Everything you need is already inside.
Let's just start out with the good news - today, I ran a GREAT race, the race I knew I had somewhere inside of me. I ran the Albany Marathon in Albany, GA in 3:39.40 - which is a 16 minute PR, with my previous best coming in the 2009 Mayors Marathon in Anchorage.
My training for this race started roughly 3 weeks after the train wreck that was the 2011 Chicago Marathon. I was, frankly, really ticked off after that race, because I knew. I KNEW that I could do better. So, I joined the speedwork group and started doing regular Tuesday night speedwork sessions with KG. On KG's advice, I purchased a copy of Pete Pfitzinger's Advanced Marathoning and started following the 18-week, 55 miles a week max training plan religiously (no easy feat during the holiday season - eye on the prize, though, eye of the prize.)
Track workout sessions in pouring rain. Long runs in cold-for-Atlanta temperatures. Hit up the trails to mix it up a bit. Running prescribed paces, no faster, no slower. Training fell together really well - so well, that I set a new 10K PR 3 weeks before Albany with a solid 45:13, followed by a solid final 20-miler. I felt well prepared going into the 3 week taper.
This past week, though - another story. My quads were SORE after Tuesday's 2-mile track run at marathon pace. My legs never felt fresh all week. And to top it off, the weather forecast was projecting rain and warmer temperatures. Not an idea race situation at all.
Given all this, though - I didn't want to use the weather as an excuse. I had already done that once, and it wasn't a good feeling. I wanted to say that I had given it everything. I knew I needed to be hydrated going in, start hydrating early, and just keep plugging away as long as I could. That was the plan, and I was going to stick to it.
Friday night, TB, MM and I arrived (after a HILARIOUS car ride) in Albany, picked up our race packets, checked in to the hotel, and promptly went to the local Italian chain for dinner. Some bread, a house salad and chicken parmesan later, we were back in the hotel watching awesome TV - namely, Urban Cowboy :-) About the time MJ - she of the awesome, glittertastic signmaking skills - showed up, we had ourselves a tornado warning, and there was some question about whether or not there even would be a race. We were asleep by 10 PM, which was a good thing since 5 AM came really early.
5 AM - up, eat a bagel and banana, get dressed, take care of business, drink water and head to the start by 6 AM. Use the porta-john, do a little 1-mile race warm-up. Get in the corral for the 7 AM start. At 6:55 AM, it started raining, and thank goodness for it, since it was very humid. Had it been sunny, today would have been a much different story.
BOOM! (No really - there was a cannon at the start. Way cool.) And we're off. And things, well, things just don't feel great. My legs are tired from the start. The rain is picking up. I'm running with the 3:35 pace group, though, and I'm going stay with them as long as I can. One of the things I am absolutely sure to do is take gatorade at each water station, even if I feel I don't need it - I know I'm dehydrating early, and I need to hold that off as long as possible. Water stations were roughly every 2 miles, so it wasn't hard to do. I pass the cheer pack at mile 4 feeling ok. KG picks me up at mile 5 and runs with me for a mile, which was eventful because the tornado warning siren went off right then. But, we kept running. He leaves me at mile 6 and tells me to keep with the 3:35 group. (I would find out later that he was pretty concerned as I was breathing pretty hard already this early into the race. As I said, I did not feel great. But I was going to do it.)
Around mile 12, I fell off the 3:35 pace group, which was pretty demoralizing as that is now my new Boston Marathon qualifying standard. I felt like my left calf was going to cramp up. But, I looked at my watch and just thought to myself, "stay steady as long as you can." I'm now running 8:20-8:30 miles and pass the half in roughly 1:47.
Mile 13-19 was the "battle in my head." Everything hurt. But if I ignored it, I was running well, and so, well I was going to ignore it as much as possible. I have to say, it was in this section that the awesome volunteer support on the course was KEY. Lots of "lookin' good!" and "run strong!" definitely helped. I saw the cheer group at mile 19, and let me tell you, my glittertastic Ryan Gosling-meme-themed sign really perked me up. "Hey girl - after you finish this marathon, want to finish me?" Hilarious - thanks so much, MJ!!!! I saw KG again and he said, just keep it steady - zone out! I would find out later that according to him, I looked basically the same at mile 19 that I did at mile 5. I suppose this is a good thing.
