I am finally a three-hour marathoner. Not a sub-three-hour marathoner, but a three-almost-on-the-nose marathoner. I imagine I now know how Eliud Kipchoge felt when he didn’t quite break the two-hour barrier last May coming in at 2:00:25. My official time was 3:00:29, 6.5 minutes faster than my best race in January. Sooooo close! While I […]
Race Report
When a Race is Really a Race
If you’ve been following my running lately, you may have noticed something. I’ve been running races, but I haven’t been racing. I’ve been half-assing them. With my ego bruised from my DNF last fall, my only goal for my last marathon was to finish well and not fall apart. I couldn’t afford to race with […]
- Marathon
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Charleston Marathon 2017 Race Report. New PR!
I feel so good about this one. My goal for Charleston was to have a happy race. I wanted to do well for myself but I did not want to get anywhere near the edge of everything I’ve got. I needed a confidence builder and Charleston delivered. The temperature at the start was a comfortable […]
- Marathon
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The Painful Lessons of the Dreaded DNF
If I had known it was going to hurt this much, I might have kept going. It was as if my stomach had trapped a rabid animal desperately trying to claw its way out. The pain worsened with every step. No amount of positive thinking or deep breathing would soothe the writhing beast captive inside […]
Race Report: Pop Up Mile
The mile. As runners we think about our pace per mile before, during, and after every run. It is part of our vocabulary when talking about running. Even non-runners have a sense of how fast a fast mile is. We all grew up dreading the mile race in gym class (in theory, maybe some people […]
- 5K
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Downhill at Dusk 5K Race Report
Well, that was fun! Normally, I don’t describe racing or even running in general as “fun.” Most of the time, running is just good ol’-fashioned hard work. I get a sense of accomplishment, it gives me a good body-cleansing sweat, and it feeds my need for self-improvement. I love running, but I’m not the type […]
- 5K
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Earth Fare 5K Race Report: New PR!
I signed up for the Earth Fare 5K since it’s one of the few flat courses in town. I’m still coming off marathon training and haven’t done much speed work at all so this gives me a baseline for the 5K for this year. And judging from the top times last year, I figured I […]
Boston Marathon 2016 Race Report
When I ran the Boston Marathon for the first time in 2015, I figured it was a once-in-a-lifetime experience. I cried as I sprinted down Boylston Street and crossed the finish line with a 12-minute PR. Even though the weather was a miserable, rainy and windy 42 degrees, I felt on top of the world. […]