marathon training

Running a sub 3:20 marathon in Boston: My experience at the 2023 Boston Marathon

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Last week, I ran my 3rd Boston Marathon on a rainy, chilly Patriots Day. It ended up being my 2nd fastest marathon ever, and I broke 3:20 for the 2nd time. I couldn’t be happier, and am already looking forward to next year.

Here is my recap of one of the most magical days of the year!

I had probably the best night of sleep I’ve ever had before a marathon. My alarm woke me up at 5 (well, alarms — I’m paranoid and I set an alarm on my phone, made my husband set an alarm, and I got a wake up call from the hotel.) I felt so rested and made my coffee and had a Cliff bar, then packed up my bagel with peanut butter to eat on the bus. Left the hotel at 6 with another runner, Diane, whom I had met the night before, and we hopped on the T. I was at Boston Common an hour before I was supposed to board the bus at 7:30, and killed time in the same McDonald’s I’ve hung out at in previous years.

I made the mistake of looking at my Whoop and it told me my recovery was in the red and that I should consider taking a rest day 😬 That worried me a bit, but I tried not to get too in my head about it. I didn’t feel tired or sluggish!

The bus ride to Hopkinton seemed to fly by and I chatted with another runner who was doing her first Boston. She qualified in Pittsburgh during her first marathon ever — amazing!! That was my first marathon too and it’s a tough course.

It was chilly and misty in Athlete’s Village, but the rain mostly held off until it was time for wave 2 to walk to the start corrals. Then it started to come down — not an all out downpour, but I was definitely getting wet. I kept my throwaway jacket on as long as I could. I got to see one of my Instagram friends, Katy, while waiting in line for the porta potties right before the start, and then I walked over to my corral and finally ditched the jacket. The rain was coming down and I was shivering in my singlet and shorts, but I knew it was going to be in the 50s and I’d be fine once I started running.

I was nervous, but excited and ready to run.

Miles 1-13

Before I knew it, we were off and I quickly started to warm up! I had forgotten how crowded the first few miles are. The spectators were already out in full force despite the less-than-ideal weather! The first few miles felt easy enough— splits were 7:52, 7:49, 7:39, 7:35, which seemed fast but sustainable.

Once I hit mile 4, though, I reached into my flip belt to pull out my first Maurten gel. And!! All my gels were GONE! Somehow they’d fallen out and I have no idea where or how. My phone was in there, but no gels. I used the belt to hold my phone and gels in Philly with zero problem, and I have used the belt plenty of times since then as well. WTF!!

I panicked at the thought of running a marathon without gels, then remembered volunteers would be handing out Maurten gels on the course. I just couldn’t remember when. I tried to stay calm even though my fueling plan had just gone to hell.

I ran mile 5 in 7:42, then started to speed up, running 7:26 for the next 2 miles. That did seem a little *too* fast early in the race, so I tried to dial it back and ran mile 8 in 7:34, mile 9 in 7:33 and mile 10 in 7:31. I was feeling strong, even though by that point in the race, I should have already had 2 gels in me.

I zipped through mile 11 in 7:25, then saw a sign that Maurten gels were at the next aid station. I asked for 3 gels, explaining I’d lost all mine, and they gave them to me. Thank you volunteers!! You are the best!

Miles 12 and 13 were speedy — 7:21 and 7:15. This is when the race goes through the Wellesley Scream Tunnel and the energy is like none other. You can hear the screams a mile away. I high-fived so many Wellesley women and saw some men kiss a few of them, too.

Giving out high fives in Wellseley!

Miles 14-25

I took my first gel at mile 13 (should have been my third gel!) and was still feeling good. There was a mild headwind, but certainly nothing like the Philly Marathon or anything I faced in training, for that matter. My next few miles were spicy. I ran 14 and 15 in 7:13 and 7:18 and then mile 16 in 7 flat. Whoa. But that did give me a nice cushion leading into the toughest part of the race, the Newton Hills. Which seemed much bigger than I remembered 😅 I hung on pretty well, though, running 7:24 for mile 17, 7:29 for mile 18, 7:25 for mile 19, and 7:36 for mile 20. I took my second gel at mile 18.

As I approached Heartbreak Hill (around mile 20.5), the rain started to come down. I knew another IG friend, Jude, was going to be on my left side cheering on the runners, and I was excited to see her! Mile 21 was my slowest so far at 7:56, but the B.A.A. tracker clocked me at over 8 minutes for that split, so I obviously did a crap job of running the tangents.

After summiting Heartbreak, it was onward to Brookline and Boston. My quads were starting to yell at me at this point and I knew I was coming up on the point in the race where I fell last year. The road was slippery and uneven and I was determined not to bite it AGAIN. I took my third and final gel at mile 22, which I ran in 7:22. I knew then I only had 30ish minutes left to go and reminded myself to soak it all in.

I got through mile 23 in 7:33 and then I could feel myself hitting a wall. It’s actually been a while since that happened to me in a marathon. Was I too aggressive with my pacing? Feeling the effects of not having enough gels? Maybe both?

My husband was right there before the mile 24 mark, and I ran over to the side and kissed him. My watch clocked me at 8:03 for mile 24. I was hurting, but I knew I was almost there!

I knew a photographer would be at mile 25 waiting to snap runners’ photos with the iconic Citgo sign in the background. Even though I was feeling like hot garbage, I hammed it up for the camera! I still don’t see any pictures with the sign, though! Mile 25: 8:09

The finish

At this point in the race, the crowds were absolutely deafening. I was both so ready for the race to be over and not wanting it to end! Usually making the right on Hereford and left on Boylston makes me tear up, but I was too zapped at this point to cry. You can see the finish line when you turn onto Boylston and as I was running toward it all I could think was, “Jesus, it is so much further away than I remember!” 😂

Mile 26: 8:25 (B.A.A. app has me slower because tangents).

Finally I crossed the finish and stopped my watch. I didn’t have it set to elapsed time and figured I’d be around 3:2x when all was said and done (forget trying to do math in a marathon.) When I saw 3:19, I was shocked. Two years ago, I was struggling to break 3:30. Now I’d run my 2nd fastest marathon time ever in Boston, on a tough AF course.

A bunch of people asked me ahead of time what my goal was and I kept saying around 3:25ish. I promise I wasn’t sandbagging. I truly didn’t see myself going under 3:20 and being that close to my PR from Chicago 2022.

One of the wonderful volunteers put a medal around my neck, another wrapped me in a heat blanket, and I hobbled toward the warming buses to wait for my husband to meet me at the family meeting area. The T was an absolute shit show, but that’s another story.

I was so cold and tired and happy. I can’t wait for 2024.

Shippin’ up to Boston for the 3rd time: Getting ready for the 2023 Boston Marathon

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I’m less than a week out from running my 3rd Boston Marathon! 

How am I feeling? Excited. Like I’m surprised how excited I am. It’s my third time, after all. I figured the novelty would have worn off by now – but it hasn’t. I just feel so lucky that I get to do this! 

It’s been a while since I’ve blogged, but I had a busy March in terms of racing. Here’s a brief recap of what I’ve been up to! 

Grilled Cheese and Tomato Soup “4 Miler” 

3rd overall female, 24:20/6:40 pace

Why the quotes? Because a bunch of us at the front of the pack missed a turnoff after the wind blew over a directional sign and accidentally cut the course. 

This race in PA was more than 2 hours from my house, but it sounded fun – grilled cheese and tomato soup after, hello! – and the race director Pat is great. He’s the one who organized the Chasing the Unicorn marathon in 2020 and did everything in his power to make that a safe and fun event at the height of the pandemic. So I signed up, hoping to be able to run 4 miles in 26 minutes or so to test my speed.

The race was held in a municipal park and it was windy AF, a common theme of pretty much all of my runs this training cycle. In fact, it was windy enough that one of the directional signs after the mile 3 mark blew over, and so a bunch of us missed a turn and accidentally ran 3.65 miles! Pat didn’t DQ us, I guess because so many people effed it up, and I was awarded the 3rd overall female prize – a nice blanket! I had fun and pushed hard.

Annapolis Running Festival 10K

3rd overall female, 42:44/6:53 pace

I said to friends a few times I wasn’t planning on the Annapolis Running Festival – I’ve done so many races on that course over the last decade that I just wasn’t excited about it. But then I saw I had 10Kish worth of speedwork on my plan the week of the race and I’d rather do that in a race than on my own! Plus, my friend Shannon was running it, too. 

The weather pretty much sucked – it was once again super windy and I tried my best to draft off other, taller runners! My shoelace also came untied right before mile 3, costing me precious time. I didn’t really have a time goal, but I thought 41-42 miles was doable. I also had no expectations of placing and it was really hard to gauge where I was in the race since there was also a 5K and a half marathon and we were all mixed together at various parts of the race. So I was pleasantly surprised when I crossed the finish line and the volunteer handed me a card that said I was 3rd female. 

I’m glad I ended up doing it – just wish we’d had better weather! The after party was a lot of fun, and the band playing was awesome, but it was just so cold and windy. That’s March in Maryland for you – you could get 20 degrees or 80 degrees. 

