Wisconsin Marathon - Saturday, May 3
Results:
Time = 3:17:08 New Personal Best!! (overall pace 7:32/mile)
2nd Female OVERALL! (2/384)
37/847 runners
Photos below came from Graham's iPod - love how the kid's captured race @ mile 24. I wasn't expecting to see them there and it was such a nice surprise. I was ready to be done and seeing their smiling faces and hearing their cheers kept me going!
Ross running the Kenosha Marathon and getting a high five from his sister
In Kenosha, I set out trying to pace myself at a 7:15 pace. I knew this pace would really challenge me, probably more mentally challenging that physically. I wanted to see how long I could keep this pace. One of my last 16 mile training runs, I had kept a 7:15 or slightly faster for 13 miles (that was my goal distance @ that pace because I was preparing for the Gazelle Girl Half Marathon in April) - after I hit 13 miles that day I slowed down 2 of the last 3 miles to an 8:30ish pace and then finished the 16th mile @ about a 7:15 pace. My overall pace for those 16 miles was 7:21 ---- not too far from my 3:17 finish on Saturday. I was also able to keep a 7:15 pace for all my longer tempo runs this winter so I thought I may have a chance @ 7:15 pace but I knew it was going to be a challenge.
I wanted to start out at the 7:15 pace in Kenosha because I have already earned my Boston Qualifying time for 2015 last November. Basically, I had nothing to lose on Saturday if the wheels fell off in the mid-to-late stages of the marathon in Kenosha. I didn't taper from my Ironman training either and I had a few long bike rides this week too. I was fine with the 7:15 pace physically on Saturday, but I kept checking my watch to make sure I was on pace. I was stressing about the fact that I needed to maintain the 7:15 pace. It was a little windy in Kenosha - but not bad. At mile 12, I can remember thinking to myself "I JUST want to lay down in my bed and pull the covers over my head! I'm so tired, I'm a little cold too..... and I JUST want to lay my head down on my soft pillow!". At about mile 12.5 the half marathoners turned around and I knew the road was going to get lonely :( I was listening to some podcasts - but couldn't really get into them like I normally do. They seemed to just be playing the in background while I obsessively checked my Garmin every 0.25 miles! Then I remember seeing the mile marker for 19 (part of the course was out and back) and knowing I had SO much longer to go until I was at mile 19! Reminds me of my Ironman last summer when I saw mile marker 18 and I had only gone a few miles!
I kept with my nutrition plan of applesauce every 5 miles and water with my Enduropacks electrolyte spray every mile - although I found out around mile 10 that I was going to need fluid every 0.5 miles. It was warmer than I thought. I played my typical game of fishing where I would try to "catch" the person in front of me. I was running near a lady in a light blue shirt for a while. She was near me and then ahead of me and I finally caught her around mile 20. I passed her with intention and kept going! I kept doing the same to people in front of me and that seemed to keep me going. I had resolved in my mind that I was happy with the 7:30-7:45ish pace that I was maintaining with a few random 7:15 paced miles thrown in there when I could mentally convince myself that I WAS capable of 7:15 pacing. But I knew I wasn't being consistent like I had been in NY where I maintained a solid 7:38/mile the entire race. I NEED to be consistent the entire 26.2 miles!
I rounded the corner at about mile 24 to find my kids and Erin cheering and giving high fives! It's just what I needed at that point! I was so happy to see them. I made sure I gave each one of them a high five as a ran by!
About 0.5 miles later a motorcycle police escort turns around and starts to lead me to the finish - now talk about COOL! That was so awesome! I felt like a rockstar :) It was shortly after that, a guy on the bicycle informed me that I was woman #2! Wow! I had no idea!!! How exciting!! Did I mention that I had a motorcycle police escort for the next 1.5 miles???? I've never had that before :) Although the guy on the bicycle kept looking back as if he was checking to see if I was still there - haha! I was trying to run fast but there wasn't much left in my tank. At that point, I was pretty tired. At the final water station, I saw 1 of my running friends from Kenosha and her husband at the water station and they gave me a boost to the finish. I rounded the corner along the lakefront and passed a couple of guys who said they ran Boston a couple weeks ago. Crossed the finish line and received an official Wisconsin cheese-head and a yummy box of gourmet cheese!
