The Road to Medoc is coming to an end very soon. Welp! I leave for France in just a few days for a wine and run adventure like no other (and if you know of another, let me know!).
Sweaty Summer
Road to Medoc
My costume is almost ready. My liver is very well trained. I have just a few days of running left before I get on a plane. With eight days to go before the race, I am about as ready as I’ll ever be. There is a stop at Vain to have my hair cut and colored before I leave and a bride and groom to celebrate! Then I’m off…
What’s First?
Before we head to Medoc, we will stop in Versailles for a tour of the chateau and a Chef’s Table dinner at Gordon Ramsay at the Trianon. Simone Zanoni does some amazing things at Gordon Ramsay, and while he probably won’t be there to say hi to us, it will be his guidance leading the menu. The kitchen there has had some interesting shakeups this year, so it will be interesting to see how this turns out! All the extra food and wine will probably add a few pounds to my race day weight!
So how did my (running) training go?
Not as well as I hoped. That cough I picked up back in June, hacking my way through the Seattle RnR Marathon. That cough turned out to be (most likely whooping cough) worse than I thought. By the time, I went to Urgent Care and to my doctor multiple times, it was too late to do much more than put me on steroids. I chose to do an inhaler rather than prednisone, as my side effects on prednisone are rather intense and miserable. The inhaler wasn’t (isn’t) just slow acting, it caused muscle cramping in my left leg. I persevered through this and did my best.
My best included skipping races. Two races to be exact, where I chose to stay at home and sleep in rather than cough my way through it. I did go running those days later when I felt better.
My best also included a key 10k that was nowhere near as fast as I hoped. I was hoping to hit 53 minutes; I didn’t even break one hour, closer to 1:10 I think. That 10k was hard, I wheezed and coughed. My chest hurt. The half marathon the next morning was a walk in the park (literally and on purpose). That is when I decided to just give up on being fast and focus on being healthy.
Seattle Marathon 10k
My best included several 10ks hovering around an 11 minute mile, both for my cough, and for Artboy’s knee–taking it easy. It included a lot of long slow training runs in the heat as well.
My best included stopping the steroids and working my way into feeling stronger running only to go for a 12 miler in the smoked filled city of Seattle. I only made 10 and brought my cough back in full force. Back on steroids. That was less than two weeks ago. Yes, I’m still coughing.
Seattle Under Smoke from fires miles and miles away
All that health backsteps means my training has not been great. Less miles and less wine than I wanted. But I feel good right now when I run. I don’t know how I’ll feel at mile 20 or 24 but I’m hoping the wine will make everything better! I figure if I could run the Seattle RnR on basically no training with a cough, I can run the Marathon du Medoc feeling mostly better and mostly trained.
My longest run: around 20 miles, probably half of those walking with Artboy (who has a torn meniscus).
My best pace: 5:45 km for 5 k.
My hopeful race pace: 8 minutes per km. That has to include wine, food, potty breaks, photos, walking, running, peeing on myself in the vines, and whatever else should happen. That will give me around an hour to finish the last 10k of food and champagne!
Projected Finish: 6:30 minutes on the dot!
What Does All this Mean?
It means I’m headed to to France run the Marathon du Medoc, drink wine, and have a fabulous time. It means I will be leaving my pugs at home and I will miss post-run cuddles. They really are the best recovery for all that ails me, from sweaty hot run trauma to coughs. It means that I am going to do my best and have fun doing it. Stay tuned for plenty of photos, mostly of wine and food I’m sure.
