I'll try to give the run down with out making it too long and winded. I originally signed up for this because I knew it would be a good challenge. Not just running 26.2 miles, but this would be the first endurance event I had trained for as a single mom, with the sole responsibilities of both a house, business and kids. There would be no partner that could mow the lawn, run to Costco, do kids laundry, make sure they are fed and shuttle them around everyday, and then fit in training!
I saw PR's in all my runs this year (less stress maybe) starting with Wenatchee 10K (48 minutes , 7:52mm), Sunriver Half Marathon in ,1 hour 45 minutes ( 8 mm), I found training to be so therapeutic, I actually enjoyed it. After the half I called my friend Jason of SET coaching just to get an idea what a reasonable marathon time would be, based on those times. He thought it would be possible to run an 8:30-8:50. I set off with first a goal to finish, then if I was feeling well and injury free to finish under 3:55.
Between June and the race September 24th I planned to do the 1/2 in Sunriver, a 26 mile TT on my bike for Chelan Man, and again another Olympic distance TT at the beginning of September. This was good for me to not just have running events. So while I didn't train specifically for the time trials, I knew I wanted to do well in those. Two of my cross training days a week were cycling, long distances and intervals, another was weight training/plyometrics. The running part of the training I kept to 3 specific runs a week (and near the end when I didn't do weights, a recovery run). Tuesdays were speedwork (keep in mind this was a loose schedule, based on what worked with the kids. The runs got done every week, but not always the day and time I wanted) in the spring my friends Joel and Martha founders of RunWenatchee, host track workouts on Tuesday nights at the High School. They are brutal! But I give a lot of credit to my faster times to these workouts! Thursday was temp runs, these are hard for me too. They were between 5-10 milers and I tried to keep the pace between 7:45-8:15. Saturday was long slow run day! The science behind training says to do your long runs 30-60 seconds slower than your goal time (these were enjoyable runs). The online training plan I found called for 20 mile long runs, so I did a 21 and a 22 mile, after the 22 I felt great and knew all would be fine.
That was training, on the nutrition side of things, I changed my diet in June from pescatarian to a more vegan plus fish diet (Iwa was and still is at least a twice a week part). This really cleaned up my act. I met Rick in July, he is quite experienced at endurance events, so he offered great advice on nutrition and hydration. One of the things I did the month before the marathon to ensure I would be well hydrated was cut back my coffee intake to one americano a morning (GASP I know) and I cut out all alcohol (not that I was a big drinker,but the occasional evening glass of wine was out). The days before I drank water and Gatorade ( I looked up to see what they'd have on course and trained off of that), ate lots of oatmeal and plain brown rice...yum.
Night before and day of marathon. This may be too much information to any man reading this, but ladies I know you can appreciate this. My damn period started the day before the marathon, so I googled marathon running and your period, found all kinds of great advice. Rest assured if this happens to you, the marathon can still be done! There were limited hydration/food stations along the course, so I decided to pack my own (my friends Steph and Jenn had all done this the previous year and recommended it), two 12oz water bottles on my fuel belt mixed lightly with powdered Gatorade to provide electrolytes, calories, and sugar. And one pack of shot bloks. My plan was to supplement with water at the stations. At mile 19.5 Rick was waiting and I was able to toss off the belt. This is where Jenn jumped in and ran the last 7 miles with me (so cool)!
I will say the hardest week of the whole training was the week before,the taper week, I was second guessing my training left and right. This was also the first and only time I started to get nervous about finishing ahead of Lars girlfriend, yep she was running this particular marathon too, (ridiculous I know, but that's the competitive side of me ). I do appreciate the little pep talk that week. He gave me his advice on how he ran that course, as well as assured me I was faster than his girlfriend, why this mattered I don't know, because in the end I did it for me, and was proud of myself for this accomplishment! Here are the results, 3hours 46 minutes (8:39 mm).
This was the plan I followed.
Now its back to running and biking for fitness and fun, and waiting for snow to skate ski!
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