“Promise me you’ll always remember: You’re braver than you believe, and stronger than you seem, and smarter than you think.”
A. A. Milne
After 12 weeks of marathon training, while keeping a solid base after running the Jersey City Marathon in April, we were here for another race. I made some changes this training cycles and really became more serious about my fueling. I worked with a couple registered dietitians (@runnergirldietitian and @intentfulnutrition) which I appreciated as I felt seen. I have been having GI issues on most of my runs for over a year now and it is not fun to need to stop on all my long runs or if I have speed or even easy runs. We tracked and figured out fueling for long runs. I became more serious on the timing of my gels and started using salt tabs consistently because I really don’t like to drink electrolytes while running which I realized during my June half marathon (before or after is fine). It still isn’t perfect but better. That was definitely a concern for this marathon though and planning around that.
My training was pretty good outside of that issue though. I hit and felt good on all my speed work days and we really worked on hills to feel more confident since Twin Cities course is hilly! I will say most of my long runs felt good. I had to travel for Dallas for work and have to say that 22 miler in the TX heat and humidity was eye opening and one of my 20 milers just hurt and couldn’t hit paces. They are definitely thoughts that run through your mind if you can run a marathon. Plus a lot of my runs I take my dog Rose with me and worry she is doing all the work for me since she is a much better runner than myself so that doubt rolls in as well.
The kicker during the first week of taper we went to Disney World for a quick trip but you know everyone about a Disney trip is all day on your feet for park days! I ended up with a fever for both park days while getting in 20k steps each day. Needless to say I didn’t run for a few days plus it ended up being COVID which ugh. I was congested for a week then fine thank goodness. You never know how it would affect you.
I read the book Courage Over Confidence by Dr. Mitchell Green (@greenpsych) the week before the race (which I know is probably not enough time to practice) to get some good tips and concepts. It helped to know it is okay to have mind chatter or negative thoughts or “what if” concerns but to let the mind chatter know to take a back seat. Have the courage to go for it and as my coach @sayrahrunshappy @elevateyourrunning repeated to Trust the training!
My coach provided a race strategy Monday of the week of the Twin Cities marathon. Of course I spent the time studying it and reviewing the course map/elevation to try and visualize the course and what I would need to do. Was my coach’s A goal for me very ambitious? Yes. Do I think I could have gotten close to it if it was a flat course? Most likely. I felt bad but seriously doubted that goal time was going to happen with the course as my happy finish time was 3:18 (10 minutes slower than she was thinking for me). I decided to create multiple goal finish time options and decided I would follow what felt good (3:08, 3:10, 3:12 all time PR, 3:15 postpartum PR, and then regretted not making one for 3:18). My Garmin actually told me I was Peaking a couple days during the week of the race which I swear hasn’t happened since Garmin had this feature. This made it exciting that things were all coming together!
I also decided to actually track my carbs for my carb load. I did add extra carbs already for my breakfasts and lunches for work that week and then pretty much strictly ate carbs it felt for the Friday and Saturday before the Sunday race. I used Featherstone Nutrition’s Carb Loading calculator to see what I needed each day. I must say it felt very high for a 2 day carb load but decided if I could get in-between 450g-700g I would call it a win. I realized very quickly when I was carb loading on Friday that I probably never ate enough carbs before my marathons despite always eating more than normal. Lessons learned. I did try to prepare and prep food for the next day as I was flying out to Minnesota on Saturday (yes the day before the race, I probably haven’t done that since my pre-kid days). I still wasn’t exact with my carb counting as I just added things up. I didn’t want to deal with downloading My Fitness Pal.
Saturday came quickly and everything was feeling my real. I didn’t feel nervous most of the week except when I was chatting with Ellie (who I got to meet last year as she is also an athlete of the Elevate your Running team and we did the expo and dinner together. She kindly was going to house me for the night before the race and get me from the airport along with running the race as well!) as we were planning things and talk about the weather and race. I was able to watch my son’s soccer game which was exciting and then my family took me to the airport. I was really going to focus on hydrating as I am terrible with that when I fly. Plus I had my carbs. The flight had a 30 Minute delay but still got in at good time to Minneapolis. Ellie grabbed me and it was so nice to be able to chill before the race (and eat more carbs). She and her husband, and their friend, were great company and distraction for the big race. They were kind enough to enjoy my favorite pre-race dinner of pizza!
Then it was setting up race kits, Normatec boots, and Baking Show with tart cherry juice. I was very tired even though it was a 1 hour time change from Michigan. I still got 8 hours of sleep the night before the race and only a couple wake ups before I finally got up at 4:55am. Ellie and I forced down more carbs. That was probably the longest time it ever took me to finish a PB bagel. Then we got dressed and ready for us to leave at 6:30am.
The weather was 50F but windy! It was going to be sunny but the wind made me nervous as I cannot say I really had to deal with that during summer training (may have welcomed it then though). She found a nice building we could huddle in a corner to block the wind and chat. Try to shake out the nerves and to let her know I still get nervous after 27 marathons and probably put unnecessary pressure on myself but decided to let it go today and see what happened. I used gear check for the first time thanks to Ellie. Eek, I just never trust I’ll get my stuff back but thought it would be nice to have a change of shoes and a long sleeve for after. There was quite a line up bag check though but we dropped our stuff and hoped it would get organized fine. After a couple bathroom stops we lined up for the race in our Corral 1!
