With every marathon, you always gotta have a couple goals since anything could happen over such a long distance. I usually have a public goal that I'll tell people who ask and feel somewhat confident I can achieve and a reach goal that I'll secretly aim for if everything goes right and I'm having a good day. For the past couple marathons, my public goal has been 3:35 and my reach goal has been 3:30. And for the past couple marathons, I've gone out at an 8:00 pace, figuring I'd stay on that pace for as long as possible and then slow it down if I need to and still have enough cushion to come in under 3:35. For both races, I held onto 8:00 until mile 16ish and then bonked because of dehydration, wind, perhaps just not being quite ready to run at that pace for a full 26.2. At MCM, I wasn't even able to hold on for a 3:35 but still managed a PR. At Rehoboth, I probably would've barely made it under 3:35 if the course had not been short and had another PR. For B&A, my only goal was 3:30. That's what I told people I wanted and that's the only thing I was really going after. My only reach goal was, given my recent improved level of fitness and speed, to run faster than 8:00 min pace only if the effort felt comfortable and hold onto that for as long as possible without letting it detrimentally affect my 3:30 goal.
Chris and I got to Severna Park High School just barely early enough to park in the front lot. I'm always appreciative of races that have indoor facilities to hang out in pre-race. I saw and chatted with a few familiar faces, but didn't see too many from HCS. For a 40 degree race start, I was more uncomfortably cold than I had expected in my short-sleeve shirt, skirt, and gloves. The race started at 7:30 AM and I clocked in the first mile at 7:36. I was kind of surprised by this, since it felt closer to 8:00 min pace, but I chalked it up to my just being cold and needing to warm up. I ran the next mile in 7:43 and thought that was more like it. I had been having some pre-marathon phantom pains ever since the 10 Mile Challenge and had been extremely paranoid all week about lower left leg pains (was it my former calf strain injury? was it just shin splints? or was it, my biggest nightmare, a pre-stress fracture?) and IT band issues in my right leg. I ran the first couple miles with a lot of nervous anxiety, but when none of these pains showed themselves after a few miles, I stopped worrying so much and ran with more ease and comfort and just focused on racing with my best effort.
Not too much excitement over the next few miles, although I think I may have splashed a volunteer when I chucked my partially-filled cup of water into the grass and the water came streaming out of the cup (I'm so sorry!!!). We went off the trail for a little before the first turnaround and that was the only real significant hill of the course, but it didn't affect me too much. What really did affect me was getting back on the trail and having all these runners coming at me in the opposite direction. I felt so overwhelmed by it that I ran my slowest mile at 7:55 because of it. The only nice part of it was seeing familiar faces, like Hazel, Tammy, Karen, Glenda, Sunny, and some others I can't remember.
I saw Denise standing at the marathon/half-marathon split holding a sign directing the marathoners to stay straight and it gave me a little boost to be nearly halfway done. I was feeling really good and hit the halfway mark in a time of 1:40:45ish, and toyed with the crazy idea of negatively splitting and running a 1:38 and change to come in under 3:20. I immediately rejected that idea, thinking back to what happened during MCM and Rehoboth, and told myself I should just be happy that I'm still easily running well under 8:00's and will probably have 3:30 in the bag. It also didn't help that the wind was picking up on that part of the trail and we were running directly into it, definitely bringing back flashbacks of Rehoboth. Yet, a part of me would just not let that 3:20 thought go and I was subconsciously picking it up...7:33, 7:38, 7:39, 7:37. I kept expecting myself to slow down eventually but I guess it helped that the course was just a straight shot down the trail and I didn't have to think about directions at all and could just zone out and coast. The only other memorable hill was the bridge over 100, the others were just minor bumps along the road. And being in the top 10 women, I had plenty of encouragement from volunteers/other racers, with some telling me what place I was in. I was actually pretty cold during the second half of the race, with the wind picking up and the sky being overcast. For once in a marathon, I actually liked it the few times the sun did peek through the clouds because it warmed me up a little. I distracted myself trying to calculate pace/mile and time for 9 miles, 8 miles, 7 miles in order to make it under 3:20 before finally deciding my delusional state was not good at calculating math in my head and to just keep running. Besides that, I was mostly zoned out, other than thinking of the hilarious thing Chris had shown me that morning that totally made my day!
