That's pretty much the big question every time late fall rolls around and I've knocked out my big A-race for the season.

With Marine Corps behind me, I've been using Hurricane Sandy as an excuse to hunker down and stay curled up in my bed resting my tired legs. It's helped a little bit. My legs are slightly less sore this morning, and I'm now I'm getting that antsy looking-ahead feeling.



Technically, my off-season started this week. I have the next several months to do whatever I want fitness wise. The thing is, right now, I'm not sure what I want.

Two or three weeks ago, I was 100% sold on signing up for an 8-week intro session at a local CrossFit box (Why are CrossFit gyms called boxes? I have never understood this.) I figured it was the perfect way to completely change things up and give my body something different. Plus, there was that added bonus of probably looking pretttty awesome after those 8 weeks.



Plus being able to do this would be cool.

Now I'm not totally sure though.

Mainly because at some point yesterday, I decided I really want to run another marathon. Soon. Like within the next several weeks. I feel like I put in all those weeks of training, and I should get more than one race out of them.

I bounced the idea off a few friends, both runners and non-runners, because I knew my runner friends would just be enablers. The runners obviously told me to go for it. The non-runners were slightly more hesitant, and I'm still really unsure.


But I do love medals...

My one friend did find a pretty ideal race though. It's teeny tiny (only 350 people), local and three-weeks away. That would give me time to recover, get in a few more runs and then tackle the distance again.

I'm not totally sold, but I sort of feel like I have unfinished business with 26.2 and kind of want another crack at it. But I don't know, the pain in my legs is still very real, and I'm not sure I'm ready to put myself through that again.

Then there's the option of picking up lots of shorter local runs. This time of year I feel like you can find a 5K or a 10K to run every weekend if you wanted to. And maybe I could use my awesome marathon training to take a crack at my shorter distance PRs.

Lots of options, not sure which one is calling my name the loudest. So really, I'm just not sure what's next. Anyone have any ideas for me?

Going in to the Marine Corps Marathon, I was so excited. I was excited for the energy on the course, for running 26.2 miles in my hometown race, to shake a Marine's hand at the end and to have them hang a medal around my neck and salute me.

I had put in solid training and managed to get over my nasty food poisoning last week in time to carb load before the race. When my alarm went off at 4 a.m., I was nervous, excited and ready to run.


With Emily and Aila in our awesome shirts

You can always tell my level of nervousness before a race by the number of time I use the porta-potties before the start. Set a new record before MCM...4 trips to the porta-potty because of nerves. HA that's just sad for me.


Me and Megan

We got into our corrals, listened to the National Anthem, watched the fly over and next thing we knew the cannon was sounding and we were moving.


In the corrals

Miles 1-8: All major hills on this course are in the first eight miles. I knew that going in, and my plan was to really, really try to hold back during these miles and save my energy for later in the race. I started out running 10 minute miles, which was still a little bit faster than I wanted, but the first few hills quickly knocked my splits down. I ran with Megan for a little bit, but we separated not long after mile two.

Mile four crossing the Key Bridge was amazing. The spectator support was fantastic, the crowds were loud and I was feeling good. As we turned on to Canal Road, I felt that sharp, biting pain in my foot again that I experienced during the Woodrow Wilson Half a few weeks ago. It hurt every time my foot hit the ground. Not great when you still have a lot of miles to run.

Miles 9-14: The pain in my foot eventually faded away somewhere near mile 9 as we cruised in to Georgetown. I think this was my favorite part of the race. The crowds were several deep, and they were loud. I was smiling like a fool the whole time and was starting to feel awesome. I was able to pick up my pace a little bit and just relax and roll through these miles. I was having fun!

I saw my friends for the first time a little past mile 10 and I was riding such a running high. I felt amazing, everything felt great, I was ready to cruise through the rest of this race. Oh and I also saw Bart Yasso near mile 10 and he cheered for me!

Miles 15-19: A little before the mile 15 marker, my right hip started to tighten and then hurt and then my form was kind of jacked up. I slowed down to loosen things up and knew I was going to see my friends again soon so I pushed through. I got to the spot where my friends were supposed to be, and they weren't there. I thought I had missed them, that I was running too slow and they had moved on to the next point. It was a strangely crushing blow, but I tried to push it out of my mind and keep going.

