One Bad Ass Runner

On Sunday, I ran the Chicago Marathon, the marathon that was to be my 50th lifetime marathon and the last one for this year.  However, since I had to DNFd the East Canyon Marathon in Utah, due to breathing issues caused by the high altitude, Chicago ended up being my 49th. After Utah, I started back with speedwork and some faster workouts rather than the hill workouts I was doing in the last few months. The change of pace was welcomed and it was a bit of fun.  I ran some 5K intervals that gave me hope that if I ever go crazy and want to race another 5K, that I could get back close to my PR pace.  But like Jack Sparrow says:  I've been having some bad headaches, and a couple of extra migraines in the last few months, which I'd attributed to the high blood pressure (I'm back on the meds, thanks genes!), but it ended up being that my 20+ year old root canal is failing and I need to either fix it or extract the tooth and do an implant.  On top of that...

On Sunday, I ran the Missoula Marathon, my 48th marathon and one more state on the quest.  It was a hot day for marathoning and I had some issues with my asthma and elevation, but it was done and not too slow at that. Ever since Martha's Vineyard in May, I've been having asthma issues again.  Been using the long-term asthma inhaler, which I had dropped for close to two years.  With that, comes some side effects, so I wasn't happy.  On top of that, the week before the marathon my breathing issues were so bad that I had to start on prednisone. I sure loved the extra 10lbs I gained before the race, says no one ever.  But at least I could breathe better...or so I thought. We arrived in Bozeman, Montana on Friday late afternoon, and as soon as we went to the rental car, I started having breathing issues.  I didn't even think the elevation in Montana would be too bad so I wasn't even prepared or expecting this.  Bozeman has around 5400ft elevation, ...

On Sunday, I ran the Bay of Fundy Marathon in Lubec, ME. The race goes across the border into Canada and back to the US and it's very scenic.  It is also very hilly.  Of course... After the Martha's Vineyard Marathon, we had a bit of time to train before Fundy and also to do some hill workouts.  I am glad my coach gave me the workouts she did because my legs, albeit slower than a limping turtle parade, were not sore during or after the race.  And contrary to Martha's Vineyard, my knee and ITB were silent; I had no issues whatsoever during this race.  Well, except the slowness, lol. We flew into Bangor, ME, the closest city to Lubec, on Friday night.  We stayed at a nice small inn near the airport and then drove to Lubec after breakfast.  I am from a relatively small island in the Caribbean (Puerto Rico, the smaller of the Major Antilles), but have lived most of my life in big cities (San Juan, Miami, Honolulu). Lubec is a very small city, even...

On Saturday, I ran the Martha's Vineyard Marathon, my quest for the state of Massachusetts and another running adventure.  We had tons of fun! Since this race required a bit more traveling, including ferry rides, driving, etc., we took off on Thursday morning en route to Boston, MA.  We spent the night there and then drove to Falmouth, MA (where the ferries to Martha's Vineyard are) and the island.  We left a rainy and stormy Miami for a rainy and stormy MA and the weather forecast for the race including 100% of rain, 15-20mph winds, and clouds.  I was glad for the rain (not so much for the wind), and the clouds, as this race starts too late for May (8:30am) and, without the no sun and rain, it would've been too hot to marathon.  But we were lucky. We arrived in Falmouth before noon and headed to the ferry to travel to MV for the expo.  It was a very windy day and they only had one ferry that arrived far from the expo (the same for the race), so we...