via lehigh valley marathon

Rant n' Rave

September 26, 2011 by Kristy 16 Comments

9/26/11
4 miles easy

BOSTON UPDATE: I should know by today or tomorrow if I’m in (or out, but I’m trying to think positive, so let’s just focus on the “in”). My stomach is in knots and I’m terrified. My BlackBerry will not leave my side today or tomorrow and every time it blinks, I’m going to say a little prayer that it’s the B.A.A. giving me good news. Fingers crossed…

RANT
Back in July, me and my friend Sara decided to sign up for the Great Urban Race – Philly. Think Amazing Race but on a much smaller scale. We both have wanted to do this type of race for awhile and were excited. We even came up with a great team name – Rally Girls, after Friday Night Lights (we are huge fans). Loooong story short, the Great Urban Race sucks. I successfully registered but Sara could not (it kept charging her for 2 participants). Sara called and emailed the GUR staff numerous times and, essentially, they could not fix their registration issue. Sara even asked if they could do something manually if she provided her credit card numbers. Nope. GUR’s solution? Come down on race day and we can register you for $60 (the late registration fee, because it was our fault we weren’t registered on time). Hell no.

Since I was the only Rally Girl registered and the rules are you need 2 team members to race, I asked for a refund. They refused. So, for what it’s worth, I’m blasting them on my blog. Consider yourself warned if you sign up for a Great Urban Race event.

RAVE
Back in June, Molly and Al from races2remember sent me a pace band for the Lehigh Valley Marathon. I love myself a pace band and fully intended to use a 3:45 band for the LVM. These aren’t ordinary pace bands though. Split times are based on the elevation profile of the marathon you are running. Races2remember staffers run marathons all across the country to “test out” the course (by the way, this would be my dream job). So you get a pace band with realistic split times based on downhills and uphills. Their list of marathons (and half marathons) is extremely comprehensive. The LVM is a very small race, and it was listed.

You can get a set of 3 pace bands for $7.50, so you can mix and match finish times. I would highly recommend them if you are into using pace bands.

Got any rant or raves to share on this Monday?

*I was sent a pace band at no cost in exchange for my review; however, my opinions are my own.

Thursday Thoughts

September 22, 2011 by Kristy 12 Comments

Since I’ve been rather verbose lately, I’ll keep this short and sweet.

RACE SHIRTS
Race fees are expensive, so is it too much to ask for a race T that fits?! My pile of ill-fitting race Ts is growing. I get the appeal of a unisex size – it’s much easier to order and cheaper. When I see that sizes are unisex I generally get a XS. What usually happens is this…

I end up with a Youth XL, which is wide and short (this one was just large in general and oddly tight on my neck). I will never wear this shirt!

But sometimes, they get it right (thank you Philly RnR Half). This is a proper unisex XS…

DSCN1792 — Someone wanted in on this picture

BOSTON
Is the word “Boston” everywhere or is it because I’m obsessed? Last week my neighbor asked how my marathon went. He was wearing a Boston T-shirt (kinda of ironic). I went food shopping on Monday and there was a song about Boston playing. I saw a truck the other day and all it said on the back was “Boston”. I’m going crazy and I need to know NOW!

STEP AWAY FROM THE FOOD
I’m still eating like I’m running 50 miles a week. I may need an intervention or that LVM shirt will fit me. Thankfully the “fun run” period is almost over and then it’s back to training.

What are your feelings on race Ts? For the amount of money we pay, I think they should have women’s sizes.

Believe

September 21, 2011 by Kristy 12 Comments

Thank you for all the incredible comments on my post yesterday. I think Alyssa said it best…

I thought all BQers were naturally speedy and ran sub-4 marathons without even trying.

That’s a myth! I used to think the same thing. This is exactly why I wrote that post – to show you that an average runner can BQ!

How’d I do it? Let’s start with the physical part first.

Know what works for you
When I’m coaching someone, I often tell them that I made every mistake in the book so they don’t have to. I really think I did. Lots of trial and error. But it made me a smart runner. I know what my body can handle and what it can’t. I know which training plans will work for me and which ones won’t. I know when to back off and rest and when to kick it up a notch.

Listen to your body and keep a training log. After each training cycle and race, jot down what worked and what didn’t. Review often and look for any patterns.