I got to mile 16, made the turn to head out to the Mall and up ahead saw the bright orange "Go Jess" sign my friend Emily had made. A sense of relief flooded me and I immediately felt better. I hadn't missed them after all!

By mile 18, the tightness in my hip was bad, so I pulled off to the side of the road to stretch. That seemed to help for a little bit and I was able to keep moving.

Miles 20-22: Deep, deep mental despair. My friends had planned to be a little before mile 20, but I didn't see them, which was again an emotionally crushing blow. But then seconds later, I saw my friend Virginia and I was super happy again! (My emotions were all over the place in this race.) These miles kick you out on to the 14th Street bridge and then take you back into Virginia to wrap up the race. There is no crowd support. It's just you and boring highway. This is the first time I put my music in during the race because I was seriously wondering if I'd be able to finish. I also had to stop on the bridge to stretch again because my hip hurt so bad.

Mile 23: Crystal City. There were cheering people. I pulled my music out again and tried to soak in some of the energy from the crowd. I passed one of my coworkers and it was so, so nice to see a friendly face this late in the race. I also made a friend with a guy when we were both taking a walk break up one of the hills. It was nice to have someone to chat with.

Mile 24: Will this race never end?!?!

Mile 25: More boring highway. Oh hey, there's Bart Yasso again! My legs hurt and I walked a lot. A random runner told me that I was so close and that I was going to finish. Thanks kid, hearing that helped me start running again. My friends saw me at some point close to the finish and got this picture. My form doesn't actually look terrible for this late in the race!



Mile 26: Final turn up the hill, digging deep for that last bit of energy. Tons of crowd support, screaming fans, the announcer saying my name (and being unable to pronounce my last name at all. A for effort though, my last name is tough.) and then crossing the finish line with a big dopey smile on my face.


Virginia giving me a lift

I finished in 4:45:15. That's about two minutes slower than my PR. I had been hoping to break 4:30, and at the half way point, I thought that was still a possibility. But it wasn't in the cards for me yesterday. I'm not upset with my time. Sure, I wish I would have gone faster, but any day you run 26 miles, it's something to be proud of.



The Marines put on an amazing race. It was well organized, well run and a hell of a lot of fun (except for those boring stretches of highway). I'm so glad I did this race. I've been wanting to for years, but next year, I will be happy to be back as a spectator. I'm done with fulls for a little while.

Huge congrats to everyone who ran yesterday, especially Emily, Aila, Megan, Zach and Jason!


What you don't ice your knees with massive ice bags?

And a million thanks to all my amazing friends who came out and cheered for me! Knowing I was going to see you guys got me through some of the toughest parts of the course!

I know it's pretty rare for me to post twice in one day, but I needed to use this morning's post to process some stuff with my grandma's death, and I didn't want to wrap that up in a post about MCM.

Emotionally I feel like I am on some crazy roller coaster right now. Obviously I am really sad about my grandma's death, but at the same time I am so, so excited about MCM. It's weird to be so excited and happy when I feel like I should just be sad.

So I thought two posts would help.

Here's my happy post for the day!

Sometime this summer, Emily, Aila and I thought it would be a fun idea to make special shirts for MCM since it's the first time the three of us are running it. (It's also Aila's first marathon ever! Whooo!)


Aila, Emily and me at the Baltimore 10 miler last June.

The scheming over shirts began back in July. We knew exactly what we wanted them to say. All we needed to do was the find the perfect shirt and work a little arts and crafts magic.

We found the shirts courtesy of Under Armour. We ordered them a while back, and then I took mine out on one of my 20 milers to make sure it would be comfortable over the long haul. Turns out it was.



Then last week we got together for the arts and crafts portion.

It's safe to say, I am not a crafty person, so I wasn't sure how this whole shirt making thing would go.

We had printed our design on iron-on paper that Emily found at Staples.



Then it was just a matter of cutting out the designs and ironing them on the shirts.

  

I may have had a minor glitch when I attempted to iron one of the designs on without removing the protective backing from the transfer paper. Turns out that will just make a giant mess on the shirt.



Luckily it was fixable, and we didn't make that mistake again the rest of the night.





We eventually got all the shirts made, and we're super happy with how they turned out.

We Run Better Than Metro!



You might remember my ever popular "You Run Better Than Metro" sign from last year's MCM spectating.



