solar squirrel

Well kids, if you hadn’t heard this past Sunday I qualified for Boston for the first time!

Thanks to Elizabeth for catching this action photo!

I woke up early and had already had planned what I would have for breakfast - a turkey burger on a whole wheat bun with ketchup.  I know it sounds weird, but when I was training for the winter 50k earlier this year I had a turkey burger for breakfast and I had great energy and no stomach issues.  Todd and I both had our turkey burger breakfasts and were prepared for a good run!  One thing I’m going to have to change for the next marathon I do is that I will need to figure out what I can eat during the race.  The only nutrition I took in during the marathon was a swig of my stashed Heed at mile 15 and 2 salt tablets- one after about the first hour and a half and the second at about 2.5 hours.  I think this could have been the reason why I started to fade at mile 22…

My plan was to run just fast enough to qualify for Boston.  I didn’t want to risk running too fast and then bonking.  That meant that I needed to run a 3:40 at the slowest, 8:24 pace.  That was the plan for all 3 of us.

Janet, Bridget and I started off together, but Bridget was recovering from bronchitis so she didn’t do as well as she could have so after the first few miles it was Janet and I.  Wow were we consistent and Elizabeth was right - the first miles felt SO easy - it was incredible, my legs felt so fresh and I didn’t even feel like I was running, or walking even.  Even though I felt good I knew better than to try to pick it up - I forced myself to go at the planned pace, which Janet and I decided should be somewhere between 8:10 - 8:24.  The first half marathon was a piece of cake and as we made the turn around point at about mile 20 I still felt decent.  At least good enough that I knew that I would be able to keep running at my planned pace of no slower than 8:24.  The weirdest thing happened around mile 22, though.  I walked through the aid station to drink some water and then my dumb legs didn’t want to start running again!  I was tired and knew I had to start running soon because Janet was getting further and further away and I didn’t want to run alone especially when I was so spent.  I forced myself to pick it back up and got back to my pace, but wasn’t able to catch Janet or the posse of people that was running with Mel.  The one guy (I can’t remember his name) was so awesome, though, he slowed down and waited for me to catch up to him and was so encouraging!

When I got to mile 26 I looked at my watch and saw 3:37 and knew I only had 3 min to run .2 of a mile so I was cutting it close, but I made it!  My final time was 3:38 and I even managed to get 3rd place in my age group.  (Mel beat me by 2 seconds at the very end!!  Way to go, girl - I didn’t even realize I had caught back up!)  I got this cool little picture of the towpath as a prize.  I love stuff like that.

I am so happy that I had Janet to run with.  She basically talked the whole time and it made the miles go by so easily and quickly.  I really loved the course and the volunteers.  The weather was perfect and afterwords we just hung out and chit-chatted.  My legs were sore and I was tired but definitely didn’t feel awful.

Here are the splits!

1    8:18
2    8:13
3    8:16
4    8:20
5    8:18
6    8:16
7    8:12
8    8:11
9    8:13
10  8:13
11  8:15
12  8:12
13  8:08
14  8:14
15  8:11
16  8:24
17  8:15
18  8:17
19  8:12
20  8:16
21  8:20
22  8:18
23  8:14
24  8:25
25  8:28
26  8:20
.2   3:23

Total time:  3:38
Pace:  8:18

Boston, here I come!