Baystate Marathon Recap: Crash & Burn, Baby.

So I ran the Baystate Marathon today. This was my first marathon since the 2009 Chicago marathon.

I now remember why I swore off marathons. The PAIN. OMG, the pain! I have so much respect for those of you that can run them and not come away hobbled. I am not that person. I seriously just don't want to put my body through it again. Halfs for this girl from now on!

So, anyway, a proper recap. So I cooked us a feast of grilled chicken and sweet potatoes last night, and we went to bed early (about 9 pm). I slept well, only woke up to pee once, and got up when my alarm went off at 4:30. I drank my standard 2 cups of coffee, and ate two rice cakes with peanut butter & a banana. We got ready and left our house at around 6:00 AM.

We got to Lowell a little before 7, parked in a garage less than a 1/2 mile from the finish/start line, and lucky for us there were bathrooms in the parking garage. They were clean, had toilet paper, and there was no wait. Very nice.

We checked our bag, and stood inside the high school for bit until we went out to line up at 7:45 AM. This race only has 1500 full marathoners, so it wasn't a problem at all to line up in the corral. I realized when we got out there that I need to go to the bathroom again - but apparently they only had about 12 port-o-potties at the start line (for 3000 runners! WTF!) and I knew I'd never get in one, so I just sucked it up and ran. (It turned out to not be a problem., I never had to stop on the course)

Before the start, sporting throw away gloves. Jazz hands!

jazz hands again!

So we take off promptly at 8, and I crossed the start line only 10 seconds later. There was little to no crowding, and I was at racing speed in no time. The weather was perfect - about 50 at the start, and sunny.

I took off a little too fast - the first couple miles were around 7:45. I reeled it back in and found a 7:55-8:00 pace, which I carried for for the first 13 miles. I intended to run 8:10, but honestly, that's really not that much of a difference. I crossed the halfway point at 1:45:06 - which is a half marathon PR for me. (cue ominous warning signs here)

By mile 14.5, I was feeling the crash already. I walked a few times and even stopped to text my husband that I wasn't sure I'd finish (he was running too, but battling a sprained wrist, ankle, and badly bruised ribs from a soccer match last weekend, so had to slow down bigtime to compensate). I sucked it up at some point and mostly ran (albeit, much more slowly) until mile 20.

The majority of the race was limited to the shoulder of roads meant for vehicular traffic only. I guess I am spoiled, living in Boston - I always run on sidewalks or bike/run paths. By mile 20, by left hip was in excruciating pain from running on the uneven shoulder! I had to stop a few times to stretch out my hip flexors. From that point forward, I allowed myself to walk a few steps every mile. It was the only way I could see finishing.

In the last few miles, we were running on a divided highway, limited to the shoulder, with some STEEP banking. My hip was in agony! The worst of it was in the last half of mile 25, which hobbled me to walk again. We finally came back into downtown Lowell, and even then I had to walk a few steps right before we hit 26. I don't recall ever feeling that level of misery in my past two marathons. I knew I'd totally blown my chances at BQ'ing, but I was hoping to at least PR. That was dashed when I turned into the finish and saw the clock. I finished in 3:56:04 - 6 seconds slower than my 2009 Chicago performance. Honestly, I didn't even care, because I was so happy that I even finished. I was about 15 seconds away from dropping at mile 15.

We didn't die.

But I did get very upset at the finish - because the water/food/gatorade station was almost a half mile from the finish line!!! This was my biggest disappointment in this race. To me, it was just totally unacceptable. After running for almost 4 hours, as soon as I stopped running, I needed nourishment immediately. I could barely walk because my hip hurt so bad. I also was really weak. It took me almost 30 minutes to get to the food tent - I had to stop and sit/lie down at least 4 times because I was so weak. Race directors - DO NOT make marathoners travel so far to get nourishment at the end of the race!!!

And THEN, when I got there, I had to wait in line (again, WHY with only 3000 runners??)! I had tunnel vision by the time I got under the food tent and had to just grab the first thing I saw with calories - a can of Pepsi. I crawled down on the ground right by the tent and drank it (yes, I did look insane, and I didn't care). I finally started to feel a little better, and I got up and grabbed some orange slices. My husband finished in 4:27, and they were totally out of Pepsi by that point. Ridiculous. We got some soup and then headed home.

I have to say I have mixed feelings overall about this marathon. I love that it was so close to my residence, that I could sleep in my own bed the night before, and I love even more that the entrance fee was only $70. The on course support was very good, and I have no complaints. The course was a little... boring. But I knew that going into it. But the experience at the end was just not good.

