Capital City Marathon 2019

Capital City Marathon was one of my goal races for the year. I had done really well the past two years, and thought there was a good chance I could shave off the few seconds per mile needed to get my time below 3:20. Then the crud hit.

My training, which included some long speed workouts, was going well, right up to my last really big long run the week Oly Trailrunners put on the Capitol Peak 50.  After fulfilling my duties as the captain of the first full aid station, I went for a run with my awesome aid station crew. Despite the beautiful weather and great company, the run was a struggle. After a 20 mile loop, I attempted to head off on my own (well, me plus the pups) for 8 extra miles and managed to just gut through an extra 5 ½. I figured the suffering was due to being on my feet for several hours that morning. While that probably had a bunch to do with it, the next day, I came down with a lung crud. At first I thought it might just be a my asthmas acting up due to a bad allergy day, but my lungs just kept getting worse.

Okay, I told myself, I still had just under 3 weeks until the race  – my colds usually only last about a week, I should be fine. A week passed and I was still hacking and having a hard time breathing. After two weeks – and just 6 days before the marathon, I finally started to feel like I was recovering. Sheesh. Well, at least I was tapered?

The morning of the race, I woke up to cool temperatures, but not cold temperatures, and a light drizzle – perfect for a marathon! An hour before the race, I drove down to the start.  I sported the ever-stylish and high tech large trash bag poncho to stay a bit warm and dry while waiting for things to get started. After an Oly Trailrunners group photo, we sorted ourselves into the pack. I was still  hoping I could go under 3:20 this year – I’d been just over 3:21 the past two years, so figured it was possible. I put myself near the 3:20 pace group, which was also near the front. There were a LOT of fast looking people this year, I thought. I didn’t have too much time to think about it, though, as soon enough we were off.

As usual, it was a bit hard to not go too fast in the first few miles. Several women were ahead of me, but I was already pushing myself and didn’t think trying to get closer was a good thing. I lost a bit of contact with the pace group, but they weren’t too far ahead, and I was sure I’d catch them. Sure, that is, until mile 9 when we hit the first significant climb of the race, and instead of feeling like I could power up the hill like I’d been able to the past two years and I had practiced in training, I had difficulty maintaining my effort. My legs, especially my hamstrings, had no spring in them.

Oh…. crud. I immediately knew the cause. The day before the race was sunny and warm and I rationalized that a good, “restful” activity would be seeding my garden beds and transplanting some plants I’d started in the house. Sure, I wasn’t moving fast, but I was on my feet for several hours, and by the end of the day, I noticed my legs felt surprisingly tired. Russel, Craig, and I had even had a conversation on a training run on the course – not too far from this spot, actually – about how tired gardening can make your legs. Dumb. dumb. dumb. A rookie mistake more than 20 years after my first marathon.

Well, not much I could do about it now. There’s not much to say about the next several miles, really. I tried to maintain marathon effort, but I couldn’t keep my place close to my 3:20 goal and the uphills were particularly difficult. I passed one woman around mile 20 who commented that the earlier hills had killed her. In the past, the hills were my strength – this day I could only agree and sympathize.  

I hit the big Eastside climb at mile 22 and knew I only had 4 miles left. Seeing Dave and John who had stationed themselves 2/3 the way up the hill to cheer and cow-bell definitely helped buoy me to the top. I’d been happy at how, despite my slower pace than planned, I’d manage to keep my mood from getting too low, but I’d be lying if I didn’t admit that I started struggling a bit the last few miles. I knew I was close to the finish, but it felt so hard to keep my pace up. Then, about 2 miles from the finish, my friend John came up from behind, “I didn’t expect to see you!” he said. I smiled (or at least tried to) and said I was struggling a bit, but would be fine and would see him at the end. “Want to be pushed?” He asked. A very loud voice in my head said, “no”. I was tired, and felt done. I was okay. But I sped up anyway. Together, John and I wove through the half-marathon walkers – John about a half-step ahead of me. Several times he looked over and it seemed to me that he was a bit frustrated with my slow pace, so I tried to pick it up even more. Later, he’d say (whether he was telling the truth or being kind is another thing) that he hadn’t intended to run quite that fast.

I finished in 3:28:50. Definitely not my fastest, but it was still good enough to win 1^st Masters Woman (luckily, with the exception of the woman who won over-all, the other women ahead of me were all under 40!) It was so cool to have my award handed to me by none other than Joan Benoit-Samuelson, who was there to commemorate the 35^th Anniversary of when she’d won the first every women’s Olympic Marathon Trials, held in Olympia.

This is still one of my favorite races. Great course, great aid stations, great community support, and so much fun cheering on all my friends at the finish. Huge thanks to John for helping me finish strong, Coach Meghan for the great training, and Squirrel’s Nut Butter for keeping my skin happy!

