Author: runningforunicorns

Third time wasn’t the charm for sub-90: The 2023 Rehoboth Seashore Half Marathon

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The Rehoboth Half was my last ditch attempt at a sub-90 minute half marathon this fall. 

Third time wasn’t the charm for me. I finished in 1:31:45, another very modest PR – this time by 12 seconds. 

Honestly, though, I am not nearly as disappointed as I was after I finished Richmond. It was still a PR. I got second in my age group and finished 8th overall female out of more than 1,000 women. And, as I’ve written on my blog before, the after party at this race is insanely fun. You will not find a better after party at any race, anywhere! So, I went into this race knowing that even if it was a total shit show, I was going to have a great time. 

It wasn’t a total shit show (just a minor shit show, really), and I definitely did have a great time! Here’s how it went down.

Before the race 

On Thanksgiving Day, I ran the Turkey Trot in my hometown of Greensburg, PA, which I do every year. The course is brutal and hilly, but I ran a pretty significant course PR of 20:19 (previous fastest time on this course was 20:45.) So that was a huge confidence booster going into the half marathon. The weather was expected to be in the low 50s for the race, which is pretty good. No rain or crazy winds. Last year, it rained quite a bit for my final three miles of the half – I felt bad for the marathoners! 

My sister Catherine came to town the day before the race and she, Micah and I headed down to Rehoboth after I wrapped up work. Speaking of weather, it actually was disgustingly rainy that Friday, so the two-hour drive to the beach took more than 2.5 hours! We met up with Shannon, who was also running the half, once we got there and had dinner and drinks at Dogfish Head, then headed to the condo I rented near Lewes.

By the time I got into bed, it was close to midnight, which was not ideal. Sure enough, when I woke up the next morning, my Whoop told me I got less than 5 hours of sleep and my resting heart rate was elevated. Great! (I should know better than to look at that thing on race morning, to be honest. What good does it really do?)

Race day!

We got to downtown Rehoboth around 6:20, so I had plenty of time to use the bathroom before the 7 am race start. I ran into my friend Vanessa, who told me she saw a 1:30 half marathon pacer. I was excited about that, because I wasn’t expecting one! As in Richmond, there were quite a few of us who formed a pack around the 1:30 guy (there were also a bunch of marathoners running with the 3:00 pacer, so for the first few miles we were running with that group as well.) 

We went off promptly at 7 and I felt pretty warm almost immediately. Even though it was only in the 50s, it was more humid than I was expecting. I wore a tank top and shorts and wished I’d had a crop top or sports bra on instead. The first few miles felt OK. Not amazing. I was grabbing water at the water stations and pouring it on myself because I was that warm. They changed the course for this race a few years ago, and now you get to run the whole length of the boardwalk. Unfortunately, because it had rained quite a bit the previous day, the boards were slippery!

We also went out hot – too hot. My splits for the first three miles were 6:49, 6:42, and 6:51. Then we split mile 4 in 6:44. Yikes. My goal pace was 6:50-6:52, so well ahead of what I should have been running. But again, I felt OK, if not fantastic. I saw Catherine and Micah on the boardwalk around the mile 3 mark, and that pumped me up! 

The half marathon splits off from the marathon at Cape Henlopen State Park, and then the half marathoners run back through the neighborhoods in Rehoboth and then onto the Junction and Breakwater Trail. I was still running with the pack then and we ran mile 5 in 6:57, mile 6 in 6:56 and mile 7 in 6:51. I saw Catherine and Micah again at mile 6. Catherine was SO loud, haha! It is always nice to have such enthusiastic spectators!

Catherine got this pic of me around mile 6!

Unfortunately, right after I saw them is when my race basically started to go off the rails and each mile got progressively slower until the final mile of the race. Womp womp.

You start to enter the Junction and Breakwater Trail around mile 8, which is mostly crushed gravel/dirt. I’m very familiar with the trail, given that I’ve run this race many times in the past and I run on the trail when I’m in Rehoboth for vacation. It’s not what I would call technical, but because of the previous day’s weather, it was muddier and more slippery than usual, and I was definitely afraid of tripping and falling. I clocked a 7:00 flat for mile 8, and a 7:14 for mile 9, but the terrain wasn’t the only reason I was slowing down. I was simply paying for the earlier, too fast miles. I also had planned to take a Maurten gel halfway through the race, but then just like in Richmond, didn’t feel like I could stomach it. Need to figure that out! 

Once I hit mile 10 (7:17), I told myself the after party was waiting and I’d be there soon. The 1:30 pacer had left me in the dust at that point, but I was trying to smile and wave at runners who were running in the opposite direction. 

The next two miles heading back to the town of Rehoboth continued to trend downward – 7:20 and 7:22 for miles 11 and 12. 

I was able to pick up the pace during mile 13 (7:03). When I turned the last corner to run toward the finish, the man running next to me said, “come on, let’s go, we’ll be under 1:32” and I mustered all of my energy to have somewhat of a finish line kick – never really my strong point – and finish in 1:31:45.

Was I disappointed? Yes, but not devastated. I knew sub-90 was always going to be tough. I met up with Micah and Catherine, sat down for a few minutes, then headed back to the finish line area for Shannon. She had a great race, and finished 15 minutes faster than she did in Ocean City!

Then, it was on to the after party! (Honestly, I think this is the whole reason my sister came down to cheer me on! Haha!) Runners get three beer tickets for Dogfish Head beer, and your friends and family can buy their own wristbands and have access to the beer and food. There’s a DJ, and he always plays such fun music, especially for those of us in our 40s (since we all love our ‘80s and ‘90s music.)

“Do the limbo holding your award”

Last year, I tripped and skinned my knee reaching for a shot of Fireball at the after party, so I said not doing that was my main goal this year aside from breaking 90 minutes. I turned down several offers to take a shot this time, so at least I accomplished one of my goals.

