After writing my Kona Race Recap, I had a lot of time to
reflect on areas I could improve upon and how to go about doing so. Ryan and I
met with Coach Bill and came up with many ideas. One feeling that I had leading
up to Kona and even during (and then after) the race was that I wish I had a
full marathon in me prior to doing the Ironman.
Lucky for me, the opportunity to run a full marathon
presented itself exactly 10 weeks out from Ironman Cabo. I specifically began
looking for a marathon during a 3-day weekend as we’ve had issues in the past
with flights being delayed and me going either into school late or as a zombie.
With as big of a race as I am hoping Cabo will be, I did not want lack of sleep
to be an issue. I realize one night of little sleep probably would not
completely due me in, but I also realize I am a teacher and around sick kids
all day so need to do everything I can to stay healthy on my end.
Bill had planned for us to do our 22-mile run workout on
Sunday, January 19th, so substituting this awesome workout we did
over the summer with a marathon in some warm state seemed kind of perfect.
There were a few options during this 3-day (Martin Luther King) weekend, but
the Carlsbad Marathon in sunny California seemed like the best route to go.
Honestly, we didn’t really taper more than 4 days, which was
the plan. Again, our focus is on Cabo, but I personally wanted a marathon under
my belt prior to Cabo, so little taper was okay with me. After our long, hard
ride with Bill and our teammates on Sunday, I saw Dave Davis (massage guy). I
had been debating on whether I should see him Sunday or Thursday as I knew the
long, hard ride would destroy my IT bands. While I was happy I saw him on
Sunday (I felt like a million bucks on Monday!), my ITs were just killing me come
Thursday. Compression tights and the
foam roller became my best friends on Thursday and Friday.
Did I mention that the reason the soreness was an issue was because we were trying to go for the World Record for the Fastest Married Couple to run in the same marathon?
My friend Dave had messaged me around Thanksgiving after having just met Ryan and put the connection (that we were married) together. He told me that the male ran a 2:36 and the female ran a 3:04 at the Tokyo Marathon, which is something he thought we were capable of beating while training for our Ironman. Well, Ryan wasn't totally on board with this as he absolutely HATES running marathons. That was until he got sick over Christmas. He attributes signing up for the marathon to being delirious while sick...I say it was his competitive side kicking in. Either way, we purchased our airline tickets shortly after and surprised our families with this BIG, secret announcement over the holidays (though, I secretly think they were hoping it was a different announcement....that won't come for awhile!;)).
On Friday, Ryan and I sped over to his parent’s house after
work, hopped into his mom’s car and jetted off to O’Hare. Despite the snow, we
arrived in plenty of time to grab some dinner prior to jumping on the plane.
The flight went by quickly between grading (I know, super exciting) and
actually talking to Ryan. This week was incredibly busy with a dinner on Monday
in St. Charles to celebrate our EGO presented by Sammy’s racing team, Run Club
at Life Time on Tuesday, a Run Coordinator dinner with all the Illinois
coordinators in Naperville on Wednesday (and not home until 11pm!) and packing
on Thursday….so it was pretty nice to be able to actually talk to Ryan for more
than the 5 minute before bed conversation.
I want to mention here that Ryan and I applied for the
Seeded Athlete entry into the marathon. The reason I am mentioning this is
because I want to call out how incredible the athlete coordinators were. They
coordinated our transportation to and from the airport (via Super Shuttle), booked
our hotel room, had a “hospitality suite” with tons of food and drinks for us
to enjoy, had massages available for us, drove us to the expo, grocery store
and lunch (and dinner, but Ryan and I declined), and drove us straight to the
start line on race morning. Truly, I felt as though I was a top contender in
the US ½ Marathon Championships (also held this weekend, but in Houston).
Carmen and Nicole, the coordinators, were incredible the whole weekend and I
left for Chicago wanting to send them thank-you flowers for making me and Ryan
feel so special.