Well it's been so popular that we decided to rock the slogan on our shirts this year. I think we'll get a good response from spectators and other runners.

You know what else will get a great response from spectators and runners alike? The sign my friend Zach plans to hold while he runs the race with his sister and friend.



Yes people, that's going to happen. So keep a look out for him. (He says he may be in costume).

And if you want to track me and won't be at the race to spot me in my awesome shirt, you can sign up for runner tracking here via email or text message. Just punch in my name and you're good to go. I'm also bib number 8935.



Two days and counting! Here we go!

 

My grandma died last night. Knowing it was coming didn't really make it any easier. As soon as I saw my mom's name pop up on my caller ID last night, I knew what she was calling to say. It's still hard.



A few years ago, my Aunt Chris started digitizing some of the really old pictures of our family. I've been looking through them a lot since last night and so grateful that my aunt put in the work to do that. I thought I'd share a few of my favorites.



I love this picture of my grandma when she was younger.



My dad and grandma at my parents' wedding



This is my grandma and me...though I kind of look like a boy.



I look much more like a girl in this one


Grandma with all the cousins in '89



This was about two years ago at her 90th birthday party.

Funeral arrangements are in the works, but it's kind of hard to plan a good date when a giant freakin' hurricane is about to demolish the east coast.

And that's about all I can process right now. I'll be back at some point with updated MCM thoughts and to show off the cool shirts we'll be running in.

Thank you for all the tweets, comments and texts yesterday about the my grandma. I don't have any new information this morning. It's just more waiting for my phone to ring, which is not fun. I'm trying not to think about it too much because it just makes me sad.

Instead I'm trying to focus on the marathon. Emily and I are going to expo today after work. We're hoping to beat the crowds and get first crack at all the awesome race swag! I have my eye on a nice MCM jacket.

With marathon weekend officially kicking off today, I am getting super, super excited.



Except when I check the weather report. Then I get super angry.

Hurricane Sandy is trying her hardest to screw with everyone's marathon weekend. And for that I would like to tell her to go pound sand. Seriously! Sandy, what are you doing? A hurricane? In DC? In late October?! WTF!

The forecast is still all over the place for Sunday and some models show DC getting hit with nasty rain and 26 mph winds, which I'm fairly certain would actually blow me off the 14th Street Bridge right in the Potomac. Sounds like totally ideal marathon conditions, right?



NOAA's model looks pretty ideal. It shows the storm staying way south of DC until after the race is over. The European model says the storm is going to go right up the Chesapeake Bay.

Other models show the big beast of a storm slowing down and the DC area not getting rain until Sunday night. That's what I'm hoping for right now because running 26.2 miles through a freakin' hurricane will not be even a little bit fun. Plus I can't think of many spectators who would like to stand in the hurricane for a whole bunch of hours cheering.

So Sandy, do me a favor, turn east and go out to sea or just slow the heck down so we can run the marathon in favorable conditions. I won't even complain (too much) if you roar through next week and I inevitably lose power.

Just don't mess up the race I have trained so hard for. Kthx.

If you're the praying type, I'd like to ask if you'd do me a favor and keep my family in your prayers over the next few days.

We got word on Monday that my grandma doesn't have much time left, and yesterday the nurses suggested we call and say our goodbyes.

My grandma is almost 92.

The hospice nurses are estimating she has 24-72 hours.

It's sad, and it's hard. I don't really have good words for this.

But if you pray and you wouldn't mind keeping us in your prayers, it'd mean a lot.

It's taper time around these parts and I don't have much to share on the running front.

So here's what's going on on the life front.

This past weekend was homecoming at UMD. We had a huge tailgate and a few of our out-of-town friends stopped by to hang out.


08s!

We got daggered in the football game, and I don't want to talk about it other than it say it was absolutely heart-breaking (there may have been tears in the stands). And we lost our second quarterback this season to an ACL tear. So now we're down to QBs #3 and #4.

We may not win the game, but we always win the tailgate.



Yesterday, I was back at UMD again (seriously, I spend a lot of time there) to speak on a panel at career day about jobs in multi/social media.



It was a fun panel discussion with a few other grads, and the students in attendance asked some great questions.

One girl came up to me afterward and told me it was very evident that I loved my job and what I do because I talked about it with such excitement. I thought that was kind of cool. I mean I do really like my job, and I'm lucky to have such a great thing going on, I just had no idea it was so obvious to other people.

