Bret

Grandmas Marathon

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Location:

Milton,GA,USA

Member Since:

Jul 27, 2010

Gender:

Male

Goal Type:

Other

Running Accomplishments:

PR's -

Mile - 4:38    (High School)

2 Mile - 10:12 (High School) 

3 mile - 15:51 (High School)

10k - 35:19 (High School)

Marathon - 2:59 marathon (London -2013)

Half marathon - 1:25:18 (Deseret News 2013)

Completed all 6 of the World Marathon Majors 2024

Completed each of the 5 majors (NY, Chicago, Boston, London & Berlin) at least twice.

8 x Boston Marathon (1999, 2000, 2005, 2007, 2014, 2020 (virtual due to covid) 2021, 2022)

13 x NYC Marathon (1997, 1998, 2010, 2011, 2014, 2015, 2016, 2017, 2018, 2019, 2021, 2022, 2023)

 

 

Short-Term Running Goals:

Sub 3 hour marathon

Long-Term Running Goals:

Continue to enjoy running and racing as long as my body permits me.  

Personal:

Old guy - (grandfather even) been running for 40+ years.  

Favorite Blogs:

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Miles:This week: 23.75 Month: 113.20 Year: 382.05
Race: Grandmas Marathon (26.2 Miles) 03:13:27, Place overall: 748, Place in age division: 25
Easy MilesMarathon Pace MilesThreshold MilesVO2 Max MilesTotal Distance
0.0026.200.000.0026.20

Grandma's Marathon 2019.  I had a good day.   I had no reason to expect the result that I had, but I am very pleased with how I did and how things went.

I am 6 months - post-stent implant in the LAD (aka - "the widow maker" artery that supplies blood to the left ventrical) due to a 90% blockage.    Today I ran faster in the marathon than I have in 6 years.  

I had low expectations coming into this race even though I had a decent training period leading up to the race.  In the last 4 weeks I was traveling for vacation internationally, and then traveling for business both internationally and domestically - and though I was getting daily runs in, I was not really training or running very far.  

When I originally signed up for this race - I had two goals:  1. Finish (as a statement that I fully recovered from the heart issue in the Fall) and 2. Run a Boston Qualifier (3:25 for me at age 52) in order to run in 2020 where my middle daughter is in school.  

But I had pretty much tossed Goal #2 out of the realm of possibilities - because I just was not feeling as though I was fit enough to expect it.  My longest long run was just 17 miles and I did not have too many lengthy runs either.  Plus I was anxious about my health - although I had run a couple of 5k races and a 10k, this was going to be signficantly longer, and I wondered if I would I have a problem with such a long race.

So my race plan today was go with whatever my body would give me and to be conservative.   I was pleasantly surprised that the first mile which felt relatively easy was 7:39, and then I ran 7:20 and then 7:10 and thought to myself - ok, don't get greedy or too excited.  Run the mile you are in, and keep your HR at a manageable high tempo level.  If the pace slows, so be it.  Well, it really stayed consistent after that.  I ran between 7:10 and 7:20 per mile all the way until mile 17.  I slowed slightly from there on in, but still kept things between 7:20 and 7:30 and finished the last .2 miles at 7:15 pace.  

The weather was a huge bonus too.  They had predicted rain earlier in the week, and this morning the forecast called for 95% cloud cover and temps in the mid 50's.   Well, as it turned out, we got bright sunshine, temps in the mid to high 50's and blue skies with a nifty tailwind for most of the race.  Could not have asked for better weather - which brought out way more spectators than last year's event.  

So - in summary - I had a good day and I didn't die. 

Comments
From dugco on Sat, Jun 22, 2019 at 15:02:36 from 73.42.16.20

Nicely done on the not dying. I just finished reading a Grandmas race report for a young guy (Stan Linton) from the Tallahassee area now stationed in Des Moines. In what I think was his first full marathon, he ran an Olympic B qualifier 2:18 - negative split by like 30 seconds - very cool. Keep that name on your radar. Back to you... awesome race, Bret - congrats!

From Bret on Sat, Jun 22, 2019 at 15:05:32 from 199.21.240.83

Wow - that's impressive- The Stan Linton guy. He picked a great day for a race!

From Jason D on Sat, Jun 22, 2019 at 18:05:37 from 73.144.88.57

I was quite impressed when I saw this in my Strava feed. And great summary in the last sentence :-)

From Bob on Fri, Jul 05, 2019 at 08:06:29 from 12.104.218.250

Wow, awesome result given your situation. I too have heart issues and hope I have better results in the future.

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