Lessons learned and what’s next

Well, in Captain Obvious takes, going out too fast will blow up my race. I’m not mad at the pacer by any means, but maybe I shouldn’t rely on them too much. I’ve had such good luck with pace groups in marathons, though! 

As for what’s next, I am shelving the sub-90 half marathon goal for the time being, only because I am not signed up for any more half marathons in the near future. I’m taking some down time before I start training for the Boston Marathon in January. I am signed up for a 5K on Christmas Eve, which I will race, but I don’t have any big goals for it. Other than that, so far I am only registered for the Cherry Blossom 10 Miler in April, two weeks before Boston. I was able to use my 2022 Cherry Blossom time – still my 10 mile PR – to get in as a seeded runner and bypass the lottery, so I am excited about that. 

I’m optimistic that my half marathon training block set me up well for this spring. My 1:31 half time indicates a marathon time in the low 3:10s, and I would love to break 3:15 in Boston! I know it is a hard course, but it will also be the fourth time I have run it, so I have that on my side. 

Also! I asked my husband to sign me up for a “bonus” spring marathon for Christmas. I told him I wanted it to be after Boston and before Memorial Day, so I’ll find out what he signed me up for on Christmas. I can’t wait!

Sub-90 minute half marathon, attempt no. 2: A recap of The 2023 Richmond Half Marathon

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I thought I’d have a different story to tell about the Richmond Half Marathon. 

I was SO SURE this was going to be my day to break 90 minutes in the half. I’d heard nothing but amazing things about the race. The weather forecast was this runner’s dream – 40s and almost no wind. I’d run a super strong half in Ocean City two weeks prior when it was literally 40 degrees warmer. I felt so ready! 

Instead, I finished in 1:31:57, which was a 6-second PR. Still a great time and a race I am proud of. But it certainly wasn’t the time I was shooting for. 

So what happened? I think I screwed myself by getting ahead of the pace group wayyyyy too early in the race – I should have known better. More on that in a minute! 

The week after Ocean City, I didn’t run much because I was in Orlando for work (with a little fun tacked on.) I managed to squeeze in 4 miles before I left, then two 5-mile runs around the hotel I was staying at, then a 10-mile run when I got back home. I wasn’t too worried about it and don’t think it affected my race in Richmond. The week of the race, I followed the same schedule I did during the week leading up to OC. All good. 

I had the day before the race off of work, so Micah and I drove down to Richmond, hit the expo, and checked into the Virginia Crossings Hotel. We decided to eat at one of the restaurants at the hotel and I had salmon, quinoa, and veggies for dinner (plus two beers, duh!) I don’t normally eat salmon the night before a race, but I thought this seemed like a good mix of protein and carbs. 

Getting to downtown Richmond the next morning was pretty easy and I had plenty of time to pee, get into my start corral, and find the 1:30 pace group. I was really excited to have pacers this time since Ocean City didn’t have pacers. (So– why did I get ahead of the damn pacers then??! I have no explanation for my stupidity!) There was a huge pack of us who clustered around the two pacers, and I was excited about that. Teamwork! 

One of the pacers told another runner they’d be running even 6:52 splits, but now that I am looking back over the splits I ran during the race, the pacers actually went out faster than expected – we ran the first mile in 6:43 and the second mile in 6:46. So maybe it wasn’t all my fault that I went out too fast! That said, somewhere after mile 2 I got ahead of them as I think they dialed it back and I went on running full steam ahead. Miles 3 and 4 were closer to my goal half marathon pace; I finished those miles in 6:52 and 6:50, respectively. 

The next few miles of the race had some rolling hills, but I live in an area with lots of rolling hills and run on them every day, so I felt well-trained for it. This was also one of the prettiest parts of the course, with lots of beautiful fall foliage. I clocked a 7:07 for mile 5 and a 6:46 for mile 6. Mile 6 was, sadly, the last time I’d see a pace that began with a 6 that day. 

I had taken a Maurten gel just before the race started, and my plan was to take a second one halfway through the race, which I did in Ocean City. But my stomach was feeling a little funky, and I wondered if it was the previous night’s salmon that came back to bite me in the ass. Or, it could have been that I was just pushing really hard. Who knows. Either way, I never took my second gel. 

I ran mile 7 in 7:02, and the pace group passed me right about then, which is never encouraging. I told myself I could catch up with them. Spoiler alert, that never happened! The race was starting to feel hard around mile 8 (7:04) and then when I saw a 7:14 on my watch for mile 9, and lost sight of the pace group all together, I felt super defeated. But I told myself I only had four miles left, and that meant less than a half hour of running, so it was time to suck it up! 

I do have to point out that this course really was nice – definitely more interesting than Ocean City, even if there were more hills. And the crowds were awesome! The race, which also features a marathon and an 8K, bills itself as America’s Friendliest Marathon, and I can see why. They definitely pepped me up during the later miles! 

Mile 10: 7:04

Mile 11: 7:06

Mile 12: 7:15 

This race is known for its extremely steep downhill finish, so once I finished mile 12, I knew that was coming. However, I wasn’t counting on being able to run a stupid fast mile down it, because to be honest, I am not a strong downhill runner. I’m too tentative and afraid of falling and hurting myself. (For good reason! Do I need to remind anyone of my epic fall in Boston 2022?) I will say the downhill finish lives up to the hype, and if you are a great downhill runner, you’d love this. Runners were literally flying past me. The best I could do was a 7:08 mile, ha! 

I wasn’t looking at the elapsed time on my watch, but I knew I was over 1:30. As I approached the finish line, I saw the clock read 1:31:5x and I gave it everything I had to get under 1:32 and officially run a PR, if only by a tiny amount. 