Chuckanut 50km

Chuckanut 50km was one of my bucket-list races. I've known about Chuckanut for as long as I've been running trail races (over 22 years, now), but for some reason never made it to the race before this year. My last few official races last year were a bit of a suffer-fest. I had been working on the mental aspect of racing over the past few years, but all that went out the door for several months. This winter, as I tried to ramp up my training, I seriously banged up my knee after a few bad falls within one week, was later hit with some nagging chronic injuries, then we got a blast of snow and ice that persisted an insane amount of time.  I knew Chuckanut would be a competitive race, so, especially with how the previous few months had been, I had no delusions about finishing on the podium, but I really wanted to have fun. 

After getting to the starting area early enough to make multiple bathroom stops and nervously wonder how late I could wait before taking off my warm cloths and putting them in the gear check area, I finally found myself at the starting line .... with around 400 other runners! (there were 442 who finished, but a decent sized group took the early start).

For the first 10km, Chuckanut heads south on the interurban trail - it's fairly pretty, wide enough for all us to sort ourselves out, and relatively flat. ...perhaps a bit too flat. I may have been a little too far up front, but I could not believe how many people flew past me.  My feet were actually pretty numb, so it would have been hard to run much faster if I'd wanted to, but I really didn't want to ... I knew better than to think I could "bank" time by running super fast at the beginning. A cautious approach seemed confirmed as the wise choice when I passed a man walking about 8km in, lamenting about blowing up a bit from going out too fast.  I had a bit of trail butter about 45 minutes in, then fueled up well at the aid station with coke, an oreo, and some peanut butter filled pretzels.

The middle 30km of Chuckanut is a bit of blur ... a beautiful, blissfull, happy blur. The trail wound through a beautiful forest, and more than once, I yelled out "it's sooo pretty!!!!" as I came to an opening in the woods to a view of the snowcapped Olympics over the Puget Sound under a sunny, blue sky.  I came into the aid station to discover that in addition to the normal aid station fare, they were making smoked salmon sushi rolls - OMG they tasted sooo good! I left happing chewing on my roll and drinking another cup of coke.

Snow on Cleater Rd. Picture credit: Chuckanut50km

Most of the next section was on Cleator Road. I'm sure under normal conditions (or if I were Hayden Hawks - he finished in 3 hr 33 min this year!), it would have been a nice fast section, but most of the road was covered with a few inches of uneven, slushy snow. I was happy, though, with the amount of traction I was able to get, and steadily made my way up to the ridge. 

Although it's pretty, the ridge was the worst section for me. I'm not good at technical trails, and I just really did not want to fall! Seriously, my knees don't need any more scar tissue. I just tried to relax, enjoy myself and take some solace that I was otherwise running well.

Turning onto North Lost Lake, we once again hit some snow.  I took the time to put my nanospikes on for this section. Although they're fairly easy to put on, it still too me longer than I'd have liked, and I had to stop to adjust them a few times as they started to shift out of place. So I'm not sure if they were worth putting on ... but then again I passed quite a few people on the section where I wore them, so maybe they were? At least I didn't feel like I'd carried them for 31 miles for nothing.

When I turned onto South Lost Lake, I fumbled a bit for some food - I knew I needed something, but was reluctant to open a gel - and ended up not pulling anything out. I rationalized waiting longer (really something I shouldn't let myself do) with telling myself I'd fuel up well at the next aid station. As I approached AS4, I could swear I smelled hot dogs ... then I got to the table to find that it was no hallucination - they really did have freshly cooked hotdogs - even veggie dogs! and ketchup and mustard to dip them in! I grabbed a piece, dipped it in as much ketchup as reasonable without making a huge mess, and thought I may have a new favorite race food. Pretty much every other runner who was at the aid station seemed to be having a similar reaction. With only a tiny bit of reservation from concerns about everything coming back up in the near future, I grabbed another piece of hot dog (again covered with as much ketchup as possible), grabbed a cup of coke, and quite happily headed up towards Chinscraper. 

Heading up Chinscraper

While Chinscraper lived up to its name I happily passed quite a few people on the way up. Givenhow little I'd been able to train for climbing in the past few months, thanks to late snow and ice, I was both surprised and happy with how strong I felt on the uphills. Soon enough we were headed back downhill - where more than one of the people I'd passed going up passed me back. 

I grabbed a last Oreo (covered in peanut butter) and cup of coke at the last aid station then was off for the last 10km back on the Interurban trail. I really wanted to finish under 6 hours, and looking at my watch it was probably not going to happen ... but might? If I ran really really hard? I decided to give it a shot. I could tell my legs weren't moving normally as I could hear my right foot slapping the ground a bit, but I was happily able to pick up some speed. I ran close to 8 minutes per mile for a few miles (!), but a slight hill brought my pace down, and I wasn't able to quite recover it for the the final few miles in. 

I crossed the line in 6 hours, 3 minutes, and 38 seconds, 42nd woman out of 164 and 5th in my age group, so not bad. Most importantly -- I had so much fun! I really did achieve my goal of having fun and enjoying the race. Every time I felt myself start furrow my brow, I reminded myself to smile and relax, and I'm confident that helped me have a better race. 

Thanks Krissy and all the volunteers for putting on an awesome race, The Queen for great coaching, and Squirrel's Nut Butter for keep me chafe free (no more yelps!).

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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