Covered Bridges Half Marathon

Since I was spending the week following Ottawa in upstate NY with my family, it made sense to me to check out races for the second weekend of my vacation.  Originally this was part of a half-marathon-a-month plan, and running in Vermont or New York in June seemed far preferable to running in North Carolina in June.  As luck would have it, the Covered Bridges Half Marathon, which has been on my running bucket list for a while, fell on June 1.  The 2013 race sold out in 8 minutes, so I made sure to be at my computer when registration opened in December.

It's a point to point race, so runners are shuttled from the finish to the start.  My dad and I left our hotel around 6:20 and he dropped me off about 10 minutes later.  As I got out of the car, the first people I saw were the Hackers, and it was a nice surprise to find the 2 people I knew in a crowd of 2,500 without even trying!  We hopped on a shuttle and arrived at the starting area with well over an hour to go until the start.  Bib pickup was available only at the starting line, but it took virtually no time at all, so even with a stop at the porta-potty and bagel tent, we had quite a bit of time to kill.  It was actually pretty chilly until the sun came out, so I used my heat sheet from Ottawa to keep warm and wished I'd packed some throwaway gloves.  I was not about to complain though, since race temps were supposed to climb only into the 60s, and too cold is infinitely better than too hot for racing.  Around 7:50 I headed out for a quick warm up and then made my way to the start line with about 10 minutes to spare.

The course description says "The course has a very gentle downgrade, dropping 200 feet in elevation over the 13.1 miles. There is a moderate hill at mile 5 and a short, steep hill at mile 8," so I assumed it would be pretty much all downhill/flat with the exception of the two hills mentioned.  And based on previous years' results, I thought I should have a shot at an age group award if I ran reasonably well.  Combined with the nice weather, I thought things were aligned for a good run, so I decided on a goal pace of 7:15 and thought if all went well, I could finish under 1:35.  After running 1:33:01 in October of 2012, I'd hoped to be running closer to 1:30 by now, but it is what it is.  Hopefully that will come next year...

Anyway, the pace plan was set and I felt surprisingly good even though I'd had races on each of the two previous weekends.  The start was actually more crowded and harder to maneuver than Ottawa even though the field size was only 2,500 rather than 13,000, primarily because there were no corrals or even suggested pace signs leading up to the start.  So the three guys in front of me were running about 9-10 minute/mile pace, side by side, and I was boxed in right from the get go.  After a quarter mile or so, I found a little space, and it thinned out pretty quickly.

First 5 miles: Mostly flat with a few gentle hills.  At the first water station, I noticed they had plastic cups (similar to a small solo cup) rather than paper.  I usually squeeze the top of the cup closed, making it easier to drink on the move, but attempting to do so with the plastic cups resulted in the cup cracking in half and the water spilling all over my foot.  Lesson learned.  After that, I just slowed down through the water stops and tried to drink normally without choking.  Average pace: 7:08

Miles 6-7: Started with a quarter mile hill, then rolling. I think this was around the time we ran over Middle Covered Bridge, which turned out to the the only covered bridge we would cross.  We then turned onto a gravel/dirt road, and I prefer pavement, but it ran along the river and was very scenic, so I tried to just enjoy the view and not think about the surface. Around mile 7 I stepped on a rock, right on the ball of my foot where the bruise that had bothered me for months had been and I was reminded of yet another reason I usually stick to paved roads.  But at least the view was nice! Average pace: 7:15

Mile 8: Mostly flat, ending with a short, steep, pace-killing hill. 7:38

Mile 9: Crested the hill and then had a half mile downhill to recover. I probably should have pushed the downhill a bit harder.  7:17

Miles 10-11: Rolling hills to flat.  Debated an emergency porta potty stop, but decided stopping would ruin any shot at 1:35, so I kept on going and prayed I could make it through the last three miles without incident. 7:28

Mile 12 to finish (13.2): More downhill than uphill, with some flats. 6:54  The last quarter mile was awesome because I was able to see my dad and Mary, the finish line, and then (with no time to spare) the porta potties.  

