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Duluth, MN - half marathon

Sunday, October 27, 2013

One Heck of an October

I FINALLY did it!!!! After three years, I decided to run my second marathon. The first weekend in October, Marshall and I headed north to Minneapolis so that I could run the Twin Cities Marathon (which also happened to be the USA national marathon championships). Now, when I first chose this race to be my marathon, I didn't realize it was the championship race. I'd simply looked at TCM's website and saw that you had to run a 2:49 to qualify for elite status. Having not ran a recent marathon, I decided to see if they would allow me a free entry based on my half marathon time. I was both happy and relieved that they were going to let me run, but had a slight moment of panic as I read, "we would be happy to offer you a spot in the USA championship race" . . . *gulp. Not only was this my first marathon in three years (and second ever), but I'd toe the line with some of the fastest women in the USA. All of a sudden, it started to feel real. . . I was getting ready to run a marathon. Having qualified with my half marathon time, I felt like I had to run well to prove that I deserved to run in this race, so that's exactly what I did!

Now the race was three weeks ago, so I'm a little blurry on exact specifics of the race, but I'll do my best to recap.

October 6, 2013 - Twin Cities Marathon/USA champs:
w/u around start area

Worst case scenario: fly and die, but at least be under 2:50, don't finish last
Most likely scenario: I'd finish around 2:46-2:47ish, finish mid pack
Beset case scenario: Sub 2:43 for Olympic B standard - finish in top 20

Actual - 2:44:20, 16th place, 80 seconds from Olympic B!!!

no c/d - too painful

Now training for this race wasn't ideal, and it wasn't the prettiest. Having finally gotten a big kid job, I'd struggled with falling into a rhythm of when running worked best for me. Marshall and I played around with early morning (i.e. being on the roads by 5:10 am!)  and evening runs (i.e. after being on my feet most of the day), and I think we've decided that for right now, evenings will have to do. Not ideal, but work is important, a girls' gotta eat. I slacked on the core, can't remember the last time I hit the weight room, and dropped workouts because I was simply "tired" from working (In my defense, I work from 8-6:15ish most days!) However, I still nailed my long runs, giving me some hope that I could break 2:50.
Around mile 18-19. . . courtesy of Marshall's phone. I'd love to have the professional photos *hint hint* if any family members need Christmas ideas ;-) 
The plan was to hold 6:10's for as long as I could, hoping to hold on to an average of 6:17 which would be 2:45. I found out the day before, that Raquel Stucky, who I've raced a handful of times, was running as well. She was wanting to run 2:40ish, so if I could grab onto her I'd have a good chance of reaching my goals. At the beginning of the race, there were so many people that I had trouble finding a group I could latch onto. I'd tried to keep up with two masters ladies (in their 40's), but after splitting a 6:01 I decided I needed to simmer down. They dropped me like I was standing still and weren't seen again until 2+ hours later at mile 24-25 (when I blew by them, I might add ;-) !)


Almost done with the uphill section - mile 20-23 uphill was a killer!
About 5k, I was in a group of three, including Raquel. We packed together until about 10k, when 3 more women and a few men caught us. We were a pretty tight pack until about 14 miles in, when the group seemed drop and scatter all of a sudden. I found myself continuing to hold on to the ones that were pushing pace for a few more miles until I was running some-what alone. I still had people in sight, but was not running stride-for-stride with anyone. I was in 21st place at mile 18, when I saw a lady start waking and drop from the race. Cool, I thought. . . I could be in the top 20. I got to mile 20 and I'd hit the uphill portion of the race. I was quickly gaining on 2 more women. Despite my quickly descending backwards pace, I passed one like she was standing still. Then a few minutes later I passed another woman, who didn't try to go with me either. Ya! I was in 18th place :)
 
Much to my surprise, I spotted the two older ladies just ahead. Now, I must mention that one of theses ladies beat me at the USA half champs earlier this year in June, blowing by me around mile 11. So this was sweet redemption as I passed her around mile 25. Now the other lady actually tried to get competitive and tried to go with. So I ran a few strides ahead of her from 25-26, when she pulled slightly ahead at the 26 mile marker. Now, only .2 miles remaining, I was content to simply finish the race, knowing I had a PR in the bag. However, that only entertained my thoughts for mere seconds. Those that know me best, know I'm a very competitive person. Masters runner, young runner, male, female. . . doesn't matter. I'm not going down without a fight. At 26.1 miles, I may have looked like I was merely jogging. But I picture myself blazing down that home stretch in a dead sprint. In reality (I saw the finish video) I looked like I simply maintained, but still came through strong and looking some-what decent.
Finisher
10 minutes later, the pain set in. I cursed my achy hamstrings and swore I was never going to run another marathon again (I was in the heat of the moment). I'm doubled over in pain, considering the med tent, while the other elite runners were walking around like it was no big deal. It was then I realized just how under trained I was compared to them, but I'm a gutsy runner.
 
It took about 2 weeks before I started feeling somewhat normal with running again. Now, three weeks post marathon, I'm in my right-mind again and am okay with another marathon. . .  in the distant future, however.