2019 Recap: I Did Epic Shit!

What a comeback year! After spending so much of 2018 on the sidelines, it was so awesome to jump back into running and adventures. I felt a new sense of appreciation each time I got to spend a weekend playing in the woods with my friends. And I have never been so happy to have long periods of time with a healthy, capable body. 

Happiness in Kathmandu, Nepal

It wasn’t always rainbows and puppies, but there were some really, really special moments that I will treasure for the rest of my life. Honestly, I haven’t had a year where I’ve felt so much gratitude for the things I have. And for all the rough patches, I will just use those as fuel for whatever is thrown my way next.

January

I started the year off with a New Year’s Day run on Coosa and began working with a running coach.

New Year's Day Coosa Loop

It was exciting to do workouts during the week and I looked forward to spending time on the trails with my friends on the weekend.

With trail wifey on Tray Mountain

Before the sleet storm on Nimblewill with John

It had been well over a year since I had run a trail race and I needed a 50K+ qualifier to complete my Georgia Death Race requirements. I ended up choosing Mountain Mist 50K in Huntsville, Alabama. I camped overnight in my car the night before, raced a muddy and chilly 31 miles, and ended up 5th female overall. 

Mountain Mist 50K finish line

February

Jenster and Angie were coming into town to pace the Suwanee Half Marathon so I jumped into the race. I was hoping that I would strike much closer to the 1:30 mark, but I felt really flat from the gun on race day and worked really hard for a PR of 1:38:54. I know you aren’t supposed to be disappointed in a PR, but I’ve had faster splits in a full marathon. As I went through the month, I felt really good about my aerobic fitness, but then I had some twinges of foot pain and my coach tweaked my workouts to reduce further injury.

Post-race brunch with these badasses who BOTH had run 100 mile races in the previous 2 weeks

March

I signed up for the URE Marathon in North Carolina because it was free, great GDR training, and I knew a bunch of friends going. It was a little nerve-wracking going into the race sitting partway on the bench with my foot in limbo. But for whatever reason, my foot felt okay on race day, I took it easy, and tried to just keep a relaxed effort all day. I recovered well after the race and things seemed to have turned the corner for GDR.

Girl squad

Dude squad

URE Marathon finish chute

Though I really wanted to crack the top 10 at GDR, I also knew that I was entering new territory. I had run further and longer before, but never with that type of terrain. I took it really conservative for the first 35 miles and then allowed my body to just go with the course during the second half. It was really tough, but I was the 13th female and got it done in 18 hours, 19 minutes, and 13 seconds.

April

I went to Raleigh the weekend after GDR and volunteered at Umstead 100 with Jenster, Caitlin, and Laurie. 

Volunteering with Laurie, Jen, and Caitlin

And the following weekend was the Boston 5K, my birthday, and the Boston Marathon. Brad stayed with Adam and I in an Airbnb in Chinatown and it was a fun, low-key few days with running, eating, baseball, and lots of naps. I managed a 3:18:28 for the marathon - my 4th fastest marathon ever and with very little specific marathon training! Guess my legs were just happy to not run another 15 hours. 

Boston 5K

Birthday dinner by Gatorade phone light

Boston Marathon finish line

Brad and I celebrating our Boston Marathon finishes

 May

May, May, May, May, May. The month I traveled to Qatar and Nepal and experienced a trip of a lifetime! I had been looking forward to this for almost 2 years and am still cherishing the moments as I write this. It was everything I had hoped for and more. The people, the adventure, the sense of accomplishment, the food, and the entire sense that I was happy with exactly that moment for nearly 3 weeks straight. I was almost overwhelmed with how calm my mind was when I returned.

The marathon itself was a really cool experience, but I loved the trekking and travel just as much. Our group laughed until we cried each day. Navigating everything that was foreign to me gave me such pleasure, like I was a child navigating the world for the first time. Everything was novel and I had such a deep appreciation for each experience.