Barlowe Bolt 5K

1st overall female, 21:28/6:42 pace  

Well, this one was a cluster. 

A little background about me and the Bolt – I am not new to this race. In fact, this was the fifth time I’d run it – I ran in 2018, 2019, 2020, and 2022. I even won it in 2020 and 2022 and was hoping to win it again this year. (It’s a pretty small race.)

But!! Even though I had run it multiple times in the past, I couldn’t remember the course, so I made a wrong turn about three-tenths of a mile into the race. I was running up at the front with two teenage boys, so I led them astray – sorry! When I realized my mistake after we literally ran into a dead end, I was so annoyed with myself. 

We turned around and I hauled ass to get back in first place, which I paid for dearly with a huge positive split in the end. I did manage to still win and in the end I added about a tenth of a mile onto my race, so it could have been worse. I mean, I ….could have cut the course again.

My mileage hasn’t been as high as it was last fall when training for Chicago, but I’ve averaged between 55-60 miles per week, peaking at 62 miles. Basically, I took Pfitzinger’s 12/55 plan from Advanced Marathoning and modified it to add a few more miles each week. Thinking about doing 12/70 this fall again for Richmond, but that is a heavy training load and I don’t think I can mentally (or physically) handle it every marathon training cycle.

The plan included two 20-milers, the second of which I ran during the B&A Marathon last month. I didn’t register for the race, but the trail was open to the public and I knew so many people running either the half or the full that I thought it would be fun to run alongside them. I ended up running mostly with a fast friend of mine and averaged 7:29 pace for 20 miles. That is obviously WAY faster than I would normally ever do a 20 miler, but I also ran the Charm City Run 20 Miler three weeks before Chicago last fall at a 7:25 pace and it didn’t hurt me in the marathon.

When your training run coincides with a race, you show up in the pictures!

Goals/plans for Boston

I don’t know! LOL. Enjoy myself and get another BQ.

My Garmin thinks I’m running a 3:03, but it’s clearly full of crap. That would be a 15-minute PR and I do not think I am in PR shape – that 3:18 I ran last fall is really solid, plus I ran it on a flat course in damn near perfect weather. The Boston Marathon is a tough course and the weather is looking warm and wet. Not the worst, but not the best either. I do think a 3:2x is doable and I should be able to BQ (3:40:00 or faster) unless things really go to hell. 

Other than that, no major goals. Sometimes it’s more fun that way anyway!

My experience running the 2022 Chicago Marathon

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I’d just passed the sign that told me I had 800 meters left to run in the Chicago Marathon, and all of a sudden, I felt like I was running the 2019 Boston Marathon – the race that earned me a qualifying time for Chicago more than three years earlier – all over again.

Just like in Boston 2019, I started to get really emotional. Hundreds of screaming people lined both sides of the street. I was about to cross the finish line. I wasn’t just going to meet my goal of running 3:20 – I was going to smash it. I’d trained for three months for this moment, running up to 70 miles a week, but this race was really three and a half years in the making. And finally, after everything, here I was. 

And just like in Boston 2019, I told myself, “Get it together, you can’t keep running if you’re gasping for breath because you’re sobbing.” I made the final right turn onto the *only* hill in the entire race (it’s a very small hill, but given how flat the course is and the fact that the hill is at the tail end, it’s an ass kicker!), then left into Grant Park and across the finish line. I stopped my Garmin and saw 3:18:46, and then I really did shed a few tears. An 8 minute PR and a qualifying time by more than 21 minutes for Boston 2024, my 6th BQ. I did it! 

I keep saying that I can’t believe it, but that’s not really true. I can believe it. I put in the training and worked really hard. Of course, that’s never a guarantee in a marathon – a lot can happen over 26.2 miles – but I felt as prepared as I’d ever been.

Did I feel amazing the entire time, like I did last year in Coastal Delaware or in Boston 2022? Nope! I kinda felt like I had to barf from mile 18 on. But I powered through and I am so proud of myself. 

Before the Race

As I mentioned, this race was more than three years in the making. I registered for the 2020 race with a qualifying time from Boston 2019. Then COVID hit and of course, the race, a World Marathon Major and one of the largest races in the world, was canceled. Everyone registered for 2020 got three years to use their entry, and I decided to wait until 2022 because I was afraid there would still be restrictions and maybe even a possible cancellation in fall 2021. There wasn’t, but the 2021 race had brutal temperatures into the 80s, so I am glad I waited! We had great weather this year. 

I flew to Chicago from Maryland two days before the race and met my sister Catherine, who flew in from Pittsburgh, there. She loves to plan trips and choose all the restaurants and bars we’ll go to, so I turned the agenda over to her since I know she has good taste! On Friday night we went to Girl and the Goat, a fantastic place, and then had some tiki drinks at Three Dots and a Dash, which was right across the street from our hotel in River North. We probably would have stayed out later, but we were both doing the Chicago 5K the next morning. When I saw that was happening, I wanted to do it as my shakeout run and I talked Catherine into running, too (she agreed because she liked the beanies we got, ha!) 

The 5K was fun and I did run very easy (finished in 28:06). I had heard ahead of time that GPS watches don’t work well in Chicago due to the skyscrapers, and that was definitely true in the 5K and in the marathon as well. Note to future runners in these Chicago races– you can either manually hit your lap button at every mile, or you can just set your watch on elapsed time and do marathon math the whole 26.2 miles. I chose the latter, because…. I like to make things more challenging for myself? Anyway, I digress! 

We did a lot of exploring the day before the race. After going to the expo, where I bought NOTHING – seriously, who am I? But all the stuff was so overpriced and honestly not that cute!! –  we went to a sushi restaurant where I enjoyed two sushi rolls and a flight of sake. Then we walked to the Navy Pier, where we met up with my friend Danielle from Rip It Events. It was an absolutely gorgeous day!

We then tried to go to the 360 Observation Deck atop what was formerly called the John Hancock Center, but the line to get onto the deck was 45 minutes long, so we stopped and had beers at the Signature Room overlooking the city.

Then for dinner, we went to RPM Italian just a few doors down from the hotel. This place was AMAZING and I kind of pigged out, which, as I alluded to earlier, came back to bite me in the ass a little bit. I had cheesy bread, then some rich cheesy pasta, then Catherine and I split a huge piece of cheesecake, and I washed it all down with prosecco. If you’re reading this and thinking, “Well Allison, sounds like you weren’t making good choices with your sake and your cheesecake and your prosecco the day before a marathon…..” you are correct. 

But listen, I was also in Chicago to have a good time, too. I didn’t want to just sit in my hotel room and foam roll and stretch (and LOL if you think I do either of those things regularly, anyway.) Catherine’s birthday was also Sunday, marathon day, so of course we planned to celebrate all weekend!

The Race! 

The race recommended that people in my corral, C, should be at Grant Park by 5:30 am, which ended up being overkill….. But I always get nervous about being late to races, so I set my alarm for 3:45 and was in an Uber to the start by 5 am. 

PS – Don’t take an Uber or Lyft if you’re doing this race. The staff at the hotel had even warned me not to, and I did not listen. Most of the roads were already closed by 5 am, but my Uber driver was a baller and managed to get me within two blocks of Grant Park anyway. He got a big tip for his efforts!  

I checked my bag with my clothes for after the race and then was able to find an open bathroom in the park to just keep warm until we started at 7:30. A lot of other runners had the same idea and I got to chat with some ladies from the Netherlands, Ireland, and England, as well as others from all over the country and world. I have never heard so many foreign languages spoken at once – it was really cool! The time passed relatively quickly and I felt excited, but calm. Around 7 or so, I left to walk to my corral and positioned myself behind the 3:20 pace group. There was a group of three 3:20 pacers in corral C and then another group of 3:20 pacers in corral D. Apparently, it’s a popular goal time. The race started at 7:20 with the wheelchair and handcycle athletes, then wave 1, which corral C was in, went off at 7:30, but I didn’t actually cross the start line until around 7:37.  

Unsurprisingly, it was super crowded for, well, most of the race, but especially the first 10K. I felt like I was elbow to elbow with the other runners who were with the pace group, and I worried about bumping into someone and tripping, or causing them to trip, etc. Luckily, that didn’t happen! The first few miles felt pretty easy, as they should at the beginning of a marathon, and I tried to take in the spectators and their funny signs as much as I could. The crowds were absolute fire!

I knew to look out for Catherine at mile 9, where the infamous drag queens would be dancing. I had told myself I was going to stay with the 3:20 group at least through mile 20, and then see how I felt. But when I saw her at mile 9, I was already ever so slightly ahead of them and then pulled ahead even more. I was feeling good! She cheered and screamed and waved her Terrible Towel at me (we won’t talk about how shitty the Steelers played later that day!) and I knew she planned to be at mile 23, too! 

