The picture gives the result, but it doesn't tell the whole story.
I ran my first marathon in May of 2014. It was a completely miserable experience. I was doing a walk/run for most of the last half of the marathon. At about mile 24 I had an older gentleman say to me, "You're much to young to be walking." I remember wanting to punch the guy, but I literally didn't even have the energy to respond to him. I crossed the finish line in about 4 hours 40 minutes. I told David that I had now crossed running a marathon off of my bucket list and didn't need to do another.
But just like childbirth, after a couple of years you forget the pain and discomfort and figure that giving it another shot would be a grand idea. I also was secretly hoping that I would have a much better marathon time and would somehow qualify for Boston. I'm not sure if I even knew what kind of qualifying time I would need to have. Nevertheless, I signed up for my second marathon, the Oktoberfest Marathon in Leavenworth. I ran this race in October of 2016. While I did improve my time and finished in 4 hours 23 minutes, I still thought running the marathon was not a very enjoyable experience. I, again, bonked hard, but this time it wasn't until mile 18.
After 2 miserable marathons, I think most people would have called it quits and moved on to something a bit more enjoyable. But, I was still hungry for a Boston qualifying time. I also knew that I was soon moving up to another age group and the qualifying time for that age group seemed doable. You just needed to run a marathon in a mere 3 hours 55 minutes. I had a work colleague who was 50 years old and she had just run a 3:50 marathon. Certainly I could do the same!
This time I didn't let two years lapse before signing up for my next race. I signed up and ran my first Light at the End of the Tunnel marathon in June of 2017. I had a good race and ran a massive PR, finishing in 3:54:13. This was also a BQ! While David was elated for me, I was crushed because I knew that I had not beat the standard by enough. I wasn't going to Boston. I had done enough research to know that you need to beat it by at least two minutes (and as it turns out, for that year you needed to beat it by 3 minutes 28 seconds to get into Boston).
Feeling like I was so close to my goal, but needed some extra help to get there, I hired a running coach and signed up for the Skagit Flats Marathon in September of 2017. I had an excellent training cycle and was hitting all of my paces going into the race. My coach and I were both feeling confident that I would achieve my goal of running a 3:45. Unfortunately, I made a typical running mistake and started off too fast. I was solid through the first 15 miles, but started to slow at mile 16. Then mile 18 came and I was toast. I pushed until mile 20 and then it was a run/walk to those last 6 miles. I finished that marathon in 3:56:14. Even though I was nowhere near my goal time, I also wasn't far off of my PR. I felt like I could legitimately claim that I was a sub-4 hour marathon runner.
I went into maintenance mode for the rest of year, but prepared to run the Light at the End of the Tunnel Marathon again in June of 2018. My coach started up my training program in February with the focus on getting me to Boston. Training was going well until disaster struck at the end of April. I was finishing up an easy 5 mile run when I injured my SI joint. To this day, I am not sure how I hurt it, but it took me out of running for several months. I was so sad not to be able to try again for another PR at the LETM, especially since I had several friends who were going to run it that year. I did PT for about 8 weeks and then took it easy through most of summer. I did run a half-marathon at the end of October and finished 3rd overall woman and 1st in my age group! That was certainly a moral booster after the disappointing spring.
Unfortunately, after that half marathon, I hurt my foot. I know now that it was an overuse injury due to poor nerve to muscle communication. I spent November and December seeing the podiatrist and doing a lot of pool running. He released me to run again in January 2019 and just like a kid who has been deprived of her favorite treat, I indulged in being able to run again. I ran lots and lots of miles in those first weeks of January. That, of course, led to re-injuring my foot. This time the podiatrist sent me to physical therapy where I received the instruction to not run at all! Of course I was starting to freak out a little because I had signed up for the LETM back in November. I'm used to a 16-week training cycle to prepare for a marathon and now I was relegated to pool running, biking and yoga. No runnning. No weight training. I threw myself into my PT exercises in hopes that I would be back soon. But little tiny muscles in my neck needed to be re-trained and that just takes time.
Finally, in March of this year I was released to run. That left me 12 weeks to somehow, not only get in marathon shape, but try to be prepared enough to run a BQ time again. My physical therapist told me I needed to be smarter about my training so I looked for a running coach that trained using heart-rate training. The theory is that you run 80% of your runs at an easy effort, 1 run at a medium effort and 1 run at a hard effort. By keeping the effort easy, you increase your aerobic capacity. I figured that training at a slower pace might help prevent injury. I found a couple of great coaches and got to work.
David was completely skeptical of this training approach, not understanding how training at a slower-than-race-pace would have me prepared to meet my goal. I couldn't adequately explain it to him and he wouldn't read the articles I shared with him that explained the concept. So I told him, I'm just going to trust my coaches and the process and see what happens. I also was keying in on different fueling strategies because I was determined to not bonk again at mile 18.
My training went well. I kept my heart rate low on my easy runs. My 5k threshold tests showed that I was improving. I found a fuel that works amazingly well for me (UCAN super-starch). I ran several 18-22 mile runs and didn't ever really feel a bonk, except during PMS weeks. PMS weeks kill me! I can't keep my heart rate down and I'm sluggish on the long runs. The 12 week training cycle was compact, but worked.
Finally, June 9th came! This was probably the most prepared mentally and physically that I had been for a race. I was cautiously optimistic about running a 3:45, but I had also given myself permission to just run and enjoy the day. Whatever happened, happened. I held myself back just a bit in the first couple of miles and then let the course do the work (it is a gentle downhill course so gravity helps!) the rest of the way down. I had told myself that there would be no breaks during this marathon, but at about mile 10 my body was saying different. I took a few minutes to really check-in to see if I could figure out why I was feeling off and discovered that I needed to pee! Fortunately, the course is a trail through the forest so I could find a nice bush to pee behind. Once my bladder was empty, I felt so much better and continued on my way.
I had brought music along to listen to if I felt I needed it at the end. I was prepared to go until mile 18 without it. Mile 18 came and I was feeling awesome so I kept on going, because no breaks, remember. I knew that I would see David somewhere around mile 21 so I kept plugging away. He was with me for about a 1/2 mile and when he left me at mile 22 I decided to plug in the tunes. I'll admit that the brief walk break that I took to get my headphones in and iPod turned on was a refreshing reprieve. And the best part was that the break wasn't long enough to really foul-up my time. I still kept it under a 9-minute mile.
David found me again at mile 25. By this time, I knew it was going to be tight to meet my goal, but as long as I didn't slow down, I would make it. Mile 25.2...exactly one mile left. David ran with me for all but the last 400 meters of that mile. He told me to give it everything I had as I finished. While it wasn't my fastest mile, it also wasn't my slowest. Matter of fact, I ran that last mile in 8:10 and finished strong.
I crossed the line in 3:44:09. I beat the new Boston standard (which is 3:50 for my age group) by almost 6 minutes. While I know that Boston isn't a guarantee, I feel pretty confident that I will be running in the Boston Marathon in April 2020. I can't wait!
