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This is it: Big Sur Marathon is here.

April 28, 2011 By 27 Comments
PPmommarathon

This is it, my friends.

16 weeks of honeymoon, apathy, pure pain, momentum, and everything in between, I’ve reached the last emotional stage of marathon training:

Anxious excitement.

I doubt I’ll update P&P until Sunday after the race, so without further ado I present my marathon training wrap-up.

I honestly never thought this day would come.

Days until Big Sur International Marathon: 3 [photo above courtesy of bsim fb page]

Race reputation: “If you only do one, make this be it;” “one of the top three marathons in the US;” “one of the most difficult marathon courses in the world”

Weeks of training: 16

Total miles run: 411 (missed one jog on the GPS)

Average pace: somewhere between “snail” and “turtle”

Total calories burned running: 40,646+

Weight loss: I gained weight. There’s something unfair about this.

Number of times my rockstar mom ran training runs with me: half a dozen (she’s running a 10.6 miler at Big Sur too, by the way! She ran a 3:30-something marathon when she was my age and ran the Nike Women’s Marathon with TNT a few years ago, AFTER battling leukemia… TWICE. She rocks!)


Race location: Pacific Coast Highway

Where I ran on the Pacific Coast Highway during training: San Francisco and Los Angeles

Total packets of GU consumed: countless

Determined favorite flavor of GU: Chocolate Outrage

Will I miss GU after this race: hells to the NO

Toenails lost: 2

Friends lost because I kept talking about how I was missing toenails: not yet determined

Time required for first 6.1mi training run: 1:06

Time to run a 10K during my Shamrock’n Half Marathon: 53:46

Long Run Locations: Granite Bay, American River, Sacramento, Berkeley, LA, and SF

Attitude towards pedestrians before training: Yay, people out walking and being healthy!

Attitude towards them after training: GET THE &@*! OUT OF MY WAY.

Most inexplicable decision made: going vegetarian less than two weeks before starting training

Obsession throughout the last four months of my life: protein

Brands of protein bars and powders in my kitchen: half a dozen

Friends lost because I kept talking about protein: not yet determined

Percentage of Pancakes & Postcards posts about running pre-January: <1/10

Percentage of posts after: 50%

Number of times I swore I never would be a blogger who always talked about running: countless

Number of pairs of Asics Gel-Kayanos bought: 2

Course elevation profile:

How much training I did on hills: eh…

Pleas for empathy posted on BSIM facebook page: 1

Number of “marathon dreams” I’ve had: at least 10

Current desktop on work computer:

Goal of current desktop on work computer: stop eating crap at work

Success of that initiative: nope. It’s just making it harder to see my icons.

Goal time: on a flat course it’d be 4:45, but Big Sur tells everyone to add 20-30 minutes to their marathon time, so…

Goal time: under 6 hours 30 minutes so they let me finish. And I want a damn medal.

Recent reading:

What I’ll be repeating in my head during those four… five… six hours:

Step one: put one foot in front of the other. Step two: there is no step two.

You deserve to be here. You are so much stronger than you think.

Stop being a big baby, quit whining, and run the damn thing already!

How I’m feeling:

Anxious.

Scared.

Terrified of failing.

Didid I mention I didn’t really train on hills so much?

Apprehensive.

But most importantly…

I am so damn excited I can’t sleep.

Tomorrow I pack my race bag, make a killer 6 hour (haha) marathon playlist, and TRY to turn off my brain enough to rest.

Saturday at 8AM I’m outta here.

Bring it on Big Sur! I can’t wait to put you behind me.

The next time I update this blog, I’ll either have conquered this race and given it all I had, or gone down in flames trying.

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    Detox Week

    April 27, 2011 By 12 Comments
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    There definitely can be “too much of a good thing.”

    I struggle with moderation, I’ll be totally honest about that. I want to do it all, all out. I’m fine with not drinking at all, but if I have one margarita, I want four. I’m fine not touching chocolate, but once it passes my lips, I might eat the whole Easter basket that mommy and daddy the Easter bunny brought me (for the first time in about ten years!) Check out how creepy the M&M chocolate bunny looks.

    If I meet a cute guy I like, I want to see him all the time, not adopt that “I have a million better things to do than hang out with you but I guess I’ll acquiesce” ‘tude that modern dating portends to necessitate. I get a smartphone and after shamlessly declaring for years that I would never be one of THOSE people always on their phones… I’m now one of those people.

