So I'm officially addicted to long-distance running now. Finishing the half-marathon this past Sunday taught me a very important lesson. It taught me that I can do anything I set my mind to despite living with Crohn's disease. All throughout training I was dealing with what's been one long and extended relapse. Either I was on the toilet or on prednisone, both of which are not conducive to training for a half-marathon. Because of this I wasn't really even able to train very much. Some weeks I was only able to get in one run, the team run. But regardless, I was able to finish the race within my goal of 1:45 coming in at 1:40:29.
Now I'm training for my first-ever marathon. That's right, 26.2 miles. I'm currently registered for the BayState Marathon held in Lowell, MA on October 17. So right now I have about 16 weeks of training (I think) left until race day. Even though this will be my first half-marathon, I'm going to try to qualify for the Boston Marathon. I know it's not really the best idea to set a goal time for yourself for any kind of race, but the race at 13.1 Boston got me thinking. For starters, I finished with a 7:41 pace which is pretty good. I would need a 7:15 pace to qualify for Boston. But if I think about it, the 13.1 Boston half-marathon course was essentially all hills. Anyone that ran that course can tell you that. Also, it was a learning experience training whileI was learning about all of the side effects of prednisone and how to use vitamin supplements to my advantage to prevent injuries. So now I'm tapering off my prednisone (hooray!) and I have 16 weeks left to train. I think I'm in pretty good shape to reach that 7:15 pace, especially considering how flat the BayState Marathon course is going to be.
Now I'm training for my first-ever marathon. That's right, 26.2 miles. I'm currently registered for the BayState Marathon held in Lowell, MA on October 17. So right now I have about 16 weeks of training (I think) left until race day. Even though this will be my first half-marathon, I'm going to try to qualify for the Boston Marathon. I know it's not really the best idea to set a goal time for yourself for any kind of race, but the race at 13.1 Boston got me thinking. For starters, I finished with a 7:41 pace which is pretty good. I would need a 7:15 pace to qualify for Boston. But if I think about it, the 13.1 Boston half-marathon course was essentially all hills. Anyone that ran that course can tell you that. Also, it was a learning experience training whileI was learning about all of the side effects of prednisone and how to use vitamin supplements to my advantage to prevent injuries. So now I'm tapering off my prednisone (hooray!) and I have 16 weeks left to train. I think I'm in pretty good shape to reach that 7:15 pace, especially considering how flat the BayState Marathon course is going to be.
BayState Marathon elevation map. There's maybe a change in like 40 feet during the length of the course. Awesome.But I won't be running the marathon alone. My buddy from college will be running the half-marathon the same day, and some members of Team Challenge are going to be there! I'm pumped. So I figure I'll actually keep making fairly regular posts about living and training for a marathon with Crohn's. So check back every now and then for updates!
