I didn't train for MCM in the traditional way so I probably won't write this up in the traditional way.
A few months ago my sister told me she got into MCM via lottery and asked me to look into a transfer to run it with her. I had a decent running base (around 10 miles per week) for shorter races so figured I'd give it a try and if I could 1. get a transfer and 2. survive the mileage increase then I'd do it. But I didn't intend to run a ton because I crossfit, and long distance low intensity work can be counter-productive to the high intensity interval work we do. [Note: I've run several half marathons with zero additional training because of CF so I had a pretty good feeling that some training might allow me to run a full.]
So the transfer happened and the miles increased...nominally. Life happened: I'm a non-profit board president and we're in a capital expansion year; we traveled abroad; I got diagnosed with melanoma again and had excision surgery. But I pushed forward. I also entered a big CrossFit comp during that time and took second place, so my work there didn't suffer too much.
I pulled my training run log from mapmyrun and while there are a few runs missing (I run the Run Club for our CF box and may not have recorded all of the short run clinics), this is pretty much the extent of my training:
July 24th: Run 5
Aug 21st: Run 5
Aug 28th: Run 4+4+2*
Sept 4th: Run 4+6+2*
Sept 11th: Run 4
Sept 18th: Run 14
October 2nd: run 18 (segmented into 4+8+3+3*
October 9th: Run 2 (post Beer City Beatdown -- CrossFit comp)
October 16th: Run 5
October 23rd: Run 0
* (split throughout the day b/c of time constraints)
I didn't practice with any food supplements for the race, didn't need to hydrate much, just went out for some nice and easy runs and held a good pace.
So when race week approached I had no idea what I should expect but since I was there to support my sister I wasn't really nervous. She was aiming for a 4:30 having run Chicago in 4:25 (with cooler temps) 3 weeks prior. I felt like I could hold around a 10 min/mile pace for at least the first 10 miles or so.
So we showed up on race morning (where it was already 60 degrees), lined up around the 4:30 pacer (packed in like sardines) and hoped for the best. We also got to meet Cool Ethan, who was very sweet and awesome! I realized at the start line that I packed the wrong headphones -- just got the new iPhone 7 and brought non-blue tooth b/c I was thinking of battery conservation so no music. Also, put my phone on low battery mode (hoping it would last until the end so I could find my sister and catch an Uber); unfortunately that meant mapmyrun on my watch didn't play nicely and kept freezing so I didn't get my pace time as I wanted and mapmyrun only recorded 18 of the 26.2 miles. Live and learn.
But I beat the Gauntlet, beat the bridge (that was hotter than hell by the time I got up there!) and finished feeling strong (ran up the hill at the end!) at 4:35 chip time with no walking other than water stops -- my ultimate goal.
Walking was impossible at first (ITB ouch!), then slowly got easier and by the next morning I was walking around the airport like a champ and trick or treated back home with no trouble. The biggest issue I've had is the bottoms of my feet aching: not in a PF way but in an "I walked all day in some city and my feet are tired way" that's persisted. I think this is because I didn't put in the time on my feet that is done with the typical training approach. And I ran in Brooks Launch (that I had broken in w/ 1 training run) instead of my more cushiony Brooks Glycerines. Yes, I also wore new shoes on race day.
It's getting better though. And of course my calves are still a little achey.
As for my poor sister, she ended up dropping out about halfway. Running Chicago fast (for her) meant that her legs hadn't recovered enough in 3 weeks and her ITB completely locked up on her. She's already talking about running Chicago again but I'm not sure we'll get her back to MCM.
In the end, I ran MCM 20 minutes faster than I ran Marathon of the Palm Beaches 10 years ago. I'm also 20 pounds lighter and a lot tougher thanks to CF -- I doubt I would have pushed through those last 2 miles w/o walking if I weren't a tougher athlete now. I know I have a faster marathon in me and I have a little bit of marathon withdrawal, but the CrossFit Open happens in the spring and I plan to go through a strength cycle now, so long distance running will have to wait for a bit.
