Karole's Life on the Internet

Today was the Oxford Town & Gown 10k. It was a really great race, we went through and around the center of Oxford and the University Parks. I was pretty worried about running because the arch of my right foot has been hurting. I ran 4 miles last Thursday, which was the first time that I had run since the marathon. Today my right inside ankle hurt during the first bit of the race, then it moved down to the arch, and the pain mostly went away during most of the race. I could still feel that it didn’t feel normal, but it wasn’t too bad. Definitely didn’t PR, but I was happy to be able to run at all. Feeling better about my chances for doing the Edinburgh half marathon.

Also, happy mother’s day!! Love you mom!

Last Friday a bunch of people from my college went to visit our sister college at Cambridge, Hughes Hall. Sadly the weather wasn’t very good, but we had a great time. A few of their members took us on a tour of the city and some of the colleges, and I have now officially seen more Cambridge colleges that Oxford ones! It was really great though, and you could see so many similarities between the two cities.

^King’s College

Apparently one of the best ways to see the Cambridge Colleges is from the river, as most of them are along the river, but the current was too strong from all the rain we’ve had recently to punt. We walked around to Pembroke, Trinity, and John’s College, all of which were very beautiful. We then went to the Eagle pub, which is where the scientists who were working on DNA went a lot apparently. It reminded me a lot of the Eagle and Child in Oxford, and in fact this pub used to be called the Eagle and Child. 

We had formal hall at Hughes, which was really very nice. Hughes Hall reminded us Linacreites a lot of Linacre, but fancier. Their dishes and teacups had the Hughes crest and this nice design on them, and the buildings were very nice. The meal was really good, and afterward we went to another room in the college for coffee and post-dinner drinks. They have a really nice terrace/balcony by this room, which I thought must be so nice to have when (if) the weather’s nice. After drinks we went to the bop that they put on, which was a lot of fun. We didn’t really mingle too much with the Hughes Hall people to be honest, during the dinner or afterward. During the bop I tried to get the two groups to dance and hang out together, with some success. The people who took us around on the tours were all very nice, but we didn’t really see much of other Hughes people until the pre-dinner drinks, and then they kind of just stayed in their own groups. I hope Linacre does a better job of mingling when they come to visit us!

^Me, Stefan, and Tess at the Cliffs of Moher

^Me and Patty in St. Stephen’s Park in Dublin

After the marathon, we drove to Galway, the Cliffs of Moher, and then to Dublin. Sadly because Tess and I had just run a marathon we couldn’t walk around as much as we normally would, but we still got to see some things. 

So last Sunday, Tess and I ran a marathon! We decided months ago to run the Connemarathon because it was relatively close to us and around the time we wanted to do it. We did not, however, check the elevation profile first.

Tess, Stefan (Tess’s flatmate) and I got to Clifden on Friday, which was really nice to have an extra night to settle in. My mom had gotten there on Thursday. On Saturday we walked around a bunch, went to Kylemore Abbey, which was very pretty. I was worried about not walking too much because ever since my last long run they had been hurting. I now think that it may have been the beginnings of a stress fracture? Anyway, Kylemore Abbey was pretty cool. This guy’s mansion turned into an abbey/school (the school closed down in 2010). After that we drove back to the hotel to get our race packet. We signed up for the pre-race pasta dinner, which was pretty good, and went to bed!

Luckily the marathon didn’t start until 10:30 so we didn’t have to wake up at some ungodly hour. We took the bus to the marathon start, which I think was about 20 minutes away. It was pretty cold waiting at the start, so Tess and I decided to keep our long-sleeved shirts on. This turned out to be a mistake, but oh well. The ultra marathoners (their race was 39.3 miles) came through- the leader running a 6 minute pace!- and then we were off. Tess and I ran the first 6 miles together, but then I wanted to take my long-sleeved shirt off and she didn’t want to stop, so we parted ways. It would’ve been nice to at least run half with her but oh well. So I plodded along. My left foot hurt along the outside for a bit around miles 5 and 6, but luckily neither of my feet really hurt after that. I had been really worried about my feet. I knew when I got to mile 11 and my legs started feeling sore that it was going to be tough. Since I really hadn’t been able to run at all in the 3 weeks leading up to the race because of my feet, I think I may have gotten somewhat out of shape by race day. I do think it was a good decision though, because my feet were mostly fine.

The course was so hilly. At mile 13 there was a pretty steep and long hill, so about halfway up I decided to walk. I realized that I would be walking about as fast as I would’ve been running up the hills, so it just made sense. After that I walked up most hills. Miles 16-22 were pretty tough. Because we were basically out in the countryside, there were really no spectators, which kind of stunk. They also only had sports drink at 2 of the water stops; at all the others there was only water. I was mostly fine with the water and my Gu’s, but a couple more cups of Lucozade would’ve been nice. Mile 23 was a long, decently steep climb, so I just walked that whole mile. I was kind of disappointed that I had to walk so much, but like I said I think it was ultimately better to have to walk because I took so much time off than to have not taken the time off and aggravated my feet more. After mile 24 it was pretty good. The last mile was actually kind of tough at first because it was finally sort of flat and open and you could see how far you had to go- previously you could only see until the next hill and/or curve. Somewhere after mile 15 I had seen Tess’s long-sleeved shirt that she had cast off, and since I already had mine tied around my waist, picked up hers as well. So I was happy when I saw her & Stefan a bit before the finish line so I could hand off the shirts to her (so the pictures would look better, duh!). The announced totally mangled my name, but I was so happy to be done. My mom was at the finish with a banana, peanut butter, my hoodie, and a soy chocolate pudding, and I happily munched away. Tess and I took much-needed baths as soon as we got back to the hotel, then we went down for the dinner with music they had organized. it was so nice for my mom and Stefan to be there to provide support before and after the race, it was really great and made the whole experience much nicer.

It’s odd, but I really didn’t feel this amazing sense of accomplishment after the marathon. Maybe because we picked a really tough marathon and because I had basically skipped my taper, I don’t know. I thought I would feel more awesome and kind of ‘go me!’ afterward. I mean, objectively I know it’s pretty cool and I’m happy that I did it. I am really looking forward to shorter races now though! Tess already signed up for the Florence marathon; I’m going to wait for my next one for a while.

Pictures and a post on the rest of our Ireland trip to follow!