Eh, but it's over now. And I guess at the end of the day I'm happy I finished and that it was at least under 4 hours. I am disappointed with myself that I wasn't mentally stronger and didn't try to tough it out, though. I wish I wouldn't have given up so easily! It makes me feel weak. But then I remember that I did traverse 26 miles today, which is no small feat.

I also realize that from now on, I'll stick with half marathons. Or 10 milers. Or maybe just 5K's and 10K's. :)

Reward time!

Narragansett Blessing of the Feet 10 Mile Road Race

So last week I was just casually looking for upcoming races in New England. I love to run races, and I think they make me a better runner because otherwise I rarely run that hard. I happened to discover the Narragansett 10 Miler on Thursday - and the race was Friday night. The on site race fee was only $35, so we decided "what the hell" and drove down from Boston for it on Friday.

The weather ended up being pretty bad, and the race was actually delayed for half and hour because of downpours and lightning. But that worked in our favor, because it alleviated some of the stifling humidity. The race set off at 6:30pm on Friday night, which meant almost the entire town pulled out their lawn chairs and coolers to spectate. It was an AWESOME race. Beautiful ocean views, tons of cheering fans - people spraying us with their garden hoses to cool off, and even some dudes offering cans of Natty Light around mile 8. The last 1.5 miles was a steady downhill run as well, which is always nice.

I knew this race wouldn't be an all-out race effort for me, mostly because I'd run hard for the 3 previous days - 7 miles on Tuesday, 5 on Wednesday, and 7 on Thursday. It was more of a tune-up effort - and to see how a 10 mile race felt on relatively tired legs. And I can say, it felt better than I thought it would. I mean, it wasn't my best effort, but I am certainly not upset with it.

Miles 1-3 were somewhere around 7:45-8:00, and then I dialed it back because a) we were climbing a long, steady hill, and b) the soreness started yelling at me. But then towards the end I got a second wind and turned it on, concluding with the last mile being my fastest - 7:35. It always feels awesome to finish a race fast - I passed what felt like 100 people in the last mile and sprinted into the finish - the crowd was roaring! That was worth the $35 alone.

Final results: 10 miles, 1:21:24, 8:04 avg pace.


My husband was having some issues during this race and I actually finished ahead of him. Hello, bragging rights! I've been reminding him I beat him all week.

In case you didn't know, the one on the right is the winner in this photo

This race also had a festival/carnival at the end complete with seafood and beer. It was a great race, I highly recommend it!

Now this week is the time to put my big girl panties on - the training plan calls for 50 miles this week. GULP.

Race Recap: Boston Run to Remember Half Marathon

So, I haven't blogged in like a week. I just haven't had anything interesting to report. It was a boring running week since it was race week and the mileage was low. I felt like I ate way too much (there is a reason I don't buy gummy candy, because I will eat it everyday). Anyway, race recap...

We woke up at 4:15 and went through our typical race prep - coffee, oatmeal, dressed, out the door. We had to get on the train at 5:30 to get to the start. Our connection train was late, which put us getting to the start line at 6:45 for a 7:00 start. Yikes! The bathrooms were crammed into a little alley area on the side of the convention center, which created a huge bottleneck of people trying to get in and out. There were no lines, though, which was good - we were able to get back out to the start line and fight our way up to at least the 8:30 pace marker. By this point we're only a couple minutes from gun time. I start up my Garmin, and try to start up my music... but my headphones were dead. I furiously tried everything I could to get them to work to no avail - they were not going to work. I never run without music - I make dedicated playlists that I know will help keep me motivated and help me keep cadence.

The start was pretty crowded but I opted to run on the curb/sidewalk for the first 1.5 miles which helped me go faster, for sure. I was still angry about the music thing but I just let it go and resigned myself to running 13 miles with no music. The crowd finally thinned out around mile 4 and I didn't have to weave to get around people.

I kept checking my Garmin every 3 seconds and I was sort of baffled why a 7:55 pace felt so hard. My original goal was to run anything under a 1:45 - I really wanted an average pace that had a 7 as the first number. I sort of knew around the halfway point that probably wasn't going to happen. I was bored and tired of listening to myself huff and puff. Music definitely would have helped!

I decided around mile 9 to stop looking at my Garmin. I was stressing myself out and it wasn't worth it. My goal at that point became to keep running and finish as strong as I could. I was running right around a 8:00 mi/mile until then - miles 11 and 12 were at a 8:21 and 13 was 8:44. Oh well. It was pretty warm by that point and I didn't really care anymore - I was purposely going out of my way to give little kids high fives. Ha! I needed something to kill the boredom of running for that long.