I’m not one to get really upset by missing my goals in races, but this one hurt. I called Micah right after finishing and told him I’d never been so disappointed in a PR. I collected my medal, then my finisher’s hat and blanket (this race had really good swag!) and went to meet up with him. 

I wasn’t hungry at all after finishing, and in fact struggled to have much of an appetite for hours, but I did enjoy a delicious gingerbread stout beer at the after party! I also got to meet up with my Instagram friend Rachel for the first time in person. She had a fantastic race and ran a big PR! 

Of course, since a PR is a PR, no matter how small, I wanted to ring the PR bell! Too bad I was just a tiny bit overzealous and I broke it!! Luckily, Micah was there to put it back together. Yay for husbands who drive you to races and fix the PR bells you break. Ha! 

Given that Richmond is a much, much larger race than OC, I had no expectations of placing. But I finished 4th in my age group and Richmond gives awards to the top 5 finishers in each age group. According to the website, I’ll receive instructions on how to claim my personalized award in December. So that’s something to look forward to! 

So, what’s next? I’m not ready to give up the sub-90 dream yet. I am running the Rehoboth Seashore Half in two weekends and yes, I am going to go for it again. There will be a 1:30 pace group again and my plan is to stick with them no matter how good I think I’m feeling in the beginning. Since there are three weeks between Richmond and Rehoboth, I decided to just follow the last three weeks of my half marathon training plan. I know my training was optimized for Ocean City, but we’ll see what I can do one last time before my fall racing season officially ends. 

Either way, there will be a hell of an after party, so it’ll be a good day!

I won the Ocean City Half Marathon in Ocean City, Maryland!

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I won the Ocean City Half Marathon at the inaugural Ocean City Running Festival last month! 

No, I did not break 90 minutes, but I did break that finish line tape. It was an amazing moment and easily the highlight of 2023 for me. 

My official time was 1:32:03, which was a PR by 1 minute and 16 seconds. I thought I could run faster that day, but then again, I also thought it would be a lot cooler. 

It was 84 degrees by the time I finished the half marathon. On October 28 in Maryland! 

I’ve been living here long enough to know that you really never know what fall is going to be like. It’s not uncommon to have summer-like days into November, especially these days. That said, 80+ degrees at the end of October is certainly not the norm. When I checked the forecast a few days before the race and saw meteorologists were calling for possibly record-breaking temperatures, I just rolled my eyes. Of course. I knew sub-90 was going to be a challenge on the best of days, and really freaking hard on an unseasonably hot day. The half wasn’t starting until 9:15 am, either! 

But what can you do? I was still planning to run the best race I could. And that’s what I did. 

My friend Shannon and I left work early on Friday and made the 2.5 hour drive from Anne Arundel County to Ocean City. Packet pickup was at the convention center, and we were staying at a hotel on the boardwalk, within walking distance of where we needed to board the buses to get to the start line on Assateague Island. We had dinner at Shenanigans and I got my standard veggie burger and fries, plus two beers. I joked afterwards that the extra beer was the reason I won.

The Ocean City Running Festival included a marathon, a half marathon, an 8K and a 5K, and the half was a point-to-point race that began on Assateague and ended at the inlet on the Ocean City boardwalk. I was wearing a sports bra and shorts to walk to the buses, and I wasn’t remotely cold at 7:30 in the morning, so I knew I was in for a steamy one. Once we got to Assateague – my first time there, which is kind of crazy! I didn’t see any wild horses, though – we used the bathroom, hung out with other runners, and then lined up at the start around 9. There were no pace groups, but there were signs that directed runners to line up by their expected pace per mile. The fastest was 7:00/mile, so I lined up there. They played the Whitney Houston recording of the National Anthem, which is always a good sign – I’ve run a PR literally every time I have heard that at the start of the race! Before I knew it, it was go time. 

I ran the first mile in 7:05, then 6:50 and 6:54 for miles 2 and 3. Then I got into a really good rhythm, clicking off a 6:47, 6:50, and 6:53 for miles 4 through 6. I’m not going to sugarcoat it – the race course wasn’t the most interesting. It’s almost entirely flat except for the Verrazano Bridge that connects Assateague to the mainland, and you spend the first 8 miles, I think, on Route 611. It’s a long straightaway and there isn’t much shade, which was especially brutal on such a hot day. It was mentally tough– and did I mention it was hot? I was grabbing water from every aid station, not just to drink but to dump on my head! 

I ran mile 7 in 6:58 and passed a guy who was taking a walk break. “Come on, stay with me,” I urged him. “You know you’re the first female,” he said. I told him that couldn’t be right. I was positive there were some women up ahead of me. He insisted I was in the lead. By the way, I wish I had been able to hang with him – I saw him after the race and he finished in just under 90 minutes! 

I clocked a 6:47 mile for mile 8, and then I think that’s when we finally made a right turn off 611 and toward Ocean City. The race was definitely starting to get tougher then. We ran through some random park and ride and then over another bridge. There was a lot of traffic stopped on the bridge and people inside the cars were cheering the runners on. I ran mile 9 in 7:01. At this point, I think someone told me I was in second place. 

When we got into Ocean City, I heard someone calling out “Shortstack!” (This is my nickname in kickboxing class – long story!) It was my friend Jessica and I was so excited to see her. If she hadn’t been on the other side of the road, I would have given her a big hug. Seeing her was a huge pick me up! I was surprised to see that I ran a 6:51 mile for mile 10, because I was definitely feeling like I was on the struggle bus.   

The last few miles were on the boardwalk, and quite frankly, they were brutal. Because it was so warm out, a ton of people were at the beach for the weekend, and the boardwalk of course was open, so there was a lot of dodging people/yelling out “on your left!” That said, a lot of people were enthusiastically cheering the runners on, so that was nice! And again, zero shade on the boardwalk. It was also a looooong out and back. We entered the boardwalk at the inlet and basically ran past where the finish line was (mean), then ran way down the boardwalk, then turned around and headed back to the finish.