On one of the many iconic suspension bridges during the trek

Overlooking Tengboche

Between Dengboche and Lobuche

My first 18er! Kala Patthar, 18,514' 

Post 18er - feeling crappy from altitude sickness

Hiker's base camp - 17,598'

Everest Base Camp sunrise from my tent

Finishing the Everest Marathon! (no, I didn't win, they put the tape up for everybody)

With my fellow trekkers, head guide, and assistant head guide - (L-R) Kale, Sie, Pam, Miguel, me, Becky, Mo, and Gelu

Trekkers and all our guides

The Himalayan valley is so, so green

Kathmandu, Nepal

Drinking a mango smoothie in a souq at 9pm when it's 110°F

Doha, Qatar - view from my hotel room

June

When I arrived back home, I knew I just wanted to take a bit of time to just really be able to enjoy my big spring and not concentrate on a new goal right away. I ran when I felt like it for a couple of weeks and didn’t worry about my pace or mileage. My coach gave me a bit of structure, but there weren’t any big workouts or long run weekends.

Easy running on the trails

July

I knew going into the fall that I wanted to run a 100 and set my eyes on Javelina Jundred in Phoenix, Arizona or Pinhoti 100 in Eastern Alabama. I had some FOMO when other friends were racing over the summer, but I also knew that it was important to give my body a chance to relax and recover if I was going to attempt 100 in the fall. I had a horrible case of poison ivy that made running (and life) really, really uncomfortable for over 3 weeks. 

Getting back to it (with poison ivy)

Poison Ivy 1, Carissa 0

August

With lots of friends training for fall races, my weekends were filled with trail runs. I actually did a bunch of track workouts on Tuesday mornings, swapping the heat of the evening for the humidity. I enjoyed seeing the gains in my fitness as I transitioned from week to week. It was exciting to see my tempos get longer and faster.

Blood Mountain gang

Track workout

Tempo workout

September

I knew I wasn’t going to be racing Hinson for the full 24 hours, but rather taking advantage of the course as a couple of well-supported long runs. I completed 50K in the morning/early afternoon and took a long break where I refueled and did a few more laps eventually to get food. Then I took a short nap in the evening. I set my alarm to get up around midnight and knocked out 15 more miles of running. I was wide awake when I finished that and felt good so I just kept walking until the race was over, completing 63 total miles.. 

Round and round and round at Hinson Lake

After running 50ish miles, I walked a half marathon in flip flops.

October

I was SO EXCITED to race Javelina Jundred! I had my first set of pacers and crew ever for a race and I felt really, really prepared. Needless to say, it was pretty disappointing when I made the painful decision to DNF at mile 52. Though I was so, so angry at myself that weekend, I also felt really, really lucky to dream the dream and have such a support system with me.

At bib pickup

Chantal and I in our tent before the race

Roger took this amazing pic on race morning

Adam and I right before the race start

Feeling good at mile 22

Feeling defeated at mile 52

My pacers Roger and Chantal got to pace Tom to his first 100 mile finish!

November

After JJ, I recovered a bit and then switched gears to get my head in the game for a road marathon. I reverse tapered, had a few bigger weeks of workouts and then tapered off a bit as I neared Rehoboth. 

Post-run selfie in November

December

My coach thought I was in PR shape, but I had been feeling just flat in all my workouts leading up to the race. I knew how I felt when I had run 3:13 and I just wasn’t feeling like I had the leg speed for that. So I decided to play it safe at Rehoboth and run with the 3:25 pacer - a 10+ minute BQ would likely still give me enough cushion unless things got really crazy with the qualifying times. I ended up running a 3:24:11 and felt great the final 10K.

Rehoboth Beach Marathon finish chute

2019 Goals Report

I made a formal list of goals for 2018 and enjoyed the process so I tried it again for 2019. I’ve decided against doing it for 2020. Sometimes I felt like I was a little too rigid in trying to conform to some of these things that I couldn’t just let life flow - especially the things that I set up to happen on a weekly or monthly basis.

But I do think some of them helped me get into good habits and forced me to manage my time a teeny bit wiser to get it all done.

Here are my grades/assessments on my goals for 2019:

1. 2 weeks of meal planning per month - B - I counted any weeks that I planned 5 days and stuck to the plan of 4 days. We typically would go out on Thursday night and Saturday night so I’d tried to have something planned out the other days. As a meat-eater, this really just meant that I’d try to have the right protein moved from the freezer to the refrigerator and some sort sort of veggie planned depending on the season. Summer salads and lots of pasta helped keep this goal pretty easy.