I just missed my goal of sub-1:35 (officially 1:35:34), but according to my Garmin, I hit my goal pace of 7:15 on the nose, and other than the GI issues for the last few miles, I felt pretty good and overall was happy with the run.  Most importantly, I think I'm in a good place going into summer training and am looking forward to the fall racing season!

Race summary

Good: Scenic course, relaxed atmosphere, only a few hours from my hometown. 

Bad: Plastic water cups, only one covered bridge, so Covered Bridges is not really accurate.

May Training Log

Lots of racing, some solid training, and hopefully a good base for a full training cycle leading up to the Duathlon World Championship and Berlin Marathon in September! #319orBust

Ottawa Half Marathon

We flew up to Ottawa on Saturday morning and met up with my brother, dad, and stepmom at our hotel, which was conveniently located in the heart of the city and only a half mile from the start/finish area.  I had never been to Ottawa, even though I'd grown up only about two and a half hours away, so I was excited to see a new city and spend some time with my family.

Ottawa is a beautiful city and it was a lovely day, so we walked around a bit before heading over to the convention center for packet pickup.

Doing some sightseeing

Packet pickup was pretty quick and easy, and I got my packet and Adam picked up his very first marathon race bib.  I am not sure who was more excited about him running a marathon - me or him!

Saturday evening was the 10K, which featured a fantastic race field.  Normally I'm in races, which means I never get to see the elites, so it was cool to spectate!  The elite women got a 4 minute head start, and Mary Keitany ran 31:22 to easily hold of Wilson Kiprop, who won the men's race in 28 flat.  It amazes me that people can run that fast!

After the 10k, we went to the Mill St Brewery for dinner, and despite a strong desire to try the beer, I stuck to water.  The things I do in the name of racing... ;)  Then we walked back to the hotel and I got a relatively good night's sleep (by my standards anyway) before getting up at 6 to go down to the start of the marathon with Adam.

The marathon started at 7 and the half marathon at 9, but I got up early to go down to the start with my dad and brother, and shortly after 7, Adam was off.  I went back to the hotel, had some coffee, got put on my race gear, and jogged down to the start around 8:30.  I ran up and down the closed street a few times, and called it good after about a mile and a half, then went over to my corral (the first behind the elites) and found a spot toward the back.  Though I was in the back of the blue corral, I wasn't very far from the start line, and couldn't see the end of the waves of people behind me (based on results, there were about 500 ahead of me and 12,500 behind me).

Me and Dad before the race

I felt pretty good at the start, so I decided to aim for the low end of the 7:20-7:30 range that my coach had suggested.  I spent the first mile dodging other runners a little, but for such a large race, I felt like I had quite a bit of space.

Had a surprising amount of space when I saw my family at mile 0.7

Miles 2 and 3 were quiet and scenic as we headed out of the city along a paved path by canal and Dows Lake.  After that there were several miles through residential areas, which offered some nice views of the city and had great crowd support all along the way. Somewhere around mile 8, we crossed the bridge into Quebec.  By then the sun had come out and the temperature seemed to be rising pretty quickly, so I made sure to drink a bit of water at each aid station and started to also dump a cup on my head.  Around that time, I started to come up on marathoners and it got a lot more congested.  With the skyline in the distance and growing crowds through which I had to maneuver, it almost seemed like a completely different race from the one I'd been running for the first hour.  I hit the 10 mile mark right around 1:13 and was pretty pleased with how consistently I'd run to that point (7:20-7:16-7:15-7:17-7:15-7:13-7:19-7:19-7:18) while sticking very close to my 7:20 goal pace.

The full and half marathons shared the first bit of the course, separated, joined again in Quebec, and then redivided after crossing back into Ontario on the Alexandra Bridge, around mile 1.5 of the marathon and mile 10.5 of the half.  I'd wanted to find a location where they could see both of us go by and the bridge was less than a mile from our hotel, so I figured that would be a good spot for my family to be.  Plus, by my estimate, Adam would only be 10-20 minutes in front of me at that point, so they wouldn't have to be out there for hours.  Shortly after the 10 mile marker, I started onto the bridge.  I was passing more and more full marathoners, and just up ahead, there was my brother!  I sped up a bit to catch him, and then slowed down to his marathon pace.  I couldn't believe that I'd caught up to him, and done so less than a half mile from where everyone was waiting to see us!  He said the heat was getting to him and that it would be slower than he'd planned, but that he felt confident that he'd finish.  I gave him a bit of encouragement and advice, and was just thrilled to be able to share part of the race with him.  I knew that meant the 1:35 I'd been shooting for was off the table, but at that point I really could not have cared less.  As we came off of the bridge I saw Dad, Monte, and Mary there cheering, and it was so awesome that Adam and I were running together.  We were running 11+/minute mile pace, but it was undoubtedly a top 10 race moment for me.