My pace definitely tanked here, but not too bad: Mile 11, 7:11; Mile 12: 7:18. What’s that saying? Positive splits for positive people! Someone around this point called out to me that I was the fourth female, so I really had no idea how I was doing. I just knew I was ready to be done with the race! 

I hit mile 13 in 7:10. As I was coming down the last stretch, I heard the announcers say, “here comes our female champion in the half marathon!” 

And then I turned the corner and they were holding up the finish line tape for me! 

It was WILD. I just kept saying, “What? Oh my God. I can’t believe it!” With around 800 total participants, 500 of whom were women, this is the biggest race I’ve won.

After I collected myself, I went to find water– I was so dehydrated! And then I came back to the finish line area to see Shannon finish her first half marathon in 12 years! She crushed it, but said the heat was really tough (and she loves warm weather!) She also completed the Chessie Challenge, meaning she ran in the Annapolis Running Festival, the Baltimore Running Festival, and the Ocean City Running Festival.

My award is made out of wood from the boardwalk – pretty cool! 

So my sub-90 dream lives to see another day. But tomorrow I am running the Richmond Half Marathon and I am going to see what I can do there. I will have a 1:30 pacer, which always helps a lot, and it’s going to be around 38 degrees at the start, warming up to 46 by the end. SO much better running weather than what we got in OC. I can’t wait to see how it goes!

I ran my second sub-20 5K in Cape May, New Jersey

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On October 15, 2022, I broke 20 minutes in the 5K for the first time. 

On October 15, 2023, I broke 20 minutes in the 5K for the second time. 

Should I try to find a 5K to run on October 15, 2024? 

My time at Good Day for a Run’s Down the Shore 5K at the Cape May Winery just barely broke the 20-minute barrier– my official time was 19:59. I don’t care– I can still claim to have run a sub-20! 

That was a huge confidence boost going into my goal race of the fall running season. 

The race was a really long time coming. Back in 2020 when the pandemic was still raging, my girlfriends and I took a weekend trip to Cape May, New Jersey. Staci and I had run Good Day for a Run’s Red, White and Blue 5K near her house the summer before, and she saw that they had a 5K scheduled to take place at the Cape May Winery in September 2020. I can’t remember if we signed up before COVID hit or after, but Good Day for a Run was holding socially distant races in some places if certain guidelines were met, so we were optimistic that we’d be able to run the race. Well, it ended up being canceled at almost the last minute. I think there were restrictions on how many people could be in the winery. (Glad those days are over!!) 

Anyway, we made plans for another Cape May trip in September 2021 and talked about running the race then, but COVID struck again! Staci’s daughter came down with it and we had to postpone the trip to November. And then none of our schedules worked to accommodate a Cape May 2022 trip. 

This year, only Staci and I could go to Cape May, and we decided to finally run the race! My goal was sub-20. I didn’t think I’d beat my PR of 19:37, but I wanted to beat 20 minutes. 

The weather on the day of the race was pretty good – in the low 50s and no rain (it had rained most of the day before.) It was windy, but not as bad as I thought it would be (quite honestly, after the Philly Marathon last year, it’s going to take a lot for me to be fazed by the wind.) Staci and I got there around 8 am for a 9 am start, which gave us plenty of time to find parking, use the bathroom, and warm up. Just before 9, I lined up at the very front of the pack and before I knew it, we were off. 

What happened next was basically a blur, as all 5Ks are. The course was very simple and flat – the best kind of 5K course! We left the winery, ran a mile and a half down the road, then turned around. Easy! Well… not easy. It was a 5K, so I entered the pain cave within the first half mile, ha! I passed one woman very early in the race, probably in the first tenth of a mile, and just stayed in the lead. Once I made the turnaround and headed back to the finish, a lot of runners started calling out to me that I was the first female. That always pumps me up! 

While the race was primarily on the road, the last quarter mile of it was on a gravel path that wound through the vineyard. This part of the race made me nervous because I was obviously running hard and fast and by that point I was totally gassed, so I was afraid of tripping and hurting myself. Because of that, I don’t think I ran as fast as I could have on this section. 

I made the final turn and then saw the finisher’s clock and it said 19:55. I’ve never had much of a kick at the end of races, but I sprinted like hell and made it across the finish – but did I actually break 20? Or did I run 20 minutes on the nose? 

The race announcer called me out as the first female finisher (I was 5th finisher overall) and then said, “And did she get in under 20? She did! 19:59!” I threw my hands in the air and screamed, I was so excited. And then I grabbed a bottle of water and sat down for about 5 minutes and waited for Staci to finish. She PR’d with a time of 33 minutes! 

I won a medal and a bottle of wine from the Cape May Winery – a great prize! It was delicious. 

This Saturday, I tackle my goal race, the Ocean City Half Marathon at the Ocean City Running Festival. My goal all along has been sub-90, but the weather forecast is not in my favor. It has been unseasonably warm all week and this Saturday is expected to be around 80 degrees all over the region – and the half marathon doesn’t start until 9:15! Yikes. It is what it is, though. I am also signed up for the Richmond Half in two weeks and then Rehoboth the first weekend of December. I am still optimistic about Ocean City and I think I have a good shot at a PR – which would be sub-1:33:19. Bring it on!  

A metric half marathon and a metric marathon were part of my busy fall racing season

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I always race a lot in the fall – it’s my favorite time of year to run and to race! – but I think this year takes the cake. I believe I had a race every weekend of September, and most of October, too! 

Since I last posted, I ran two completely new-to-me distances – a metric half marathon and a metric marathon! (Yay for automatic PRs!) Here is how they went. 