2. PR in a distance less than a marathon - A - An A only because I achieved it. Even still, all my times for raced 5K, 10K, 13.1, etc are far slower than what I’ve achieved in a training run. But I’m giving myself an A because I did PR in the 13.1 distance and in a 5K in races, but I also PR’d in a 5K and 10K during a training run this year.

3. Call or write Grandma at least once per month - A -Yup! I counted going to see her in person for November, but I did actually write (snail mail!) or call each month of the year.

4. Do something kind once per week - B - I don’t think I went out of my way every week to really make this one special, but I did bring in special treats for coworkers or extra snacks for trail running friends. Sometimes it was just lending an ear to someone to vent or sending a text to someone I hadn’t heard from in awhile.

5. Check-ups at all docs - B - Technically, I only saw the eye doctor when I had some weird floater things and not for my vision. But I did go to the dentist for my bi-annual cleanings and to the doc for my yearly physical.

6. 100 mile trail race or marathon PR - D - I’m calling it a D because I did actually toe the line at a 100 mile trail race so at least I got through the training and made it to the start. Just didn’t actually finish said 100 mile trail race.

7. 1 no spend month - F - Nope. Didn’t happen. Bought all the things.

8. 60 minutes stretch or strength per week - A - I decided to count cross-training too with focusing on strength first. Most weeks I had 60+ minutes of strength alone.

9. 2019 miles in 2019 - A - Never a sure bet, but I finally crossed over the mark in December.

10. Volunteer/crew/pace/spectate at 10+ races - C - I officially volunteered at 3 races and put in 21 hours of official time at races. I volunteered at aid stations at Umstead 100 and Merrill's Mile and swept part of the Bull Mountain Epic course. I crewed/spectated at Javelina once my own race went south. And while it wasn't a race, I did set up an aid station in the woods for a group training run and ferried a few friends back who were having a rough day. 

11. Read 30+ books - A - I had to push myself a little more at the end, but I am currently reading my 32nd book of the year. 

• Top 3 fiction: Ask Again, Yes by Mary Beath Keane, The Power by Naomi Alderman, and An American Marriage by Tayari Jones. 
• Top 2 non-fiction: Educated by Tara Westover and Becoming by Michelle Obama
• Top running-related: Running Home by Katie Arnold

The Boot Saga: How A Runner (Poorly) Copes Without Running

I'm fairly certain if you are reading this you are aware that I'm in a boot currently. The foot pain that started after the Jacksonville Marathon and got worse after the 40 mile Resolution Run was initially diagnosed by a doctor as tendonitis. I ignored it for quite some time because it wasn't acute pain and the only cause for concern initially was because I'd never experience soreness on the top of my foot. Seriously, I thought it was just a bruise from the repetitive pounding of my foot to the top of my shoe. (D E N I A L)

But when it didn't get any better and walking was actually causing pain, I knew I needed to get to the doctor. I went to see the amazing Lauren at 1st Choice Sports Rehab who started treating me for tendonitis. I took a full week off of running and then she recommended I try a short run between PT sessions. By the 3rd of 4th session, she suspected something wasn't going in the correct direction and asked to look at my x-rays.

She saw a spot and recommended I visit a podiatrist.

Grrrrrr! Fortunately, the podiatrist practice has two doctors who are also runners AND they were able to get me in pretty quickly. The doctor took another set of x-rays and saw a similar spot. He pointed it out to me on an iPad and I kind of gave him the same glazed-over-and-nodding look that I give when someone shows me a baby on a sonogram (oh yeah, I can totally see the hands and head....). There was something about it not being a stress fracture, but possible a stress reaction. He wanted to treat it like a stress fracture though just to be safe.

All I really heard was boot and no running and no biking. (A N G E R)

At this point, I had already gone another 9 days without any running and had run 38 miles over the 3 weeks prior. (B A R G A I N I N G) Bear in mind that 38 miles is less than what I did total for my last race. So I was already going nuts.

Outwardly, I've been trying to maintain a cool composure about the whole thing.