I couldn't help but smile seeing my little brother running his first marathon

Shortly after passing our cheering squad, the marathon turned left and the half headed straight, running back along east side of canal, past the finish line (on the other side of the canal), over a bridge, back up the west side of the canal to the finish.  As I left Adam, I hit the lap button on my watch and tried to pick up the pace for a strong finish. Getting it going again was not as easy as I would have liked and by that point I was lacking motivation.  Though I wasn't able to run faster than I had been, I was able to get back to about goal pace, and averaged 7:19 for the last 2.7 to finish in 1:37:18.  Despite the little break to run with Adam and having raced the duathlon a week before, I was only 1:20 slower than my fastest half of the year, and I felt great, so I'm encouraged that things are headed in the right direction.

Spinner medals

1:37:18
10/1023 Age Group
64/7417 Gender
561/13180 Overall

After crossing the line, I quickly made my way through the finisher's area and headed over to our family meeting spot.  I drank some chocolate milk, changed into a dry shirt, and then we went over to to mile 26.1 to watch Adam finish his race.  Less than two hours later, we were happy and proud to see him coming and cheered him on as he picked up the pace and finished his first marathon in impressive fashion!

This race weekend was fantastic.  Mainly because I got to spend time with my family and see my brother run his first marathon, but I really enjoyed both the city and the race.  Ottawa is beautiful, clean, friendly, and they have excellent poutine and beer, so it's worth the trip for sure.  As for the race, the course was mostly scenic and had great crowd support; the entire event was really well organized, had really nice medals and shirts, and got rave reviews from my family as being very spectator friendly.  

USAT Long Course Duathlon National Championship

This year, the Cary Du Classic was selected to host the USAT Long Course Duathlon National Championship.  I was planning on racing anyway, since it's basically in my back yard, and was really excited to learn that it would be a qualifier for the World Championship race in Switzerland.  It was really my main goal race of the spring, and I really wanted to finish the 5 mile run-32 mile bike-5 mile run course in under 3 hours.  Specifically, I was giving myself 40 minutes for each run and transition and 1:40 on the bike.  I felt pretty comfortable about the run-transition times, thinking I should be able to finish the run in about 37 minutes and would have a fair amount of time to run through transition.  The 1:40 on the bike was less certain, as I'd have to average over 19 mph and I haven't ridden at that level of effort for any sustained duration since September at Augusta.

I got to packet pickup around 6:00, checked in, set up transition, and found Jennifer for a short warmup.  It was actually pretty cool at the start of the race, and I was grateful for that considering the North Carolina weather in May can be quite unpleasant.  We picked a spot somewhere around the middle of the crowd lining up at the start and were off.  The one thing I found disappointing was that there was no start mat, so it was based on gun time rather than chip time.  It took us less than a minute to get across the starting line, but I felt like I needed every possible minute to meet my goal of sub-3 and would have liked those extra seconds!

I'd done a test run of the course a few weeks prior when it was in the 80s and humid, so the run felt much easier thanks to the cool temps.  The goal was to stay in the 7:20s for the first run leg, keeping it fairly conservative to be sure I didn't ruin my chances of a decent bike time.  The first mile is flat to rolling, and included about a quarter mile off road.  Normally this would just be grass and dirt, but after several days of rain, it was all mud and puddles.  I rarely run on anything unpaved and am not a fan of wet feet or dirty shoes, so I followed the group running a bit extra to go around the worst of it.  Then we were back on roads and I settled back into a rhythm, hitting the first mile in 7:18.  At mile 1.5, the course turns onto a greenway, and the mile to the turnaround is all downhill before doing a 180 at mile 2.5 and coming all the way back up (7:10, 7:25, 7:22).  The uphill section on the way back had felt terrible on my test run and I was really happy to have made it back to the road without losing much time.  Mentally that gave me a bit of a boost, and I ran the 5th mile, including a return trip through/around the mud, in 7:09.  