We arrived to San Diego at 8:30pm on Friday evening and
hopped onto the Super Shuttle. Being a shuttle service, we had some stops
before arriving at our hotel, so did not arrive until about 10:30pm….California
time, 12:30am Illinois time. Needless to say, Ryan and I went straight to bed.
It was fun sharing the shuttle though as we met a guy, Alex, running the ½ who
lives and trains in Boulder and knows a lot of the same Chicago-Boulder runners
that we do!
After setting our alarms for a sleep-in wake-up time of
8:30am, Ryan and I went to bed. Apparently, our bodies never really adjusted to
the time change as we both woke up at 5:30am, fell back asleep, but woke up for
good at 7:30am. We took this as a good sign for race morning as the race was
scheduled to start at 6:15am California time, 8:15 Illinois time.
Literally feet from our hotel. Can we do this thing every year?
Our hotel was directly on the course, so we ran 2.5 miles
out, just before the giant hill, and turned around to get a little idea of the
course. One thing we knew: the hills we were able to see would be tough.
Despite the elevation map showing one giant hill, we figured our times would be
pretty good as the giant hill seemed to be the only hard part. In less than 24
hours, we would see how wrong we were.
After our run, we took some pictures by the ocean, which was
literally across the street from our hotel. Before we knew it, it was time to
go to the expo to pick up our packets. The expo was outside, which was cool to
see since we are so used to Chicago style (indoor) expos. I found this awesome
Lululemon-esque pullover, which I decided to buy since I always seem to wear
the same running shirts. In addition to the long-sleeve shirt given to us, we
also received a pair of flip-flops, which were perfect for wearing the day
after a marathon!
Outdoor expo!
After the expo, Carmen the coordinator drove us to lunch at
Subway and dropped us off at the grocery store. It was so nice to have someone
who knew the area drive the out-of-towners around.
Because Ryan and I were fortunate enough to be
accepted into the Seeded Athlete pool, I knew there’d be a massage option for
us on Saturday before the race. After some texting back and forth with Dave
Davis, I decided to get the massage. I never have had a massage the day before
the race, but I truly believe it helped save the beginning part of my marathon.
After our massages, we had an “Elite Athlete Meeting” in which we were able to
check out (most of) the competition.
Personalized bib, finisher's shirt and flip flops. Sweet!
Caved and bought it.
The rest of our night consisted of going to dinner and
watching Adventureland (yes, I know, very exciting that Ryan and I
actually watched a movie!!). For dinner, we had looked up any bison-serving
place in the area and found a restaurant just over a mile away from our hotel.
Our hotel happened to offer free shuttles within a five-mile radius, so we
hopped on board and headed to Bistro West. The bison burger, and bread that
came prior to it, did not disappoint. (Side note for those wondering about this
weird tradition of having a bison burger and beer the night before a race: my
dad told me when I was younger that Michael Jordan would always eat steak
before his games. I thought that just sounded delicious, so became a “steak
before big races” kind of girl….until I found out how amazing, and lean, bison
was. Anytime we can find bison, I order it, but that was definitely not an
option in Hawaii!).
Pre-race meal of champions!
Standard.
BISON on the menu?! Ahhh, dream come true!
9:00pm came, and Ryan and I were pretty much passed out in
bed. When our alarms went off at 4:30am, we didn’t even groan as it only felt
like 6:30am to us. We got into Carmen’s van….and immediately saw that the 10
Kenyans in the van apparently did not get the memo regarding the Athlete meting
yesterday. Yikes. Luckily for me, there was only one female Kenyan, but Ryan
did not look too excited on our walk over to the Elite tent. The Press Release,
which we found out from our Super Shuttle friend Alex, had noted 4 females with
sub-2:50 times that would be competing, so I was hoping to be able to run with
them to achieve a sub-2:50 myself.
