Marathon buildup summary:Overall the buildup went pretty well. After a medical mission trip to Nepal in June which served as my running break/downtime, I was eager to start training again. Jen started my training program in the beginning of July and I raced on the 4th. Despite no workouts, I was pleased how the race went in hot and humid conditions at the start of a training cycle. In August I raced Bridge of Flowers and was again pleasantly surprised with how the race went. There's a massive hill (along with a gradual mile uphill) during this 8k race so time was out the window. Instead, I used splits from previous years to gauge my results--mile up the hill, mile down the hill, etc. and ran my fastest splits at that race. The end of August I ran the 18.12 Challenge as a workout and was successful enough that day to hit my splits and get the win. In September, I tuned up with 2 half marathons--the first came during my highest mileage week and was part of a 22 mile long run in which I ran close to 8 miles prior to the start and pulled out a 1:21:24 half before a 1 mile cool down. Then the next week I ran another half with a tad less mileage for the week and less miles prior to the start. I ran 1:19:50 on the hilly Adirondack course for a new course record and win.
 |
| Willow Street Sweep at the Adirondack Half Marathon |
The week leading up to the race:
The weather looked perfect. My environment, not so much. Mike got sick, another friend who had stayed at my house also got sick. People were coughing all over left and right at work. The last thing I needed was to get sick. I had already been taking vitamins prophylactically and started to add everything in sight--emergen-C, airborne, Zicam. I kept bleach wipes and sanitizer with me at all times and put poor Mike in the guest room. Somehow despite feeling on the cusp of being sick several days, I avoided the crisis. Mission one accomplished.
Thursday I left work after a half day to get some pre-race rituals done. My eyebrows, hair, you know--to do your best you should look your best? I made my water bottles, did laundry and packed everything. I decided to take the day off from running (first day since June) since it was raining all day and I didn’t want to get sick.
Friday morning I did a very short shake out run and strides, showered and left. I drove while Mike slept in attempts to feel a bit better. We got to the expo shortly after lunch for a quick walk around before heading to the hotel.
I spent most of the remaining afternoon in bed watching TV (and checking the weather) before heading to dinner. The weather was now calling for rain and suddenly Boston Marathon flashbacks appeared in my head. My cotton gloves weren’t going to cut it. I called Fleet Feet and found out they had gloves with a waterproof shield. Perfect, I thought it’s only 4 miles away we can go prior to dinner. We left 45 minutes prior to our reservation only to realize 4 miles in downtown Hartford at rush hour had my GPS putting us there in 30 minutes. Well, so much for that thought... We had to walk by the expo to get to dinner so we made another stop there and I settled for slightly better gloves than my cotton ones.
Dinner was uneventful, my normal pre-race pasta and shrimp. From there I went to the technical meeting, chatted with some people and headed back to my room to get ready for bed.
I slept pretty well considering and got out of bed at 5:45 a.m. I made coffee and ate my bagel with peanut butter and half of a banana. After some foam rolling and light stretching I was ready to leave. We started our walk over around 7:05 and ran into Hannah, Matt and the kids on the way. Yay! It had started to drizzle as I went out for a light jog, which became a shorter warm up than normal. After some quick drills and bathroom, I left for the start with the group.
The Race:
Breakfast of champions- Honey Stinger gel
I stood on the line with my winter hat as long as possible and kept my long sleeve shirt on until after mile 1 when I saw Erin, and double Mikes. I ran with Rachel through mile 9 as we weaved through the parks and felt the rain pick up.