I won't go into too many details of what happened next ..... but let's just say that Ross was in the medical tent and eventually ended up needing some 'extra' fluids at the hospital :)
We arrived home from Wisconsin at about 9:30pm. We were going to stop @ Subway for some to-go subs but pulled up to the store and realized that they were already closed for the night. I really wanted some pasta and homemade bread (that was the original plan if we got home before 6pm) - but I knew my stomach would not do well with that much food that late at night. We got the kids some sandwiches for dinner (bad mom!) and got them showered and ready for bed. I started the first round of laundry and Ross unloaded the car. The girls who were going to watch the kids in the morning came over and got settled in. They all went to bed and I sat down to eat something at about 10:30pm. I wasn't really hungry at that point, but I knew I needed to eat something. Got round 2 of laundry started and got most of my things ready for the marathon on Sunday. Set out the boy's clothes for church the next day (they had to play handbells at both services) and I finally got into bed about 11:30.
I remember waking up at 2:51am --- the first thing I thought to myself was "should I try to put my feet on the floor to see how my legs feel? I'm scared that they will be sore and it will be a long marathon in Kalamazoo". I bravely sat up in bed and put my feet on the floor - I walked out to the kitchen to get a drink of water. My legs weren't sore! That was good news! I went back to bed and laid down - I couldn't seem to fall back to sleep though. I tossed and turned until about 3:30am and finally fell back to sleep. I kept turning over to make sure Ross was still breathing. I had some really strange dreams and then the alarm went off at 5:30am - Time to run another MARATHON! Whoohoo! Let's do this. I gathered up the clean racing clothes from the laundry room and got ready to go. Set out breakfast for the kids. Ross drove up to Kalamazoo and I looked up a few pacing times on my phone. No time like just before you're going to run a marathon to figure out your pacing plan, right? haha! last week was super busy and I just never sat down to look up the pacing times.
I really wanted to run a 3:40 in Kalamazoo to say that I qualified for Boston in both marathons this weekend - that meant I needed to run 8:23 per mile to get me a 3:39.14 --- or something close to that. My first reaction in the car as I looked at the pacing charts was "hmmm, not sure I can do that - I was struggling the day before to keep a 7:45 pace during some of the miles in Kenosha and I knew Kalamazoo had more hills.... and that my body already ran 26.2 miles @ a personal best time just 24 hours ago!" But deep in my competitive mind, I REALLY wanted to BQ both days!!!!
Ross and I picked up our race packets at the VIP mitteneers tent and had our photo taken with the 78 other mitteneers just before the start of the marathon. We did our warmups and headed to the start! I ran into a girl who is participating in my 5k program and she was doing the half-marathon that day - she told me that before starting my running program she never thought she was capable of ever running 3 miles and she just started adding miles to her weekend runs and she decided to sign up for the half-marathon! Hearing her story made me so happy inside!!! So inspirational!
We stood next to another fellow mitteneer at the start and he said that he ran a 3:16 in Kenosha --- just in front of me! He took off super fast in Kalamazoo but I tried to maintain my pace. My legs felt pretty good and I was maintaining about an 8:00/mile pace. I felt good and as each mile passed, I kept thinking to myself " there's another 20 more seconds in the bank for when you hit the hills or the wall near the end of the marathon"..... I continued to "bank" 20 or so seconds each mile and felt really good. I did the same nutrition plan and water/electrolyte plan as in Kenosha. I wasn't feeling the mental strain that I had in Kenosha --- so I feel like I've learned a very important mental lesson this weekend: When I give myself a time goal - I'm going to give it an upper limit instead of a 'must hit this pace' limit. I seem to function better under these terms :) As the miles passed in Kalamazoo, I continued my game of "catch" and passed a few women along the way - no other women mitteneers but women running the marathon. I finally passed the guy at the start who finished just in front of my in Kenosha. I was maintaining a steady pace of 8:00/mile throughout the entire race. I went up the last big hill at mile 25.5, where I looked back to see 3 little kids about 8 or 9 years old giggling and chasing me up the hill :) I think they had been chasing runners up the hill all day because Ross told me that they chased him up the hill too - I immediately thought of my 4 kids and knew that would be something they would do :)
I rounded the corner to the finish in 3:30 and I couldn't believe it!! I ran a 3:30 marathon!!! As I finished, I thought to myself "now why couldn't I have done that in Portland 2 years ago?!?! - where I ran a 3:39:40 on fresh legs" (The Portland Marathon time is what I used to apply for Boston 2014 but it wasn't fast enough to get in this year due to the increased interest in Boston - I needed 3:38 to get in to Boston 2014 --- it's been haunting me ever since I was denied entry to Boston 2014. I did a fist pump (haha!) as I finished and I said "I DID it!" "I DID it - I just ran a 3:30 marathon after running a 3:17 yesterday!"
Kalamazoo Marathon - Sunday, May 4
Results:
Time = 3:30:24 (pace 8:01/mile)
8th Female OVERALL! (8/198)
2nd in Age Group (2/36)
43/515 runners
..... but for the next couple days my running shoes will be taking a break!