    I train for a marathon and before it even happens and I see if I can handle it, I sign up for another one. I freak out about money and don’t buy anything for days and then blow $50 on dinner and drinks.

    Please forgive my horrible photos, it won’t happen again. Yes it will. My bad.

    Or I go to Whole Foods and get what I think is “just a little bit” of Indian food from the hot bar, not even filling this box that’s the size of my hand, and end up having to pay $12.53.

    I have a moderation problem.

    But the hardest thing for me to control myself around is social plans.

    I’m new in San Francisco still and there are so many things to do. But with my occasionally demanding work schedule, 7am conference calls for the last two weeks, and wrapping up training, I’ve been tired… but completely unable to say no to socializing or going out and even initiating plans myself. Last week was the worst when I had about two plans for every single day. One night when I met a friend at happy hour, then went to dinner with another friend, and then met up with two other friends after THAT, I realized this needed to stop. Hi, I am Courtney and I am a social-holic.


    Enter Marathon Detox Week.

    This week, Sunday–Friday, I am not making ANY plans (!). I am going right home after work. I am going to bed by 10 and getting eight hours if it’s the last thing I do.

    I’m bringing my lunch and choosing healthy food. While excessively carbo-loading, of course. :) I’m trading this…

    For this.

    I had some drinks last Friday but that’s really it for the last two weeks. I’ve got food in my apartment FOR ONCE and a bunch of beer, beckoning me, for ATM (that would be After The Marathon). Back off, Blue Moon.

    It feels really good to prioritize ME.

    I have “stayed in” the last three nights and it has been funny to stress out about SLEEP, and I already am not sleeping well–I’m so scared about the race and have been dreaming about work stuff as well–but at least I’m in bed at a certain time, and that is what matters. It’s all going to work out. I even bought a new alarm clock app on my iPhone, so that means business.

    I have time to do things like stick fake flowers in a wine bottle and call it decorating, or two watch mindless episodes of Sex and the City and not feel guilty about it.

    It already makes me realize that I NEED to schedule at least two worknight evenings IN. Schedule time in? I have heard about this before and scoffed, but NO. This is really important. I was filling my life too much with fun so much that I was forgetting how to have it.

    I’m going to enjoy these last few quieter nights, try to calm the pre-race jitters, and enjoy doing absolutely nothing.

    Have you ever needed a social detox? How do you make time for you?

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    Marathon Training Emotional Phase Four: MOMENTUM.

    April 23, 2011 By 12 Comments
    Screen shot 2011-04-23 at 10.15.29 PM

    I started this blog as an attempt to combine some of my passions (food, fitness, and health) with my then-current situation (living as a Peace Corps Volunteer in Mozambique, Africa). I expected this blog to be mostly about random musings on life and fitness and how to be balanced and pretty much anything like that.

    If you’ve been reading this blog over the last couple of months, you know that the one thing constantly on my mind and on my blog is marathon training. I didn’t think I’d be like all the other blogs that talk about running and recipes. I thought it’d be totally different. Yet here I am, yapping constantly about my race.

    I’ve characterized the four months of training into “emotional phases” in an attempt to define what I’m feeling and experiencing.

    And now I’m writing about phase 4: momentum.

    Phase 4 for me began at my half-marathon in March, when I beat my own expectations and for the first time I figured maybe I could do this.

    The next week I ran 18 miles.

    The week after that I ran 20.

    The week after that I ran 23.

    At this point, I knew I could do this.

    Marathoning began to take more of a forefront in my mind. My coworker casually mentioned a friend of his who was a big-time runner who constantly posts on facebook about his running. I thought I would never be one of those people.

    Then I thought about it for a minute more.

    Okay. So Maybe I’m becoming that person.

    I talk about protein all the time.

    I volunteer the information that I’m missing toenails.

    I come into work with wet hair because I have to run beforehand.

    I won’t buy a $5 beer because I feel poor but I dropped $200 at Fleet Feet so I could get a new pair of Asics broken in before the race.

    When people ask me how my weekend was, I say, “I ran.”

    I started having marathon dreams.

    I started tinking I can actually run this darn thing.

    This is the MOMENTUM phase. When you start to believe that it’s really going to happen. When you hit those 20+ milers a few weeks ago and the proverbial ish gets real.

    It becomes part of your identity. And you start getting scared of what is going to happen afterwards. What will I do when I’m not training for a marathon? Not having this huge pressure hanging over my head?

