fyi - POST-RACE UPDATE AT END

Pre-Race:

A lot has happened since my last full marathon.

I won’t bore you with the gory details. Here’s the only thing you need to know: I am going to run my fastest feasible pace for all 26.2 miles this Sunday at Ventura Marathon.

Goals

Have fun
Don’t get injured
Sub-4
Sub 3:50
Sub 3:45

Pretty sure I can run sub-4 since this is a downhill course, but I have lost some fitness compared to this time last year, when I ran a 3:58 at LAM. So, though I am hopeful, I’m also realistic. Anything faster than 3:58 is a personal record.

It’s within reach…

3:25am race day update: I’m so tired. 🤣

Nothing quite like taking a selfie at 3:30am.

Ventura Marathon bib pick-up was a vibe.

POST-RACE UPDATE

WELL, sometimes you win and sometimes you lose. I took a pretty big L on race day. I went out too fast, paid for it starting mile 17. Never really got back to where I wanted to be.

MISSED ALL OF MY TIME GOALS, AND ALSO DID NOT HAVE FUN. 😭

Thank you so much to everyone who texted me during the race. Extra thanks to those who spoke with me during the last 10 miles. Yes, I made several emergency phone calls. Yes, I cried. Yes, I was having the worst race of my life. Yes, I felt awful.

The first 13 miles of the course are through beautiful Ojai with some fun rolling hills, thank you Keighty for pacing the first rollers!!, then you start the descent to Ventura. I was able to hold a good pace for the first half. I love baby hills - I run them all the time where we live. I love cruising up a hill to coast the downhill... It was the flats/super gradual downhills that felt like flats that were not my favorite. And the fact that this course felt ‘dead’ after mile 17 really fucked with my head.

At mile 17, you go from running the road to running a regular bike path. From pretty okay race energy to “you’re on your own kid” energy. Especially since I’m a slower runner for this marathon. Of the 1500 or so runners out there, about 20% BQ’d and many were going for the BQ - so I was coming in 15 minutes slower than the bulk of the pack. There were times where nobody was in front nor behind me on this bike path. And it was a freaking race — it felt so lonely and desperate. I can’t honestly describe it. :melts

I started to feel my goals slip away when I couldn’t keep my pace after mile 17.

I started to enter bonk city, hit the wall at around 18, and the wheels came completely off the wagon.

I went from an expected PR by at least 10 minutes at mile 17, with a fully DOWNHILL course ahead, to missing my PR, to coming in much, much slower than I thought I would come in (meaning the overall last 6 miles were SLOOOOWWWWWWW) - even slower than my SF Marathon splits, which were hilly AF the last 9 miles.

When I tell you I was run/walking, and the walking was for long ass stretches - it was bad.

I’m so glad I wore my freaking Apple watch.

I got the texts and gifs as I was hating every minute of this race.

I love you so much, friends.

Tom, Mom, Dad, Doug, Uncle Jim, Aunt Cathy, Kristin, Kristen, Heike, Melissa, Chris, Ari, Allie, Ezra, Amanda, Caleb, David, Paul, Michael, Nadina, Jin-Lin, Sohail, and all of my run club and work friends who have had to deal with me sharing how this was an important race for me, and I was coming back from an injury, and whatever else I said in the weeks leading up to this effort: thanks for the pre-race encouragement texts and hype.

Chris, thanks for starting me off with a great gif.

Joe, thanks for blowing me up several times and picking up the phone when I called you crying. HAHAHA I’m sorry.

KJ, thanks for telling me I was all in my head and I could do it.

Ben, thanks for talking shit.

Joanna (and Brenton), thanks for telling me to keep going.

Steph, thanks for telling me you wouldn’t pick me up. HAHAHAHAH. Also, thanks for the hug at mile 17. I was so, so, so not-feeling-great.

ME: “I’m never running again. I want to quit. Can you just drive me to the finish.”

STEPH: “No, you love this shit. Hang up. I’ll see you soon.”

Allie, thank you for the cheering at the finish. Yelling back, “this fucking sucks” and having other spectators chime in was hilarious. That hug after made me feel so loved. Love you!

I am tempted to sign up for this race again next year just because I know what to expect, and feel like I’d handle it better the second time around.

A silver lining?

The good news about feeling like shit crossing the finish line 10 minutes slower than my PR: I came in with a desire for vengeance.

After I finish LA (which I’m kind of pacing a 4:22-ish group for our run club), I’m going to immediately start ramping my mileage a ton in hopes of chasing better efficiency, more confidence in my legs, and a better race season next spring. For the first time ever, I created a stupid spreadsheet to track my goals. This might be a surprise to those who work for me (spreadsheet and application creating queen) but I have been diligent about not over-analyzing my running for the last several years. It’s supposed to be fun and all of that… However, this race pissed me off. It’s time to get serious.

My amazing coach, Beth Shaw, texted me after and told me not to let this race get to me. :::sweats:::

My next marathon is LA.

I’ll write more about that later, though…

Ventura Marathon