 miles further than I needed to!!! I said well I guess I'll turn back now. I said thank you and goodbye to my teammate and started cursing my Nike iPOD thingy maginy and was very thankful for running into my teammate.

As my pace is so slow at this point (I'm averaging a 15-16 minute mile) the faster paced full marathoners who had to run 8 miles are starting to pass me up. Mike, one of the team captains started to keep pace with me for a short distance and asked how I was doing and if I was working on a pace. He thought the 2 min walk 2 min jog was a great place to start. I said I'd see him at the end because I definitely didn't want to slow him down. It's so great to run into your teammates along the way and cheer for each other. I always shout GREAT JOB, Go TNT and their name if I know it whenever I see one of my teammates along the path.

It really is amazing how warmed up you get towards the end. The last four minutes I actually jogged the whole way in. Mike was at the end of the trail and asked if that was the longest I had ran and I proudly replied YES!

So it looks like I need to re-calibrate my Nike iPOD adapter and check it against my treadmill. I tried this morning but I had to use the rest room in the middle of my twenty minute run and pausing my treadmill didn't pause the time. Next time I will focus more on the mileage and not so much on the time. If the adapter is still off, back it goes.

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