UW-Madison sophomore Sarah Wieckert ran the 2005 Boston Marathon April 18. She shared her training lifestyle with The Daily Cardinal.
Saturday, June 19, 2004
Qualifying race run at Grandma's Marathon in Duluth, Minn. So that's what 26.2 miles feels like. Who's ready to go again?
Monday, Dec. 27
Buck up for a long journey: Four months of training officially begins. The Master Plan: 16 weeks of varying mileage, culminating in two 70-mile weeks at my \peak"" approximately three weeks before the race. Who really needs toenails anyway?
Friday, Jan. 28
I have finally mastered the art of five-meal days-and it's harder than it sounds. To quote a baffled friend: ""I don't get it. You eat like an obscenely healthy football player.""
Saturday Feb. 5
Home for a half-marathon in St. Paul, which I ran in shorts and a T-shirt. In February.
Monday, Feb. 14
Happy New Shoes Day! The track coach once told me running was a great, inexpensive sport because shoes are the only gear required. I forgot to mention that these ($100+) shoes have to be bought every 300 to 500 miles. Not so easy on the wallet anymore. Some people save for college. Screw college. I save for shoes.
Wednesday, March 9
Four days to peak, and I'm sick-and the beginnings of a strained something behind the knee. Wonderful.
Thursday, March 10 to Saturday, March 19
Rest, grudgingly. Pathetically subsisting on Dayquil, enjoying my hot Saturday-night dates with the Kleenex box and reluctantly learning the virtue of flexibility in training.
Monday, March 21
Things are looking up: spring break and finally up and running again. Basking in Hawaii's 90 degree weather-and peaking in it.
Saturday, March 27
Longest long run before the race: 22 miles. And Coppertone claims their sunscreen is ultra sweat proof.
Monday, March 28
Ouch. My uncle once told me getting to the start line uninjured is the hardest part about running a marathon. Apparently he was right.
Wednesday, March 30
Feeling very discouraged after an unfortunate run-in doctor who heard the words 'foot pain,' made a pitch for Aleve, shoved a brochure about ""plantar fasciitis"" at me and refused to write a referral for physical therapy.
Thursday, March 31 to Thursday, April 13
After five attempts, my condition has finally been narrowed down: it's either basic inflammation, swelling, plantar fasciitis, stress fractures, low arches or ACL problems. Sweet.
Tuesday, March 29 to Friday, April 15
I was done being flexible two weeks ago. Dammit. But I've finally been convinced that the only way I stand a chance of finishing this race is to spend my final three weeks of tapering in the pool. The next time somebody tells me running is boring I'm sending them straight to the pool for an hour of pool running as punishment.
Friday, April 1 to April 3
Thank God for a mom who's a physical therapist. Headed home instead for a quality weekend filled with physical therapy, pool running and ice massaging.
Friday, April 8 to April 10
Home again. More PT, an MRI ordered by Madison doctor three of five to check for stress fractures and of course, pool running.
Sunday, April 10
Stress fractures: negative. Thankfully my karma's apparently not that bad.
Monday, April 18
""Marathon Monday,"" as it's appropriately called in Massachusetts, is an actual no-school, no-work holiday-which means the city's booming college student population is there in its drunken entirety celebrating their day off of school-I mean, the marathon.
6:00 a.m.
The breakfast of champions: white rice in honey. You sure as hell can't mess with tradition on race day.
11:30 a.m.
I have never seen lines this long for port a-potties in my life.
Noon
Bang. Off for 26.2 miles of solid crowds: greeted by masses of five-year-olds offering oranges and hi-fives in rural Hopkinton at mile two, all the way to the Boston University nuts near the finish daring me to surrender to their beer offers... nothing ever sounded less appealing.
1:44:36 p.m.
Trying to focus on the 13.1 miles down rather than the 13.1 to go.
3:24:15 p.m.
Mile 25: My. Feet. Hurt.
3:45 p.m.
Met at the finish by my best friends-complete with signs, flowers and multiple cameras, representing St. Louis Park High School-where every sport took the initiative and brought up the tail end of the conference except the runners and skiers.
4:00 p.m.
There's definitely nothing better than having a best friend with a boyfriend. She does all the work, I get to mooch the post-race piggybacks and free Gatorade.
7:00 p.m.
Finding it hard to believe it's really over. As friend and fellow stunned finisher Jessica Bell put it, ""now that I'm not training, I have all this time and I don't know what to do with it.""
7:05 p.m. and onward:
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