2019: A Runner Under Construction

It's been a while since I felt like sharing any of my marathon adventures.  That's because my adventures have been failures this year.  I had four marathons in the first half of the year and I completed none of them.  That sounds so unlike me, right?

First, came Houston, in the middle of the government shutdown, working through the shutdown without pay, sick, barely able to run, but I didn't think anything else of it but a virus. I heard someone from the Clerk's office got really ill as a result of the shutdown and got a stroke from all the stress, so I felt lucky to only have gotten a virus. 

Then, came the Myrtle Beach Marathon which I decided to DNS to concentrate on my two marathons in April/June because that's what you do after you're sick: you reconvene, replan, get better, right?

But when Glass City Marathon came up rolling and my foot went numb during the race, I was like, I'm running the HM and quitting, Wisconsin is next week!  And then Wisconsin was another dud, with me barely able to run past 0.30 of the start of the race.

So, I thought I needed a break.  The shutdown had broken me mentally and physically. It's not easy working without pay while handling the third largest office in the US for my government agency while handling seven judges, marathon training and sickness.  It is not easy to go back to your life after taking no breaks, continue training, like the shutdown had not happened.  I felt no joy getting ready for each of these marathons; all I felt was dread.  Dread that I could not finish them and so I made that true.

Although it appears that my issue was not burnout but rather, a Vitamin D deficiency, something I can concentrate on and put my effort to improve, this mini break before I start training for Chicago 2019 will do me good.  We all need a break sometimes, no?

This will end up being the year with the least number of marathons I have ever finished, ever since my first marathon in 2010.  I still have not run my 50th marathon but I will, mark my words.

Like Deena Kastor's Coach often told her: "When you come back, bring a good attitude."

I'm a runner under construction.


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