Capital City Marathon 2018

When I started planning my races for this year, I had no doubt about wanting to run Capital City Marathon again. Last year, I had a magical day at this Marathon. I loved the course, running through farmland for the first half, then neighborhoods full of supportive, cheering people. It was a lovely, smaller, hometown event. Just that would have been enough to run the race again.

But part of my desire to run it again was to see if I could get even close to the pace I ran last year. I had trained well for the race, and was able to get into a really good mental place, but a part of me wondered if part of my great performance was because I was still benefiting from having lived and trained in Colorado for the previous 5 years? I'd been in Olympia for a little over a month by the time of the marathon, so most of the effects of living at elevation should have worn off, but even just a little boost could have made a difference.

My training for the race went pretty well, though the increase in road miles seemed to be aggravating all of my chronic nagging injuries.  Luckily, with some last minute massage/PT, and a few weeks of taper, my body felt ready to go. The weather on race day was great. A little cooler than last year, and with overcast skies for most of the morning. I had enough confidence to position myself near the front at the starting line – though did move a bit back when I discovered that the 3:15 pace group was behind me.

There was a little shuffling in the first mile, and I found myself heading up East Bay in 6th place. I struggled a bit settling into a good pace – finding it easier to go either quite a bit slower or quite a bit faster than my goal pace. I chose to go a bit faster, but paid attention to not let my heart rate get up too high.

There’s an over-all climb for the first 10 miles, but it actually feels more like a series of rollers. Like last year, I got into a good rhythm of drinking from my hand-held water bottle that was filled with Skratch drink mix between aid stations and having a bit of water at each station. Every four miles/30ish minutes, I ate a gel just before the aid station, chasing it with a cup of water.

While there were fewer people out on the first loop of the course, there were still some folks out cheering us on. Including some folks sitting on their front porches, enjoying their morning coffee and newspapers while occasionally glancing up and waving.  I was really enjoying myself and after about 5 miles, had moved up to  4th place.

Just after mile 8, we had a steep descent on Zangle Road. Although I tried to just let my legs quickly turn-over with the pull of gravity, the pounding and bit of breaking were a bit too much, and I felt my quads suddenly seize up. Crap. I considered pulling off to the side to stretch them out, but was afraid of losing momentum and making things worse. I told myself to just relax and to focus on the scenery and rhythm of running – instead of just my legs and luckily they started to loosen up again.

I had been running with a first time marathoner for about a mile when we caught up to 3^rd place woman near Woodard Bay. She had passed me in the first mile of the race, and she was still running with the man she’d been running with then. Apparently, the man was pacing her and they were aiming for a 3:20 finish. I hung with them a little, but felt like I was holding back a bit, so let myself pull ahead. I was now in 3^rd.

Admittedly, I looked over my shoulders quite a few times for the next few miles. One of my friends was at one of the intersections, and I thought she was indicating that there was a woman just behind me. Apparently, she was trying to tell me that I had pulled ahead even more. I tried to not speed up too much – there were still several miles left in the race but keeping at least 3^rd place was good incentive to keep my pace up.

At about mile 19, we finished the first loop and caught up with the back of the half marathon. While it was a little annoying to have to suddenly start dodging the large groups who were walking the half, it was also fun to be around so many people; and the walkers were super friendly and responsive to the half-out-of-breath runner calling out, “runner behind”, “runner on your left”, etc. There also started to be more spectators. Near Friendly Grove Park, a little girl held a flower out to me. I tried to grab it, but missed – I honestly considered going back to get it, it was such a sweet gesture, but at that point, my legs practically had a mind of their own. Forward. Just forward.

When I turned onto the long straight-away on Eastside, I finally caught a glimpse of the women’s pace car. It really wasn’t that far away. Half a mile – just under a mile at the most? But by this point, we only had about 4 miles left in the race, and that was a lot of distance to make up in just 4 miles. On the other hand, there were just 4 miles left, and I felt really comfortable with those last 4 miles, having run the course a few times in the past few months. I kept my pace up on the long Eastside climb, then picked the pace up even more on the short downhill following the crest of the hill.

At one point, there was a slow jogger taking up the narrow area we had to run in around a corner, and there was a volunteer standing just outside the corner. I called out to get the jogger’s attention, but she clearly couldn’t hear me over her earbuds. I started repeating “please move” – I thought under my breath, but apparently loud enough the volunteer scurried out of the way. I felt bad as she seemed to think I was irked at her. So to whomever that was – I’m sorry!

A little later on, I saw one of my program’s scientists who had retired just a few months ago and his wife – I yelled a hello and that it hurt, it really hurt! They just smiled, cheered me on, and took a few photos. In his email, John told me that it didn’t look like I was hurting, and in fact in one of the photos they took, both of my feet were in the air (I swear, I have at least one foot on the ground in almost all photos I have of myself when running), and at least I wasn’t scowling (I tend to look angry when I’m working hard).

Post-race smiles

Then, just before the last turn before the finish, I saw a coworker with whom I had run the Ragnar Relay with last year. She and her husband were out cheering people on with a “You can use our bathroom” sign on their front lawn. Awesome.

Final turn, and I was on the nearly straight mile to the finish. I couldn’t see the pace car and didn’t know where the 2^nd place woman was, but still tried to turn up the pace just a little more. As I approached the finish, I heard the announcer say, “and rounding out the women’s podium, we have Andrea Thorpe in 3^rd place, from Louisville, Colorado”. …. Yay! That’s me! …but not Colorado!!!! WTF?!?!? My registration from this year clearly said Olympia!

1st Masters Woman!

Regardless – it was an awesome race. I finished in 3:21:06, a 7:43 pace, and a new marathon PR (by 1 minute and 49 seconds). I was the 3^rd woman again this year – but this year, I was the first woman over 40 to finish, so won the woman’s Masters division. …and all of that on my 42^nd Birthday!

Thanks to Coach Meghan for the awesome encouragement and mentoring, Squirrel’s Nut Butter for keeping me yelp free, and friends and family for the comradery and support!

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