Historic Stevensville Metric Half Marathon

I had really been looking forward to this one. In fact, I had wanted to run this race last year, but by the time I learned about it, I was already signed up for another race. I  just thought 13.1K, or 8.15 miles, seemed like a perfect distance, especially since I am training hard for a traditional half marathon. The race was mostly held on the Cross Island Trail on Kent Island, where I had raced the Get Pumped For Pets 10K back in 2019. Super flat and fast.

This race did not go as planned. 

We’ll start with the good part! I came in 2nd female and held on to a 6:53 average pace for 8 miles. 

The bad part was that it was for 8 miles, not 8.15 miles. 

No, the course wasn’t short – it was just horribly marked and a bunch of us up near the front made a wrong turn and accidentally cut the course. (Sound familiar? It’s happened before!) 

When I realized what I did, I was initially pretty pissed, but then just told myself whatever, who cares, just focus on practicing your goal half marathon pace. I crossed the finish line in 55:07 and let the organizers know I had inadvertently cut the course, but they awarded me the 2nd place prize anyway. I guess it’s OK because I wasn’t the only one to make that mistake! 

Overall, though, I enjoyed myself and it was a good test of my fitness. And there was beer at the finish line. Always a win! 

Annapolis Striders Metric Marathon 

This is a race that I have been eyeing for years, but it has never worked with my schedule. The Striders have been running it for years. At 26.2K/16.3 miles, it is the perfect race if you have a 16-mile long run on your schedule – and on Sunday, October 1, I did! It only cost $15 to sign up and the race begins and ends at Southern High School, just 10 minutes away from my house. Can’t beat it! 

I had no idea how I was going to pace a metric marathon, though. I’ve been training to run a sub-90 half, but I knew I wasn’t going to hold that pace for 16+ miles. I wrote on Instagram ahead of the race that I was thinking I’d run 7:30s or so – way faster than my typical long run pace, but way slower than goal half marathon pace. I also knew the course, which followed a loop of country roads in south Anne Arundel County, was fairly hilly!

When I showed up to the race, I realized it was like 70% midshipmen, including lots of members of the Navy Marathon Team. I went out with a group of mids who were running low 7/high 6 minute pace, which seemed awfully fast, but I decided to just roll with it and see how long I could hang on. 

They dropped me around mile 8, but then I caught up with some of them later in the race and even passed a few. The course was challenging, but not horribly so – it reminded me of the A10, just 6 miles longer! When I passed the aid station at mile 12, the volunteers told me I was the first female. I thought I might have a shot at a top spot, but really wasn’t sure where I stood. I was definitely starting to feel spent around mile 12, but told myself to just hang on for four more miles. 

I crossed the finish line in 1:55:14 and a friend, Arnel, who was volunteering told me I won. I was ecstatic! I sat down for a bit, drank some water – it had gotten fairly warm – and then cheered all the other runners as they finished. 

This was a really great race – well-organized and the logistics could not have been easier. There were no frills – I got a medal for winning first, but there were no finisher medals, and no race shirts. It was definitely a race put on by runners, for runners. Sometimes those are the best kind of races! 

Note for if you decide to do this race in the future – it is on an open road, and the roads are windy, so I did feel a little nervous about cars whipping around those corners. Just something to be aware of! 

Aside from those two races, I also ran a 5K in Cape May, New Jersey this month. It went way better than I expected, considering my general disdain for 5Ks. Stay tuned for that recap!

I finished my 2nd ultramarathon: The Lehigh Parkway 50K

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Back in February of this year, I ran my first ultramarathon, the Algonquin 50K. I enjoyed the experience (though it was really hard!) but had no plans to run another ultra anytime soon. Certainly not this year. I was supposed to be focusing on half marathons this fall, right?

But then my friend Staci, who lives in the Lehigh Valley of Pennsylvania, forwarded me an email about a new ultra in Allentown called the Lehigh Parkway 50K. “No, I don’t want to run this, but maybe you do,” she said.

I pondered it for a bit and then decided, what the hell. Yolo and all that. I still planned to focus on half marathons this fall and figured I’d take a real laid back approach to the ultra, scheduled for September 16. No one really runs ultras for time anyway, I reasoned. Plus, this 50K had a 10-hour time limit– you could pretty much walk the whole thing and still finish. This ultra was also mostly on crushed gravel, while Algonquin was on an actual trail (a flat trail, but still a trail with roots and rocks and stuff!) Even though I was going into the ultra with less training, I thought I could still beat my Algonquin time just because I am a lot more comfortable on that type of surface! 

Well, I ended up beating my previous time of 6:15 by a LOT. I finished in 4:54 and actually came in 2nd place female, which was shocking! 

Here is how it went down. 

It’s just five 10Ks……

The race was held on a Saturday, so I drove up to Staci’s on Friday after work. She and her family live about 40 minutes from Allentown, and it was an easy drive in the morning to get to the race venue. Staci had signed up to be a volunteer, so we left her house together on Saturday and arrived at the Lehigh Valley Parkway with plenty of time to spare. The weather was expected to get up into the 70s, so I was dressed in a sports bra and shorts. I was cold when I was waiting to start the race, but warmed up quickly and was glad I wore what I did. 

The race was five 10K loops, and my plan all along was to run this as a very easy and very long training run. As I mentioned, my training was not really what it should have been going into an ultra. I’ve been running a lot of miles – my half marathon training plan peaks at 63 miles per week – but my longest run going into this was 14 miles. So, less than half of what I would cover in the ultra. I was pretty much just hoping that the endurance I’ve gained from my hefty weekly mileage would be enough to carry me through. That, and my incredible stubbornness.