Miles 10 through 15 went by quickly. I took Maurten gels at miles 4, 8, and 13, with plans to take the last two at miles 18 and 22. Around mile 15 or 16, I kept hearing people yell Go Blue at a runner who was in head to toe University of Michigan gear. As an Ohio State grad, I couldn’t help but yell out “O-H!” and then another runner yelled back “I-O!” The Michigan runner gave me a dirty look. I think he was having a bad race and I pissed him off even more. Whoops.

I was maintaining a super steady pace – not that you would know it from my very confused watch, which told me I ran mile 14 in 6:22? False – and things felt good, not necessarily GREAT, but good until about mile 18 or so when I took that 4th gel. And then my stomach started to bubble a little bit. It wasn’t a horrible wave of nausea, but enough that I was like, OK, time to just take sips of water from the water stops and maybe avoid the Gatorade. I really do think it was the extremely rich meal I’d consumed the night before. It sure was good, though! 

Running through Chinatown starting at mile 20 and smelling all that Chinese food was a bit rough. By mile 21, I knew I couldn’t take my last gel because I was likely to spit it right back up. But I knew I was at least a minute or two ahead of the 3:20 group and was able to maintain the pace, and I was looking forward to seeing Catherine at mile 23. She is pretty much the best and loudest race spectator there is and got a video of me as I ran past her waving my arms and yelling out “sub-3:20!!” At least I look strong and happy in the video. 

At mile 24, there was a DJ playing music and calling out “all my party people, throw your hands in the AIR!” and all of my energy was just focused on just holding a steady pace and not throwing up. I knew that if I kept it going I was going to be right around 3:18 or 3:19. Things were kind of a blur at that point! The crowds were super boisterous and enthusiastic and before I knew it, I was coming down the final stretch and about to make the last right turn onto “Mount Roosevelt” (seriously, it’s barely a hill, but why tf is it right there at the end?) and getting all weepy. 

I crossed the finish line and saw volunteers were handing out cans of Goose Island beer with Finisher written on them, but I wanted to wait to have a beer with Catherine at the after party and didn’t want to use my beer ticket quite yet. I later learned the finish chute beer was actually a bonus beer and so I was mad I left that on the table! As soon as I stopped running, my stomach felt better and I could have totally slammed a beer then. Oh well. 

We more than made up for it later at Happy Camper, where the waitress brought us chambongs (champagne in a bong, just as it sounds) on the house, Pilot Project brewery, and Cafe Moustache for karaoke, where we wowed the crowd with our renditions of I Wanna Dance With Somebody and Hot In Herre and enjoyed a few Chicago Handshakes. Needless to say, I woke up Monday morning more in pain from the hangover I got than from the marathon. I might still be able to run relatively fast, but I am 42 years old, so, you know.

What’s Next? 

Philly! I am running the Philadelphia Marathon, another 2020 deferral, on Nov. 20. I’ve never run two marathons this close together and since I met my goal and then some in Chicago, Philly will really just be for fun. I am doing a reverse taper right now and will build my mileage back up a little over the next few weeks before tapering down again. I’ve heard great things about the Philly Marathon and can’t want to run it!

And! Six days after Chicago, I raced the 5K at the Baltimore Running Festival and BROKE 20 MINUTES for the first time ever! Stay tuned for that recap.

8 days until I run the 2022 Chicago Marathon

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Nearly three years after registering with a qualifying time from Boston 2019, I will get to run the Chicago Marathon next weekend! 

I feel ready. My training couldn’t have gone better and my body held up well throughout the high mileage weeks. As long as I stay healthy this next week, I am good to go! I got my new COVID booster and my flu shot at the beginning of September, not wanting to take any chances! I do have a quick business trip to Dallas at the beginning of the week – I fly out Monday and come back late Tuesday night. Then I go to Chicago on Friday. Crazy week and I’m trying not to be too anxious about it! 

OH! And I also got my official Boston Marathon 2023 acceptance this week. This was my 4th time registering for the race and the first time I had a big enough cushion that I knew I was in no matter what. Can’t wait to go back for my 3rd Boston in April! 

I ran a race every weekend in September. Here’s a quick recap of my last few weeks of training and racing! 

Rip It Events’ Police Pace 10K

I wasn’t too happy with my time of 44:28 in this race, and I recognize how silly that is. Until just about a year ago, my 10K PR was 44:50, and that was from 2017. It took me years to beat that! But I had just won the Mike Sterling 10K in Crisfield with a 40:52 the week before, so running more than three minutes slower was tough to swallow. 

That said, it’s not surprising I was so much slower. First of all, the weather was God awful. It was pouring down rain on race morning, to the point where I did not want to get out of my car. (At least it wasn’t 90 degrees and humid?) The course was at Centennial Lake Park in Columbia, which was hilly and also had a lot of windy curves. Those always slow me down. And, because it was so wet outside, I was afraid of tripping and falling, so I’m sure I was running more tentatively than usual. I did like the course, but it was a double loop (the race also included a 5K, which ended after one loop.) That is mentally challenging. I did pass a ton of people, but at least for the first half of the race, it was hard to tell who was doing the 5K and who was doing the 10K, so I wasn’t sure what place I was in. 

After I crossed the finish line (almost mowing down an older lady – sorry!!!), I checked my results and it said I was third place female. Cool! Except the first place female’s time was listed as 31:xx. So, we had an Olympian in our midst? Hmmm. I knew that couldn’t be right and was pretty sure that was someone who had registered for the 10K and then noped out at the 5K. Sure enough, the awards ceremony was canceled because of issues with the timing chips. I actually came in second, behind a 17-year-old who ran 39:xx.

So overall, a good race even though I wasn’t excited about how I did!

As a Rip It Events ambassador, I ran this race for free. Opinions are entirely my own!

Photo by Anthea Diano

Charm City Run 20 Miler

I had been wanting to do this race, meant to be a supported training run for people registered for fall marathons, for years and was originally supposed to run it back in 2018 while training for the Baltimore Marathon. But then I strained my calf doing a stupid 5K fun run two days before the race, so I did the smart thing and bailed on it, hoping that I’d be able to run Baltimore with no issue. (And I did.) 

I just had no idea how the hell to pace this race. Long run pace? That seemed like the logical thing to do, but racing it would be more fun. However, I was concerned about burning myself out before Chicago. I decided to make a game day call and determine how I was going to run it once I started running it. Strategy! The weather was nearly perfect, though it got kind of warm toward the end, and I started out running a 7:50ish pace. Then I picked it up a bit … and picked it up more. This race is a point-to-point (my favorite!) that takes place on the NCR Trail north of Baltimore. The whole thing is just slightly downhill, so it was kind of hard not to go fast. After four or so miles I started clicking off miles in the 7:30s, then a string of sub-7:20s. Well, OK, I thought to myself. Let’s just see how long I can hang on.

Pretty long, in fact, and I felt decent — never hit a wall or anything. I ended up averaging a 7:25 pace for the whole thing, finishing in 2:28:25. Whew! I came in 7th place female and third in my age group. While I was pumped about the time, I immediately started to worry I’d ruined my marathon by going so hard in what was really supposed to be a training run, three weeks out. 

However, the day after the race, I felt just fine – not at all sore. And I continued to train that week normally, including a hard track workout. All good. So, I decided not to worry about it any more. That 20 miler also topped off a 70-mile week, and I obviously was not tapered or anything. I feel like that’s gotta be a good sign for the marathon. Or, at least not a bad sign! 

Kensington 8K

My plan called for me to run a race two weeks before Chicago that was between 8K and 15K, and way back in May, when I was plotting out my fall marathon training, I saw the Kensington 8K happening on September 24. Perfect! Except, as the day drew closer, I also saw a few other races that fell in the 8K-15K range that I would have preferred to run instead. There was a 13.1K (8+ miles) scheduled for September 25 on the Eastern Shore, and then a 10-miler, my favorite distance, the same weekend in Reston, VA. So I started to have some serious FOMO. When I woke up the morning of the race, I didn’t really want to do it! Shorter distances really are not my thing. 

But! I’m so glad I ran it because I had an amazing race! 32:17/6:30 per mile pace, good enough for first place female master – which came with a $50 cash prize – and fourth overall female. There were some really fast people in this race. Like, I was not even a little bit close to the third place female – she was four minutes ahead of me. The top three females all ran at a sub-six minute average pace! Blazing fast. 

Also, I just really liked the race! It was mostly flat except for one last little hill at around mile 4.5. The weather was fantastic – cool enough for arm sleeves. And, most importantly, we could use the nice bathrooms in the Kensington Town Hall at the start, so I didn’t have to pee in a porta potty! Score! It was a great experience and I shouldn’t have been so sour on it. 

It also has me thinking that maybe a sub-20 5K is within my reach after all. So much so that I switched my Baltimore Running Festival registration from the (hilly) 10K to the (flat) 5K. This race is actually six days after Chicago, so it’s probably still a tall order, but YOLO!   

But first – CHICAGO! Going for that 3:20, but I’ll be happy with any PR (sub-3:26:00!)

Chicago Marathon training: 5 weeks to go!

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267 miles! 

