Boston Marathon!

It' time to come back down to Earth and start training again. What an exciting time Boston was for us! I can't say I was really too thrilled during the actual race, but I guess the conditions made this an epic race. 

It seemed that every time I checked the weather report, the conditions just kept getting worse. By Saturday (race was Monday), I had accepted the fact that a P.R. was not going to happen. I learned from my mistake at the 2016 trials and was just going to run a "smart" race. Meaning run based on feel, start conservative, and don't be an idiot (fly and die method). I figured that several of the foreign runners may drop and that if I just finished I could possibly sneak into a higher finishing position.

With the gusty winds and pouring rain, no one really wanted to take control and lead the race. Therefore, we opened with a slow first mile as I had expected anyways. Almost immediately after the first mile, the professionals started to break away. I stayed with a handful of others for about 7 more miles running fairly conservative, but really not too far off 6 minute pace. By mile 8, the girl I had been trailing slowly started to pull away and I was left to fight by myself for a large portion of the race. I would later reel this runner back in. 

I came through the half way point in just under 1:22 and thought maybe I could have a good last 10k and hopes of holding onto a sub 2:45. By this point in the race, I had passed the first professional who I saw pull off at the 13.1 sobbing and went to the med tent. Over the next 5 miles, I started to see more and more women dropping. I heard a spectator tell me he thought I might be in the top 15. Yes! I thought.

Near Mile 25 - look at that rain!

I kept telling myself to get to mile 21 because this would be the top of heart break hill and then I would get a downhill to get me going again. I was so excited when I finally reached that point, but once I started going downhill, the quad were so cold that it felt worse than going up heartbreak hill! Talk about a let down. . . however, it was shortly after this that another spectator told me I was knocking on the door of top 10! I thought he must be mistaken, I had jostled position and couldn't keep track of who I passed and who had passed me. Never the less, I felt a small beacon of hope start to spread through me. 

I knew at this point I had less than 35 minutes of running. My hands were freezing, the hand warmers were soaked, but I think the plastic bags were at least still cutting the wind some. I really don't know how I survived, but I did! I missed a GU at mile 19ish because my hands were too frozen to open the pack. I debated stopping until I could get it open, but decided I could make it without the GU. My legs were so numb, I feared I might not get going again if I stopped. 

At mile 25, I saw Molly huddle walk over to the bottle. At this point I started to get excited. I thought, if I can hold her off for about a mile, I might actually beat Molly Huddle! I knew I would NEVER be able to say that again, and a little bit of adrenaline kicked in. It was raining so hard, I couldn't see any runners in front of me (and I wasn't about to look behind me!). As I turned onto Boylston street, I saw another female just a little a head of me. I was gaining on her quickly and it didn't take too long to catch her. I thought maybe she would put up a fight down the home stretch, but she didn't have anything left at that point. She looked familiar to me, but with everyone wearing jackets, I couldn't see her number on her back. Turns out it was Edna Kiplagat who was the Boston Marathon Champion last year! 

I would have tired to look happier if  I knew what place I was in. I was just relieved to finally be done!

I also heard them announce Shalane Flanagan's name as I was nearing the finish! Holy smokes, I thought to myself, I finished right behind Shalane. I couldn't wait to tell Marshall. I still had no idea what place I finished. I asked the lady that was escorting me back to the tent, but she didn't know either, but "there weren't too  many ahead of you" she told me. Once I changed into dry clothes, got some snacks, and stopped shivering enough to turn on my phone is when I found out that I had placed in the top 10! My phone was blowing up with text messages and I wouldn't have believed it if Kathy Carroll hadn't sent me a screen shot!

Marshall is already looking forward to going back next year and improving on his finish time/place. He wasn't super thrilled with how he did. Also, according to the locals, we didn't get the "full Boston experience" because of the weather. I thought it was still pretty awesome though! It might take a little bit longer for me to commit to next year, I am still recovering from the mental trauma of the conditions ;) 

Thank you to everyone for the good luck wishes before the race! I also cannot BELIEVE how many people have sent me congratulatory e-mails, texts, snail mail(!), or messages on social media. I'm probably also 5 lbs heavier because everyone keeps bringing me goodies also. Haha!

March in Review

March was a great training month. I had one race early in the month in Kansas City. It was the Big 12 12k run (odd distance, I know). I managed to pull off a win for 2 years in a row. Which is awesome because I won 2 tickets to the Big 12 Championship game. What an AWESOME experience.

Big 12 Run:
1st place female
42:59 (average 5:45)
Results (Click Here)

Overall, I was very pleased with this race. My pace was nothing super impressive (I've run this pace for a half marathon before), but given the terrain I am extremely pleased. Last year I was 44:15, but it was very windy and in the middle of a snow storm. It was also during an 80+ mile week which was preceded by 2 weeks prior that were 90+, so this was raced on very tired legs.

First place!

Pretty quick into the race, I found another female and her coach that were running pretty close to the pace I wanted. It was just the 3 of us for most of the race. I opened up in 5:47, then they took the lead for the next 3 miles which were 5:44, 5:56, and 6:04. I didn't like the upward trend, so once we finally got to the top of the long climb up The Paseo, I surged and brought the pace down to a 5:35 and started to pull ahead just a bit from the other two. Then followed up with a 5:19 STEEP downhill mile. I thought the two might catch back up to me during this mile because I do not like down hill running and at this point in training I did not want to let totally loose and risk injury. Finished up with a 5:53 w/half of that up a pretty steep hill (at the end of the race too!) and a 2:38 last half mile (back down the hill) for 7.5 miles (aka 12k). This last mile, even though it was significantly slower, was where I pulled away enough to secure the win.

Can you find the weenie? I did end up ditching the head band. . . in my defense, was in the 30's at start

After breaking away, caught some of the 5k runners

I also had 3 new workouts that I wanted to try this training cycle. They were ones we had never done before and some were harder than they sounded, some where easier than they sounded.

For example, to substitute a long run we did 9 miles at marathon pace + 1 minute, then quickly changed shoes and ran 8 more miles at marathon pace. This was modified from a workout I saw Sara Hall post about.

We also nailed a 2 x 6 mile that was split up by a fast half mile to spike the heart rate. This was actually a tale of 2 tempos. One was into the wind and was about 2 seconds per mile slower than goal. Then the next 6 mile tempo was 15+ seconds faster PER MILE.





On a side note, Krissy and baby Evan came to Missouri to visit!! I can't wait to snuggle his little guy again in July.

Sweet baby

He likes Harry Potter as much as his Auntie.