The corral was so crowded that I could not get up to 3:20 that I wanted. I was stuck at 3:35 and just figured it may be good to hold back in the first few miles (at least I told myself it would be fine). The race started and we were off. It was very crowded and a huge group around 3:35 pace and the 3:30 pace (who were going way too fast and as a pacer myself, I was annoyed.) I finally got around them after the 1st mile of course as we started the first hill so found my groove after the hill. I knew I should be taking it more comfortable for the first 5k. In my head I wanted 7:20-7:30 min/mi pace. Around mile 2.5, I found @chelseazruns who I follow on IG. She was looking strong and ready. But of course we had our goals to chase so no time to chat.
Mile 1 – 7:26
Mile 2 – 7:40 (hill!) + salt tab
Mile 3 – 7:20 + SIS gel
I was ready to try and pick up the pace for through the 10k as we started winding around the lakes. I really tried to focus on taking the tangents instead of winding with all the curves. I had wanted 7:15-7:20 min/mi. These were gentle rollers I felt in here. It was nice with trees starting to change colors.
Mile 4 – 7:16 + salt tab
Mile 5 – 7:22
Mile 6 – 7:18 + salt tab and SIS gel
I knew I needed to pick up the pace here and just tried to go with the rolling hills and go by effort on the uphills without looking at my pace and then hoped to pick it up on the downhills. I wanted to still feel at least decent through the half. There was a steep hill in mile 8. My key words to turn into was heart and quick. I wanted to remind myself to lead with my chest/heart so I don’t hunch over in the hills and show my love of running and legs to keep things moving and quick! More rolling hills but mostly a net down hill here. I came in the half at 1:37:25. I kind of wanted it faster but worked some math in my head I could say least get under 3:18 for sure if I kept the course and under 3:15 if I could pick it up. I had wanted 7:10-7:15 but honestly didn’t really look at my watch and obviously didn’t hit where I wanted. I was still grabbing water at every aid station.
Mile 7 – 7:17
Mile 8 – 7:14 + salt tab
Mile 9 – 7:23 + SIS caffeine
Mile 10 – 7:13 + salt tab
Mile 11 – 7:13
Mile 12 – 7:21 + salt tab and SIS
Mile 13 – 7:17
Okay second half now! The chase begins. We were running into the wind at this point so I just tried to hold on to the people around me. The spectators were amazing. My name was on my bib and so many people called my name. I felt like I had fans which was awesome. I was still smiling here and feeling good. Miles 16-19 got hard with the wind but kept telling myself we turn at 19 and the wind should be at our backs, I hoped. This was a lot of down him with some climbs. I grabbed water at every aid station here and was getting through my 20oz handheld.
Mile 14 – 7:17 + salt tab (actually lost a salt tab here but luckily had extras)
Mile 15 – 7:10 + SIS beta
Mile 16 – 7:16 + salt tab
Mile 17 – 7:21
Mile 18 – 7:25 + salt tab and SIS caffeine
Mile 19 – 7:33
Mile 20 – 7:21 + salt tab
Here Ellie’s husband and their friend were kind enough to swap handhelds for me! It was such a smooth transition, I was impressed. I also had never done that before from here to the finish with fresh cold water I wasn’t going to stop at any more aid stations. I was going to tackle the next 3 miles of hills. Yes it was a continuous climb for exactly 3 miles, the worst place for hills. I just smiled and carried on. I definitely slowed down over 30s/Mile but told myself I needed to be faster than 8:00 min/mile. Again spectators were cheering and imaged my dog pulling me up the hill. I just couldn’t push it on the hill but I knew it should be downhill to the finish for the last 5k and wanted to be ready to pick it up! Once at the top I totally tried to sail it. The downhill was not as big as I would have enjoyed but helped even though there were still a couple more climbs geez! There was a blond lady who I had been going back and forth with for awhile and she took a big lead on me but I trained my sights on her to try and reel her in. I passed her around mile 24 and she asked what I was shooting for. I finished looked at my watch and tried to math what I had left because I also knew my watch was 0.25 miles off. I shouted 3:15! So it was out there now. She passed me at 25 but man that downhill was so nice into the capital building and when I saw the finish line… Passed her and kicked it!
Mile 21 – 7:21 + SIS (I kind of held on to this one for a couple miles)
Mile 22 – 7:58 + salt tab (whew just made my cut off)
Mile 23 – 7:52
Mile 24 – 7:21 + salt tab
Mile 25 – 7:11
Mile 26 – 7:00
Mile 26.2 (or 26.4) – 6:23
I evenly split this race which I’ll take because the second half was harder with fighting the wind and that hill! This is a 4 minute postpartum PR and just 2 minutes off my all time PR on a challenging course. 3:14:29!!! I was fueled by 7 SIS gels, 13 salt tabs, and a lot of water.
Redemption was made after the cancelled race last year! I made my calls to my husband, Mom, and best friend. Plus let my coach know how awesome everything clicked and how much I appreciated all her confidence in me. Ellie had a PR race! It was so much fun experiencing this race with her.
I may not have hit paces my coach set up for me but I had so many wins today. I trusted my training and how to listen to my body. I knew how I should be feeling for different parts of the race. I stuck to my fueling plan to a T and hydrated better than ever. There was no walking and honestly no negative thoughts. I was having so much fun and smiling while taking in the spectators the whole entire race (trust me this is rare). And they were no bathroom stops! None!
Mexican for lunch then a quick shower before off to the airport to go home. This was such a quick trip but honestly worked out better than I expected. We will see how I feel tomorrow but I walked off the plane just fine.
Thank you for all the support. It is always nice when you can see progress. I’m back to times I haven’t seen in a long time. Now I will enjoy my week off from running while I plan my 2025 race season and goals. Nothing else planned for 2024 but I had 2 half marathons, 2 marathons, 1 8k, and 3 5ks. Now half of those were for fun and half were to race but all a good time!
Do you still have races in 2024?
What race did you have a strong race?