Time seemed to fly by, and before we knew it, Ryan and I
were toeing the start line. After a quick kiss for luck, the gun went off and
so did we. Did I mention this race started at 6:15am California time? Or that
the sun rises at 6:45am? Yep, we ran the first two miles in the dark. I had no
idea what my pace was, but I was not excited to be finding out at mile three as
we had just climbed a hill the size of “10-mile hill” on the March Madness
(Cary ½ marathon) course. At that moment, I knew I was going to be in for quite
the challenging race. Let me just point out that this elevation map does not
elude to these giant hills, as Ryan and I did also pick this for being a
seemingly flat course.
<3 p="">
Jeremy seriously was amazing. Here he is joking with me, making the time fly!
Biggest smile of the day. DONE!!
Miles 1, 2, 3: 6:29, 6:10, 6:35
Luckily, right as the sun came out, I found myself running with a guy (who would later introduce himself to me as Jeremy). This made time just fly by. He is an ultra-runner from Oregon who wanted to escape their bad weather (he adjusted his “bad weather” statement when he found out I was from Chicago). He told me he was using this race as a training run, planning to run 6:20-6:30 pace, which would line up perfectly with my race plan. Thanks to him, we caught two other ladies and I found myself in 3rd place five miles into the race.
Jeremy, being an ultra-runner, had a lot of energy and did most of the talking thankfully. I found out he qualified for the Olympic Trials in the steeple chase, signed a shoe sponsor deal, and eventually left it all for his now family of four with his wife. After college and the Trials, he took a lot of time off as many runners do, until falling in love with trail running. Hearing about his accomplishments and life in general was very entertaining and I was appreciative of him even slowing his pace at times to stay with me (though he never specifically said he did, I know we hit some slower miles in which he could easily have left me).
Yep, it was this dark when we started. Couldn't even read my Garmin.
Me and my bff for the first 12 miles.
Miles 4-13:
6:30, 6:41, 6:34, 6:29, 6:36, 6:52 (that BIG uphill), 6:33, 6:15, 6:22, 7:16
Unfortunately, mile 12 would be the last time I ran with
Jeremy. Having to go to the bathroom since mile 2 (nerves??), when Jeremy told
me he was going to make a pit stop, I told him I would too. Honestly, it cost
me a PR. While that is super disappointing, I don’t want to think about what
could have happened if I had not stopped as I’ve heard (and seen!) horror
stories from others who chose not to stop. THIS was the point of running this
marathon. Not just to have the confidence of running an open marathon prior to
IM Cabo, but also to see how my body would react.
No longer having Jeremy with me, and seeing a 7:16 mile
split (from my bathroom stop), I pushed myself for the next 5 miles. The cool
part for the miles below is that I knew the areas we were running in from being
chauffeured around by Carmen and our hotel shuttle the day prior, so I could
tell when the turn-arounds were coming up.
yeah, check out that incline.
look at those waves!
Miles 14-18
6:08, 6:24, 6:25, 6:30, 6:28
Right before we hit mile 18, we went most of the way up a
hill. I remembered seeing volleyball courts and thinking how excited I’d be at
this point of the race. I didn’t realize we’d be going partially up a hill and
then turning around. Because of all of the inclines and declines, my IT bands
were getting pretty tight, so mile 18 was incredibly challenging for me with
the up/down. I was able to catch a glimpse at the girl behind me, noting she
was over ½ a mile away thankfully. I didn’t know how much further my legs would
make it. So, I downed a chocolate PowerGel. At miles 4-5, and 10-11, I had the
same strategy and it worked miracles, if not on my legs, definitely on my mind.
Miles 19-21:
6:42, 6:47, 6:45
Looking at the above splits, it’d be obvious to say that my
strategy did not work. True in some ways, but these splits were also during
more inclines. I knew from being on the course throughout the day Saturday that
these inclines were coming, but I was not prepared for them to be as tough as
those mile splits reflect. I had never been so happy to see our hotel, as I
knew the end was near. I told myself to hold out for my last chocolate PowerGel
at mile 22 (my stomach was full, plus it gave me something to “look forward
to”) and held onto that thing from mile 22 through 24. The magic of the Gel
clearly worked better this time around.