The first loop was all about getting a feel for the race. This was obviously my first time running on the Lehigh Valley Parkway and I liked it. There were some hills, though nothing too crazy. The worst one came at around mile 4 of each 10K loop – it was really steep and actually pretty technical compared with the rest of the trail. I ran up it during the first loop, then decided to hike up it on the subsequent loops and give my legs a rest. We ran alongside the Little Lehigh Creek and underneath the historic Bogert’s Bridge, one of the oldest covered bridges in the country. Very scenic, and there was a lot of shade from the trees, which was great during the later part of the race! 

I ran the first loop in 52 minutes, which was faster than I planned and I knew it was unlikely I could hold onto that pace. But I figured I’d bank some time, at least. I know, I know, this is a poor strategy in marathons and probably ultramarathons, too. But it’s not like I had a real goal here other than to finish in one piece. 

Anyway, that first loop felt great, as did the second! Staci was serving as a course marshal right around mile 2 of each loop, so I got to see her multiple times. The third loop felt …. Not great, but still good! At that point, I had run the farthest I had since Boston five months earlier. Every time I finished a loop, I ran through the finish line area where they had the timing clock up and I saw that I was on pace to finish well under five hours if I kept it up. 

Yeah, I said I didn’t really have a goal, but….. A sub-5 50K sounded pretty great. 

At the 20-mile mark, I started to feel like I might be hitting a wall and that my lack of any long runs past 14 miles was catching up to me. It was also getting warm. I was wearing a Nathan hydration vest and trying to drink as much water as I could, and I also had six Maurten gels with me. I had taken the fourth gel at mile 18, but it wasn’t really sitting well in my stomach and I never took the other two as a result. When I finished the fourth loop, the clock showed that as long as I ran my final loop in an hour and 15 minutes or less, I would finish in five hours. I knew I could do that. 

And I did, but it wasn’t pretty! That last loop was a death march. I ran as much as I could, but I did a fair amount of walking, too. To be honest, I haven’t felt that bad toward the end of a race since the Tidewater Striders Marathon in 2021, when I infamously yelled “fuck this shit” at my husband at mile 25. Everything hurt and all I wanted was a damn Diet Coke. I kept telling myself to just keep moving forward and then I’d get to sit down and hopefully get a cold Diet Coke. 

I crossed the finish line and saw the clock said 4:54. I had broken 5 hours – by a pretty decent margin! 

Once I stopped my watch, one of the volunteers came over to me and told me I had finished second place female. I was totally out of it at that point and just said “What? Really? No way…..” I really was surprised. I had no idea where I was in the rankings when I was on the course, because many people ran as relay teams (I was very envious of them in the later miles!) and then it was hard to tell who was on what number loop. She asked if I wanted to sit down and I said yes, and she gave me this amazing wooden plaque! Then she wanted to know if there was anything I needed. 

“Um…. could I please have a Diet Coke?” I asked. 

Sadly, she didn’t have any Diet Coke, but she did bring me water. (Once I felt capable of moving, I dragged myself over to the food truck near the finish and got a can of ice cold Diet Coke, and I have never tasted anything so delicious in my life!) 

Final thoughts

I’m unbelievably proud of myself. This one was effing hard, but I never gave up. Again, I’m incredibly stubborn. But … I should have trained more. Even throwing in one 18-miler and a 20- or 21-miler prior to this ultra would have helped. So next time, I’ll make sure to do that. 

Next time? 

Yeah, I don’t know when that will be. Maybe not for a while. I’m planning to run Boston again in 2024 as long as a spring work conference doesn’t conflict with it. Probably a fall 2024 marathon. 

Right now, I am not planning on any ultras in 2024, but then again I never planned on running this one, so …. We’ll see where life takes me!

Running lately: 2 10Ks and a 10 mile race

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All of a sudden, it’s September and I am signed up for a race every single weekend.

I started training for the Ocean City Half Marathon the second week of August, with a goal of breaking 90 minutes. (Current PR from Rehoboth last year is 1:33.) One thing about me is that doing speedwork – which is absolutely necessary for me if I want to run a sub-90 half – is not my favorite. So, I signed up for a bunch of races because I’d so much rather run fast in a race than on my own around my neighborhood or the track! 

Here’s what I have been up to, and what is coming up next! 

Dreaded Druid Hills 10K: 46:32

Remember when I said in a recent post that the Firecracker 10K was my slowest in a few years? Ha, well, this race now holds that distinction. It definitely lives up to its name! I had run it before, in 2019, and to be honest never really planned to run it again. But then my friend Kree asked me to run it with her and I said OK. Four years ago, I ran the race in 50:06, and this year I was significantly faster – yet it was somehow so much harder than I remembered! Maybe I was pushing harder. The hills in Druid Hill Park in Baltimore are STEEP and there are also a lot of switchbacks. It is easily the hardest 10K I have ever run. I even stopped to walk a few times – no shame. Somehow I managed to win my age group and come in 5th female. I won a $10 gift card to Falls Road Running, and the swag for the race was on point – I got a pint glass and a really nice Nike tank top. So I suppose it was worth the suffering. Kree and I joked afterwards that maybe this is an “every four years” race.

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The heat was on at the Tracksmith Twilight 5000 in Washington, D.C.

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When I saw the running clothing company Tracksmith was putting on a 5K track race, called the Twilight 5000, in Washington, D.C. on my 43rd birthday, I knew I had to sign up. 

Never mind that I always say I hate 5Ks. Never mind that I’d never raced on a track before. Never mind that my birthday is on July 28 and that it would inevitably be extremely hot in D.C. 

I still couldn’t think of a better way to celebrate my birthday! 

While I had lofty aspirations of running my second sub-20 5K, it was not to be – I finished in an official time of 20:36. But I still feel like I gave it my everything, especially because I could barely speak coherently for a good two minutes after I crossed the finish line. Ha! 

Here’s my recap of the Twilight 5000 in Washington, D.C.! 

