The Greatest Throwback Thursday of 2016 So Far

It's been awhile. I've been following an advanced marathon training plan that includes daily running and workouts. That's right, I said DAILY. As in... Every. Single. Day. Running. I've put in more miles in the past five months than in most full years of training. If you read my last post, you can probably guess that's because I qualified for Boston in October by 31 seconds and, as we know, that's a lot of work for not likely being able to register this September. So, I've been working as hard as I can for the race I am going to review today: Sugarloaf Marathon 2016.

I did this race last year and chose to do it again this year in attempt to qualify by a bigger margin. I chose Sugarloaf, because it's a point to point direct course with no twists and turns. It has a little uphill and a lot of downhill. It's within driving distance. The temperatures are perfect there this time of year. And it's a pretty small playing field as far as qualifiers go.

Sugarloaf Marathon Course and Elevation

As soon as the weather began to appear in the 15 day forecast, I was all over it, everyday, sometimes multiple times (you know you've done it) and kinda freaking out a little. Sometimes it showed thunderstorms, sometimes more rain and sometimes less, but always some sort of weather event. I've run in the rain during training and enjoyed it, but never in a race and never for more than 26 miles. I was scared. I worked way too hard to not PR because of hypothermia or wet feet and a blister.

Scary Race Day Prediction

Mallory and I arrived Saturday afternoon in time to receive our bibs and shirts. The line was loooooong and probably took us 30 minutes or more, but Maple Water was passed around and I tried that for the first time, which was good. We also signed up for the pasta dinner (first time doing that) and I recommend it. Pasta dinners often cost more than going to your local Olive Garden, but for Sugarloaf, it is a particularly good idea, because there is no local Olive Garden or really much of anything close by and it's all you can eat and delicious. There was also beet salad, chick pea salad and cooked veggies to add to your pasta or side as well as yummy dessert. There's also meat sauce if you're into that sort of gross stuff. The speaker was Gary Allen and he showed us a video of his friend Michael Westpahl who qualified for Boston and raised a lot of money for the Michael J. Fox Foundation. Michael Westpahl has Parkinson's Disease. This is his documentary and it's inspiring!

We stayed in a motel about 30 minutes from the finish and parking area and I slept as well as I could considering I needed to pee every hour due to hydrating the bejesus out of myself all day Saturday. The morning car ride to the buses was foggy, rainy and included flashes of lightening. We took the bus up from the finish line and Mallory commented on how far we would be running, which had been pretty terrifying last year the first time I bused that distance. I had brought my phone up this time and had told Mallory how beautiful it is up there. It wasn't so beautiful this year, because it was POURING! No gorgeous photos of the starting line. We both had these amazing Patagonia Houdini Jackets and were trying to decide if we should wear them or stick with our trash bags and rip those off later. These jackets are light, collapse into themselves for easy carrying and can breath amazingly well for something that keeps water off of you. I put mine on, but took it off and put it into the bag check at the last minute. We found a bathroom and hid from the rain in there until it was time to start.

This is our only pre-race photo and we are hiding from the rain in a bathroom.

It did dump on us for a bit during the race, but the temperatures were around 50 degrees Fahrenheit, so it actually felt pretty comfortable. I wore shorts, compression socks, a singlet and arm warmers and didn't feel annoyed or need to adjust anything throughout the race. I also wore a visor to keep the rain out of my eyes and this gave me something to think about with my form. I knew if I was seeing much ahead of myself, I was craning my neck, bringing my hips forward and breaking with my heels. I kept my head down and leaned into much of the race not knowing what was ahead. I told myself not to look at my watch or the hills when it got tough and nailed my pace on the downhill. Days before I began to plan what I would think about throughout the race to keep me inspired and my mind off any discomfort I might feel. I added Michael Westpahl to my list.

Something that has happened over the past year, which I may write about more at another time, is that I have lost some of my competitive spirit... kind of. I don't get excited and race from the starting line anymore. I don't get caught up on anyone passing me in the middle. I keep my head down and run my own race and get feisty at the end with whatever is left, trying to beat the clock to the best of MY ability. I think this is due to running full marathons and trying to qualify for Boston. I know I don't have the time and energy to play around and am more focused on my own goal.

Crowd support is really good for a race of this size, because half of the road is open, so spectators can drive along the road and catch racers at several points.

I used the pacing feature on my Garmin Fenix 3 to pace my predicted finish time of 3:33:54. This time had gotten into the low 3:20:00 in the middle of my training, but I figured it was better to play it safe and get the BQ rather than test what I might be able to do. It was showing me way ahead of schedule for much of the race and predicting my finish at 3:28:00 more or less. I noticed I was hitting my splits way before the mile markers, but trusted my watch more than the race organizers. That was wrong. My watch was .7 miles off! Luckily, I ended up running more on feel and keeping it "easy" more than sticking 100% to my pace. I finished at 3:33:50, four seconds faster than my goal and my watch prediction! I qualified for Boston by over 11 minutes!

Best predictions during my training. Unfortunately, these numbers only show up from time to time and don't stick. Yet!

This is what the pacing feature looks like. This was a test and not during the marathon, obviously!

Mallory was still on the course and had her phone. She had asked me to text her when I finished. I wanted to verify my time and went to the timing truck with the big screens scrolling through results. Naturally, after waiting for my time for several minutes, the screen restarted... so I went to get my own phone, put on some warmer clothes and come back to check again. When I saw my name come up with my bib number and time of 03:33:50, I saw something else. First place in my age group!!!

Sugarloaf 2016 Finisher Medal and Age Group Plate

Of course, I am most happy about my safe cushion of a qualifying time and my first place, but I am also very happy about how I felt during and after this race. In the past, I have begun to feel the wall around mile 18 and by the finish I could barely walk and felt HORRIBLE. This is what happened in my head around mile 18 at Sugarloaf in 2016... "Here it comes. Just fight this out the rest of the way. You can do this... wait, shut up! You're fine, stop looking for a wall and be in the now. Now, you are fine. What the hell? You're fine?  You're actually feeling okay right now." This happened every mile or so at the end. Around mile 25, I was ready to be done, but felt nothing like I had in past marathons. When I finished I was able to walk around, eat some food, stand on the podium and sit in the car for 5 hours without crying. Maybe, marathons do get easier the more you do them.

I'm going to Boston!