Run 1: 36:41 

Transition 1: 1:08.  Somehow I always end up at the far side of bike out, so I have to run the full length of transition in cycling shoes with my bike.  I doubt this adds much time, but I would love to be near bike out/bike in at least once in a while! 

The bike course is rolling hills for the first 23 miles or so, and then mostly uphill for the last 9 miles or so.  Nothing crazy though, and several of the roads are part of my normal route across Jordan Lake, so I  knew what to expect.  

I tried to ride by effort and not worry about speed, but for the most part, each Garmin beep flashed a mile split pretty close to my target pace.  But it felt like most of the field was flying by me, and it really gave me some extra motivation to work more on my cycling.  Though being passed by so many people was a bit disheartening, I was really just competing against myself and the clock, so I stuck to the plan.  Other than a brief stint of being stuck behind a truck (who was in turn stuck behind other cyclists), the ride went well... the weather was perfect, and my Garmin showed 1:39:41 when I got back to the transition area.  Official race time: 1:40:18 - pretty close to my goal of 1:40!

Transition 2:  1:03.  I worked more on hydrating while on my bike, and I guess I did a little too well at that... I am not so serious about this that I've learned to be ok with just peeing on myself, so after leaving T2 I stopped by the porta potty.  I wish it had been inside the timing mat and added to my T2 time rather than my second run time.

Run 2: 38:32 (37:51 without the pit stop)

The goal for the second run was to shoot for 7:10s-7:20s.  I started out feeling pretty good and hit the first two mile splits right on target (7:19, 7:18).  I hoped to just maintain through the uphill section and then pick it up for the final mile, but that hill really took the wind out of my sails.  Despite my best efforts, I was dropping speed in a hurry (7:40, 7:51) and started the mental battle to keep pushing even though it seemed futile.  I was able to get it together a bit for the final mile and even managed to pass a few people (7:24).   A little over a minute off of my goal for the last run, but thankfully still fast enough to get in under 3 hours, and I was really pleased to cross the line in 2:57:44, especially after struggling at the end.  

In addition to finishing below my time goal, I qualified for the Long Course Duathlon World Championship at Powerman Zofingen in Switzerland!  I am not sure how wise it is for a person who hates running up hills to sign up for a race that has a TON of climbing, but I am really excited to represent the USA and take on the challenge of what is said to be one of the toughest races in the world! 

Not the sausage sandwiches!

I did a little research into the proliferation of Bibgate, and reading the translated versions of international articles has been both confusing and hilarious. 

As told by an article in Barcelona, per Google translate:

A curious and despicable phenomenon is exploding as popular careers increase their popularity, redundant: running with dorsal photocopying. This seems harmless when it is not so much the damage to those runners who religiously pay the increasingly predatory pricing to participate in a race, either an urban mile or undergo succeed marathon .

Although daily kilometer costs more than the organizers of the most popular careers cut on services offered, becoming so righteous as participants get the last drink you supposed to run out and even without medal for which you have previously paid to whether you will be finisher or not. In most cases, your drink or your medal has not saved the organization but surely has taken a savvy that has crept into your career without checking out. Many times free, but so many thanks to the complicity of a friend who has lent his dorsal to photocopy.

And in some cases, even someone takes advantage of your naivety to upload a photo of your precious dorsal marathon you're going to play to Instagram , Facebook or Twitter . That happened to Kara Bonneau , a young woman from North Carolina, who managed to earn the right to play one of the toughest marathons in participation: the Boston Marathon.

Bonneau, who had registered to contest the rugged edition last year, managed to overcome their fears of another possible attack and traveled to the capital of Massachusetts to win the race. He ran his marathon without any problems and finished in 3 hours and 31 minutes. Up to here all right.

