Next marathon?

I think I officially have a problem. I'm still all gimpy from the marathon, and I'm already thinking about my next one. It all started when I looked at my splits. The splits are how long it takes you to get to different markers on the course, usually 5k, 10k, and so on. In a marathon, you want to have pretty consistent splits. Even better would be if you ran a negative split, meaning the second half is faster than the first half. Most people don't do that, by the way. So I was looking at mine and they were a little all over the place. I was slow then fast then too slow then way too fast. I'm already thinking about how I could make it better next time. UGH. I think I have a sickness.

One thing I would like to do next time is get myself to a physical therapist. I usually do pretty ok during training and then at the end, everything falls apart. I think that's because I'm not really doing ok during training. I'm just really good at ignoring things that are wrong. No more of this. If something is wrong, I need to get to someone who can fix it. Problem is my insurance sucks, and that's not really covered. I'll have to figure out a way around that one.

Next thing I would like to do is work more on my pacing during training. And while we're at it, I should probably take my speed workouts a little more seriously. I didn't really feel like I was pushing myself until we got to the last few weeks of training. By then it was too late. If I'm going to do this again, I need to try just a teensy bit harder. I think this season was a lot more mental for me than anything, which is great, but now that I got that out of the way, let's work on getting faster, shall we?

Now that I'm all done with my race, I want to thank everyone that supported me. To all who donated, you'll all be getting big, giant Thank You cards soon. I promise! And to everyone who offered me advice or pep talks, THANK YOU! Everyone's support and encouragement really means a lot to me, and I don't think I could have had faith in myself if others didn't have faith in me first.

So, what's next then? Next year I'll probably just stick to another half or two. Maybe I can work on getting speedier then. Since the distance isn't as challenging, maybe I can push it on the speed. Then after that I think it might have to be Big Sur in 2014 or 2015. It's a run I've always wanted to do, even though I'm terrified of the hills. The pictures are just so amazing, I think I have to do it.

And since I haven't written about a cat in a long time, here's your cat update. That little kitten I found is up for adoption on the Anjellicle Cats site. You can take a look at him here. It's nice to see him all cleaned up and looking like a normal kitten. If he's at a Petco event any time soon, I think I'd like to go and see him.