Free State Trail Marathon (Training)

It started with a simple question. So what race is next?
I was still riding the high of the Run Toto Run trail race and couldn't resist the tempting words of "I bet you could totally do the Free State Marathon".
I knew I could do the half....I wouldn't even have to train.   When I actually thought in my head..."maybe its time to take it to the next level",  I knew that I was going to cave in and do the full.

I didn't sign up right away.
I left the online registration open on one of my tabs for about 2 weeks. After a particularly good trail run one day, I got super pumped and submit the registration.

I had a little less than 2 months to train which wasn't ideal and definitely didn't fit any race plans that I found online. So I decided to just kind of wing it.
As it turned out, Indika that I had met for the first 5 minutes of Run Toto Run was training for the marathon too and it was her first as well. This was really encouraging. The Trail nerds welcomed me in to their training runs with open arms.  Still, with my 16 hours of class and full-time work, I was scared I wouldn't be able to keep up with the training.

The longest run I was able to do before the marathon was 18 miles. I had been out of town to see family so I missed the Trail Nerds training run and ended up running it by myself on the River  Trails.
During that run, I got a bloody nose down my face at about mile 4. I also was starving the entire time and when I finished I felt like I had been run over by multiple trucks. 

Later that week was Brew to Brew which doesn't deserve its own blog post because it was a dumb poorly-organized race that doesn't deserve my time venting about. I only mention it because after that, I felt overtrained. I didn't want to run or move at all. Peter's grandmother passed away the day after Brew to Brew and it seemed as though my teachers also got the memo to make my life a living hell at the same time. I began to have tons of self-doubt and wanted to give up on the marathon.

I talked to my personal trainer, Josh, about how I was feeling and what to do about the marathon. He told me to not run unless it felt good and didn't stress me out. He wanted me to start my tapering early. Then he asked the fateful question, "What have you eaten today?" It was 5pm. I paused and sheepishly replied...."a protein bar and a grilled cheese sandwich?"
He was angry, rightfully so. I wasn't getting enough calories in my body every day to even be healthy, much less run a marathon.
I had been too busy to realize that I wasn't eating enough. It was at this point he put me on a strict plan of multi-vitamins and protein supplements and full meals a few times a day. After a few days, I felt really good.

I had one last run on the trails with Indika a week before and a few pep talks to get me out of my own pity party from Danny.  I was revived and ready to attempt my first marathon.