Marathon-paced long runs
I love me some marathon-paced long runs! I wrote a post awhile ago explaining my reasoning for not doing long, slow distance long runs here. LSD does not work for me. I gave it a fair shot. My coaching certification is through RRCA and they heavily stress LSD long runs for everyone – beginners to elite. I 100% agree with LSD long runs for beginners who need to build an adequate endurance base. But, if you have a time goal in mind, you need to incorporate some MP miles into your long runs. For the simple reason that practice makes perfect.

Speed work (FIRST training plan)
I used the FIRST training plan for my last 2 marathons (with modifications – I added in some easy runs for more mileage). I definitely credit it with helping me BQ. Before the NJ Marathon, I went to the track here and there but I wasn’t consistent. I’ve been doing speed work consistently for the past 9 months and the results are astounding. My marathon pace dropped significantly. And I saw results quickly.

Consistency is key here. Pick a day each week and dedicate it to speed work. It’s easiest to do on a track but any flat, paved path (free of traffic) will do. And don’t think you have to run all-out…that is a misnomer. You can do intervals at 10K or half marathon pace. For my final weeks leading up to the Lehigh Valley Marathon, I kept my intervals at 10K pace because I found myself overstriding (and subsequently hurting my hamstring) when I did intervals at 5K pace.

2-week taper
This training cycle was the first time I experimented with a 2-week taper. And I will never go back to a 3-week taper again! For me, it’s more mental than anything. I had a good 22-miler 2 weeks before the LVM. The day of the race I kept thinking that all I had to do was repeat the run that I did only 2 weeks before. It boosted my confidence significantly.

Before you try a 2-week taper, think about how long it takes you to completely recover from a 20 mile run. If it takes awhile, I would err on the side of caution and stick with a 3-week taper. You don’t want to have any lingering effects of that last 20-miler come race day.

Train for the worst case scenario
I learned this the hard way during the Pocono Marathon. Know the marathon course. Look at the elevation profile. Ask people who ran the race in previous years (sidenote: take their advice with a grain of salt. A big hill to some is a little hill to others and vice versa). If there are small hills, train for big hills. It will only help you come race day.

Now for the mental part…

Break it up into small chunks
When I started to get closer to my BQ time, I looked at each marathon as a way to inch closer and closer to my ultimate goal. My goal for Steamtown was to break 4:00 hours. Then my goal for NJM was to hit 3:50…and finally BQ (3:45) at LVM. This made it much more manageable and less daunting.

Believe
Such a powerful word. Believe in yourself AND in your training. If you think you can, you can. If you think you can’t, you can’t.

Be present
This tactic worked well for me at LVM. Instead of thinking ahead to the later miles (i.e., the last 6.2), I forced myself to focus on the current mile and mastering it. It can get overwhelming to think of how many more miles you have and how you are going to maintain MP, blah, blah, blah. It’s a vicious cycle of self-doubt. If you find yourself going down this road, snap out of it (during the LVM I audibly said “stop”) and regain your focus.

Phew! I had lots to say. If you made it through this post, kudos…you deserve a gold star!

A Walk Down Memory Lane

September 20, 2011 by Kristy 20 Comments

This blog is only about 9 months old so many of you have only seen a brief snapshot of my running. I want to walk down memory lane and show you how far I’ve come in 10 years. This post is not about bragging but about showing you that anything is possible…if you want it badly enough. For me, qualifying and running the Boston Marathon were dreams of mine for the past 10 years. I’m sure people thought I was crazy talking about BQing when I was still hours (yes, hours) away from my BQ time. But Boston was always in the back of my mind during every marathon.

Marathon #1: Marine Corps Marathon 2004 – 5:12
My goal was to finish. I treated this marathon like a party. I stopped and chatted with Matt, I stopped for pee breaks, I stopped for stretch breaks. I seriously spent a half hour stopping.

Marathon #2: NYC Marathon 2005 – 4:36
A huge improvement but I should have done some hill work.

Marathon #3: Marine Corps Marathon 2006 – 4:58
I had a terrible training cycle and my head just wasn’t in it. I was ready to quit at mile 10.

Marathon #4: Marine Corps Marathon 2007 – 4:11
I told you I loved the MCM! I was finally beginning to make some progress here. I was ecstatic with this time!