That’s how many miles I logged in August! 

I’ve always considered myself to be a lower mileage marathon runner. For years, I’ve followed other runners on Instagram who regularly run 60, 70, 80 mile weeks when marathon training. I, on the other hand, usually peak in the 50s. Hal Higdon’s Advanced 2 marathon training plan had me peaking at 53, and I think there were maybe two or three other weeks where I hit 50 miles on that plan – most of the weeks were in the 45-mile range. And that worked for me– I qualified for Boston three times following it. 

Then last fall, I had a goal to finish a marathon in 3:30 or faster, and I decided to switch up my training. I got Pete Pfitzinger’s book, Advanced Marathoning, and followed his 12/55 plan. While my peak wasn’t much higher than Hal’s plan, I ran more 50+ mile weeks and many, many more mid-week double digit runs. The end result was a 3:26:00 at the Coastal Delaware Marathon. Then I ran a 3:27:52 at Boston the following spring. 

Seeing some success with higher mileage, I decided to bump up my training for the Chicago Marathon and have been following a modified version of Pfitzinger’s 12/70 program, so I am peaking at 70 miles over 12 weeks. I say modified because I was supposed to hit 70 miles per week in my sixth week of training, but I was a little nervous since I’ve never run that kind of mileage before. So far, my weekly mileage has been 55 for week 1, 59 for week 2, 55 for week 3, 64 for week 4, 59 for week 5, and 62 for week 6. I just finished week 7 and ran 66 miles. This week, I’ll enjoy a cutback week with 61 miles, and then I’ll hit 70 the week after that before easing into the taper. There were also some days where I had 13-15 miles on the agenda on a weekday, and I broke those into doubles (usually, 10 in the morning and 3-5 in the evening, depending on the daily mileage. That’s just an awful lot to run all at once on a workday.) So far, I am feeling pretty decent. Just tired and hungry all of the time! 

Since I started training, I’ve run two races, and both have gone great – so I am feeling pretty content with this plan! Here’s a quick recap of the two races I just ran! 

The Annapolis Ten Mile Run

If you’ve followed me for a while, you know this is my favorite race. But I’ve had some great A10s and some really bad ones. The race was canceled the last two years due to COVID, and I really missed it. I was quite excited when I learned it would return in 2022 and signed up for it the day registration opened. The 2022 A10 fell at the end of week 6 of training, and I didn’t quite know what to expect. My legs were obviously going to be tired, and the weather was typical of August in Maryland – hot and humid. The night before the race, I asked my husband Micah if he thought I could run 1:10 and he outright laughed at me! I reminded him I ran the Cherry Blossom Ten Miler in 1:08:03, and he countered that that was on a cool day. (It was also on a flat course – the A10 is hilly.) No matter – I decided to line up just behind the 1:10 pacer and see if I could hold on. 

And it paid off! 

This was my 8th time running this race, so I pretty much know the course like the back of my hand and it always seems to go by so fast, no matter what pace I am running. And I felt like that was the case this time. The first three miles, around the Navy-Marine Corps Memorial Stadium, down Rowe Boulevard and Main Street, zipped by, in 7:08, 6:55 and 7:05. The 1:10 group was a little bit in front of me, but I was able to keep them in my sight. Then we were going up and down the Naval Academy Bridge (7:07 for mile 4) and into Pendennis Mount. When I crossed the timing mat at mile 5 (another 7:07) a volunteer told me I was the 20th female! Pretty good for a big race like the A10.

Then it was up and down B&A Boulevard for mile 6 (7:09) and 7 (7:06) and back toward the bridge. I picked up a lot of speed in the last three miles, which I was happy about! I ran mile 8 in 6:53 and mile 9 in 6:55 – special thanks to the mid who sprayed me with a hose at the mile 9 water stop! (Did I mention it was hot and humid AF out?!) 

My final mile was 6:57 and just as I was turning the last corner to go up to the finish at the stadium, I heard a “Go Allison!” Micah had pulled up on his motorcycle just in time to see me finish. The announcer called out my time as 1:11, but I later learned that my chip time was actually 1:10:40, so I was quite happy to prove Micah wrong! 

While not a PR, this was a huge course PR. My previous fastest A10 was 1:15, set five years ago. I also won my age group, which was a first. The A10 is pretty competitive, but I am in a new age group (hello Masters runner!) Check out this great mug I won, created by Annapolis Pottery! 

Can’t wait for the 2023 race! 

Mike Sterling 10K

This little race takes place every Labor Day weekend in Crisfield, Maryland, a town on the Chesapeake Bay that sits at the southernmost point in Maryland. I hadn’t initially been planning to race a 10K over Labor Day, but I saw Vanessa of She Runs By the Seashore post about it on Instagram. That week, I was supposed to run a 12 miler with 7 miles at 15K to half marathon pace. Truth be told, I don’t love long solo speed workouts and would much rather just run a race. Hmmm, this 10K sounds fun, I thought. I figured if I could find a cheap enough Airbnb, then I would travel for the race over two hours away from my house (further than I realized at first!) I did find a great Airbnb for less than $100 in town and Micah and I drove down to the Eastern Shore after work on Friday of Labor Day weekend. 

I wasn’t totally sure what to expect from this race, either. My 10K PR is going to be a tough one to beat, ever – 39:33 at the Bay Bridge Run in 2021. But I knew this course was flat and fast, so I thought I could run it in maybe 42 minutes. 

I actually finished in 40:52 and was first overall female! So excited about that – and most thrilled with how I paced it and how I was able to stay consistent when the last two miles got tough. 

The race began at 7:30 right at the Crisfield City Dock, and it was definitely warm and humid, but nowhere near as bad as the A10 was. I lined up at the front and went out the gate at a sub-7 pace. I ran mile 1 6:33 and mile 2 in 6:35. Somewhere in mile 2, I think, the woman who came in second place passed me and I didn’t think I’d be able to catch her, but then I did during mile 3 (6:37). I ran mile 4 in 6:39 and that’s when I started to feel really gassed. But I wasn’t going to give up and instead focused on the man who was running about 50 yards ahead of me. Just follow him, I told myself. And it worked! I ran both miles 5 and 6 in 6:35. It may not have been a PR, but this was easily the best pacing job I have ever done in a 10K. Maybe in any race, ever! 

As top female, I was awarded a handmade anchor crafted by a local artist. Unfortunately, as I was putting stuff in my car after the race, I absentmindedly put the award on top of my car and freaking drove off without it! I was absolutely devastated. But! I emailed the race director and the race crew found it! They are going to mail it to me. I’m so happy! It was such a special prize. 

This was a nice local race and it was worth the drive to do it. My only regret is that I did not get a Smith Island Cake while I was there. (Yes, I know you can get them all over Maryland – but we were so close to Smith Island! I still need to make a trip there some time.)  

Week 8 of training begins tomorrow – I’m so close to taper I can taste it. I can’t wait to run the Chicago Marathon on Oct. 9 and hopefully finish around 3 hours and 20 minutes. And then I’m running the Philly Marathon on Nov. 20. Still haven’t decided exactly how I am going to approach training for that. Chicago is definitely my “A” race, so I’ll probably just work on maintaining my fitness after that’s over. It would be nice to run a BQ time at both and I feel pretty confident I can do that. Really, I just want a PR in Chicago! 

Have you ever run marathons close together like that – and if so, how did you approach them? Let me know!

The 2022 Boston Marathon is almost here, and I PR’d the 10 miler — twice!

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And suddenly, the 2022 Boston Marathon is a little more than a week away and I’m in taper mode. How did that happen? 

I think my training has gone pretty close to perfectly and the weeks have flown by. I really like the 12-week plan from Advanced Marathoning that I followed last fall and then again this winter. First, I think 12 weeks is my sweet spot for marathon training – it’s long enough to get me in shape, yet short enough that I don’t get bored with it. Second, the plan is easily the most effective one I’ve ever followed. I’m running times I never thought would be possible for me, and I think I have that plan to thank for it. 

I ran three races in March – two 10 milers and a 5K. All of them went really well! Here’s a recap of each of them. 

The Tim Kennard River Run 10 Miler

My training plan advised that I race either an 8K or a 15K the weekend of March 20-21, so I was excited to see the Tim Kennard River Run 10 Miler was happening in Salisbury on March 20. (15K = 9.3 miles, so that’s close enough.) The race is named after Tim Kennard, a local runner who passed away in 2004 of renal cancer, and the proceeds fund organizations that help children and animals. I love 10 milers – I think that’s my favorite distance. I had also read good things about it from Vanessa with She Runs By the Seashore. Salisbury is about two hours from where I live in Anne Arundel County, so my husband and I decided to make a weekend out of it and stay in an Airbnb on the Eastern Shore, in a small town called Snow Hill about 20 minutes away from the race’s start/finish line. The race was on a Sunday, so I did my 17-mile long run on Saturday and then we hit the road. I wasn’t too worried about running a long run and then racing 10 miles the next day – I did that when I ran Cherry Blossom last fall and had a great race. We stopped in Berlin, which has tons of antique shops and bills itself as America’s coolest small town. We ate dinner at an excellent restaurant called Blacksmith and then relaxed in the adorable Airbnb, which was a two-story apartment that was part of an old house. It was so charming that I wish we could have stayed for longer – I’d love to go back sometime. 