Miles 22-26.2:
6:35, 6:36, 6:46, 6:37, 6:36, 3:24 (6:21 pace) for last 0.54
I probably should have mentioned earlier that ever since
mile 2, my Garmin was reading the miles as (mile#).2 every time. I was hoping
that at some point the course would catch back up to the standard distance, and
made sure to listen for the beeps of the other runners’ GPS watches around me
to make sure it wasn’t just mine that was reporting the distance as long.
Unfortunately, the course never caught back up so my PR that I had thought I’d
be earning quickly faded away. While I realize the bathroom stop also could be
the culprit of my nonexistent PR, I truly was pushing as hard as I possibly could
during those last 4 miles. I figured out in my head that if I could muster up
6:10 pace for the last 4 miles, I’d break 2:50, which had been a goal at one
point in time. With the IT band damage being done pretty early on, I kept my
mind in check and focused on finishing the race strong, without doing any more
damage to my body.
YAY almost done!
2:54:18, 6:34
pace, 3rd overall female.
As soon as I saw the finish line, I also saw my wonderful
husband with a big smile on his face. While I did not grab that PR, the smile
on Ryan’s face was more than enough for me. For placing third overall, I also
received a gorgeous flower lei, which almost made me cry as it brought kind of
the whole idea of doing this race full circle. Ryan then told me that the girl
who was 2nd place in a 2:50:30 had just run a 2:45 on a flat course,
meaning I was easily in sub-2:50 shape. This made me pretty happy since I had
planned on being at that time going into this race.
Apparently my thumb didn't quite get the "thumbs up" memo...
Ryan and I went back to the elite tent and were able to get
massages right away. The lady doing the massages was almost as good as Dave
Davis and I could feel the tightness in my IT bands subsiding. After grabbing
some food (egg white burritos, chocolate milk and a ton of fresh fruit!), we
headed back to the hotel to wait for our shuttle…but not before hopping in the
hot tub for a little relaxation.
YESSSS we are done!
Overall, everything about this race was a success. While I
am naturally bummed that I did not earn that PR I had planned on obtaining, I
learned a lot about myself and my racing and feel incredibly confident starting
up this next cycle before Cabo. I have
to commend everyone who put this race together, especially the Elite Athlete
Coordinators Carmen and Nicole. Everything was perfect and they treated us as
if we were the fastest runners in the world. I am extremely grateful to them
for their hospitality and support throughout this entire weekend.
Ryan ran a 2:38...combined with my 2:54...8 minutes under the World Record!
As we head into recovery week, I can’t help but feel even
hungrier for a killer performance in Cabo. A few different people noticed my
awesome multi-colored Kona backpack (I use it for school, so naturally I
brought it on this trip to carry my school work). When they asked about Kona, I
felt like my excitement just lit up the entire room. This weekend helped me to
see that I am turning into a triathlete. I had been turned off by the idea
partly because of my dislike for swimming (only because I’m not good at it) and
partly because of the huge time commitment that goes into training for
triathlons. I created a training schedule so that I can make the most out of my
time during the day and really focus hard core on triathlon training. Sleep is
the one aspect of training that always gets overlooked, so I am going to focus
on being more efficient with my time so that I can get more sleep to help my
mind and body recover and stay focused.
As always, thank you to everyone for the incredible support
you’ve given me. Ryan and I kind of kept this race a secret as we primarily
were using it for training for Cabo. We didn’t want any pressure or expectations,
and never really felt any going into or during the race. The “likes” and kind
words on Facebook and through texts continue to show us how lucky we are to be
surrounded by such great people. I had mentioned to Ryan while in California
that we should move here (this, after seeing people swimming, packs of cyclists
whiz by us, runners all over the place), but after the outpouring of support
this weekend, I don't think we could ever leave!
Article on Competitor.com: http://running.competitor.com/2014/01/photos/photos-tri-city-medical-center-carlsbad-marathon-12-marathon_93692
Article on the World Record: http://egopbsammysbikes.com/world-record-crushed-first-race-year/
1 comment:
AWESOME job!! Excited to see what the year has in store!
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