Marathon #5: Philly Marathon 2008 – 4:12
Oh, I was pissed about this one. It was 15 degrees at the start…I never warmed up and my lungs burned since I wasn’t acclimated to the cold yet. Just awful.

2009: I took a year off marathoning to get married, buy a house, and honeymoon in Europe 🙂

Marathon #6: Pocono Marathon May 2010 – 4:13
I was livid about this race. It was much hillier than I thought (this is the sole reason why I always train for the worst case scenario). I hated the marathon and the course. I had a great training cycle but hit the wall HARD at mile 19. Up until mile 19, I was on track for a sub-4:00 but I fell apart mentally. At this point I was SO SICK of finishing in the 4:1x range.

Marathon #7: Steamtown Marathon October 2010 – 3:58
Redemption! Finally, a sub-4:00! This was a great marathon too. Gotta love the downhills.

Marathon #8: New Jersey Marathon May 2011 – 3:52
We all know what happened here…

Marathon #9: Lehigh Valley Marathon September 2011 – 3:43
BQ BABY!

How did I manage to shave off 30 minutes from May 2010 to September 2011? Hard work and determination. I’m not naturally speedy. I didn’t run track or cross country in high school or college. I didn’t hit the running genetic jackpot. I’m just an average runner who dreamed big. That’s it. If I can do it, so can you.

Tomorrow’s post will focus on what I did physically and mentally to shave those 30 minutes off.

Do you have big running dreams? Share them!

Lehigh Valley Marathon Race Recap

September 12, 2011 by Kristy 22 Comments

Where oh where do I even begin?! I thought a lot during the race about how I would approach writing a recap and decided to break it up into 3 components: pre-race, the first 13.1, and the second 13.1. And…no worries, I’m not going to give an exhaustive play-by-play. Nothing screams “mark all as read” in Google Reader like a lengthy race recap! Here goes…

Pre-race
Matt and I drove up to Allentown on Saturday, went to the (lame) expo, and headed out for my standard pre-race dinner (pizza). I was surprisingly calm, cool, and collected. A funny thing to note: Matt was flipping channels in the hotel on Saturday and he caught a quick snippet of a bad music commerical…ya know the ones where the songs scroll on the screen while the singer sings in the background? The only words Matt heard were “come visit Boston in the Springtime”. He asked me if I heard it (I didn’t…I was busy laying out all my race day clothes like a psycho). I pretty much took that as a sign that Sunday would go well and I would get that BQ. As for visiting Boston in the Springtime, we’ll see how that goes.

Race day weather was perfect, at least for early September. Overcast the entire time with just a touch of humidity. There was even a nice breeze at some points. Sorry, Mother Nature, for calling you a bitch last week.

I was all ready to go.

I wrote some mantras on my hand to keep me focused (sidenote: this was the first time I ever did this and found it very helpful during the race).

DSCN1699 — I think Nike has the best slogan ever

The First 13.1
My goal was to run even splits; keeping my average pace around 8:30 for the entire race. During the first 5 miles, 8:30 pace felt ridiculously easy. It has never felt that easy! I knew it was going to be a good day right then and there 🙂 But I held back knowing full well 8:30 pace would feel hard eventually. The first 5 miles were re-routed due to flooding and they were some beautiful miles. We ran on back roads in Allentown past these gorgeous houses. There were some rolling hills but nothing substantial.

Then we moved on to the towpath. It wasn’t as muddy as I though it was going to be but I couldn’t wait to get back on paved road. It was narrow so I had to dodge a few runners and I just felt like I was working a bit harder to maintain my 8:30 pace.

I passed the halfway point around 1:50-something and smiled. My half marathon PR is 1:49 (from September 2010). I can’t wait to crush that PR in November!

Splits for the first 13 miles. Pretty consistent. I was a slave to the Garmin but it worked! I was still feeling very good.

The Second 13.1
We entered another towpath in Bethlehem for an eternity. I think we stayed on that same path for 8 miles. No spectators, just you and a few runners, and lots of labored breathing. At Mile 17, negative thoughts started to creep in. I quickly ignored them and checked my “objective” legs. They felt alright, no different than my 22-miler 2 weeks ago. So why was I suddenly doubting myself? I kept looking at my hand, where I wrote “believe”. I knew I could do this. I just needed to hang in for 9 more miles. I just focused on the mile I was currently in. I didn’t worry about the future. I also took 2-10 second walk breaks. I would stop, count to 10, and then resume running. It was such a short break but it helped tremendously.