Easy logistics are the best thing about a small town race! The race began and ended at a local church in Salisbury, and packet pickup and a full on breakfast spread was set up inside. There was plenty of parking and we had time to hang out inside the church hall while we waited for the start of the race. Thank you to all the church members who came out to help! Everyone was so nice. 

I really didn’t know what to expect as far as my time here. I ran a 1:11 last fall in the rescheduled Cherry Blossom 10 Mile Run, which was a two-minute PR, and I thought that was pretty solid. But I also knew I was in good shape, maybe better shape, and the weather was good and the course was flat. So I thought maybe 1:10ish was possible. I also thought I could possibly win the Masters female race and come home with an extra $50 in my pocket. 

I ended up finishing in 1:09:12 (6:55 average pace) and was third overall female (which came with a $100 check!) I was pretty shocked – and thrilled – that I broke 1:10 by that much. I saw that I was averaging a sub-7 pace in the first three miles, and thought I was maybe going too fast, but I felt good so I just went with it. I really liked running around Salisbury, a town I had never been to before. We ran through some very pretty neighborhoods along the river! My only real complaint, which obviously no one can control, was the aggressive wind. OMG. During the part of the race where we ran through downtown Salisbury, the headwind was insane. (Why is it never a tailwind?) There weren’t a ton of people out on the course spectating, but the ones that were there were enthusiastic and encouraging. Around mile 7, I caught up to the woman who ended up finishing second, Maria. Pretty much everyone we passed yelled out “Go Maria!” I told her she obviously has lots of fans in the area and she said she lives in Salisbury and runs a lot of local races. She and I were neck and neck with each other until about mile 9, when she passed me for good and I was never able to catch her (though I was close behind.) As we were nearing the finish, I saw the vehicle that was leading the front runners was right in front of us and so I knew we were among the top female finishers. But I had no idea what place I was in – and when I crossed the finish line, stopped my Garmin, and saw my time, I didn’t really care! 1:09:12! It wasn’t that long ago when I had a hard time running a sub-7 minute place in a 5K, so that was extremely exciting.

I initially was told that I finished in fourth place, and was first Masters female, but then learned that the woman who they thought was second place accidentally took a wrong turn and was disqualified. That really sucks! So Maria came in second and I came in third. Again, that was great, and so was the $100 in prize money, but I was happiest about my finish time.  

Overall, I loved this flat, fast race and would like to do it again some day – and the Eastern Shore is such a pretty part of my wonderful state. Very glad I did it. 

Cruising to the finish!

Barlowe Bolt 5K

I love to hate 5Ks! 

Seriously, when you really push yourself, there is nothing more painful than a 5K! I signed up to run the Barlowe Bolt with my 5 Peaks kickboxing friends the week after the Tim Kennard 10 Miler. I’ve run this race three times before, in 2018, 2019, and 2020. I won the race in 2020 and set my 5K PR of 20:29 then. I did not run in 2021 because the race happened the same day as the Tidewater Striders BQ Marathon. This year, I thought maybe I could win again and even beat my PR. Maybe I could even break 20 minutes? It didn’t seem out of the question with my recent 10 mile time!

Well, I did win the race – first female and first finisher, period! – but I did not break 20 minutes or even PR. My time was 20:39, so 10 seconds off my 20:29 PR. I wasn’t disappointed by it – as I said, 5Ks are not my thing.

The whole thing was kind of a blur, as 5Ks are. It was about 48 degrees on race morning and I was wearing a singlet, shorts, and arm warmers, which everyone thought was hilarious. “Where are your clothes?” multiple people asked me. I get really warm when I run and what I was wearing ended up being ideal! I lined up at the front and took off with two men, a younger kid and an older man who ended up coming in first place male. They were a few feet ahead of me for the first mile, and when I saw my friend Cindy on one of the turnarounds, she yelled out to me, “They’re the only two in front of you! You can catch them!” I ended up passing the younger guy about halfway through the race and the other guy some time in mile two. It hurt. I think that’s my problem with 5Ks– I have a hard time really making myself HURT for 3.1 miles. I prefer the slow burn of a longer distance race. The Barlowe Bolt is also pretty hilly. I don’t know if I’ll ever break 20 minutes, or even if I really care that much about it, but I probably need a flatter course to do so. 

All in all, it was a fun morning with friends. And I won $40 in gift cards to Giant! Groceries are awfully expensive these days, so I was pretty happy with that. 

Cherry Blossom 10 Mile Run

Once again, my plan recommended a race this weekend – either a 10K or a 15K, and the Cherry Blossom Ten Mile Run was once again being held in the spring with things inching back to normal as COVID starts to fade into the background a little bit. I am honestly surprised at how well this race went. I thought I’d set a really strong PR at Tim Kennard and wasn’t expecting to beat that so soon. I figured I’d finish in the 1:10-1:12 range and be totally happy with that. Just like last fall, I also had a 16-mile run to do that weekend, so I did that the day before the race.  

I ended up PRing again, this time running a 1:08:03, a 6:49/mile pace – WOW! (My Garmin actually clocked just over 10 miles, 10.07 miles to be exact, which was a 6:46 pace. It doesn’t really matter either way.) Given how competitive this race is – a lot of pros and elite athletes come out for it – I did not get any kind of award, but I didn’t expect to. I came in 13th in my age group. Interestingly, last fall my 1:11 also got me 13th, but I know that the rescheduled race was much less popular with runners (I mean, the whole point is the cherry blossoms, which are not there in the fall!) 

I admit that I cursed myself a little bit for signing up for this on race morning. As logistically easy as Tim Kennard was, Cherry Blossom – and really, any race or event in DC – was pretty much the opposite. Back in the fall, the Metro opened early and I was able to take the orange line right to the start at the National Mall. But this time, the Metro didn’t open early enough. So I had to drive. With no traffic early in the morning, it only took me about a half hour, and I had booked a parking spot ahead of time through a parking app. But of course Google Maps got confused, because DC is confusing, and took me to the wrong garage. Luckily, I figured it out. The garage was about a mile from the start, so I was glad I allowed myself plenty of time to get there. Then I decided to check a bag with a jacket to wear after the race. I never do this and I may not make a habit of it. UPS was handling the baggage check and the trucks were late – they didn’t start accepting the bags until around 7, and I still had to pee and make it to my corral in time for the 7:30 start! It was so stressful, because I hate rushing around, but I did make it with time to spare. I decided to line up with the 7 minute/mile group and see how I felt. 

I ended up staying with the pacer for the first two miles, then pulled ahead. As in Tim Kennard, I was feeling good and just decided to see how long I could roll with the pace. And it paid off. This race is also fast and flat, and I do think 10 milers are where I shine. It’s kind of funny to think I can run a 10 miler at a 6:49/pace, yet my current 5K pace isn’t much faster than that. When my Garmin beeped at every mile marker, I would look down and see a pace in the high 6:30s or 6:40s and think, “Really? OK!” I felt like I was working hard, but that the pace was sustainable. The weather was absolutely perfect – high 40s, no wind, not too sunny, no precip – and there were tons of spectators cheering us on. And yes, it sure was nice to see cherry blossoms this time! 

 I didn’t start to really feel the pain until probably mile 8. At that point, I heard some other runners talking about Boston and I told them I was running, too. The one guy said how nice it would be to see the marathon happening in April again. Due to COVID, the Boston Marathon hasn’t happened on Patriots Day for three years, since the last and only other time I ran the race! We hit mile 9 and he said, “OK, one mile to go until the taper!” I told him I was ready! 

I actually had no idea I was PRing until I stopped my Garmin after crossing the finish, as I didn’t have it set to elapsed time. When I saw 1:08, I was pretty shocked. More than a minute faster than Tim Kennard! 

Photo credit: Charlie Ban of RunWashington

I even ordered one of the official race photos, which I never do because they are always so expensive, with my time overlaid on it. I can’t wait to get it! 

Is This My Peak? 

I’m really excited about my recent string of PRs, both last fall and this spring, and it definitely has me wondering how much longer I’ll be able to run like this. I turn 42 in July, and it’s inevitable that I’ll slow down eventually. I also know that running “success” ebbs and flows. I was on fire in the fall of 2017, PRing in several distances and running my first BQ. In 2018, I was running slower than I had in years – probably due to a combination of training mistakes and life stressors. Then over the next few years, I started to get faster again, and then in the fall of 2021 I had some major breakthroughs. I don’t know what’s around the corner for me, running-wise, but I’m determined to keep having fun with it. Bring on Boston 2022! 

Also – this is my 100th blog post!

I’m running Boston 2022!

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Long time, no blog! 

