Racing Retrospective

Before I get to actually writing a report on how the marathon went, I have a flashback post on how far I've come.

I’ve been on TeamZ for a while now, and just had my 6th Winter “A” Race. Every one has felt like an accomplishment, a wonderful step forward. All of these steps have gotten me farther than I’d thought possible.

TL;DR: I raced my first marathon and finished in 4:24, which beat all of my goals for the race. Once upon a time, I ran a half in 3:16, which beat all of my goals for that race.

Here are some numbers:

Year	Race	Time	Pace	Goal
2010	Shamrock Half Marathon	3:16	15:00	Run Z2, maybe 16:00 pace?
2011	Shamrock Half Marathon	3:05	14:10	Improve from last year using new Z2 numbers
2012	DC Rock N Roll Half Marathon	2:57	13:32	Improve from Shamrock, even with hills
2013	Myrtle Beach Half	2:52	13:09	Beat LRP pace of 13:45
2014	Shamrock Half Marathon	2:35	11:50	Negative split it, average pace around 12:00
2015	RNR Full Marathon	4:24	10:05	Negative split it, average pace around 10:30

I was so excited in 2010 to see my running buddy in front of me as I came within a few miles of finishing. I was able to catch up enough that we finished together after training together and having so many new-longest runs together

2011 gave me my first experience of a running injury. Surprisingly, ignoring my angry Achilles didn’t actually make it get better, so coming back to run the RnR Half Marathon in 2012 felt a little like starting over from scratch, but this time with a hilly race at the end of the training! Val caught this photo of me towards the beginning — on my way to a 10K PR, followed by 6 miles of fade, but a healthy run and a Half marathon PR.

In 2012, we started using pace-based training as a companion to heart rate, so I gave that a try and was super excited to run most of the 2013 Myrtle Beach Half Marathon with paces in the 12’s! I still faded a lot towards the end and had unplanned walk breaks. In the winter of 2013, I started working with Rebecca and added nutrition to the things I was thinking about, in addition to training. When the 2014 Shamrock Half Marathon came around, I was under 200 lbs and super excited to race my most disciplined race yet. I wanted to run faster and smarter, and managed to do that — negative splitting the half marathon, and, wow, it is awesome to feel strong at the end, instead of feeling beat down. I really recommend it!

This year, I am getting ready to do my first Ironman, and step n+1 of that was to train for and run a stand-alone marathon. I picked RNR because it is hillier than Shamrock, and Chattanooga also has a hilly run. I trained well, and raced well and had an amazing result. I’ve awarded myself the prize of “best first marathon” because I maintained focus, negative split the race, and beat my goals. I have a lot more to say about this particular race, and the training leading up to it, but felt like a flashback post was needed, so that’s what you get.