The four runners who stole the identity of Bonneau consumed refreshment during the race and surely, if they were strong enough, also made ​​collection of the same at the end and even on the wall of his house hung the medal finisher will surely kick in the wall four corridors that are themselves deserved, since the right to run your marathon won.  And tell me, is so difficult to snag a chip behind a ridge? Thus, when a hacker runner reaches goal with a photocopy, it would read the back and could be expelled by avoiding to consume what you have not paid. And so would avoid, too, that whoever runs legally drink run out without his reward, either a medal, tee or sausage sandwich.

Articles from France, Switzerland, Luxembourg, Poland, Korea, and Chile neither offered as much comedic translation, mentioned that I won the race, nor confirmed the theft of sausage sandwiches.

2014 Boston Marathon

Though Boston was not my "A" race of spring and I hadn't been training specifically for a marathon, I'd been excited about it for weeks... First, it's the Boston Marathon!  Second, I had really strong feelings about running after being there and seeing the tragedy unfold last year.  And third, I would be running with an amazing group of friends, with my dad and my husband there to cheer me on.

Packed my lucky shoes and headed up to Boston on Saturday morning

Checked into our hotel and headed to the expo.

After picking up my bib and race packet,
I met up with my family at the Convention Center

Then walked around Boston for a bit

Walked down Bolyston with my family to check out the finish line

On Sunday, I had a lovely brunch with my family and then headed out to Hopkinton to check out the start line before checking into our hotel in Milford.

After dinner, my family dropped me and Brittany off at our hotel, where we met up with Caren and Jennifer.  I stayed at the same hotel last year; it's really convenient to getting to the start but less so for spectators trying to get to the finish, so we had a room for runners while our families stayed in Boston. The only problem was, with the elimination of bag check and no plans to return to Milford following the race, we had to take only things we needed for the race or were willing to part with.  It was a little more work logistically, as we had to sleep in the throwaway clothes that we were planning to leave at the start, pack an extra set of travel size toiletries, etc, but it was worth the hassle to eliminate any unnecessary race day stress.

All decked out in our fancy pajamas aka pre-race throwaway clothes

The great part about staying near the start is that there's no need to get up early to go downtown for bus loading.  Instead, we walked out of the hotel and right onto a shuttle bus at 8:30.  This has multiple advantages, most notably the availability of working plumbing throughout the majority of the morning.  Last year, the hotel bus was able to drop us off right near Athlete's Village, but because of additional security measures, we had to be dropped off at a designated parking area, go through a security checkpoint (wands and people checking bags, similar to most sporting events or concerts), and then take another bus the rest of the way to Hopkinton.  I figured we would still have plenty of time, but an accident on the highway had caused a big traffic jam, and the security checkpoint line went around a block.  The delays caused a slight amount of stress, but not bad.

At that point, my only pre-race concerns were (1) peeing and (2) finding Ellen.  Since we were late to our designated meeting spot and only Jennifer had her phone, I figured the latter wasn't going to happen, but as we made a beeline for the porta-pottys, one of the first people we ran into was Ellen.  Hurray!  We were all together.  My happiness was short-lived, because when I saw the porta-potty lines I was pretty sure either my bladder was going to rupture or I was going to get a ticket for public urination (clearly I had done a good job of hydrating).  Thankfully Caren went to the front and 'encouraged' everyone to be more aggressive in moving our particular line forward, so I have her to thank for the fact that I didn't pee on myself or end up in the hospital.  Yes, I just wrote an entire paragraph about peeing.

As we finally left the bathroom area, they were calling for wave 2 corrals 7-9 to depart Athlete's Village.  My listed corral was 6, but Caren and Britt were in 8 and we wanted to start together, so since you can move back but not up, we all headed over to the big corral 8 sign.

In the corrals and ready for the start

As we walked toward the start line, I realized it had suddenly gotten pretty warm, and wondered if that would be a factor as the day went on.  The thousands of runners around us continued to shuffle along, until we finally crossed the start line and were off. 

Much of the first half of the race is downhill, so we tried to be cautious and start slowly.  The first couple miles clocked of in the 7:50s and then we settled into a pace in the high 7:30s-low 7:40s.  It was a little faster than I'd planned, but I made the decision that I wanted to stick with my friends through Wellesley and would back off the pace after that.  In hindsight, the faster pace most likely played a role in my later struggles, but sharing that experience with my friends was 100% worth it and if I had it to do over, I wouldn't have changed that at all.  