Finally, at Mile 20, we exited the towpath and climbed a hill to paved road. I checked my pace band – I had a 2 minute cushion. I decided that once I reached Mile 22 I would allow myself a 20 second walk break (I know, I was getting a little crazy here). I looked forward to that walk break like you would not believe. It was heavenly…but extremely brief. I also thought about seeing Matt, my sister, and Hawk at the finish line. I was starting to hurt but there was NO WAY I was going to let 22 miles of hard work (and a BQ) slip away. I wanted it too badly.

Mile 23 to 24 were rather interesting. I was faced with a monster hill. My pace – no lie – slowed to a 11:00 minute mile climbing that hill. I didn’t freak out because I knew I had a cushion. I just wanted to get “up and over” that damn hill. Once I reached the top I saw and equally steep downhill. Ahhhh, thank god! As you can tell from my splits below, the only time I went outside of 8:xx pace was Mile 24.

During Mile 25, I got an awesome surprise. Some of the Mains (who? what? see here) came out to cheer me on! I couldn’t believe it! I hear all these people calling my name and then I see an orange sign saying “Cams, Cams, Cams!” (a nickname). I was floored and shocked. AND, on Friday before the race, I received a gift card for a post-race pedi from the Mains. I am blessed to have such amazing and caring friends.

The last 0.2 miles were slightly uphill. At that point I knew I had the BQ in the bag and it was so surreal. Soon I spotted my sister, Matt, and Hawk on the sidelines. My sister was screaming. I may have done a fist pump or jazz hands as I approached the finish line. I’m not sure what I did but it caused the announcer to say “here comes Kristy…she looks very happy”. I crossed that finish line in 3:43:46 and was FINALLY a Boston Qualifier. I have DREAMED about this moment for years and it was finally coming true.

I immediately start to cry, or attempted to cry. I was sobbing but no tears were coming. I guess I was dehydrated. Volunteers thought something was wrong and I just kept saying over and over “I (sob) qualified (sob) for (sob) Boston”. They couldn’t understand me so I just gave them a thumbs up. These next few pictures are priceless.

DSCN1701 — I was overwhelmed with emotion...and exhaustion.

DSCN1702 — My sister is attempting to give me the blue towel on her arm but I seem frightened.

Almost forgot…my split times for the second 13.1.

In addition to the awesome orange sign, the Mains also made BQ letters for me. I later asked them what would they do with the letters had I not BQ’d. They said they would have hid them from me. How great is this?!

DSCN1713 — Me and my sister. I'm surprised she had a voice post-race.

DSCN1717 — Seeing your dog at the finish line is awesome.

DSCN1719 — My biggest cheerleader and supporter. Matt encouraged me to run the LVM back in May because he knew I could BQ.

Official results:
3:43:46
overall: 243/667
division (F 18 to 34): 28/90

There is still a permanent smile on my face. I think it will be there for quite a while!

I cannot thank you enough for the encouraging comments, tweets, and messages. The blogging community is really incredible and I’m so happy to be a part of it.

To my family and friends…I am so lucky and fortunate. You have all been an amazing support system and I could NOT have done it without you.

Now comes the hard part…registering!

I Am A Boston Qualifier!

September 11, 2011 by Kristy 33 Comments

9/11/11
26.2 miles / 3:43:46 / 8:32 avg pace (official results)

I AM A BOSTON QUALIFIER!!!!

I feel like I’m dreaming! Ten years (yes, 10 years) of hard work finally paid off today when I crossed that finish line with a minute and 14 seconds to spare. I immediately started to cry. It has been my dream to have the title of “BQer”.

I am overwhelmed by the support, well wishes, and congrats from my family, friends, and readers. I cannot thank you enough or put into words how much it means to me.

I have A LOT more to say (let’s see how long I can milk this ;)) and will provide a full race recap this week.

I’m still hopeful about registration but realize my chances of actually running the Boston Marathon in 2012 are slim. I get the chance to register on 9/19/11 if slots are still available. But…crazier things have happened, so you just never know!

I am celebrating tonight with beer and a DQ Blizzard. I bet you’re shocked.