She was lightning, before the thunder

Obviously, I knew it was going to be hot and humid – but as luck would have it, the race took place on the hottest day of the summer. Temperatures during the day were close to 100 degrees, with a real feel temperature of about 108 degrees. The race was scheduled to begin at 6:30 pm, but we were divided into 9 heats based on our estimated finish times. Heat 1 was the slowest and Heat 9 was the fastest. I registered with a goal time of 20:00 and was placed in Heat 4, which was supposed to go off at 7:58 pm. I crossed my fingers that the weather would cool off at least a little bit by the time I was going to run. 

Micah and I got to the track at Cardoza High School early, right around the time the first wave was going off, so we got to cheer on the earlier runners. I met an Instagram friend, Meghan, in person for the first time, and that was fun! The wind was starting to pick up and the heat didn’t seem *too* oppressive, so I was hopeful it would stay that way. About a half hour before the start of my race, I went down to the field and warmed up until the organizers called us to line up. 

For the previous hour, we could hear thunder and see lightning in the distance, but it seemed to be far enough away that no one was panicking. But then! About five minutes before we were supposed to run, there was a loud crack of thunder and race officials suddenly halted the race, ordering us to take shelter under the bleachers. (Which yeah, were made of metal, but we huddled under a concrete overhang. I suppose that was safer!) 

We stayed there for about 45 minutes while it poured and I was starting to wonder if the race would be canceled all together. But then they announced that they were starting up again and were combining heats, since the event was supposed to be over by 10 pm. Heats 4 and 5 would run together, then Heats 6 and 7, then Heats 8 and 9.

They gave those of us in 4 and 5 12 minutes to warm up again, and we finally lined up just before 9 pm. 

Did the storm cool things off, you ask? 

No. No, it did not. 

A 5K on a track is 12.5 laps around, which others had warned me is mentally tough. But I don’t think that’s what was hardest for me. If there is one thing I excel at, it’s doing the same thing over and over again (I eat, like, the same five foods every week.) The weather was what really killed me. It felt like running through soup and like heat was just emanating from the track. After the first mile, i.e. the first four laps, I knew sub-20 was out the window, but that if I just stuck with the pack of runners who were going about my pace, I could be around 20:30. 

So I basically just locked in with them and stayed focused. I actually really liked running with a pack. The race officials and volunteers kept calling out “work together, work together! You’ve got this!” and I do think the teamwork helped!

Micah was hanging out near the finish trying to take pictures of me and so I got to see him again and again, which was a nice boost. There were also volunteers handing out cold cups of water and so I started grabbing one at every lap and just dumping it on my head. At lap 7, I just started counting down the laps and before I knew it, I had one left. I did my best to give it one last kick and crossed the finish line in 20:36, 6:38 average pace. No, it wasn’t sub-20, but it was what I had to give and I was happy with that.

I sat down for a few minutes, collected myself and then walked to the top of the bleachers where Micah was standing – yes, he made me walk up all these steps after a tough 5K, LOL! We went to the race after party at nearby Franklin Hall, but I wasn’t that hungry (normal for me when I push hard in the heat) and was mostly interested in drinking a summer shandy slushy. 

Would I do it again? 

Yeah! It was fun – a painful kind of fun, but fun nonetheless! I loved the atmosphere. Tracksmith did a great job with the soundtrack – loved the music that played all night long – and the volunteers were so fun and energetic. I’d love to do this again when it’s about 45 degrees outside. As far as my original sub-20 goal, I probably haven’t been running enough this summer to accomplish that. My highest weekly mileage since Boston was 40 miles during the first week of July. Most weeks were in the 33-37 mile range. When I ran my only other sub-20, that was coming off of Chicago Marathon training when I was running 60-70 miles per week. High mileage isn’t everything, but it can help. 

There is actually a second Twilight 5000 in D.C. on Aug. 25, and I thought for a hot second about running that. But it’s two days before my favorite race, the Annapolis Ten Mile Run, and given how dead my legs felt when I went out to run an easy 10 miles two days after this race – I decided that wasn’t smart!      

There weren’t any awards given out, but per the results I actually placed first in my age group. There are Twilight 5000 races that have already happened in cities all over North America and London, and so far I am 19th among women ages 40-44. That is pretty cool! It’ll likely change as more Twilight 5000 events happen, but I’m proud of that. 

Summer 2023 running recap!

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When I signed up for the Tracksmith 5000 in DC, scheduled for the evening of my birthday on July 28, I had lofty goals of going sub-20, something I’ve only been able to accomplish once before. The race will be held on a track, and we’ll be lead by pacers and seeded by goal time. Under perfect conditions, I could even be looking at a PR! 

Except it’s July 28 in DC, when the weather is normally gross and swampy. And this year, July 28 is expected to be the hottest day of the year, with the highs reaching into the upper 90s and a real feel of 108 degrees or something ridiculous. 

My heat (literally!) doesn’t go off until 7:58 pm, but it’ll still feel like running in hell. I think I’ll be lucky to break 21 minutes and my main goal is not to die! 

But it’ll be a fun adventure to cap off the last few months of lower mileage as I head into half marathon training this fall. Here’s what I have been up to this summer!

Arbutus Firecracker 10K, Arbutus, MD, 45:25

I’d been hearing about this annual July 4 race in Arbutus, Maryland for years, but had never run it before. I knew it would be hot and humid (duh, July 4 in Maryland) and hilly. So I didn’t have any real expectations of my finish time, but I was a little disappointed when I crossed the finish line (feeling practically dead, I might add!) and saw 45:xx on the clock. That was my slowest 10K in about two years. But as I said, the weather was not ideal and the course was challenging! There was a particularly cruel hill around mile 5.5, though there was a downhill finish. Ha. That said, I had fun. I saw a lot of friends there and the people of Arbutus really came out for this race. So many people had sprinkler systems set up for the runners. One resident even had an inflatable shaped like a rainbow and clouds that had water coming out of it for us to run through!