The first few miles went by pretty quickly, filled with chatting, dancing, high-fiving spectators, and reading some of the great signs along the course.  Caren, Jenn, and I were all wearing our Bull City Track Club singlets, so countless people shouted, "Go Bull City!" and we thanked every one of them with a woot, fist pump, or wave.  There were so many people!  Despite having a great experience, around mile 10 I was starting to feel warm and thought it definitely felt harder than it should for such an early point in the race.  Mile 10: 7:34. No wonder it felt hard, I was running too fast.  10-15 seconds might not seem like much, but it can make a big difference in a long, difficult race.  I told myself to not to worry and just enjoy the moment, and that was made easier as we ran through Wellesley and I read all of the "Kiss me" signs.  When we crossed the 25k mat, I wished by friends luck and Ellen and Jenn took off, while Caren opted to stick with me at a more relaxed pace through the infamous Newton hills.  

I'd been eating a chocolate cherry shot block every mile starting at mile 3, and all systems seemed fine until about 16.  Suddenly I just couldn't stand the thought of eating anything else, but I didn't feel I was bonking so I wasn't really worried about it.  What did worry me, though, was the heat.  By mile 16, I was taking three cups of water at each aid station: dump one on my head, drink one, dump another one on my head.    

I told myself to not worry about pace through the hills, and though I'd slowed to about 8:05 pace for mile 17, I was passing quite a few people who looked like they felt worse than I did.  And then I hit heartbreak hill.  Last year, I lost track of which hill I was on and thought I had one to go, so when I saw the broken hearts drawn in chalk on the street, I thought, "This is heartbreak? That's it? That wasn't bad at all!" Well, suffice it to say I did not think that this year!  I don't know how they did it, but the hills were bigger this time around ;)  

Happy to have made it to the top of Heartbreak Hill

At 35K, I knew it was definitely not going to be a PR day.  I turned off the lap pace on my watch, deciding to accept a slower pace and just enjoy the last 10K as much as possible.  I high-fived everyone with a hand out, smiled for the photographers, and tried to not look at my watch at all.  

Somewhere around mile 22

I knew my dad, Monte, and Mary were near the 40K sign, and I was able to spot them, which was great.  Since by that point I was pretty much jogging, I'd decided to stop to hug them.  I normally wouldn't want to add extra seconds to my time, but I really wanted them to know how much it meant to me that they were there to support me.  I think they were surprised by that, and Monte yelled, "Go! Go!"  Definitely 15 seconds well spent. 

Mile 24.5

With some energy from seeing my family, the knowledge that I only had a mile and a half to go, and the amazing crowd support, the last mile, though one of my slowest, was also one of my favorites.

The Citgo sign: The end is near!!

Somewhere in the 25th mile, I passed Larry Chloupek.  It is absolutely amazing to see what people can accomplish if they put their minds to something.

Homestretch!

As I made the final turn onto Boylston St, I caught a glimpse of bright orange to my left and looked over to see Jenn.  I yelled over to her, but the crowd noise on Boylston was crazy.  She took off with a sprint to the finish and I thought it would be nice to finish together, so I sped up too.  That lasted about 10 seconds, and I gave up the chase, and finished just behind her in 3:31:41.  Last year I had what felt like a Jimmy V moment... running around looking for someone to hug after they put that medal around my neck, so it was great to have a friend there.  

We collected our medals, ponchos, food bags, and water, and waddled over to the Arlington St Church, where we'd planned to meet up with our families and fast teammates who'd started in wave 1 and long since finished.  

I cannot say enough good things about my 2014 Boston Marathon experience.  I loved almost every second of it (though my quads might beg to differ), and am so glad that I decided to make a return trip.

Bull City Track Club representing in Boston

Two Boston Marathon finishers in the family!

I have the best dad and husband a girl could ask for

It's amazing what a difference a shower can make!

BCTC Reunion at Porter's 

It's not "just a number"

It's been a crazy few days.  When I discovered other people in my race photos and posted a picture of the bandits to Facebook and Twitter, I never imagined that 48 hours later that photo would be all over the internet.  The reaction has been largely supportive, though there have been some pretty harsh comments directed toward me as well.  There have also been a number of comments to the effect of, "So what? Why do you care?" I've seen a lot of commentary, both thoughtful and otherwise, on both side of the bandits debate, so I will set the bandit issue aside for the moment and try to explain why seeing others wearing my number was so upsetting.

