In the beginning of the year, I signed up for the 13 in 2013 challenge. You could sign up to run 13 races of a specific distance, or choose a variety.

I race a lot and wanted to make it a challenge, but didn’t want to limit myself to a specific distance since that would affect marathon training. I decided I wanted to do 13 races of half marathon distance or longer.

I didn’t have my race schedule fully planned out, and at one point thought it might be tricky to fit them all in. But I kept adding races throughout the year, and even ended up with a bonus race. I even had a surprisingly low number of events at my minimum 13.1 distance — only two!

1. Ragnar Florida Keys (my total = 18 miles) — 1/4-1/5/2013
2. Shamrock Marathon — 3/17/2013 4:10:12
3. Kent Island Metric Marathon (26.2K/16.3mi)  — 4/14/2013 2:35:38
4. Country Music Marathon  — 4/27/2013 4:20:54
5. North Face 50K  — 6/1/2013 7:42:31
6. Rosaryville 25K Trail Race  — 7/21/13 3:13:51
7. Endless Summer 6-Hour Run — 7/27/2013 31.41 miles
8. MD Heat Race 25K — 8/3/2013 4:02:44
9. VA Beach Rock ‘n’ Roll 1/2 Marathon — 9/1/2013 2:14:00
10. Rock ‘n’ Roll Philly 1/2 Marathon — 9/15/2013 2:01:51
11. Howard County Striders Metric Marathon (26.2K/16.3mi) — 9/21/2013 2:46:03
12. Annapolis Striders Metric Marathon (26.2K/16.3mi) — 10/6/2013 2:43:58
13. Atlantic City Marathon — 10/13/2013 4:41:16
14. Marine Corps Marathon — 10/27/2013 5:43:44

I usually do a lot of races, but this year was just crazy. I’ve previously only ever done two full marathons in one calendar year, and I did four in 2013. Plus two 50Ks (Endless Summer 6-Hour I got past the 50K mark). I would have added a third if I didn’t get injured during fall marathon season!

Below the half-marathon distance, I also raced:

15. Shamrock 8K — 3/16/2013 (Yes, the day before the marathon, for the Whale Challenge)
16. Cherry Pit 10 Miler — 4/7/2013
17. Columbia Triathlon — 5/19/2013 (Olympic Distance 1500m swim / 25-mile bike / 10K run)
18. Baltimore 10 Miler — 6/15/2013
19. Father’s Day 10K — 6/16/2013
20. Women’s Distance Festival 5K — 7/13/2013
21. John Wall One Mile — 7/20/2013
22. Dog Days 8K — 8/4/2013
23. Charles Street 12 Miler — 8/10/2013
24. Iron Girl Sprint Triathlon — 8/18/2013 (1000m swim / 16-mile bike / 3.3-mile run)
25. Annapolis 10 Mile Run — 8/25/2013
26. Patuxent Run for the Refuge 5K — 9/29/2013
27. Camp Letts Turkey Chase — 11/28/2013
28. Celtic Solstics 5 Mile Run — 12/14/2013
29. Anniversary Run 15K — 12/8/2013

And while not technically a race, it still deserves a mention:

30. Amish Country Bike Tour 100K — 9/7/2013

And this isn’t a race either (no time, just a little over a mile), but it came with a T-shirt and got me out of my comfort zone:

31. Santa Speedo Run — 12/21/2013

Phew!

It seems I may have gotten my numbers mixed up. 31 in 2013?

I enjoyed this challenge, but I will not be signing up for 14 in 2014. I have to make sure I’m healthy and injury-free for my first half ironman triathlon! I am signed up for Raleigh June 1, and will not let myself do anything longer than a half marathon until after the race!

I’m happy to stick to shorter distances for now, and will gradually build mileage again when my running club’s half marathon training group starts up in a few weeks. But I’ll just be there for the company, I may not always do all the mileage.

It’s actually nice that I’m not training for any races for a little while!

But before I get to that … let me go back a bit.

I wasn’t even going to run a marathon this fall. I was originally going to step back from long-distance running and do a 100-mile bike ride instead. But back in the spring, I learned about the Saucony 26 Strong program. Saucony and Competitor magazine were putting together 26 teams of two — one experienced marathon “vet” and one first-timer “cadet” — and following them as they trained and raced fall marathons. Well, that sounded cool. I filled out a form and didn’t think anything of it …

Until I was welcomed into the program.

Well then, I guess I was running a fall marathon! My cadet Cathy wanted to run Marine Corps, which was already closed out. She got in with a charity team, while I decided I’d run a different race  (Atlantic City) and cheer her on at MCM.

But when my running club had some leftover spots from their marathon training program (they get a number of reserved slots for first-timers) … I jumped at the chance to join Cathy for her first marathon.

Cathy and I live in the same town, are both members of our running club, and have some common friends, but we had never met. We chatted a lot by email throughout the summer — I tried to offer as much guidance as I could to help her train. We both had busy summers, but finally caught up after a common race in August. We finally got to run together on one of our last long training runs.

And then Cathy started having IT band/knee troubles. And I got hurt running Atlantic City. But both of us were determined to get to the starting line. I was seeing a chiro for ART, she pretty much had a team of doctors and therapists working on her. We were hoping for the best!

