Hey, hey! Looks who is back from an 20-month hiatus.
It’s been a long time coming, you know, updating this blog. I would usually only post after a big race or exciting vacation while I was living in Japan, so I wasn’t the most frequent blogger to begin with. However, I have decided that I need more reflective writing in my life, so here I am!
Ever since my last marathon, the Nagoya Women’s Marathon, two years ago, I have been chomping at the bit to get another chance to train for this distance and race it with a healthy body. After moving to Colorado a year and a half ago, I quickly realized that my training regimen would need some serious tweaking, not to mention my diet as well. Without getting into too many details, the lack of time to train, as well as my body’s inability to train at the level I expected were two major factors as to why I’ve had to wait as long as I did to run another marathon. After my trail marathon last year on my birthday, I decided that I had focused on the trails for long enough and that it was time to shift to the roads for a bit to train for a marathon.
I selected the Wicked Marathon for obvious reasons: it’s in exotic Kansas, it’s at sea level, and it’s a Boston Qualifier race. Okay, so one of those reasons isn’t entirely accurate. In addition to those attributes, the location was close enough for me to drive to and not have to worry about being stranded without a car in the middle of nowhere or delayed flights. Also, it is held at an opportune time of year–spring break for me!–and right around the time that spring actually comes to Colorado and my mountain running recommences. My A Race this year is actually the Never Summer 100K on July 22, so I wanted to find a marathon and get it out of the way with plenty of time to complete a specialized training block for this mountain race.
For all these reasons, the Wicked Marathon seemed like a good choice.
Starting on January 1st, I began a training plan for this race and cut out nearly all sugar and grains from my diet. (I would have the occasional onigiri or spoonful of ice cream…) The first month of training was ordinary, but after that, I started noticing drastic benefits to my strict diet and training schedule. My speed gradually increased and my effort level fell considerably. I also incorporated a warmup/stretching routine from The Pose Method, and I noticed great improvements in my flexibility and range of motion as well. No twinges or nagging tight spots in my legs. Although most of this training period went very well, and I believe I was able to rebuild my confidence as a strong runner, there were days every no and then where I felt like I wasn’t getting any better and was less than motivated to get out the door. Days with 30 mph winds, I am talking to you!
Overall, the buildup to the race couldn’t have gone much better. I’d lost around ten pounds and 2-3% body fat in three months, so I was more than happy and optimistic at my chances of PRing at this race. Right, that’s a big part of this race experience. My A Goal was to run this distance faster than I ever had before. For that, I would need a time faster than my finish time at the Tokyo Marathon in 2014, 4:17:22. This averages out to a 9:48 min/mile pace. In most of my training runs, my easy pace was around 10:00 – 10:30 min/miles, but considering that I was training at altitude, I knew my pace at sea level would be lower, but I was unsure how much lower and for how long I would be able to maintain said pace.
At this section in the post, I would usually fast forward to race day. However, events leading up to race day were quite chaotic and likely affected my performance in the race, so I’ll first summarize them before getting to race day. What I thought would be relatively normal, stress-free turned into a nightmare week overnight. I lost a friend in a blink of an eye and still am not able to completely make peace with it. My emotions were all over the place during the week, and I wasn’t able to focus on getting work done or running my last few runs well. Of course, exactly what you want while tapering. That’s all I will say about this.
The emotional rollercoaster of a week continued as I began my drive from Boulder to Kansas. I woke up feeling a little cold. I looked outside as I was eating breakfast, and it seemed like there was frost on the ground. Strange, since the last umpteen days had been in the 70s and 80s. Anyway, I loaded up the car and set off at 7 am. As I was getting on the highway, I noticed the tips of the flatirons had a dusting of white. Hmm, did we get snow overnight? Strange…I continued driving east on I-70 only to see signs of “I-70E closed due to wintry weather.” What? Winter is a thing? In March? No way…
I get to some small town near an even smaller airport, get off I-70 and search for an alternative route. Accepting that I would lose some time in my search and in taking an alternative route, I headed off on a local highway. After driving for less than 10 miles, what do I find? Another gate! That road had been closed too. I found an official road patrol worker and talked to him about my options. He literally told me there was no way out of the state! AHHH!
