Hartford Marathon 2018

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

Overall the summer was hot and thankfully race day was not.  I peaked at 85 miles and hung around 70-80 for the majority of the training block.  I incorporated the strength program I had been following since last fall about 3-4 days a week.  The program isn't very time consuming and focuses on different things throughout the week, so 3-4 times a week wasn't too bad!






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. 

Breakfast of champions- Honey Stinger gel

The Race:
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/

Drowning in Boston

Well it’s been a day post marathon.  My emotions have changed quite drastically from during, the finish, and now.  During the later stages of the race I couldn’t wait to just get to the finish.  At the finish I was elated--I finished what was the hardest thing I had experienced thus far and felt proud.  Today, I feel disappointed.. "Why didnt I do this or that... I could have finished in the top 20".... and so we begin...

Marathon morning I woke up at the hotel and did the normal coffee, breakfast and foam rolling.  Last minute I thought I should fill out my medical information on the back of my bib in a sharpie.  I then layered up as the rain was already pelting down and the winds were gusting and headed out.  I took a shuttle from the hotel to the South Street lot where we were then bused to Athlete’s Village.  My timing was perfect.  I arrived at 9:05, enough time to warmup, use the restroom and change without any extra minutes standing around in the rain.

The gun went off and I was relaxed.  I was wearing a thin, black, water resistant coat with my crop top underneath that had my bib pinned to it as well as gloves and a ski band to cover my ears.  First mile 6:17.  Perfect, just don’t pick it up.  I slowed down to a jog.   6:30, perfect.  I ditched the coat.  I then ran a 6:08, while accidentally hitting stop on my watch instead of lap, opps.  The next 11 miles were between 6:08 and 6:20.  I saw Erin and Mike at mile 6, then my mom, aunt and boyfriend at 6.5.  I was feeling so great!   At Mile 7 all of a sudden the rain poured down on us and the wind began gusting.  Ugggg.  I tried to tuck in, but it seemed to be hitting me no matter where I tried to hide.  Mile 10-11 was a little rough patch, but I took my gel and bounced back the next 2-3 miles.  I went through the half in 1:21:56, an exact split I’ve run now at several marathons to the second.  At 15 I got cold and everything changed for the worse.  My hands stopped working and a girl came up on me saying, let’s go.  She was wearing spankies and her legs looked so warm compared to mine.  I couldn’t respond. My right leg started going numb.  Well this is new, I thought.  We went downhill at 16 and it was a much slower mile than I had anticipated going into the race. I told myself, just run 6:45’s the next few miles and it will be ok.... 

we got up the overpass hill at 16.5 which I dreaded prior, however I didn’t even notice it.  Ahh a 7:02 mile up the first hill, whatever.  The next hill I ran the same and opened it up on 19 for a 6:40.  So my time was gone, but I still thought a sub-2:50 was in the books.  At this point my hands hadn’t been working and I gave up on trying to get my nutrition out of my shorts.  Hmmm, I’ve done some depleted long runs maybe I’ll be ok.  Heartbreak hill I noticed.  I began having a hard time and my legs were cramping.  I tried to open it at the top and nothing.  Oh no.  I started staggering as I ran.  Just get me to the F’ing finish.  I turned on Beacon full of emotions.  Ok, my mom and Mike will be at mile 23.  I’ll stop and cry there.  I ran along the railing on the appropriate side only to notice Joe and Kevin standing there.  Shit.  I can’t stop and cry, where are they?   I numbfully shuffled the next few miles.  As I turned onto Boylston I thought of my pre race plan with this road-- sprint!  But no.  I kept thinking I’m going to collapse, I’m going to be that person that gets carried to the finish.  Don’t risk it, get in safely on your feet- so I did.

I crossed the finish line well off my expected time and found I couldn’t walk.  I was grabbed by 2 volunteers and brought into the medical tent.  I couldn’t see, everything was dark.  They placed me on a stretcher. Several attempts to get a temperature on me failed and they couldn’t believe how cold my body felt and blue my lips were.  The shivering wouldn’t stop, my breathing wasn’t normal.  Several people came around me and lifted the stretcher I was on to carry me over to the bear hugger.  Yes, this is what I need I thought in my head.  They stripped my clothes and shoes off and blew the warm air on my body while wrapping me in blankets.  I had been laying down for some time and as I tried to bring my head up to sip on warm fluids the cramps began.  Both calves seized and wouldn’t stop.  I screamed.  This happened 5-6 more times until the electrolyte tablets they got in me worked.  My bib was taken by now, thankfully I filled out the back, and my mom and Mike were both called.  Eventually I came to life again, I stopped shivering and I was breathing normal.  We left my wet clothes off as I exited the medical tent in a foil outfit safety pinned to keep my lady parts covered and foiled wrapped around my feet as socks.  

 I shuffled until I found my family and entered one of the hotels to change.  While changing, I found out Desi won, barely breaking 2:40, while Shalane ran 2:46 and Molly Huddle ran 2:50.  I was thrilled Desi won (by the way I called it all week --given the conditions I knew she would win) but also so relieved they didn’t run what they were capable of either.  I felt so much better about my 2:56.  Prior to the race I had a goal of making the top 50, I finished 41st.

So after all this you’d think I would still be happy today.  No.  I should have left that coat on.  I let SO many women pass me the last 2 miles.  Had I had been warmer and didn’t get hypothermic, had I taken my nutrition, damn it I could have made top 20.  I know MANY people had situations like mine, some worse off.  Think about it--Shalane ran 2:46, ~24 minutes off her PR.  Molly ~22 minutes off her PR.  I was 10:45 seconds off.  BUT I had felt so comfortable, like I was jogging at so many points the first half.  You never know what each person’s body will do in extreme environments.  I’m sure some runners with extra clothes, layers, better gloves, who got their nutrition, fared better.  I’m sure those with less body fat and completely unaccilmated fared worse.

So at the end of the day, I finished Boston.  There’s a lot of unfinished business out there and I’m sure next time (when the weather is better) it will feel a million times easier.