    Answer: enter the lottery for another one.

    I think this phase has been my favorite. But like all good things, it too has come to an end. Stay tuned this week for phase 5.

    Exactly one week from now, I’ll be asleep. And waking up in five hours for my race.

    Bring it on.

    What’s on YOUR mind this weekend?

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    No Words Necessary.

    April 22, 2011 By 5 Comments
    LordHelpMe

    And how did I think this was a good idea…?

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    Best Breakfast Ever: SF International Chocolate Salon

    April 19, 2011 By 19 Comments
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    Sunday, I had chocolate and wine for breakfast. And lunch.

    Okay, actually I met my sister and two friends for breakfast in the Marina first, but that’s besides the point.

    The plan for Sunday morning was the San Francisco International Chocolate Salon. Basically there was a festival pavilion at Fort Mason (where the food truck party happens that I wrote about in my last post) that was full of chocolate vendors and wineries. 76 of them. Yes, 76 booths passing out chocolate and glasses of wine. UM, YES.

    I can’t really explain the goodness, so I’ll let the (poorly taken iPhone) pictures speak for themselves.

    This is one of the best wines I’ve ever tasted. It was called ‘sexual chocolate’, a cab/syrah blend made by a winery I think was called SLO Down, started by some dudes at Cal Poly SLO their senior year. Plus, the label was handwritten. Totally winning.

    (My sister came!!!)

    Bacon caramel and seaweed caramel popcorn. Apparently the bacon one didn’t taste like bacon, but the seaweed one DEFINITELY tasted like seaweed. With caramel. And popcorn. No thanks.

    ‘

    (SF, we have a winner. This would be a peanut butter and jelly cup. Think about it.)

    After two hours of this… yes, two hours… I could never imagine having a chocolate craving again. Ever. In life.

    Well, that lasted about an hour or two, and then I would have been ready to go again. You can’t fight the craving. I need a salad now.

    I love San Francisco.

    Peace, love, and peanut butter cups,

    Courtney

    What’s your favorite kind of chocolate?

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    Why it pays to be a foodie in San Francisco…

    April 12, 2011 By 15 Comments
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    I have hardcore been neglecting this blog baby of mine. But no more. I am reclaiming my life, my sanity, and my piece of the interwebs.

    When I HAVEN’T been blogging, I’ve been out exploring my new home. And man, can I just say that it pays to be a foodie in this city. Want to know why?

    Because I can walk to Whole Paycheck Foods every day for lunch and call it “investing in my health.”

    Because I can go to a famous sausage shop and know that there will be a vegetarian option. (Or a vegan option… thank you, Rosamunde’s, for opening my eyes to your Vegan Italian sausage…)

    Because I can go to a random vegetarian restaurant on a neighborhood corner…

    And get the most realistic faux meat you can imagine. (LOOK at these pics on the menu!)

    Because I can go on a Friday evening stroll past views like this…

    To get to this…

    Which is filled with a lot of these…

    Some of which charge you ten dollars for a tofu burrito…

    But it’s okay because this one…

    Sells these! (This would be a salted caramel cupcake by Cupkates, one of many food trucks featured at Off the Grid in SF, a collection of food trucks that gather in specific locations on specific days and generally cause a lot of really delicious havoc.)

    Because I can slurp down a $4 mug of the most delicious “Black and Tan” (chocolate and gingerbread) cocoa I’ve ever had in my entire life and call it a good investment.

    Because it’s so chilly that Ben and Jerry’s only made me wait approximately 2.5 minutes for a free scoop on Free Cone Day.

    Because we can get laughed at walking through North Beach (essentially Little Italy) when asking some locals for the best place for pizza by the slice, when there’s a neon hand pointing right to it.

    Golden Boy’s Pizza is amazing. Any time of day. Pesto vegetarian or clam garlic. Or cheese. Or pepperoni. Or sausage. I must come back here.

    Because some places a cocktail might run you $12, but no matter what, there’s a good lunch special somewhere.

    And finally, it pays to be a foodie in SF because, the first time I tried to cook a seriously decent meal in my apartment, it ended in this.

    Good times.

    I am definitely enjoying the food scene here… a little too much. As my waistline expands and my wallet slims down rapidly… worth it though :)

    Look for several more entries upcoming. Thanks for staying with me during my growing pains.

    Love,

    Courtney

    What’s something you’ve recently discovered where you live? New restaurant? New product?

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