One Bad Ass Runner

Today, Mr. Docket and I ran the Weston 4th of July 5K in Weston, FL.  It was a nice and sunny, but hot and humid day, we had tons of fun, one ran her strongest 5K in the Summer, and the other one PRd. Training : This is Week 1 of marathon training for me.  I am training for Chicago and my coach created an awesome training plan for me.  I gotta be honest that when I read the plan, I skipped a heart beat and I gulped.  It will be challenging nonetheless but I'm up for it.  Having said that, the weather down here has been horrible.  Not the heat as much as the humidity.  I don't think I have run in anything less than 75 dewpoint at all and one of the runs was in 78 dewpoint.  All of my runs this week have been slow and painful.  But who cares about speed if you can perform on race day, right?  Which is why today's race was very important. We had a nice dinner and some drinks, went to bed at 11am and woke up at 5:30am.  Or at...

On Sunday, I finished the San Francisco Marathon and my husband ran the San Francisco 5K, his first.  We had tons of fun visiting the city and we came out with a nice stomach virus that has us still in bed for the last two days.  Yay. This was my 7th marathon of 2013 and my 10th this season.  This marathon is part of my quest of a third star on the Maniac and I can say I am more than halfway done already. San Francisco: We arrived in SF on Thursday night.  We opened our eyes on Friday morning at 6am and DH wanted to wake up and I told him, don't wake me up unless you want to go out to run.  Next thing I know, I opened one eye and DH is all dressed up to run, so I had to get up as well.  We did a nice 2 miler down the waterfront.  He was surprised that he could keep the pace we were keeping and I reminded him about the 50F  and 40DP difference, which makes it all different.  We discussed his strategy for the race and he didn't belie...

Today, I ran the Lou Gherig's Disease 10K to benefit the ALS Foundation.  I have done this race five times and it has always a big race for a good cause.  It includes a 10K, a 5K run and a 5K walk.  It is always hot, humid, and hilly, and today was no exception. This was going to be my first 10K without albuterol and the last race distance I had to conquer without it.  With the last two 5Ks done without albuterol, I knew there was a great chance to race this without medication.  It was also my first 10K since this race last year where I had two asthma attacks during the race at miles 2 and 4.  So, it was clear I had to race one without medication on this course to see that I could. Since I ran the marathon in Puerto Rico last week, I knew my legs were not ready to push a good pace.  It was also going to be mid 80s and humid, and this course is tough.  There is no way to explain why the course is tough.  Yes, it has rolling hills but...

When you leave your country of origin nine years prior to make a better life for yourself and a Maniac tells you that your country is holding its first marathon ever, you sign up within 5 minutes, right?  And that is basically what I did a few months ago. Then, five minutes later, the following conversation occurred: Docket: Mr. Docket, PR has a marathon and we're going. Mr. Docket: Awesome!  When? Docket: May 5. Mr. Docket: Did you say May? Docket: Uhuh. Mr. Docket: Who the fuck holds a marathon in PR in May?  It's going to be hot! Or what I call: I'M WITH STUPID Truer words have never been spoken.  Yesterday, I ran the hottest and most humid marathon I had ever done, with a heat index of 100F and a dewpoint of 79!!!!  I am surprised I didn't have an asthma attack because that dewpoint is almost the highest you can have.  And I cannot wait to do it again! This is the current data for marathon day as taken by my husband. ...

So, a week ago I ran a 50K and ran for 8 hours on a tough trail.  I knew I had this local race planned for today but never in my life was I expecting to be in any shape or form ready to race this or even attempt the 5K as a speedwork session. Then, on Monday, I ran a 5 mile recovery run and surprisingly, my pace was faster than recovery pace.  Same on Tuesday and Wednesday, and on and on.  By last night, I seriously starting thinking about doing this as a good speedwork session.  Remember, I did a 5K two weeks ago and came in at 27:22 with my first no albuterol 5K, phlegming and coughing the whole way.  I didn't want that to happen today, but I was going to give my best efforts without albuterol. Albuterol helps my fast running. If I take it, my short and fast paces get faster and I don't get asthma attacks.  But getting off albuterol was one of my goals for 2013 and so far (knock on wood), I have felt no need to use the med while running.  I...

And apparently, because I need to keep my Bad Ass card, I decided to take on a very hard course, oops. After DNS'ing my first ultra last year for asthma reasons and after having to DNS that same ultra again this year because I had a kitty in the hospital and very ill, I signed up for the DTR Endurance 50K, a tough trail race in Stuart, Florida.  While the other ultras were road races, this one was going to be on a trail.  A trail I had never seen until today (the park is 2 hours away from home).  A trail that ended up being tougher than advertised, even though the RD did a great job warning us that it was a tough course and an adventure.  It was both, alright. As you know, I am going after more Maniac stars, so this race had to be official to count.  The only issue was that the race had an 8 hour limit and I was not sure I could finish it within that time.  The last trail HM I did was 2 years ago and I finished in 3:45 so I knew that if the race w...