I passed mile 20 in 2:46 and realized that if I only ran 10-minute miles from here on out, I was still going to PR. So, might as well keep on trucking as fast as I could. 21 and 22 sailed by. Mile 23 and 24 were the miles of walk breaks. But I just kept telling myself, "Big PR, girl, go for the big one." I was also starting to pass the wounded of the day, which made things a bit easier and made me feel a little bit better. By Mile 26 I was running strong again, and I passed a couple of women on the way in. The last 400 meters were on a paved path heading into the park, and I saw the final clock and started booking it, but smiling all the while. 3:39.40 on a day where it was raining off and on, and started raining sideways immediately after I finished is a GREAT feeling. WD, the race director, put my medal around my neck and gave me a huge hug. Awesome. Results are HERE: apparently I also finished 2nd in my age group!!!!
So, yeah. HUGE breakthrough. I'm really, really, really stoked. What were the keys to success? I think it was a few things - making sure to hydrate early and often, taking a gel every 50 minutes or so, and knowing how to dress in the rain. I purposely wore a tank top bra because previous rain running experience has shown that shirts are not good attire for rain. My running skirt was chosen for similar reasons - though I still ended up getting chaffed from here until Tuesday (sorry, TMI!) My pre-race chicken parm was a good mental choice, as that was my meal before my huge half marathon PR in NOLA in 2011.
But really? It was the training. It was having the base from Chicago's bad race followed by well-timed LT and VO2 Max sessions. It was getting out and doing the long runs in all kinds of weather. It was the two marathon-pace long runs. It was a rough day out there, and I could have easily folded for any number of reasons. I went out there feeling kind of cruddy, but I trusted my training and it did not let me down.
What's next? Who knows. I KNOW Boston is within reach now - something that has always been a doubt in the back of my mine, but now that doubt is GONE. I'm switching focus to the bike for a few months to take a break. I might do a fall race after building some speed in the summer - I'm on the fence about that. Part of me wants to wait until next spring - since I'm not going to get into Boston any earlier by going this fall - and just run some trails, maybe do a 50K, and RACE a half-marathon, since I probably have a killer PR in there somewhere.
Right now, though - I'm going to take a few weeks, get some rest from running and just ENJOY the breakthrough.
:-)
:-)
:-)
My training for this race started roughly 3 weeks after the train wreck that was the 2011 Chicago Marathon. I was, frankly, really ticked off after that race, because I knew. I KNEW that I could do better. So, I joined the speedwork group and started doing regular Tuesday night speedwork sessions with KG. On KG's advice, I purchased a copy of Pete Pfitzinger's Advanced Marathoning and started following the 18-week, 55 miles a week max training plan religiously (no easy feat during the holiday season - eye on the prize, though, eye of the prize.)
Track workout sessions in pouring rain. Long runs in cold-for-Atlanta temperatures. Hit up the trails to mix it up a bit. Running prescribed paces, no faster, no slower. Training fell together really well - so well, that I set a new 10K PR 3 weeks before Albany with a solid 45:13, followed by a solid final 20-miler. I felt well prepared going into the 3 week taper.
This past week, though - another story. My quads were SORE after Tuesday's 2-mile track run at marathon pace. My legs never felt fresh all week. And to top it off, the weather forecast was projecting rain and warmer temperatures. Not an idea race situation at all.
Given all this, though - I didn't want to use the weather as an excuse. I had already done that once, and it wasn't a good feeling. I wanted to say that I had given it everything. I knew I needed to be hydrated going in, start hydrating early, and just keep plugging away as long as I could. That was the plan, and I was going to stick to it.
Friday night, TB, MM and I arrived (after a HILARIOUS car ride) in Albany, picked up our race packets, checked in to the hotel, and promptly went to the local Italian chain for dinner. Some bread, a house salad and chicken parmesan later, we were back in the hotel watching awesome TV - namely, Urban Cowboy :-) About the time MJ - she of the awesome, glittertastic signmaking skills - showed up, we had ourselves a tornado warning, and there was some question about whether or not there even would be a race. We were asleep by 10 PM, which was a good thing since 5 AM came really early.
