[S]he Conquers Who Endures

I did it! I BQ-ed!!! It was tough. My legs felt dead pretty early in the race, like mile 10. It could have been because I slept maybe 2 h. Or because the humidity was so high even though the temps were in the 60s? It was a pretty weird race for me. I felt like I was running slow. I wasn't sure about what my pace was because my GPS watch was clocking miles before I got there (I think partly because the course was winding so I was probably truly running farther than a mile for a lot of the miles). Towards mile 20 I thought I felt pretty bad, but my splits according to my watch were still staying pretty consistent even though I thought I was slowing down a lot. Mile 22 I still felt bad but realized I didn't feel as bad as I normally feel this time in a marathon! And I have only 4.2 miles to go! I just focused on my form and trying to get one more mile with the pace I'd been going at. I got to a point in the race where I realized I needed to maintain a 9 min/mi pace and I'd BQ! That didn't mean I dropped my pace to 9 min/mi. By mile 25 I wanted to pick up the pace but my calves felt like they were on the verge of cramping and I was getting pretty dizzy so I just tried to maintain my pace. I started to pick it up a little when I heard someone yell "only a quarter mile to go!" I didn't let myself think I was going to BQ until I saw the finish line. I started cry smiling like a weirdo and picked up the pace a notch or two. Finished in 3:32:11 a crying mess so uncontrollable happy!!! Now I just hope I have enough of a cushion to get a bib to Boston! I'm not worried. I gave this race my all, but I did come out thinking with more training I can continue to improve!

My official race splits were:

5 miles, 8:06 min/mi

10 miles, 8:03 min/mi

13.1 miles, 8:02 min/mi

20 miles, 8:02 min/mi

26.2 miles, 8:06 min/mi 

This was and was not a tough race for me. The end was probably easier than the halfway point, and I felt like I actually "raced" the majority of the race. Increasing my mileage helped tremendously to make the later miles "less" painful. After 3 weeks of recovery I want to go with Pfitzinger's 12 week peak at 70 miles to train for Big Sur. I think it's a perfect time to bump up the miles because Big Sur is entirely for fun for me so I can afford to drop my training pace. That way I can hit a full 18 week schedule peak at 70 miles hopefully at faster paces!