Race morning, we met up and decided to start together with another friend. The race started out great. The crowds kept us from starting too fast, and we warmed up quickly. We had a fantastic first 10K.

But Cathy started feeling a twinge in her knee. And not long after, my ankle started to hurt. We ran through it until a medical station around the eight-mile mark, where we tried to get Cathy some Biofreeze. No luck, we settled for some Tylenol and headed on our way. We told our friend to go ahead since she was feeling fine. I was going stick with Cathy and see her through her race.

From here, we started adding walk breaks. It helped her a little bit … for a while. But the pain got worse, and the walk breaks got longer. At least it was a beautiful day out, but I wish it wasn’t so painful for both of us.

Slowly but surely, the miles did tick by, even if they took longer than we anticipated. Poor Cathy was so upset that her first marathon was not the magical experience she wanted it to be. I know exactly how she felt — I was there just two weeks earlier when my goal race fell apart.

I was running Marine Corps for fun. Time wasn’t a factor for me — even though I did expect we’d come in quite a bit sooner than we actually did. But now that I look back, it really was a great experience. Last year, I had a rough time during Marine Corps and hadn’t planned to run it this year. I’m so glad I did. I actually had a great time this year … despite the pain.

I never really hit a wall. I was enjoying the race atmosphere and amazing crowds that come out in DC and Virginia. I saw so many of my friends out on the course. I was helping my cadet achieve her goal, even if it wasn’t the day she planned.

When we finally got to the huge hill that separated us from the finish line, Cathy powered through the pain. We ran the whole hill, the longest spurt we had without walking in many miles.

Mission accomplished.

This was supposed to be my “goal” race. My ultimate marathon goal at the moment is a sub-4 marathon, but going into this race I knew that wasn’t going to happen for a number of reasons.

My speed work has been a bit sporadic, not helped by my pulling a hamstring back in August. Not bad enough that I ever had to stop running, but I have had to back down a bit.  I ran two half marathons in September, one being a real disaster at 2:14, the other a decent 2:01 … but it’s still been over a year since I’ve run a half under two hours. I think that has to be pretty comfortable before I can realistically expect to run a full marathon at that pace!

Goals revised, I decided to line up with the 4:10 pacer. My PR is a 4:09, and I was hoping I could hang with her most of the race, and surge towards the end giving myself a shot at a new PR.

But that didn’t happen. Not even close.

Things started out fine. We had a nice little group and were hitting the mile markers right on pace. We ran along the boardwalk, and then hit the road, doing a few miles around the farther casinos before returning to the boardwalk.

We ran past the finish line around mile nine (I hate that!) and got to see some of the half marathoners coming back. Near mile 11, we passed the half marathon turnaround (I hate that too!), and then it was just the marathoners left.

We got off the boardwalk and continued along the road. We hit the halfway point right on time, around 2:05. I was starting to struggle, though.

Part of it was me wanting to stop. Some days I can will myself to keep up the pace, other times I can’t. Clearly, I could not this day.

It wasn’t just “The Wall.” I was starting to hurt — it was my ankle.

I had a little pain at the end of a 14-miler two weeks before the marathon. It was just a twinge, though, and was completely fine post run. I brushed it off.

That same pain returned late in a 16-mile race (that I ran easy!) one week before the race. It didn’t bother me much during, but did hurt that night and the day after. The next day it was fine, and I felt no pain during a short run during the week. I figured it was tight calves and did some stretching/rolling.

Marathon day, though, it came back. My pace slowed way down, and I started taking walk breaks. Most of the time I managed to keep running and use the water stops as my walk breaks.

The 4:20 pace group passed me, as did the 4:30 group. At least I wasn’t the only one struggling that day. I chatted with a girl from the 4:00 group that was shuffling along around my pace for a little while. She dug deep, though, and pulled away as we got closer to the finish.

We got back to the boardwalk for the last three miles. I was happy to be nearing the end, and enjoyed the ocean views, but was near tears many times. The pain was pretty bad, but I was so disappointed. Disappointed that this wasn’t the race I wanted. That running MCM in two weeks could be in jeopardy with this injury. That I wasn’t enjoying this race.

The 4:40 pace group passed me. We got back to the busier part of the boardwalk, and I was annoyed that there was nothing to designate a race was going on. People were milling about, and tired runners had to watch out for obstacles!

It wasn’t until the last .2 or so that there were barriers and spectators. My husband was there cheering for me, and I didn’t even smile. I thought I sent him a disappointed/sad face, but he said I looked pissed. Sorry honey!

At least I managed to get up to a 10-minute pace for the last .2. I always sprint once I can see the finish line. And at that point in time, that was my sprint!

At least I got a light-up bottle opener medal.

Marathon #10 done.

I decided I shouldn’t be so hard on myself. While far off my goal and far from my PR, it’s still faster than four of my marathons. And I finished. Not how I wanted, but I got it done.

One week later … I’m not entirely pain-free, but doing better. I’ve gone on two runs (three and six miles at easy paces), and felt fine. I got a massage. I’ve seen a chiropractor for some ART. She didn’t think running was out of the question (yay!). She’ll work on me again this week, and tape me for MCM.

Which I will run with NO goals.

And *then* I will take a long-distance break 🙂