When I registered for my first marathon in 2010, the goal was just to finish, and I told my family that I would be running one and only one marathon, to scratch it off of the bucket list.  I'd never run more than 13.1 miles, and my longest training run was to be 22 miles, so I felt that just covering 26.2 miles was going to be a huge accomplishment for me, regardless of my finish time.  The last three miles were a struggle, but I finished.  My dad and husband were waiting at the finish line, and as my legs cramped like I'd never felt before, I was overcome by emotion.  Did I win?  Of course not.  But I had accomplished something that until only recently I'd never thought I could do, and was very happy with my "one and only" marathon and my time of 3:43:48.  And then I realized that I was less than 9 minutes away from qualifying for the Boston Marathon... The Holy Grail of marathon running.  

Yes, I'd sworn that was the only marathon I would run, especially as I'd worked my way through the training cycle and realized what a time commitment it is to run 40+ miles each week and how much dedication it takes to get out there and run in the cold, in the rain, when it's 90 degrees and humid, or when you just want to turn off the alarm and go back to sleep. But the possibility was there... Boston.  I'd have to take 20 seconds per mile off of my marathon pace, which is not a small amount, but not outside the realm off possibility.  

So I set my sights on Boston, and on March 29, 2011, I registered for the Miami Marathon.  For the next 8 months, I ran, added speed work, joined the Bull City Track Club, and really dedicated myself to training for a BQ.  And over those months, running became a big part of my identity.  I became friends with other runners, and when we weren't running together, we were talking about running or planning the next race.  I continued to really push myself in training and really committed myself to becoming a better runner... all as a means to earning a spot in the Boston Marathon.  On January 29, 2012, I finished my second marathon, crossing the line in 3:28:24 and earning my coveted BQ.  

On September 14, at the moment the BAA opened applications to runners with qualifying times of 5+ minutes under their age group cutoff, I registered for the Boston Marathon.  When I received my runner passport from the BAA with my race number in March, my excitement really started to build.  On the day before the race, I picked up my bib.  My ticket into the Boston Marathon.  

From the time I decided that I wanted to qualify for Boston and registered for the Miami Marathon on 3/29/2011 through the moment I stepped first to the line at Hopkinton, I spent 427 hours and 52 minutes running 3,092 miles (thanks Garmin Connect), and finally, on April 15, 2013, I ran the Boston Marathon.  As I ran through Ashland, Framingham, Natick, Wellesley, and Newton, over Heartbreak Hill, into Boston, and finally onto Boylston Street, it was evident that those 3,000+ miles were absolutely worth running because they culminated in such an amazing 26.2.  To me, that Boston Marathon bib number was not just a number.  It represented years of hard work.  It symbolized reaching a personal goal and doing something that for the first 31 years of my life, I wouldn't have thought possible.  It was literally sign that showed I had earned a spot into the most prestigious marathon in the world.  As a friend said yesterday, in many ways it's similar to a diploma: years of work went into it, and it has far more value to the person who earned it just than any old piece of paper.  

The exhilaration of running the 2013 Boston Marathon carried me to a new PR and another BQ, but given the huge expense of traveling to Boston for Marathon weekend, I didn't intend to return in 2014.  The tragedy at the finish line changed that. I had finished the race and was only a few blocks away when the bombs went off, and as we learned details about what had happened, I knew I would be back.  I wanted to support Boston and the Marathon, and, like thousands of others, planned my return for the 2014 event and knew this year's marathon would be a running experience unlike any other.  

Perhaps I did not have the 25 month lead up to the race that preceded my first Boston Marathon, but I worked hard to get there.  I paid to be there.  I earned my spot.  And that is what 14285 means to me.  People can say what they want about bandits, but to me, a Boston Marathon bib will never be "just a number."

Boston Bandits

I haven't gotten around to writing my Boston Marathon race report, but wanted to share this right away...  

