Rehoboth Beach: 66 Minute PR
Sleep two nights ago, atrocious.
Saturday night, everyone in the hotel is staying up late, kids are running up and down the hall, it's 3am, and Mal has barked loudly every 30-60 minutes. I was sure my marathon was toast.
And then I PR'ed it. By 66 minutes.
I settled on running with the 4:30 pace group, the higher end of the target time coach gave me (4:45-4:30), knowing that I typically blow my goals out of the water and I'd still give myself time to push during that last 10k if I had it in me.
And I did. I got to mile 21 and decided to just pick it up a little. I didn't check my pace from there to the finish line, I ran solely on what I thought I had left in me and the distance I still had to go. Then hit almost entirely negative splits (mile 26, ugh, I always tell myself at mile 24 'you've got two miles to go, you're not going to feel anything, you push, you breath, that's all you do,' and I did, but I just tapered off a bit, need to remember that).
I only lost 4 seconds from mile 25 to 26, but it's still good data, and good data is everything.
Having the VIP pass was small and huge at the same time. It meant warmth and bathrooms before and after, free access to the after party with pizza. I don't remember how much it was, but if it was under $100 it was worth it, and I'm sure it was.
My feet got sore towards the end, just from the constant pounding. I only put one 20 mile training run in. Next time around I want more miles. I'll see what coach says.
Joe's calls were unexpected and so deeply appreciated. He helped me strategize the night before, and helped me focus the morning of. Especially that morning...I was exhausted, frustrated, running late, left my sunglasses in the car and had to go back for them, I think when we first started talking I was speaking twice as loud as I normally do because I was so overstimulated and worried.
He helped me calm down and reminded me that one night of bad sleep doesn't ruin a marathon.
What I did right: had a banana, a small amount of coffee, and a whole 360 Maurten Drink Mix. I ate half the Maurten bar I'd brought before reminding myself that I was consuming like a 200 pound man who doesn't have acid reflux with vomit side effects.
I put the rest of the bar down.
I fueled twice, mile 7 and mile 18, with Maurten 100 cafs. All went smoothly. I've occasionally thrown up from fueling too much (3 fuelings in during a Coney Island half and one of those fuelings ended up in a garbage can). It's hard, you're encouraged to fuel a lot (thanks capitalism!) and often the strategies that work for others WILL NOT work for me given how difficult it is for my body to process, especially while running.
Two fuelings felt good for 26.2 miles, I'll see how I feel next month when I'm taking it a bit slower on the Traverse City, Michigan route.
Our Pacer, Aaron, was a blast, ran with some really wonderful folks and heard some great stories. Half the point of this project was to learn and see and hear about people and places I'd never otherwise open myself up to. Turns out all you have to do is show up and listen.
On the walk back to my car I saw two people carrying pizza on their way to a quieter spot. That after party was BUZZING. I said, you've got the right idea! They chuckled and talked about their long day as volunteers. I said I was so thankful they were here for us and they thanked me, mentioning that some runners are a bit more....focused, on their outcome.
I said, speed is all relative—none of us are headed to the Olympics (probably), and if we don’t PR this time, there’s always the next. I’m just really grateful to be here.
They told me they’d both survived cancer. Said they were grateful to be here too.