5 AM - up, eat a bagel and banana, get dressed, take care of business, drink water and head to the start by 6 AM. Use the porta-john, do a little 1-mile race warm-up. Get in the corral for the 7 AM start. At 6:55 AM, it started raining, and thank goodness for it, since it was very humid. Had it been sunny, today would have been a much different story.
BOOM! (No really - there was a cannon at the start. Way cool.) And we're off. And things, well, things just don't feel great. My legs are tired from the start. The rain is picking up. I'm running with the 3:35 pace group, though, and I'm going stay with them as long as I can. One of the things I am absolutely sure to do is take gatorade at each water station, even if I feel I don't need it - I know I'm dehydrating early, and I need to hold that off as long as possible. Water stations were roughly every 2 miles, so it wasn't hard to do. I pass the cheer pack at mile 4 feeling ok. KG picks me up at mile 5 and runs with me for a mile, which was eventful because the tornado warning siren went off right then. But, we kept running. He leaves me at mile 6 and tells me to keep with the 3:35 group. (I would find out later that he was pretty concerned as I was breathing pretty hard already this early into the race. As I said, I did not feel great. But I was going to do it.)
Around mile 12, I fell off the 3:35 pace group, which was pretty demoralizing as that is now my new Boston Marathon qualifying standard. I felt like my left calf was going to cramp up. But, I looked at my watch and just thought to myself, "stay steady as long as you can." I'm now running 8:20-8:30 miles and pass the half in roughly 1:47.
Mile 13-19 was the "battle in my head." Everything hurt. But if I ignored it, I was running well, and so, well I was going to ignore it as much as possible. I have to say, it was in this section that the awesome volunteer support on the course was KEY. Lots of "lookin' good!" and "run strong!" definitely helped. I saw the cheer group at mile 19, and let me tell you, my glittertastic Ryan Gosling-meme-themed sign really perked me up. "Hey girl - after you finish this marathon, want to finish me?" Hilarious - thanks so much, MJ!!!! I saw KG again and he said, just keep it steady - zone out! I would find out later that according to him, I looked basically the same at mile 19 that I did at mile 5. I suppose this is a good thing.
I passed mile 20 in 2:46 and realized that if I only ran 10-minute miles from here on out, I was still going to PR. So, might as well keep on trucking as fast as I could. 21 and 22 sailed by. Mile 23 and 24 were the miles of walk breaks. But I just kept telling myself, "Big PR, girl, go for the big one." I was also starting to pass the wounded of the day, which made things a bit easier and made me feel a little bit better. By Mile 26 I was running strong again, and I passed a couple of women on the way in. The last 400 meters were on a paved path heading into the park, and I saw the final clock and started booking it, but smiling all the while. 3:39.40 on a day where it was raining off and on, and started raining sideways immediately after I finished is a GREAT feeling. WD, the race director, put my medal around my neck and gave me a huge hug. Awesome. Results are HERE: apparently I also finished 2nd in my age group!!!!
So, yeah. HUGE breakthrough. I'm really, really, really stoked. What were the keys to success? I think it was a few things - making sure to hydrate early and often, taking a gel every 50 minutes or so, and knowing how to dress in the rain. I purposely wore a tank top bra because previous rain running experience has shown that shirts are not good attire for rain. My running skirt was chosen for similar reasons - though I still ended up getting chaffed from here until Tuesday (sorry, TMI!) My pre-race chicken parm was a good mental choice, as that was my meal before my huge half marathon PR in NOLA in 2011.
But really? It was the training. It was having the base from Chicago's bad race followed by well-timed LT and VO2 Max sessions. It was getting out and doing the long runs in all kinds of weather. It was the two marathon-pace long runs. It was a rough day out there, and I could have easily folded for any number of reasons. I went out there feeling kind of cruddy, but I trusted my training and it did not let me down.
What's next? Who knows. I KNOW Boston is within reach now - something that has always been a doubt in the back of my mine, but now that doubt is GONE. I'm switching focus to the bike for a few months to take a break. I might do a fall race after building some speed in the summer - I'm on the fence about that. Part of me wants to wait until next spring - since I'm not going to get into Boston any earlier by going this fall - and just run some trails, maybe do a 50K, and RACE a half-marathon, since I probably have a killer PR in there somewhere.
Right now, though - I'm going to take a few weeks, get some rest from running and just ENJOY the breakthrough.
:-)
:-)
:-)