It’s hard to believe Coastal Delaware was more than two months ago, and I’m about to embark upon another marathon training cycle – this time, for Boston 2022! I’ve still been running, of course, just haven’t been following a specific plan and have been running at whatever pace and distance I feel like. That’s about to change tomorrow, when I start my 12-week plan from Advanced Marathoning, the one that got me a huge PR and 2023 BQ at Coastal Delaware. 

I’m not trying for a PR in Boston – my 3:26 is really solid and Boston is pretty darn far from a PR course. I do have a lofty goal of running a BQ time there, even though I already have one for 2023, just because I think that would be really cool! And it doesn’t seem completely out of the question. But I mainly just want to beat my 3:47 from Boston 2019 and above all else, HAVE FUN and soak in the whole experience! 

I didn’t think I’d be as excited to run Boston a second time, but I totally am. Qualifying for Boston is hard – we all know that. But my 2022 BQ was particularly hard to achieve. Why? One word: 2020! I don’t have to tell anyone reading this what kind of year that was! And I don’t think I even had it anywhere near as bad as a lot of people – I worked remotely and my husband’s job in the maritime industry was essential, so we didn’t have any financial issues. And we have no children for whom we had to manage virtual schooling and that whole mess. But still, 2020 was shitty for everyone. At the time, I was working in the PR department of a local hospital, managing social media, and once COVID hit, had to start monitoring our accounts around the clock for messages, comments, questions, etc. It was a lot, and I quickly learned that I really don’t care too much for crisis communications (which surprised me– when I was a reporter, I thrived on breaking news!) I left that job a year ago for a new communications job in an entirely different industry, and as the pandemic continues on, I am thankful every day I’m no longer doing healthcare comms. Shout out to those who continue to plug along every day in these challenging times. 

That being said, running was my sanity in 2020 and the fact that I was actually able to BQ at the Chasing the Unicorn Marathon on Halloween 2020 was really special. Especially after it was canceled and rescheduled at the last minute. The race itself had plenty of “only in 2020” vibes (the cold standing water flowing up over the race course! The fallen tree!), and I missed my 3:30 goal by six minutes, but I got that BQ. 

Boston qualifier at the Chasing the Unicorn Marathon
I qualified for the Boston Marathon at the Chasing the Unicorn Marathon in Washington Crossing, PA

Then, there was the whole confusion over which Boston the BQ was even for – the cancellation of Boston 2020 and the postponement of Boston 2021 from April to October obviously screwed everything up. Turns out the BQ was good for both, but I got squeaked out of the 2021 race because the Boston Athletic Association decided to take qualifying times from all the way back through September 2018. For those unfamiliar with the process, in the last decade or so, Boston hasn’t had enough room to accept all qualifiers, and will instead take only qualifiers who run a certain time under their qualifying standard, otherwise known as the cutoff time. Except you never know what the cutoff time will be until you register for the race and get your acceptance or non-acceptance email. It’s all very stressful!

But I was allowed to resubmit my time for 2022, and this time, EVERYONE who qualified and applied for the race was accepted! No cut off time! I first saw the news on Instagram, and shed happy tears. This is the first time in years there has been no cut off. I suspect that’s largely in part to the COVID vaccine mandate that the BAA put in place. Plenty of people were angry about that, but the BAA can do whatever it wants and I think we’ll see more and more of these rules moving forward.

Less than 90 days to go until the race! Check out my Boston 2019 race report for a detailed recap of my experience that year. 

Knocking Out a Few 5Ks

I’ve said it a million times on this blog – 5Ks are not my thing! They just hurt so bad! Yes, I know marathons are painful, too, but it’s a different kind of pain – I think I just prefer the slow burn of a longer race rather than the all out push of a shorter race. I still run them fairly frequently, but yeah, not my favorite distance! 

I’ve run two since my marathon, both on holidays. The first one was the Greensburg Turkey Trot on Thanksgiving. I’ve run this annual 5K in my hometown every year since 2012, with the exception of 2020, when the pandemic canceled it. From 2016 through 2019, I was able to win second in my age group. (I never placed in prior years, most likely because I was out at the bar on Thanksgiving Eve and hungover for the Turkey Trot. Haha.) Finally, in 2021, I won my age group! (I’ve also aged up into a new age group since the last time I ran this race.) I ran a 20:54, which is a pretty big course PR. My previous fastest time was a 22:10. I’m always psyched to break 21 minutes in the 5K, and this course is tough – it is hilly western PA, after all!

Then on New Year’s Day, I won a 5K in Harrisburg, PA. My husband and I decided to go to Hershey for New Year’s, and of course I looked to see if there were any local races happening. I saw a 5K and a 10K happening on New Year’s Day at City Island, where I ran a St. Patrick’s Day 5K with Staci last year. I also set a PR at a half marathon there last May. I opted for the 5K over the 10K because I just PR’d the 10K in October and wanted to see what I could do in the 5K. I really had no expectations for the race, though. We were out late on New Year’s Eve, but didn’t drink too much and the race wasn’t happening until 11:20 in the morning, so I got plenty of sleep. But the weather was pretty yucky – very foggy with a cold drizzle – and I was a little afraid of slipping and falling.

I stuck with my usual 5K strategy – go out like a bat out of hell and see if I can hold on. Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn’t. That day, it worked. The course was similar to the one I’d run last March with Staci – you run over a bridge over the Susquehanna River and on a path beside the river. Before the race, one of the organizers told us to be careful of goose poop, and I remembered there being goose poop EVERYWHERE when I ran the half last May. But I very quickly entered the pain cave, and didn’t even think about goose poop. (Fortunately, none got on my beloved Alpha Flys!) My splits were positive, but not overly so – 6:30 for mile 1, 6:40 for mile 2, 6:50 for mile 3, and I’m not sure what I ran the last 0.1 in. My time was 20:33  – just seconds off my PR of 20:29! I was really happy about that. I was first female finisher, 11th overall. I am waiting for my award to arrive in the mail! 

But wait! When I checked my results, I saw that my gun time was 20:33, but my chip time was 20:30. So, literally ONE second off my PR. If only I had run two or three seconds faster! Per U.S. Track and Field rules, if you place among the top three overall spots in a race, your gun time is recorded as your official time instead of your chip time. Guess I should have lined up at the very front of the race with those speedy teenagers who clocked 17:xx finish times. LOL. 

Overall, it was a fun day and a great start to 2022. I have a few more 5Ks in mind over the next few months, despite my love-hate relationship with them! But training for Boston will still be my main focus. 

Marathon training and Nike Alpha Flys: How I’ve been able to run faster than I ever thought I could

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October was a really busy month for me in terms of racing. I ran four races and was able to maintain a sub-7 minute pace in all of them. 

I never thought that would be possible for me, and that’s not me being falsely modest or trying to sandbag. It’s the truth. 

So, where has all this newfound speed come from? I have a few theories. But first, let’s take a quick look at the races I ran. 

Oct. 3: I went home to Pittsburgh to visit my family and run the Mario Lemieux 6.6K Run with my sister and brother-in-law. Why 6.6K? Well, that’s the number of famed Penguins star, and team owner, Mario. It equals out to roughly 4.1 miles. Given that I’d maintained a 7:08 pace in the Cherry Blossom 10 Miler a few weeks before, I thought maybe I could hold onto a sub-7 pace here, but I had no idea. The race was in downtown Pittsburgh, obviously a hilly place, and it was pretty humid that morning. Plus I’d had a few too many delicious stouts the night before. Because of course. I decided that my strategy would be to go out like a bat out of hell and see how long I could hold on. And it worked! I finished in 28:38, a 6:49 average pace (per my watch, which clocked 4.2 miles. The race results had me running a 6:59 pace. Either way, sub-7!) I won my age group and was 6th overall female. My prize was a hockey puck! 

Oct. 9: I was really excited for the Baltimore Running Festival, which is one of my favorite fall running events. It offers something for every runner — a marathon, a half marathon, a 5K, a “moron-a-thon,” which is the 5K and the half marathon together, and now a 10K. I have participated in some way, shape, or form in the BRF since 2016 — I even ran the half marathon virtually in 2020. This year, they added the 10K distance, so I signed up for that because I had done all of the other races before. I was hoping to beat my PR of 44:50, which I set in the 2017 Across the Bay 10K. I felt confident, but the course didn’t make it easy. I think the first 2.5 miles were totally uphill, haha. There were a few times I looked at my watch and saw a pace in the 7:25 range and thought, that’s it, it’s not my day. But then there was some significant downhill on the back half and I was able to fly. 

At one point around mile 4.5, someone told me I was the second female and I thought that couldn’t be right. I was definitely in the pain cave at that point and just kept pushing, telling myself it would be over soon and if I kept going hard, a PR wasn’t out of the question. When I turned onto Pratt Street and saw the finish line clock said 43, I was thrilled. I crossed the timing mat and a volunteer gave me a little card that said 2nd place female. So cool! I ran a 43:36 — my watch said I ran 6.3 miles (probably because I did some weaving around people earlier in the race and didn’t run the tangents) for an average pace of 6:55.