Official time: 1:46:51, 8:10 avg pace 

This was less than a minute off my PR. Am I little disappointed? Maybe. But honestly, I'm okay with it.

Now to take a couple weeks of easy training! I will start marathon training in less than three weeks!

Somehow we only took one picture yesterday. Race picture fail!

And it was blurry. But at least I wasn't crying.

Country Music Half Marathon: The Recap

I should probably have titled this "Country Music Half Marathon: Honky Tonkin' Disaster."

Because that pretty much sums it up: it was a disaster.

I did everything right that I could - the right gear, sleep, hydration, fueling. Got to the start line almost an hour and half early - plenty of time to get ready. The start line was nice - Centennial Park is beautiful. The bathroom lines were horrifically long though.

Wishing it would just start an hour early

So by the time the race started it was already about 70 degrees. I was in Corral 2, which was all pretty fast people. They let us us go about 45 seconds after the first corral (although my chip somehow picked up the sensor 30 seconds early, but whatever). We take off and I felt good. The first 3 miles had a pretty good net downhill. I don't own a Garmin, but I do use a the Runmeter iPhone GPS app, but I had it set to give me my average pace every mile. I was shooting for a sub 1:45 half, so I was trying for like a 7:50 pace.

My earphones come on at mile 1 - 7:03 pace.

Yikes. I thought to myself I needed to dial it back. So I swear it felt like I did. Mile 2: 7:00 pace. WTF?

Mile 3: 7:11 <--- this is now officially my fastest 5K ever. Not exactly what I should be doing in a half marathon. But I felt so good!

4: 8:06
5: 8:24
6: 8:00
7: 8:13
8: 8:41

OH BUT WAIT. I had studied the race course elevation map before the race, but I swear it was incorrect. I assumed that I would get a long downhill after mile 7 or so and it didn't happen. Relentless hills. By mile 8 it was probably about 80 degrees and I just wilted somewhere around the 15K point. There was little to no shade either. I had to give in and walk.

I grew up in the deep South, and for most of the past decade have lived and run in very warm places - South Carolina, Hawaii, San Diego. I guess living through one New England winter is enough to become totally unaclimated to the heat. Around mile 10 or so was the closest I've ever felt to heat exhaustion - dizzy and disoriented. I managed to run for maybe a half mile at a time before I had to give in and walk. I felt like such a loser. And all I could think of was all that time, energy, and money I'd spent on this race and I just watched all of it drift farther and farther away. I was so angry with myself.

9: 9:42
10: 9:25
11: 10:03
12: 10:17

My final time was 1:54:46 - well, by my watch. The final time listed for the race was over 1:55, but I know it is incorrect because my husband and I took off at the exact same time and his start time is listed to be 30 seconds after mine. The told us to walk right up to the sensor, and we were in the front of the corral, so I think my sensor must have started too soon. Whatever, it doesn't really matter, I guess.

I am just SO ANGRY about this and I can't let it go. This was my 8th half, and officially my second worst half (my first half was about 1:57).

I will say the course was well equipped with plenty of aid stations and the crowds were pretty good. Everyone was really nice - something I forgot I missed. Several times after mile 10, I would feel someone pat me on the back and encourage me to keep going, or ask me if I was okay. I think I was so frustrated because I was mentally prepared to kill that race but I couldn't make my body do it. My final verdict on this race: I won't do it again, not unless they change it to be in like, February.

I am somewhat sore, not too bad, I've definitively been worse. I bought a travel sized foam roller at the expo, which turned out to be awesome (and it fits in my backpack). What's odd is my chest hurts - on the left side, when I inhale. I am slightly concerned I did some damage to myself. I think I will allow myself to rest today and jump back into things tomorrow.

And now I want race revenge like something awful. I have already found another race to do - and thank God this one is here in Boston - I am done with traveling to races for a while. So in 4 weeks, hopefully I will finally get that race I was hoping for. At first I declared I was going to run my own 13.1 this coming weekend but I decided against it. I don't want to hurt myself.

So now I think I am also going to start doing more long runs. I think every weekend needs to have a double digit run. Also, I am thinking of a Garmin (or some other GPS watch). I think I really should know my real-time pace, so I pace myself correctly. While I love my current app, there is no GPS app that can accurately give real-time pace. I hesitate because Garmins are SO pricey. I have already spent a small fortune on all my other gear; I am unsure I want to invest in another.

On a positive note, I just submitted my last grad school assignment ever, so that felt pretty good. Now, I think I will nap!