Inwardly, I've been a hot frickin' mess. The boot itself is so awkward and clunky that I have no choice but to be thinking about it 50% (okay 90%....) of the time. I've never worn a boot before and still struggle with is it too loose? is it too tight? is it okay that my foot is able to wiggle a little? oh wait, I should be able to feel my toes, right? I'm pretty sure I've Googled everything related to a metatarsal stress fracture and not-so-surprisingly discovered absolutely zero definitive answers.


I thought I was on the path to a fast recovery when I didn't have any noticeable foot pain after 5 days, but then I started having random flare ups. And as late as Thursday night, I had a bad afternoon/evening that I could feel it when I crawled into bed. I want to blame it on a very intense PT session Wednesday (hellllllllo Graston tool!!), but it's so hard to know. When I take the boot off to hobble to the shower, I can't tell if anything is better or worse because now my gait is all funky.

Pain is weird when you are an endurance runner anyway. Obviously it is part of the reason I waited so long. Marathons and ultramarathons hurt so what's a little soreness on the foot? It wasn't acute-stop-you-in-your-tracks pain like I experienced the night I pulled my hamstring in early December. This is like a mild headache that won't go away. I can walk on without any issue and though I haven't now tried since January 28th, I am 99% certain I could run on it.

However, the goal is to make it better, not worse.

The unknown is the crappy part. There is no timeline at this point. (D E P R E S S I O N) Boston is 50 days away and while it is slated to be marathon #34, I realize the smart thing would be to just not start. I have 49.5 days to make that decision. Some of you are reading this, shaking your head, thinking what I fool I would be to consider running a marathon given my current status.

And the other people are like, yeah, you're a frickin' idiot. But you're my kind of idiot and I'm pretty sure my dumbass would be sitting in Hopkinton on April 16th given the option.

Anyway, I go back to the podiatrist Tuesday for a progress check. I'm hoping the mild swelling and random aches indicate that the bone is regrowing??

Enough bitching though. My life is certainly not gone up in flames with the boot. (A C C E P T A N C E) I've been slinging weights enough that some of the workouts are becoming easier and my upper body is actually showing definition! I'm up to a 2.5 minute single legged plank (with the boot on because the extra weight will make me stronger, right??) and an 8 minute headstand.

If anyone reading this ever is without the use of one of their feet, I will steer you to doing almost any ab or arm video on Fitness Blender's YouTube channel. I just prop the knee of my bum leg on a chair or use a chair to support both knees instead of standing. Most of the ab videos are foot-injury-friendly and the only equipment you ever need, if any, is a pair of dumbbells.

I was missing the sweat of cardio though so I thrilled when I stumbled upon Caroline Jordan's injured foot series. I did this video 3 times in a row yesterday. Chair jumping jacks and chair running are as ridiculous looking as they sound. But I actually have raised my heart rate to a true cardio workout doing them and sweating like I'm running made me so happy that I wanted more.

 

Jenster came to town 2 weeks ago and while she paced the Suwanee Half Marathon, I cheered and took a bunch of pictures of runners. They only had a finish photographer so I posted over 200 pictures onto their FB page in case anyone didn't get a great shot otherwise.

Today, I helped at bib pickup and handed out medals at a local 5K. It was pouring rain all morning and I was soaked to the bone, but I still had fun watching everyone and "participating" as best I could.

I'm headed to help out with Blind Pig 100 miler in Spartanburg, SC next weekend. I'll be helping with the timing table since my ambulatory skills are limited at this point. I plan to take my camping gear and just make a fun weekend of it.

I hadn't intended to have so many "opportunities" to volunteer this early in the year - my goal was to volunteer/crew/pace 5 or more races in 2018. I'll have at least 4 by early April! And while it doesn't take the place of being able to race, it gets me out of the house and allows me to be a part of the running community.

And to end on an extra happy note, I was accepted into the NYC Marathon with a time qualifier. This time last year, I was gearing up to go for a sub-3:15 marathon after losing out in the NYC lottery. My PR at the time was a 3:19, but I knew I had been making big fitness gains and decided to go for it at Albany. It was probably the most textbook race I've ever run. A 1:37:45 first half/1:36:13 second half. My last two miles were at a 7:07 and 7:08 with an average of 7:22 for the entire 26.2 miles. I am so thrilled to see my hard work pay off! And, NYC is in November so I will most certainly be out of this boot by then!!