Since it's Tuesday, I've also had an extremely busy fantasy football morning.

My team got crushed this week. Absolutely demolished. I don't know how that happens when you have a running back who earns you 50 points, but somehow it did.

Half my team was on a bye, and my bench players did not step up. I just put in a million waiver wire requests to help save my poor team this weekend when the other half is out on a bye.

I started out the season so strong, but I've been on an unfortunate downward trend the last three weeks. Here's hoping for a mid-season turn around or I can kiss my chances at the playoffs goodbye.

Five more days til MCM!

Holy crap I am so beyond excited! Race week is finally here!

After seemingly endless early mornings, insanely long runs and many chilly ice baths, it's time to celebrate all my hard work with a 26.2 mile victory lap around the city.



I can't wait!

I've been obsessively reviewing the course map, stalking Sunday's weather report and trying to decide which pair of socks I want to race in. Seriously, that's a big decision in my life right now. Blisters aren't fun.

And in really good news, my appetite is almost back to normal. I'm still extremely turned off by a few things, like chicken, but I can stomach a lot of normal foods, like pasta and soup and cheese and Starbucks pumpkin bread. I've been eating quite a bit of that lately.

I mean it's race week. Time to eat all the carbs!



My plan for the week to ensure I have the best race possible is to get to bed early to bank plenty of sleep, make sure I'm drinking a ton of water and eating plenty of food to top off those glycogen stores. I also plan to do a few short runs this week to make sure my legs are fresh and ready to go.

Six days and counting!

Taper for me has always been so much more mental than physical.

Physically I know I've put the training in and I have no problem taking a few more rest days, slashing my mileage and giving myself a break. It's well deserved and it will make sure my legs are in prime shape on race day.



Even though running has been nonexistent this week because I'm still recovering from the food poisoning, I know that physically I have the strength to run this race.

But mentally, man the demons in my head get loud.

The self doubt and the fear of failure start to creep in and make me question the weeks and weeks of hard training I put in.


First long run back in August

I feel severely under prepared. I'm regretting every one of those runs that I didn't do for one reason or another. I'm spazzing the heck out to anyone that will listen, and I'm worried that I won't be able to carb-load sufficiently because I'm still not feeling great.

Really, I'm just scared. I'm scared that I put in all this training, and I'll run a disappointing race and not accomplish any of my goals. I'm scared that some stupid injury will spring up out of no where like my knee in Philly two years ago. I'm scared that I might be the last one of my friends to finish and that I'll let people down.


The infamous crying because my knee hurts so bad picture

I know these are all pretty stupid and irrational fears, but they feel very, very real.

I know I put in the work. I am in better shape now than I was for Philly two years ago. My long runs have been pretty awesome. My times have been right where I want them to be. I know I have it in myself physically to set a new marathon PR. I know I have it in me to rock this race.



But I'm still scared that something will go wrong and I'll fail.

There are so many factors that are out of our control on race day, and I know worrying about them will not do a darn thing to help me, and yet, I can't help it.

This next week is just going to be tough for me mentally. So friends, I welcome any and all distractions. If you see me starring off into space, I'm probably stressing about the race, so come talk to me and snap me out of it.

The race needs to hurry up and get here so I can silence these mental demons once and for all.

The big success of this morning was that I ate solid food. Sure it may have only been Saltines, but I was actually hungry and wanted to eat, which was a huge improvement over yesterday.

Fingers crossed that they stay down!

Also I'm fairly certain that ginger ale has magical healing powers. Emily stopped by to visit yesterday because she felt bad that I felt like death and she brought me some sick kid supplies, including these adorable mini cans of ginger ale.



Seriously could these be any cuter?

I'm feeling a little bit better today, but I'm still wiped out. I have no energy. All I want to do is curl up in a ball and sleep. I'm working from home for a little bit this morning to get some things done, but I'm considering taking some sick leave this afternoon to nap and recover.

I want to kick this thing for good so that I can get back to actually tapering for MCM.

Yes friends, food poisoning is a biatch. And food poisoning two weeks before MCM is seriously the worst. I woke up at 2:30 a.m. with my stomach practically turning inside out and spent much of the night being violently ill.

This part's a little nasty so if you're squeamish skip this line: Did you know it was possible to puke so violently that pieces of food lodge themselves in your sinuses and when you blow your nose they come out then? Because I certainly didn't until last night.

