What Paula Radcliffe and I have in common

Dear Running Friends,

I'm officially making like Paula Radcliffe and taking the month of July off from running. Paula doesn't exactly take July off each year, but she does take a month off to recover from a marathon. No running, not one step for 30 days. Oh, and I'm taking June 29 and 30th off too.

I ran the Charlevoix Marathon today. Before I stood at the starting line, I thought of three goals for the race:

1) Just finish and have fun with it
2) Beat my PR of 3:54
3) Qualify for Boston (requiring a 3:40)

To my chagrin, I wasn't able to achieve any of these, at least not completely. Even though I did finish the race, I was not able to have fun despite trying to keep a positive attitude. Chris commented that he could tell I was "trying" each time he saw me. Every time I started to get going on pace my body refused. It even refused to run at some points. I had plenty of time to do some thinking throughout the race (it took me 4:16), and I came up with the idea that I might just be completely exhausted. The St. Louis Marathon, Race Under the Sun 10K, Dances with Dirt 50K Ultramarathon, the Dexter-Ann Arbor Half Marathon and the Charlevoix Marathon all occurred in a three month period (of couse, I chose to run all them hard).

Here are the highlights and lowlights of the Charlevoix Marathon:

Highlights:

1) Organized and easy-to-find packet pick up
2) A+ volunteers
3) No rain (it was pouring cats and dogs until 6:30 AM -the race began at 7AM)
4) Cool race long sleeved t-shirt
5) Enthusiastic fans (especially the little girl w/her kazoo)
6) Seeing Chris and Elvis several times because they drove around to see me
7) Red licorice and pretzels on the course, pizza at the finish line
8) Ambulance in plain view that, thankfully, no one had to use
9) Awesome view of the beach that I got to see four times (see below to find out why)
10) Being able to take my ice bath in Lake Charlevoix while giving Elvis swimming lessons

Lowlights:

1) Humid, humid, humid
2) Two out and back "loops" that I thought would be OK, but gave me the worst case of deja vu
3) Sparse water stops (I recommend either carrying your own if you do this race or bringing along your cute water boy/boyfriend/husband, whatever you get your hands on to follow you around the course)
4) No timing mats on the course (not even a starting mat or one at the turn - hmm...did I do one loop or two?)
5) No "hills" per se, as the race director assured me before I signed up, but several mile long or more "inclines" that were worse than the Ambassador Bridge
6) No mile markers or time clocks on the course
7) Course marked by a few cones and running, unmanned (unwomaned?) cop cars - at some points it was unclear about where to go. If I hadn't seen it three times previously I surely wouldn't gotten lost.
8) Dixie cups of water at the finish (I hate this. I've just run a marathon. Do you think I can have more water than I can gargle with?)
9) 20MPH winds on the return portion of the "loop"
10) Having to hobble nearly a quarter of a mile up a hill to return my chip and pick up my medal after I crossed the finish line

During my break, I'm planning to concentrate on other extreme sports like yoga, hanging out with friends, and cheesecake baking. I'm looking forward to seeing what my feet look like without calluses and purple toenails. It also will feel great to sleep in on Saturday and drink my coffee in my pajamas rather than in my car on the way out to Stony Creek. I'll even be able to take a real vacation without trying to figure out when to squeeze my long runs in! This could really last!