Monday, October 1, 2012

Marathon Madness Monday: Week 15

Well the taper has officially began!  I ran my last REALLY long run of 22 miles on Saturday and it went AWESOME.  I felt strong the entire run and finished in about 3:31, so a pace of 9:36 which is a good pace for a long run.  I now know for certain that I have a PR in me (barring anything unusual happening on race day!).  It was a stunningly beautiful day to run.  The temps were around 55 when we started and with the leaves turning, it was gorgeous to run along the Mississippi river and a couple of lakes.  I was definitely wishing I had brought a phone or camera with me, but maybe I will do that next week!

I did encounter a snafu involving marathon weekend.  Last week I called to request a late checkout for marathon weekend and the hotel could not find my reservation.  Cue panic.  I had booked my room back in March and my credit card had been charge in April, so I KNEW I had a reservation.  After over an hour on the phone with the hotel and my credit card, my credit card company finally solved the puzzle:  the hotel had misspelled my name, so I did not get the email confirmation.  Which means I was unaware of the fact that the reservation person I spoke to booked it for APRIL not OCTOBER (excuse me, how do you confuse those 2 months??).  So that charge in April was for a no-show fee.  And of course, 3 weeks out from the marathon there are no hotel rooms available in the downtown area of Des Moines.  I was SO pissed on Thursday.  It pretty much ruined my day.  When something like this happens, it makes me wish I had a simple last name like Johnson or Smith.  My last name is phonetic but it gets messed up all the time. 

Luckily, Iowa Amber came to the rescue and said I could say with her!  Phew.  What a relief!!  When I decided to run DSM, Amber thought she was going to be in Vegas, but now she is actually going to be home and is running the half so it will work out great for me to stay with her since she'll be heading to the start line as well!  So the problem is solved.  The hotel is reimbursing me for the mistake as they clearly got so much wrong.  I mean, besides misspelling my last name, which resulted in an incorrect email address, and booking it for 4/20 instead of 10/20, they also got my mailing address wrong (3rd avenue instead of 1st street - which again - how does that happen?).  So yah.  The guest service person I spoke to was very kind and apologetic.  I think I should have gotten a comped room for a future visit but I had spent so much time on the phone at that point, I didn't feel like arguing that point with them.

All's well that ends well, though, and at least I have somewhere to stay - and will get even more quality time with Amber which I am excited about!

Here is how the week broke out:

Monday:  6 miles on the dreadmill at the Charotte Westin, with 3 miles at marathon pace.  I didn't hate this dreadmill run because you could play solitaire on the dreadmill.  How genius is that??

Tuesday:  Biked 8 miles

Wednesday:  9.5 miles with 2 hilly out-and-back loops. I wanted to run sub-9 pace for those out & back, and I did for all but 1 mile.

Thursday:  4.5 miles at 8:50 pace.

Friday:  Rest

Saturday:  22  miles at 9:36 pace

Sunday:  Rest

Training Tally:
Week 15:  42
Training-to-date:  445.25

I am traveling again today, and then Thursday-Sunday for Nora's wedding so once again I will have to be flexible on my training!  But it's taper time!  Which feels weird coming off my death virus-induced mini taper.

14 comments:

Charis Faith said...

So glad that you were able to get the hotel mess straightened out and you have a nice place to stay. Here's to safe travels this week!!!

Kelly (She Wears a Red Sox Cap) said...

Yeah whoever took your reservation must have been SUPER OUT OF IT. How do you mess up THAT many things!? Terrible! Glad you can stay with Amber though- I'm sure you two will have fun!

Jolene - EverydayFoodie said...

Glad to hear the long run went really well :-) That hotel stuff would have made me SO angry! Good thing they are reimbursing you.

missris said...

Wow I was having a heart attack over here reading your hotel snafu. I can relate on the confusing last name though--it's so annoying! I'm glad you found a place to stay and that it all worked out. You're totally going to rock the marathon!

Leigh said...

I would be so upset and mad if I were you about the hotel situation. But more than give your money back (and comp you for a room in the future), what else could they have done? Hopefully the person who made your reservation got a talking to about double checking dates, names and mailing addresses!!

Marlys said...

It is hard to understand how that receptionist could have made so many mistakes! She was really having a bad day! But all is well that ends well! I hope weather is as nice on the 21st as it has been lately! What a beautiful fall we have had so far!

Stephany said...

Wow, did you get somebody who was on their very first day doing your reservation? So many careless mistakes! That really sucks BUT it's awesome that Amber was able to be in town so you could stay with her. Awesome!

A treadmill with solitaire is a GENIUS idea. That would make me more apt to run on it, for sure!

Carolina John said...

Friends can save the day! Yay! The 22 miler can give you all kinds of confidence going into the race. Good job!

Amber said...

I'm so glad you had such a great 22 mile run. You 100% have a PR in you for this race!!

That whole hotel thing was such a mess!

Nora said...

that's so cool you could play solitaire while running! I've never heard of that before. Smart idea for sure.

Way to go on the long run! So proud of you!

Amber @ A Little Pink in the Cornfields said...

I cannot express how excited I am to have you stay with me for the race!!

Solitaire on the treadmill! That IS genius! I need one of those!

Caroline said...

Wow, that hotel basically sucks haha like how do you get THAT much wrong?? Good think Amber came to the rescue! Another reason blogger friends are the best : )

So glad to hear running is continuing to go well! My friend that I was supposed to run NYC with just called me yesterday saying she's dropping out too to injury, which stinks for her.. but hopefully this means we will be able to run in together next year!

The Many Thoughts of a Reader said...

that is just so bizzare about the hotel. glad you are feeling great!

Kyria @ Travel Spot said...

April doesn't sound like October, 4 is not close to 10. How did that even happen!? So annoying. I just looked into hotels in Boston and they are 300/night. Guess who is going to be calling in a favor from a Beantown friend? I hate those situations! I get so frustrated and angry that I don't think straight. I think you should call the hotel back and get a free room for later. It's actually better once you have calmed down a bit, because you have better reasoning abilities.