I think the culprit is the leftover chicken tortilla soup I ate for dinner last night. I think it may have been sitting in my fridge a few days too long and the chicken went bad. Otherwise, I have no clue what caused this.

But it's safe to say it's the most miserable feeling in the world. I'm sipping Gatorade to help with the massive dehydration and I'm really, reallllly hoping this goes away soon.

This weekend of running with my family was awesome.



Standing left to right: Marybeth, Nate, Kenny, my dad, my mom. Squatting in front left to right: Nikki, Laura, me

Everyone kicked butt at their respective races, and we all had a blast!

Saturday started bright and early for me. Actually it wasn't bright, just early. I had to run 22 miles this weekend as my last long run for MCM training. So my plan was to run nine miles before the start of the half.

I crawled out of the hotel bed at 5 a.m. and headed out for a pre-dawn tour of Charm City. Thanks to my friend Jimmy, who lives in Baltimore, I had a route planned out that wouldn't take me through too many sketchy parts of town. But just to be safe I carried my pepper spray and ran without music.



My nine mile loop took me through Federal Hill out to Fort McHenry, and then down through Inner Harbor to Fells Point and back. Along the way, I passed lots of people setting up for the marathon start.

When I got back to the hotel I did a quick change into my racing attire and hurried over to the 5K start line to meet up with my parents, my aunt and my cousins.



Repping my Terps on game day/race day

After the 5K start my mom and I headed to the finish line to find a prime spectating spot. Not long after the leaders came flying past, and after a few minutes the rest of the family was running through.



Nikki, Kenny, Marybeth and my dad before the 5K start

Nate came through first, finishing just over 25 minutes. Laura wasn't far behind, finishing in 28:37, a brand new PR!

Then came Nikki and my dad who ran the race together. They finished around 32 minutes, which is a 3+ minute PR for my dad from his first 5K!

Kenny was only a few steps behind and then Marybeth came flying through, earning herself a top 10 finish in her age group!

How is that for some Milcetich racing success! I just wish I would have been able to get some pictures of everyone finishing, but I failed big time.

After the 5K wrapped up, we walked over to the half marathon start line and my mom and I lined up in our corrals, while the 5Kers went off to grab some brunch and wait for us to finish.



Me and my mom before the half start

My plan for the half was to take it slow and steady. I could already feel the lactic acid pooling in my legs, plus I was stiff from hanging out in the cold for so long.

The first couple of miles were a little tough as my legs tried to warm up again and get into a groove. I took my first walk break somewhere just past the 5K, at the first aid station and that really helped things loosen up.

From there I had tentative plans to walk one minute every time I hit a mile marker. But that plan sort of feel through and I decided I would try to time my walk breaks with the aid stations since I am so bad at running and trying to drink Gatorade at the same time.

That plan worked for the next several miles. I started feeling pretty good around mile 5 or 6. Yea the hills were definitely brutal, but my legs were holding up well.

I was so grateful when we got out to Lake Montibello because it was about a mile and a quarter of flatness. After coming off the lake path, we shot out through some more Baltimore neighborhoods and onto some more hills.

One thing I have to say about this race is that the neighborhoods really come out to support the runners. Through every section of town there are people cheering, playing music, handing out food (this year candy corn seemed to be a popular choice) and water. It's just a great atmosphere for racing.

I really, really appreciated the crowd support through the last several miles. My legs were trash by mile 11, and I just wanted to be done. As we made the final turn on to Eutaw Street, I knew it was mostly downhill from there. I willed gravity to carry me through. We were still more than a mile from the finish line, but I knew the downhill would help.

From there to the finish, the street was packed with spectators. I kept my headphones in for a few more songs, but eventually yanked them out of my ears so I could listen to the cheering.



As I got close to the finish line I saw my family cheering super loudly. They were definitely a welcome sight and gave me the little bit of energy I needed to kick it in across the finish line.

After getting my medal and some water, I hustled back to where they were cheering and waited for my mom to finish. She came through not too much longer afterward, smiling and looking good.



In total, I ran 22 miles on Saturday. My time for the half was 2:09 and my time for the 9 miles was 1:33, so adding those together my total time for the 22 was something like 3:42. Not too shabby at all.

All around it was a pretty awesome day. I love when my family races together!