Capital City Marathon

The morning of the Capital City Marathon, I was up early to go through my pre-race routine of food, tea, etc.. Although the race webpage insisted there was plenty of parking, I had a hard time believing it, so I drove down early, figuring it was warm enough to hang out in the car and drink my tea while I waited for it to get closer to starting time. After sitting there for about 10 minutes, I realized that when I changed my mind about which shirt I'd wear, I forgot to transfer my race number. Crraaap. Luckily, I only live about 10 minutes from the start. I dashed home, grabbed my number, then headed back to the race, figuring that by the time I got back, the parking situation would surely be worse.... I really didn't need to worry - I got a spot the next block down from where I'd previously parked. Small-town marathon. Right.

Before the start, I met up with some of the Oly Trailrunners that I've gotten to meet in the past few weeks. A few group photos, general milling about, then we broke off to find what felt like appropriate positions in the group of starters.

Moving to a new city and starting a new job meant that I didn't hit all of my training goals, but over-all I was feeling pretty good. When I'd looked over the times from the past few years of the race, I realized that the top women's times for my age group were actually within the range of what I'd been aiming to run. I'd been doing my long (1-2 mile intervals) speed workouts at 7:20-7:30 pace. Coach Meghan suggested I start at 7:45, then if I were feeling good, pick it up around mile 18. I still had a hard time believing this could be competitive time, but decided to start near the front.

Nice, casual start to the race.

The race start was actually pretty mellow - none of the usual jockeying to be on the start line. When we reached a longer straight section along East Bay drive, after winding along Olympia's downtown waterfront, I realized that I could still see the car pacing the lead woman, and it wasn't that far ahead. Huh. What if I actually tried to race this thing? While I didn't want to deviate too much from Meghan's recommendation, I also had fun thinking about what it would mean to push the edge a bit.

At one of the turns, as we headed out to Boston Harbor, one of the volunteers told me that I was in 4th place. 4th? wow. cool. Of course, as far as I knew, there were several women just a bit behind me, so while it was a bit of a boost to hear that, I tried to balance keeping my pace in check while also pushing myself just a bit. Push myself within reason? I tried to run the uphills with purpose, keeping my cadence high and pace up, but trying to not let my heart rate increase too much. I then used the downhills to mix up my stride and recover a bit as I let gravity pull me down.

Passing by Priest Point Park

The aid stations (placed every 2 miles) were great, with super friendly volunteers. I was carrying a hand-held bottle with Skratch drink mix, so I actually didn't stop at all of them. However, I was taking a gel every 30 minutes/4 miles, so I got into a nice routine of taking a gel a quarter mile before every-other aid station, getting a cup of water to wash the gel down, and another cup of water to throw over my head. While it wasn't too hot, it was the hottest day I'd run in in quite awhile and I wanted to be proactive with staying cool.

Around mile 12-14, Herb, whom I met from Oly Trailrunners, caught up to me on his bike. It was so great to have him come by and give some encouraging words. Brian, whom I'd also met through trail running had been near Priest Point Park cheering us on, too.

Around mile 17, the 3rd place woman came into view. It was a bit earlier than I had planned on picking up the pace, but I decided that if I was going to pass her, I needed to do it with conviction. I put a bit more effort into my pace, then passed her without looking back. I was now in 3rd.

A turn to two more, and I was now joined by the remainder of the 1/2 marathon runners/walkers. It was a bit awkward to negotiate the larger crowds on the road, but it was also nice to be getting around more people cheering everyone on.

A long, relatively gradual hill started at mile 20 - and I could once again see the pace car for the lead woman. It actually wasn't that far away. It would take some effort to catch it, but we still had 6 miles to go. Could I?

The night before, despite my best efforts (maybe because?) to get a good night's sleep (I was planning on getting up at 5am), I lay awake tossing and turning well past 11pm (past midnight? - I don't know, I was afraid to look at the clock, which would only stress me out more). I got up and grabbed my copy of Run Gently Out There by John Morelock, hoping that reading a few pages would help me get to sleep. In one of the short essays I read, he recounted an article by George Sheehan in which Sheehan described the need to run a track workout so hard that collapsing on the infield grass at the end of each lap was the goal.

The finish! 

I thought about that line and picked up the effort some more. The gradual hill led to a 1 1/2 mile descent, then another hill - this one shorter, but steeper. Along the way, various spectators told me that I was in 3rd and to "reel them in". At this point I couldn't do much more than acknowledge their comments. Then near the top of the hill, around mile 24, I saw one of my coworkers - so nice to see him out there!

Another turn and it was all downhill to the finish. Herb came by again and encouraged me along, and I tried to put everything I had left into my legs. I really did feel nauseous. Just a few blocks from the finish, I heard them announce the 2nd place woman crossing the finish. Crap, not quite fast enough. But just a minute later, I crossed the finish line. The look of pain as I crossed the finish line is pretty accurate. I didn't quite collapse (and luckily didn't puke), but I did need to find something to lean on for quite awhile.

....and it felt great. It felt great to run that hard for that long. It felt great to push myself and test my limits. It felt great to have the support of new friends on the course ... and to celebrate in each others' successes over beers after we were all done.

Glass dish for 1st in my age group

My finishing time was 3:22:57 - 7:44 per mile pace. This was a marathon PR for me by about 7 minutes. I took home the award for first in my age group (40 - 44 years old). I was also the 3rd woman (out of 142), 2nd masters woman, and 21'st out of 300 total runners. I'll admit, there could have been some remaining benefits from living and training at elevation the past 5 years, but that just gives me incentive to test myself again in the future!

Thanks to Coach Meghan for the great prep for the race, Oly trailrunners for being so welcoming, and Squirrel's Nut Butter for keep my skin in one piece!