My biggest fans! Was I ever glad to see Porter and Sophie at the last turn around. It gave me the extra push I needed to head out for my last lap!
Larissa, my running partner.
Coming in for the big finish...
After running the Ragnar, I felt like my mileage was already up so far that it wasn't such a stretch to keep building and try to run the Kingwood Marathon. It's been 7 years since I ran a marathon, and I've had 3 kids since then. I wanted to prove to myself that I could still do it.
I heard about the Advanced Marathoning book from an article I read about an LDS running mom of 3 kids. She qualified to run the Olympic Trial's Marathon this year using the book. I thought, if it could help her reach her goal, maybe it could help me reach mine. Her story was so cool. She ran a marathon as a bucket list item after high school, she wasn't much of a runner. But for some reason kept at it, even though her time was slow. 31 marathons and 5 tries later, she qualified for the Olympic Trials. Then I found at that Larissa's mom uses the same book. It sealed the deal, I ordered the book. I took a week of recovery after Ragnar, and with Larissa's prodding, started in on the training plan.
The plan was more intense then I've ever trained before. With some weeks taking me up to 50 miles. Lots of mid week longish runs, tempo runs and speed work. I really enjoyed the training, and realizing I could push myself like that. Push to the next level. I did a lot of running by myself, because Larissa got hurt. With this training program I figured I might as well try to PR and qualify for Boston... and I did it!!!
I finished in 3 hours 33 minutes and 54 seconds. My qualifying time needed to be 3:45, so I got it by almost 12 minutes. I PR'ed by over 2 minutes. I felt like I did something wrong in my prerace or race fueling, because my legs were awfully heavy by mile 17/18... and downright painful around mile 20, but I perservered and finished strong! My GPS didn't work well in the trees, but according to the race mile markers and my timer on my watch I hit 8 minute miles for most of my miles. I started out too fast because of the GPS problem. And lost some time in the last 3 miles. the last .2 miles I had to slow way down, telling myself that passing out would undo all my hard work. But I did it!! I PR'd and qualified for Boston 2017 with a big enough window that I should be able to get in. I didn't get my final goal of making a 3:30... But I am good with that... I can't complain. but I will say that if I had been able to get a 3:30 I would have given the winner a serious run for her money. Seeing how the women's winner ran it in 3:29:45! I came in 14th overall and 4th for women. I was toast for the rest of the day. And in a lot of pain for almost a week. But it was all worth it.
It's nice to prove to myself that I can do hard things.... It's awesome to be able to work towards a tangible goal, and achieve it. There are so many goals that I have set for myself that are immeasurable. Becoming the person God wants me to be. Being more loving and slow to anger. They are lifelong pursuits, not a destination. Running a race like this was a destination. And while I don't want to do them super regularly, the training is so intense, the taper is hard and the recovery is ridiculous, it's worth it once in a while. I love running. I love how it makes me feel. I love the heart pounding clean reset it gives me. I love the social part of it. I love how much stress and negativity and hormonal imbalance it burns off.
No comments:
Post a Comment