I got to the second turnaround, distractedly trying to suck down a Gu and drink water, and was surprised when Amy Summers, who was volunteering, recognized me. I was so out of it, I barely mumbled a "Hi." Something about heading back towards the direction of the finish line always helps motivate me and I was definitely feeling a good boost from that. Even though I was getting tired and feeling sore, especially in my right IT band, I ran miles 20-24 at 7:35ish pace. I did not particularly like that tiny little out-and-back portion off the trail at mile 23 for an extra half a mile because it was annoying to have to make all those turns, especially the U-turn, after running straight for so long.
I hit mile 24 with exactly 16 minutes left until 3:20. I did some calculation and realized a 7:30 pace was not going to cut it if I wanted to come in under 3:20 and thought, "Crap! I really have to haul ass to make it under 3:20." Stupid me! Why did I have to come within spitting distance of such a ridiculous even number time goal that I wasn't even aiming for? Why couldn't I have just been on pace for a 3:22 or something and be happy with beating my goal by 8 minutes? I picked it up expecting that even though it felt like I was picking it up, my dead legs wouldn't move at a faster pace. But to my surprise, my legs still had enough in them to run miles 25 and 26 in 7:21 and 7:18. I had passed several people in these last few miles, some almost as if they had been standing still. Some were surprised at how efficiently I was moving at that point in the race and even commented. My watch had been measuring the course long by .1 mile, so I knew I was going to be running more than 26.2 miles. When I got to the mile 26 marker, I really didn't think I had enough time to run .2 more miles and still come in under 3:20. I had started my watch at the gun start and I wasn't even sure how much of a cushion I had on chip time. I just kept hauling ass as fast as I could because that's all I really could do at that point. I saw Chris sitting in his chair with his camera and seeing a familiar face made me smile and I immediately put my ham face on. I thought it was odd that there were some Brightroom photographers at the start but I didn't see any out on the course. Maybe I was too zoned out to realize they were out there. After hamming for Chris, I just ran with all my might. I caught sight of a girl ahead of me but knew there was not enough distance between her and the finish line to catch up to and pass her. I saw the clock at the finish line hit 3:20 and just hauled ass as fast as I could, hoping my chip time cushion would be enough to still break 3:20. To my delight, I just received an email from B&A saying, "Your official time was 3:19:58.70, a pace of 7:38 per mile."
I enjoyed some post-race warm Papa John's pizza afterwards (that hit the spot and helped me warm up after being so cold) and my favorite post-race drink, Diet Coke (helps settle the tummy after all that jostling from running). All the packaged chips and pretzels were raided by the half-marathoners, but there was still plenty of snacks, fruit, and bagels out to partake in. I was surprised that I actually had a pretty good appetite after this marathon and ate 3 slices of pizza and plenty of goldfish, animal crackers, and trail mix.
I was so ecstatic about my performance at B&A that I felt on top of the world. On such a runner's high that I forgot how stiff and sore one gets after a marathon until I took off for the HCS Weekly 2 miler that afternoon. I was barely able to hobble through it, but I was too happy to care.
I love the sense of community that there is in running. All my running buddies were jumping up and down celebrating my accomplishment with me from the second I crossed the finish line, some almost seemed more excited for me than I was for myself! I love how we all like each other's Facebook statuses and celebrate each other's achievements. I feel a sense of belonging with the running people that I haven't really felt anywhere else because we all get each other. I told my family I ran a 3:20 marathon today and they were just like, "Cool!" not really understanding what an accomplishment that was for me.
I can honestly say I never dreamed that running a 3:20 marathon would ever be possible in all of my running career. I remember when attempting to break 4:30 for my very first marathon in Frederick in May 2009 seemed like such a challenge. And then attempting to break 4:00 hours at Baltimore in October 2009. At that time, Boston seemed so far-fetched, not to even mention a 3:30. After BQing, I thought that was gonna be it until Boston lowered their qualifying times and I thought reducing my time by 3 minutes was within reasonable reach. But honestly, after all those accomplishments, I really DID think I would reach my limits once I broke 3:30. I don't even want to talk about 3:15's or lowering my marathon time any further. I am more than content with surpassing my goal by 10 minutes and maybe I should focus on working on other distances.
It's been an amazing running year for me so far. I've PR'ed in the 5K, 10K, 10M, and marathon distances at races I was least expecting to ever PR in (except for B&A) and in times I didn't ever think in my capabilities. Except for B&A, I didn't go into these races with any intention of PRing. Although all these races have been run at a pace that felt comfortable, I don't want to push my luck and race myself into an injury though. Time to focus on staying healthy and just putting in the miles for Old Dominion training. I still have to bring my 1:51 HM PR down to my marathon split time (for some reason, that seems to be the distance I all-out race the least), but that'll have to wait.