But wait! At the awards ceremony, I was announced as the third place female. I was a little confused, but super pumped about the PR and the big trophy I won. It got a TON of attention as I carried it around afterwards, LOL. Well, as I found out a few days later, I actually did get second place. The woman they thought got second was actually a dude — I’m assuming he probably ran with his wife or girlfriend’s bib or whatever. So he obviously got disqualified. 

I still count that race as a huge success! 

Oct. 16: Ben’s Run 5 Miler in Silver Spring. My marathon training plan called for me to race an 8K this weekend, which is basically five miles. I didn’t think I’d be able to find a five mile race, but I did! Ben’s Run raises money for cancer research at Children’s National Hospital and is named after a little boy who passed away of cancer in 2009. This was the last year for the race and I’m glad I got to run it. I once again decided to go out hard and see how long I could hold on. The neighborhood where the race was had a lot of rolling hills, but luckily, so does my neighborhood, so that wasn’t anything I wasn’t used to. I moved into first place pretty early on and was able to maintain that, finishing in 34:41, a 6:56 average pace. I won a $50 gift card to Dick’s for being the first overall female. I had only run a few five milers before, but my previous fastest time was from 2016 when I ran the Great Chocolate Race 5 Miler in Arlington, Virginia in 36:58. So that was a big PR, too. 

Oct. 31: This is the race I’m still pinching myself over. On Halloween, I ran the Bay Bridge Run (formerly Across the Bay 10K) and I honestly had no idea what to expect for the race. Seeing as I had just run a really strong 10K a few weeks earlier, I didn’t have any expectation of PRing again, even though I knew this was an easier course. (There’s a long uphill in the beginning, but it’s not that steep and you get a sweet downhill stretch afterwards.) 

I literally flew once I got onto the flat and downhill portions of the race. I ran mile 3 in 6:03 and mile 4 in 5:54 — my fastest mile EVER. I looked at my watch and questioned whether that could be accurate. Apparently it was. After runners get off the bridge, you have another mile and a half or so to go and there are two more small inclines, but nothing crazy. The race ends in a business park in Stevensville on the Eastern Shore and when I turned the corner to go toward the finish line, I saw the clock said 39. 39!!! I’d just PR’d again in the 10K by FOUR FREAKING MINUTES. WHAT. Final time was 39:33, which is a 6:22 pace (!!!) and I was fourth overall female out of 6,423 women (!!!!) and first place Masters female out of 4,059 (!!!!!) 

To say I’m ecstatic is putting it mildly. That’s more than five minutes faster than my old 2017 PR on the same course. Truly cannot believe it. 

How did that happen? Again, I have a few thoughts on why. 

I have been running more mileage. Yes, I’m training for a marathon. But I’ve been following a plan that’s new to me, a 12-week plan from the book Advanced Marathoning that maxed out at 55 miles per week. The big difference for me is that this plan has me running multiple double digit runs per week in addition to the weekend long run. So for example, during my peak week last month, I ran two 12-milers (one of which had seven miles at half marathon pace), plus a 20-miler on the weekend. These runs were hard — I was mostly running them after work, and that’s tough to do after a long day! But I think these extra “medium-long” runs made a difference in both my endurance and my speed. 

I have been keeping my easy runs easy. Like a lot of runners, I struggle with this. It’s very easy to fall into the trap of running your easy/recovery runs too fast. When I was training for my last two marathons, I did a lot of “easy” runs at an 8:20-8:30 pace, which didn’t *seem* too hard for me … but probably was. I mean, I ran the Tidewater Striders BQ Marathon at an average 8:17 pace…. So yeah. I’ve been really working hard to keep my easy runs in the high 8s/low 9s, and I’ve been mostly successful at it!   

Nike Alpha Flys! OK, so these are a game changer. I LOVE these shoes and they are currently one of my most treasured possessions. These carbon-plated super shoes are a dream to run in and I’m really glad I invested in them. And at nearly $300 a pair, they were quite an investment. (I had a gift card that covered part of the cost, at least.) But so worth it. You can read more about what makes these shoes so special and fancy here. I cannot wait to wear them in the Coastal Delaware Marathon in a week and a half! 

TEN DAYS TO GO! I am so ready and excited to crush it.    

Checking two races off my running bucket list: The St. Michael’s Half Marathon and the Cherry Blossom Ten Mile Run

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In the past month, I’ve checked two races I’ve always wanted to do off my running bucket list — the St. Michael’s Half Marathon in St. Michael’s, Maryland and the Cherry Blossom Ten Mile Run in Washington, D.C. Both are traditionally spring races, were canceled in 2020, and rescheduled for late summer 2021. And I was able to run both of them! 

St. Michael’s was fun — absolutely nowhere close to a PR, but I was not expecting to PR on a hot, humid August day when I hadn’t done any speedwork or structured training all summer. Cherry Blossom was fun AND I had a pretty significant PR, smashing my old PR from 2017 by more than two minutes! I’m so happy about that! 

Here are my recaps of the two races. 

St. Michael’s Half

The St. Michael’s Half Marathon is part of the St. Michael’s Running Festival, which also includes a 5K and a 10K. It is always held in May, and I was supposed to run it in May 2020. But of course, like all spring 2020 races, it was canceled due to COVID. I ended up donating my race entry and registering for the 2021 race, scheduled for Aug. 21. I knew the weather would likely be miserable. But I didn’t really care, especially once I found out that my favorite August race, the Annapolis Ten Mile Run, was canceled for the second year in a row. My sister Catherine and her husband Justin, who live in Pittsburgh, signed up for the 5K and came down to visit. Neither had ever been to St. Michael’s before and I was excited to have a fun day with them. 

We woke up STUPID early on race day to make sure we were there in time for the 7 am start. I had tried to find an Airbnb in St. Michael’s, but there was nothing, so we stayed at my house in Anne Arundel County about an hour away and woke up at 3:45 am. UGH. But the thought of being late stresses me out, so there was no way I wanted to be rushing around. We got there by 6 or a little thereafter, with plenty of time to use the bathroom and line up for the race. My plan was to start with the 1:40 pace group, and hopefully finish sub-1:40, but again, it was hot and humid and I had no real expectations for the race. 

Which was good, because…. The 1:40 pacer went out of the gate like a bat out of hell. 

I really don’t want to come off like I’m throwing shade at the pacer, because he was lots of fun and very entertaining when I was able to keep up with him! But I knew within the first half mile that we were going way too fast, particularly considering the weather. We ran the first mile in 7:19. 7:19!!! A 1:40 half marathon is roughly a 7:39 per minute pace, so 20 seconds faster than we needed to be going, in the first mile of a half. Yikes. Once we hit the first mile marker, he said “Is anyone tired yet?” Well, I wasn’t tired yet, exactly, but I definitely felt like I was working harder than I should be at that point in a half. 

The St. Michael’s Half bills itself as the flattest and fastest half in the mid-Atlantic, and the course is definitely flat as a pancake. But there’s also not much shade, so the sun was beating down on us pretty heavily. I was able to hang on with the pacer, who was hitting some of the mile markers probably at least 20 seconds before he needed to be (we ran mile 3 in 7:15), until around mile 7. Then I knew it was a lost cause. And apparently I wasn’t the only one who felt that way. My husband told me later that the pacer came through the finish line all by himself — I bet just about everyone fell back! Maybe there were a few that finished ahead of him? I don’t know. 

Anyway, after I knew I wasn’t going to be under 1:40, I just focused on enjoying myself and taking in the scenery. I was pushing as hard as I could, but my splits were definitely a hot mess. Mile 8 was 7:52, 9 was 8:08, 10 was 7:51, 11 was 8:05, 12 was 8:13, 13 was 8:15. Ah well. They can’t all be perfectly executed races. I was for sure ready to be done by mile 12 and was excited to see my husband, sister, and brother-in-law waiting at the final corner before I made the left turn toward the finish.

About to finish!

At the finish line, volunteers were handing towels drenched in cold water and it felt so good around my neck! My final time was 1:42:36, which got me second in my age group! 

My favorite running store, Charm City Run, sponsored the race and put on such a fun after party with great beer and music! I missed race after parties so much. We walked around St. Michael’s afterwards, had brunch, and then headed back to my house. We were quite exhausted after our early morning (middle of the night?!) wake up call and we all took long naps once we got back. 

I’d love to do this race again on its traditional spring date! 

Cherry Blossom Ten Mile Run 

I wasn’t even planning to run this race. 

As the name indicates, this race usually takes place in April, when the cherry blossoms in D.C. are in full bloom. The race is extremely popular and you have to enter a lottery to get into it, so when I learned it was rescheduled for Sept. 12, I decided to throw my name in. Except I belatedly realized that the race would conflict with an annual girls trip to Dewey Beach, where I always run the Bottle and Cork 10 Miler. Whatever, I thought. I won’t get in anyway. 

Except — shocker!– the demand to run the Cherry Blossom Ten Mile Run without cherry blossoms just wasn’t there, so everyone who entered the lottery got into the race. And there were still enough spots left for runners to register after the lottery had closed! 

