I’ve been sticking to my overall plans to do marathon #2 on March 14 in DC, but I’m definitely starting to rethink that plan. This weekend was my first real step toward that goal, with a 16-miler on the schedule. The weather for this weekend was supposed to be pretty lousy with rain on and off all weekend. My plan was to go out Saturday morning, but after an awesome game night with some friends on Friday, I just wasn’t feeling it, so I figured I’d push it off a few hours and see how I felt in the afternoon. Short story – not any better, longer story (don’t laugh): I think I overused my abs by laughing so hard Friday night! Every time I tried to move, my abs hurt! So, I spent most of Saturday on the couch and while I definitely thought it was muscle-related, not sickness-related, I didn’t even think to take anything for the pain until about 8pm last night (which cleared it up pretty quickly), so yesterday was spent not doing anything and not really eating anything because every time I moved my stomach hurt. 

Fast forward to this morning and I still planned to do my 16 mile run today, especially because when I woke up, I felt fine. I grabbed a bagel and some peanut butter crackers and headed to watch some soccer games before coming home to prep for my long run. I got my hydration pack ready, stocked up on GU and more crackers and headed out into the drizzle to do my 16 miles. I started with my 4:1 ratio and while I wanted to stick around 11 minute miles, I decided I would just run by feel and see how things went. 

Mile 1 – 11:05
Mile 2 – 10:49
Mile 3 – 13:34
Last .31 – 17:06

Woof! The wheels just fell off today and I’m not sure exactly why. I’m sure that the lack of food yesterday had a lot to do with it, but some of it is lack of motivation too. Last year at this time, all I focused on was getting out there every week to get my miles in, but this time around, I’m just not there right now. I ended my run after 3.31 miles, but since I was 3.31 miles from my house, I turned around and enjoyed the unseasonably warm weather with a long walk back to the house. I came home and took a nap and I feel better tonight, so I’m not ready to scrap the marathon just yet, but I’m running out of time for training (just under 10 weeks to go) if I want to get past the half marathon distance and still come in under the time limit (5.5 hours).

So the next few weeks will be trying to figure out exactly what I want to do in March. I definitely want to do another marathon at some point, but the question for now will be is this the right time?