When I got the link to "my" official photos from marathonfoto, I found pictures of four other people wearing my bib number!  My guess is they used the bib photo that I posted on instragram or purchased the fake bibs from someone who did.  In either case, this makes me so upset!!  Thousands of people worked really hard to qualify for Boston or raised a ton of money for charity in order to earn a bib, and many who qualified by a minute or less were unable to register because the race was full, so to use a fake bib to bandit the race is just not right.  Not to mention this poses a serious security threat.  They even posed with finisher medals as though they deserved to be there.  Obviously they got away with it insofar as they completed the race and took home finisher medals, but I hope they can at least be identified and disqualified from future races.  

I also hope that this will serve as a cautionary tale... It never would have occurred to me that someone would do this, so I didn't think twice about posting a bib photo on social media in my excitement leading up to the race.  In hindsight, that was probably naive of me, and I certainly won't be doing that again.  Be careful what you post!

Rock n Roll Raleigh

I signed up for this race thinking it would make a good, hilly, supported last long run before Boston, and the plan was to run close to my marathon goal pace (7:45).

While waiting for the start, I ran into Emma, a lovely young woman who has joined our running group for a few training runs.  We ran the first 7 miles or so of the race together, chatting about many things, including Art for Hospice, the really great non-profit that she founded while only in middle school, and the upcoming Boston Marathon, which she was also preparing to run.  We were running a bit faster than I had planned (5K in 23:48, 10K in 47:58), but I was trying to focus on effort rather than pace, so I didn't worry about it too much.  It's pretty much all uphill from mile 6.5 to 8, and I slowed down with the goal of keeping my heart rate and effort level in check.  Around mile 7, the 1:40 pace group passed by and Emma decided to go with them so I was on my own.  Shortly after that, I ran through a crowd of spectators in Cameron Village, including Margaret and Ellen, who had made me another fabulous sign!

My watch beeped at the completion of mile 8 and flashed 8:01.  Not bad for me on a hill, and it would be the only 8 of the day.  I passed Monte and Alan, which gave me a nice little boost of energy.   was happy to see my speed increase and effort decrease as I coasted down Hillsborough St and back towards downtown Raleigh.  Monte and Alan were able to cut down to the Bell Tower to catch me at mile 9 before making the turn to Pullen Park. 

Things were going pretty well, and though I had slowed a little from my earlier pace, I just focused on running comfortably and not doing anything stupid before Boston.  By then it was starting to warm up, and the hill at mile 10.4 felt pretty challenging.  And then I passed a seemingly endless line of yard signs, each with the photos, names, ranks, and dates... scores of service men and women whose lives have been lost.  That military memorial really put things into perspective, and I teared up seeing how many signs there were.  After that there were dozens of volunteers holding American flags.  It was incredibly moving, as evidenced by the photo gallery on the Run to Remember page.  We then had another lovely view of the Raleigh skyline (this was definitely a picturesque route) before returning downtown.  I considered speeding up for the finish, but kept reminding myself that I would be running Boston in 8 days, so I just stuck to my steady pace until the watch hit 13, and my only burst of speed was running 6:16 pace for the last .16.  Finish time: 1:41:46, which is 7:44/mile and pretty darn close to my target of 7:45/mile!

After collecting my medal, a guy who'd be running off my shoulder for the last few miles thanked me for pacing him and we chatted for a bit.  Then I headed back over to the host hotel where they had the VIP lounge (thanks, SAS!).  There is a separate VIP gear check, so I grabbed my bag in about 2 seconds, changed into dry clothes, got a massage, and had a snack from the buffet before heading down to the finish line to cheer on some friends.  Heidi ran so fast that she broke the tape in the full marathon before I was back at the finish line, but I was able to see several friends, some who had just finished their first half marathon, which was awesome.

Definitely one of the coolest looking race shirts I've gotten (this is the back)

And a cool medal

All in all, things went according to plan, I didn't feel like I overexerted myself, the course was really scenic, I had company for a good bit of it, and I had a great experience.  I was, however, glad that I was just running at marathon goal pace and not trying to race this one - it was definitely hilly and was pretty warm by the end.  Given the proximity to my house, the fun atmosphere, and the scenic course, I will definitely keep this on my radar for next year.