Thinking I was still going to Dewey that weekend, I tried to pawn off my entry on someone else, but there were no takers. But in early August, my beach plans fell through, leaving me free to run the race! And I am very glad I did. 

This race required another 3:45 am wakeup call. OK, maybe if I were the type of runner who could just roll out of bed and go to a race, it would be different. But I like to wake up, eat breakfast, have my coffee, use the bathroom a bunch of times, and as I said above, not feel rushed …. Plus, I had to take the Metro into D.C., which always really stresses me out. The New Carrollton Metro station is about 25 or so minutes away from my house, so I got there around 5:30 and I think I was at the Washington Monument, where the start line was, by 6ish. This left me with a ton of time to kill before the 7:30 start time, but again, I wasn’t rushed and I was happy about that.    

This race also had pacers, and my plan was to line up with the 7:30 minute/mile pace group (1:15 finish time) and hopefully finish ahead of them. But when I got to the starting corrals, I saw that I was placed in the second corral, while the pace group I wanted to run with was in the first corral. Balls. I knew they were going to go off several minutes ahead of my group, so I figured I would either try to catch up with them or just run my own race. And my experience in St. Michael’s taught me pacers can be hit or miss anyway! 

I was wearing my new race shoes that I had splurged on, the much hyped Nike Alpha Flys. I really went back and forth over whether to spend close to $300 on running shoes. Is that really necessary for a hobby runner like myself? I ran my marathon PR in Brooks Ghosts. Hell, I ran the freaking Boston Marathon in Brooks Ghosts! But I had a gift certificate to Charm City Run from my birthday that covered part of the cost and just decided to go for it. And maybe they helped me in this race. 

I will tell you that I ran faster than I ever thought I could. Like, I’m looking back at my splits and shaking my head in disbelief: 

Mile 1: 6:55

Mile 2: 7:06

Mile 3: 6:52

Mile 4: 6:56

Mile 5: 6:58

Mile 6: 6:58

Mile 7: 7:13

Mile 8: 7:16

Mile 9: 7:09

Mile 10: 7:13

I mean, I definitely slowed at the end, but I was running directly into a headwind during those last few miles. But look at that string of sub-7 miles! I usually struggle to run a 5K at a sub-7 pace, and I ran five miles at sub-7?! Like huh? I had also run a 16-mile long run the day before, which was definitely not a smart race strategy. But I needed to get my long run done and I also wanted to run the race … and it worked out. 

My finish time was 1:11:17, a 7:08/mile pace, which got me 13th in my age group out of 476 women. It was a very competitive race! 

Excited about that PR!

Was it the super shoes? The flat course? The cool morning? (It’s still pretty hot and muggy here most days, but we actually had nice weather for this race.) Was it my marathon training? At the time of the race, I was three weeks into my training plan for Coastal Delaware, so it’s hard for me to imagine that I would have gotten into 10-mile PR shape that fast. But who knows. All I know is that I was SUPER pumped.  

As for the race itself — I really liked the course, which winds through the Tidal Basin in D.C. As I just mentioned, it was very flat, though I could have done without the wind whipping off the Potomac in the later miles. I liked how in the last mile, there were markers indicating that you had 1600 meters, then 1200 meters, then 800 meters, then 400 meters to go. Would it have been a lot prettier with the cherry blossoms in bloom? For sure. So I’d love to come back in the spring. And as long as the standards don’t change, it looks like my time will qualify me for a seeded bib and allow me to bypass the lottery next time, which is pretty darn cool! 

What’s next? I’m about to finish up week four of a 12-week marathon training plan from Pete Pfitzinger’s book Advanced Running. It’s pretty challenging and has me running several double-digit runs during the week in addition to the long run on the weekend. I’ve never done that before. This past week, I ran 5 easy miles Monday, 11 easy miles Tuesday, rested Wednesday, 10 miles with five at half marathon pace Thursday, rested Friday, 17 miles today and 5 easy tomorrow. (I also went to kickboxing class on Tuesday and Thursday, because I am a firm believer in the importance of cross training! On those days, I ran early before work and went to class after work. Keeping hard days hard!) So far, so good! 

My next goal is to PR the 10K at the Baltimore Running Festival on Oct. 9. I technically PR’d the distance in the Cherry Blossom Ten Mile Run, so I think I could do it at an actual 10K. My current 10K PR is from 2017 and I would love to take that down! 

And then of course I am also hoping to PR the marathon this fall. My marathon PR is ALSO from 2017. See a pattern? 2017 was a really good year for my running … but I think 2021 can be even better!

Am I beating the heat, or is it beating me?

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It’s been forever since I’ve posted an update here! It’s hard to believe the summer is more than half over — and honestly, I can’t WAIT for fall. I was always a summer girl growing up in western PA, because our winters were so terrible. And then I moved to Maryland and learned that hey, summers can be terrible, too! The older I get, the more I despise the heat and the humidity. Particularly when I’m running in it! 

On that note, remember when I insisted I wasn’t going to train for a fall 2021 marathon? That I didn’t have a ton of fun last summer when I was training for Chasing the Unicorn and I just wanted to enjoy a “post-pandemic” (in quotes because COVID cases are on the rise again, thanks to the Delta variant) summer? Yeah, I lied. I’m registered for the Coastal Delaware Marathon on Nov. 14, a deferral from April 2020. I had every intention of dropping down to the half marathon, but the race won’t let me unless I pay for the half marathon in full, rather than transferring into that distance. It’s a little frustrating, since there are spots in the half — but I know that the race organization also lost a lot of money in 2020, as they all did, so I can’t blame them for doing what they can to stay afloat.

I tried to see if anyone wanted my bib, but couldn’t get anyone to commit. So I said the hell with it. I have been running, and complaining miserably about the weather the whole time, but haven’t officially started training yet. I will probably start with the St. Michael’s Half Marathon on Aug. 21 and either follow Hal Higdon’s three-month Boston Bound plan (which I used to train for Boston, but I don’t see why it can’t be used for other marathons) or Pete Pfitzinger’s 12-week plan. I’m a devotee of Hal’s Advanced Marathon plan — it’s gotten me three BQs — but I don’t have it in me, mentally, to follow a four-month marathon training plan right now. I still want that 3:30 and don’t think it’s out of the question if I train smart and can link up with a pacer to keep me from going out too hard (I think Coastal Del has pacers, which was definitely a point in its favor!) 

In addition to the St. Michael’s half, I’ll be running the Balboa Park 8 Miler in San Diego when I travel there for vacation next week! The hills in Balboa Park will probably make up for the lack of humidity, but I am excited nonetheless. I also ran Good Day For a Run’s Red, White, and Blue Mountain 5K a few weeks ago in northeast PA with Staci. I ran this race with her two years ago and it really sucked. The course, the weather, really, everything but the wine afterwards! In fact, we said we would never do it again. And yet, we did. I did much better this year, though! I was more than a minute faster than I was two years ago, and came in third place.  

Wannabe Triathlete?

Last month, I also did my second triathlon — the Columbia Association Super Sprint Triathlon! I really loved this race when I did it in 2019 and I had another great experience this year, despite my general dislike of the water. The super sprint is basically the shortest triathlon distance you can do — this one was four laps in a pool, a 5-mile bike ride, and a 1.75-mile run. I finished in about 46 minutes, which was around a minute faster than my 2019 time.

Feeling strong!

I was also 5th overall female, but that’s mainly because of my run time! It took me nearly eight minutes to complete the swim. And I had been going to the pool regularly to swim laps, but….. When it comes to swimming, I have one fatal flaw and that is the fact that I reallllllly don’t like to put my face in the water. Like, I really, really, really do not. This is a problem when you’re trying (tri-ing?) to swim, to say the least. Swimming freestyle with your head up out of the water is just about the most inefficient thing possible. So, no wonder it took me almost eight minutes. 

But I am determined to improve. I don’t have any more triathlons on my schedule, but my goal is to do a sprint eventually (and maybe a longer distance– who knows? I once said I’d never run a marathon….) I’ve been going to the pool, though not consistently, and I have even attempted two open water swims. I tagged along with my friends Tammy and Theresa to an open water swimming session in the South River a few weeks ago. I admittedly panicked when I got in the water and ended up just swimming in the shallows, going back and forth between two piers. The instructor suggested I come back on a Sunday morning, when there are more newbie swimmers and I could get a little bit more guidance. So I returned last Sunday morning and was less fearful. 

They had two buoys set up– one 50 meters out into the river and one 300 meters out. I wasn’t quite brave enough to swim out to the 50 meter buoy, and the 300 buoy was definitely a hell no, but! I put my face in the water more! That alone was a victory for me. I really have a hard time with my breathing, and I certainly didn’t retain a damn thing I learned in swim lessons as a young girl, so I’m contemplating signing up for adult swim lessons. Interest in doing a longer tri aside, swimming is an essential life skill and I do think I need to get more comfortable doing it. 

I just turned 41 a few days ago, so I can add that to my list of goals this year!