My time was also good enough for first in my age group and I won $50 cash – can’t be sad about that!

Beebe Health Heroes 5K, Lewes, DE, 20:35

Four days after the Firecracker 10K, I ran this flat and fast 5K in Lewes, Delaware. We were staying in nearby Rehoboth Beach for the week and I saw this was happening so I signed both myself and my husband up. (He hadn’t run since Thanksgiving at the Turkey Trot and was just happy to finish!) It was also very hot and humid, but there is not a hill to be seen in Lewes. I was really happy with how this race went, especially as someone who tends to fly and die in 5Ks. I finished in 20:35 and felt strong – splits were 6:40, 6:30, 6:35. I finished top Master female and third overall female, behind two teenage girls, so I was happy about that! Micah finished in around a half hour, which is great considering he never runs anymore! We also enjoyed all the drinks and food provided by the restaurant Irish Eyes at the after party. The Seashore Striders organized this race, which benefited Beebe Health’s foundation. I’ve done a bunch of their races at the beach before and they are always a good time!

Looking ahead to fall! 

I’ve been running 30-40 miles per week since early June, with speedwork once or twice a week to get ready for these shorter races. I start training for my fall half marathons on Aug. 6 and am following a plan that will peak at 63 miles per week. That’s more or less in line with my peak mileage from marathon training over the last year; the real difference is I’ll be doing more half marathon pace specific work and my longest long runs will be 16 miles. I’m excited to take on a new challenge and work to break 90 minutes this fall, hopefully at the Ocean City Half on Oct. 28! 

What races are you looking forward to this fall? Any big goals?

5Ks are the worst

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The title of this blog really says it all!

Marathon runners will especially get it. 5Ks are brutal. If you run them to the best of your ability, you’re in for 3.1 miles of chest thumping, heart pumping pain. Every time I run one, I am like, “the hell with this, this hurts so bad, let’s stick with longer races from here on out, please.” 

And yet, I keep signing up for them– mostly because friends want to run them and want me to do them, too, or because I’m traveling somewhere and I want to do a new race and a 5K is all I can find. This is especially true in the summer. 

Case in point: Next month, I am running two 5Ks, one in Lewes, Delaware on July 9 when I’m on vacation and one on my 43rd birthday on July 28. The birthday 5K is on a track, my first time ever racing on a track. It’s called the Twilight 5000 and it takes place in D.C. and is sponsored by the running apparel company Tracksmith. Even though I love to hate 5Ks, I couldn’t resist the idea of taking on a new challenge on my birthday! 

And I decided to actually do some targeted training for it. I’ve written before about how I really only follow plans for marathon training and just kind of wing it for the other distances. However, I ran a 5K on Memorial Day weekend in my hometown in Pennsylvania and was severely humbled. I was actually supposed to run a half marathon instead that weekend, the Old Turnpike Half on an abandoned portion of the Pennsylvania Turnpike. But then I started reading race recaps that talked about how rough the surface of the road was and I thought the risk of me tripping and falling and injuring myself was way too great. 

I saw there was a 5K happening back home in honor of the longtime former track and field coach at my high school. I didn’t run in high school, but remembered Coach Snider well and figured I’d sign up. The race finished on the high school football field, and I thought it would be so fun to be on the field for the first time since I’d twirled a flag at football halftime shows 25 years ago! 

Objectively, I did well. My time of 21:19 was far from my best, but I was 6th female and 2nd in my age group. However, I hadn’t done any speedwork since before Boston and I really felt it. I went out way too fast with some speedy cross country stars who were half my age and wanted to quit after the first mile. 

It was a total crash and burn. So I decided to pull out a 5K plan from Pfitzinger’s Faster Road Racing, which has plans for distances from the 5K to the half marathon. I generally don’t do targeted speedwork unless it’s part of a training plan, mostly because even after all my years of running, I really don’t know WTF I am doing with speedwork. I need a coach or a plan to guide me. 

The plan is surprisingly challenging. I say surprisingly because the mileage is low– I peak at 40 miles per week. Over the last few years, I’ve really increased my mileage during marathon training and even hit 70 miles per week during Chicago training. So 40 seems like NBD, and most of the weeks are in the 33-37 mile range. The long runs range from 8 to 10 miles, though I am running quite a few weekday runs that are in the 7-8 mile range. 

But the speed sessions are tough. For example, this week my speed day was 9 miles with 3 x 1,000 meter repeats, followed by 3 x 800 meter repeats, at 3K to 5K pace. Woof. Last week it was 8 miles with 7 x 600 meter repeats, followed by a 400 meter repeat, at 3K to 5K pace. Gag. I also have days where I am doing a few rounds of 150 meter sprints as part of a 7 or 8 miler. Those are actually kind of fun. But the track workouts are legit kicking my ass and I’m just glad we’ve been having our coolest June in many years. Most mornings it’s been in the 60s and it’s such a welcome change from the typical Chesapeake Bay summer heat and humidity! 

I am excited to see where the plan takes me. I have my first race since Memorial Day coming up on the Fourth of July, the Arbutus Firecracker 10K. I’ve heard it’s a hot and hilly beast and I don’t really know what to expect, time-wise. Then the 5K in Lewes 5 days later, then the Twilight 5000 at the end of July. In an ideal world, I’d love to break 20 minutes at the Twilight 5000. I’ve only done that once before and it was coming off my training for Chicago, when I was in the absolute best shape of my life. 

The one thing going for me is that the Twilight 5000 apparently has pacers, so I’ll be less likely to fly and die if I can stick with a 20 minute pacer and then pull ahead during the last lap. All I can do is try!