So, whew, things have been a little busy in this corner of the blogosphere. Which is why I’m just posting this now, and which is why it’s going to be abbreviated. But, I wanted to ensure that my thoughts on this race didn’t get away from me or fade with time, and so, here they are.

I ran Green Bay precisely two weeks ago Sunday, which was almost exactly a month after I ran Boston. And after Boston, I felt great…all except for one foot that was still partially numb nearly two weeks later, and the other which, for two weeks, I had a hard time putting weight on. So, I took two weeks off of running. I went to the podiatrist. I got a cortisone shot in my foot (yee gads does that ever hurt….possibly worst pain I’ve ever felt), and orthodics for my running shoes.

Fast forward to Green Bay. I had run a few times in the week or two before — a few 4-5 milers, an eight miler, and a ten miler. I was still feeling good. Only the foot was still hurting and the other was still numb. But then, just a few days before GB, my orthodics came in, and I had a game time decision to make: wear them, and alleviate my current foot ills, or not wear them, and endure a suffer-fest on two painful feet.

I chose Plan A.

And did that plan come back to bite me right in the ass. Hard.

Things went well until mile 18. Until that point, I felt good. I was maintaining a 9 to a 9:30 minute pace. I wasn’t stopping at any water stations. I wasn’t walking. And I was on pace to finish right at least by 4:15 — my unspoken goal.

And then.

And then it felt as though someone had come up and kicked me with a pointy boot as hard as they could, smack dab in my left calf. It seized, and I nearly fell.

This carried on for the next eight miles. By mile 20, I was walking more than running, and even when running, every time I tried to goad my body into a sub 10-minute mile, there the calf went again. By mile 22 I was having to stop and stretch every 100 yards or so. And my mile 25, the spasming/cramping was almost non-stop.

Later, my podiatrist asked why I didn’t take the orthodics out and run without them. Short answer: I never thought of that. Would’ve been smart, but not until the very end did it cross my mind that that would’ve been the issue, or that removing them might’ve helped.

So, I a weird sort of deja ‘vu to two years ago, I again hobbled across the GB finish line, albeit slower this time — in a frustratingly slow 4:33

Even as I write this, it still amazes me how I’ve actually gotten slower with every marathon I’ve run. I didnt’ know that was even possible. Apparently so.

But, that’s just on paper. Because until that fateful mile 18, I felt better this marathon than I ever have before. And I learned a thing or two to take away from it too, because never before has my head been so in the game…never have I told myself to man up, and had me actually listen to me. And that — the feeling of telling myself, “step up the pace because running a 9:45 isn’t going to feel that much better than a 9:15 or 9:00 and we might as well get this puppy sewn up sooner rather than later”…and buckling down and actually doing it, even though it hurt and it wasn’t at all comfortable, and blah, blah, blah? That’s a feeling that I’m going to take with me long after…and one that I’m hoping to put to good use come October at the MCM — my #1, A-priority race this season. That’s the elusive mental toughness that I’ve been searching for, and that I somehow found along the roads of Boston and Green Bay.

And that, my friends, is what we call a really useful month of marathon running. Even if the finish times weren’t what I was looking for, those were serious deposits in the bank of A-race preparation.

Wasn’t there someone around these parts saying she didn’t have another marathon in her? Hmmm, perhaps not.