 |
| Around mile 6 |
 |
| Somewhere around mile 4.5, I think |
She pulled away however when I looked down at my splits my pace hadn’t changed. No worries, run your own race I thought to myself. I watched Rachel grab her first bottle and then I completely missed mine. Damn it, it’s only 1 bottle. Thankfully I had stuffed enough gel in my shorts to account for a missed bottle. At mile 11 I took my second gel, but had to remove a glove to do so. And then, I dropped my glove. Ugg! Knowing how nonfunctional my hands got at Boston, the fact I have Rynaud’s and it was still raining, I worried. I went to push up a hill before the half and felt my hamstring. Oh boy, relax, you don’t need to push it yet. Thankfully the hamstring pain went away. I went through the half in 1:21:20. A little fast, but not suicidal. I was eager to hit the turn around at mile 17 and use the gradual downhill for a couple miles. The next few miles passed, I saw some familiar faces on the course and despite being an "uphill" mile, mile 17 was 6:17. I had analyzed the course, other runner’s past splits and was accounting for that mile to be slow. Not so bad. I hit the turn around excited to push the next 3 miles. I then hit mile 18 in 6:06. Woooo, slow it down I told myself, there’s still a lot of running left. When I hit mile 20 I was at 2 hours and 4 minutes flat. A minute and 35 seconds faster than 2:45:45 marathon. Okay, I got this I thought and took my next bottle and gel. I had also taped a run gum to my bottle which was a joke. There was no way that piece of gum was getting out of the package even though it was already pre opened. I dropped the other glove at this point and started to focus. The next 2 miles went well and then 24 got slow. I started to feel my quads a bit and get cold. Oh no. I went to take what I thought was a gel but really it was a tray of candy. Uggg! I took an electrolyte drink from an aide station and pushed to 25, 6:16 back on track. Now for the "hill". The actual ramp up the overpass wasn’t as bad as I remembered it to be, however cresting the bridge was painful. As I came down around 25.5 someone was screaming at me telling me I had to push and go! That someone was Hannah and it took me a couple minutes to realize it despite her yelling and sprinting next to me. Nooo I thought, don’t I have time? But where is the finish, I don’t see it. Oh no, the tangents... the course is going to be way longer than I thought. And there it was mile 26 and then the final turn. 
I could see the clock and realized I was well under 2:44. Hmmm I could walk the final steps... but I ran across the finish and into the elite coordinator’s arms. I did it!
My medal, I want my medal! In 2014 when I finished, they were quick to pull me into the tent to get dry clothes on so I could go to the stage for awards and I never got my medal! I had to have it mailed a couple weeks later. They assured me I’d get it and directed me out of the finish shoot where I saw my Mike, Hannah, my parents, sister, Erin & Mike. I hugged everyone, people were crying, it was pretty memorable to say the least. Mike then had the job of getting me into dry clothes before the awards ceremony.
 |
| Best support crew!!! |
During the race when I could feel myself tensing up I reminded myself- Relax, drop your arms, let your jaw loose, you have wings, think of James. I did this throughout the race and it most certainly helped. Around 24-25 I was confident this OTQ was happening and started to get a bit emotional.
After awards Mike and I walked back to the hotel where I showered and met my family. We stopped in Springfield on the way home for food (and a drink) and then Mike and I got a bit distracted (I was responding to messages while Mike drove). Despite him working in Hartford every Monday, we ended up in Vermont! We essentially drove through the entire state of Massachusetts without noticing! After seeing the fall foliage we finally made it home. We grabbed Mia and went to my parent’s house to celebrate with the family.
Media links:
Hartford Newspaper article
NE Runner article
The Schenectady Gazette
After thoughts:
I'm pretty pumped to say the least to have made the trials. I do want to train as hard as ever in preparation for the trials, prove I deserve to be on the line and run a great race. I haven't ever run more than 93 miles a week (4 years ago in preparation for Hartford) and wonder if consistently running 10-15 miles more a week for a cycle would benefit me. I do feel its a thin line to walk, the risk of injury, balancing life and getting enough sleep is critical. I'm extremely happy I have successfully stayed around 80 miles for marathon training the past 4 years and was able to OTQ in this range, you can only keep increasing your mileage for so long. So maybe now 1-2 cycles of higher mileage will have a huge benefit, but maybe it won't, too soon to worry about that yet! I'll probably focus on speed this winter and possible try to tackle a half marathon PR in the spring.
And once again, I can’t thank everyone who has supported me along the way enough!
https://instagram.com/p/Bo4oDiUF_n7/
No comments:
Post a Comment