In disbelief, I found yet another local highway that went east. CO-40, I think. At first, it was plowed and nice. The ground was wet, so I didn’t have to worry about ice, but the slush made traveling at speeds over 40 mph a little risky. I wasn’t alone, as one car was following behind me. We continued along for 10 miles or so, when all of a sudden the condition of the roads worsened. We went from two-lane plowed roads to one-lane plowed and finally to one-lane not plowed but traveled through–in the direction I was headed, thank goodness! I creeped along with the car behind me still following. Eventually we reached a part of the highway where no cars had gone before. Really? Was I going to do this? I stop my car and get out to ask the driver behind me what we ought to do. He was in a sedan but seemed confident in continuing on. I had already had enough and wanted a break. I also really had to pee.
We decided to retrace our steps and turn where we saw another car turn. That road led us to the I-70E ramp. To our surprise, the gate was not up. Had it reopened or was it still closed and we were just supposed to stay off it? He was inclined to try it out as two additional cars in front of us went for it. Oh boy, this was turning into quite the adventure.
We had about 20 miles to go until Limon, the town from which the highway was officially open in the east direction. It was raining by this time, and while the roads were not nearly as bad as the ones we’d just traveled through, I was still nervous and full of bad feelings. I was white-knuckling it the whole way, glancing at my gps nearly every minute to track my progress.
Finally, we see the Limon exit. Off I went! I needed a break and wanted to re-evaluate my options. I stopped at a truck stop that was full of drivers just waiting around and eating to kill the time. I spoke with the locals working there about the conditions and they seemed to think the storm would last for another 2-3 hours, and that it was unlikely the roads would be touched until the precipitation stopped. Just the news I had been waiting to hear! Hah. Given that I had only travelled 100 miles in my first 3 hours of driving, I needed to seriously think about my options. I called my dad and aunt to talk about the situation and what I could do. I should mention that I-70W from Limon had been closed, so had I wanted to turn around and return to Boulder, I would have to wait. Fun stuff.
I waited at the truck stop for about 2 hours, thinking of various scenarios. How badly did I want to run this race? An unwelcome monthly visitor had just arrived, and I had already had a stressful week. How well would I be able to run anyway? In the end, I realized that I had trained very hard the last three months for this race and wanted nothing more than to be able to run it and finish it. I told myself that I would likely have to drive through a little more bad conditions before getting into Kansas where it “should be clear.”
That’s what I did. I drove almost another two hours through rain, sleet, and slush on the roads. My windshield wipers sure did get their share of activity, and boy am I glad they worked so well! Visibility was horrible until I got into Kansas, so every extra second of having a clear windshield helped.
Finally, I arrived in Kansas, and visibility improved greatly, but that didn’t last for long. Ugh. I was about 80 miles from my destination–it’s now 5 pm–and I notice the sky in front of me is very dark. But I had no choice but to drive in that direction. I hoped for the best, and when it started to rain, I didn’t have much time to say more than, “REALLY?!?” before it turned into a torrential downpour. This lasted basically the rest of the drive. I was so scared that I was going to slide off the road or into another car. Also, perhaps I should have checked the weather before driving in that direction. For all I knew, I was driving right into a tornado. It was Kansas, after all.
Luckily, I arrived at my hotel safely and in tact. No car trouble or accidents, only my soul thoroughly shaken. It was 7:30 pm by the time I got into my room. Great. Time to eat, call everyone I know to tell them I arrived safely, destress, shower, and prepare for the race in less than 12 hours. A hot shower did wonders for calming down, and once I told myself that I would indeed be running tomorrow, I was able to refocus for the challenge ahead. I did have some encouragement from friends and family, too! I set my alarm for 5:30 am the next morning.
I was awake at 4:45 am. What woke me up, you wonder? Cramps. Yay! I got dressed, ate the bacon and eggs that I had packed for my race-day breakfast and downed some coffee along with ibuprofen. (Would it last the duration of the whole race? AAAH!) I was just getting ready to head out the door when I realized I heard a sound outside. What was it? Raindrops, of course! If I am coming across as someone who never checks the weather, that’s a misrepresentation. I checked the weather for the drive and race day on Thursday and saw cloudy conditions with temperatures in the 50s and 60s. Nothing too extreme, right?
Wrong. Well, good thing I only had shorts to run in, no pants. And gloves? No, I won’t need those! All jokes aside, I was extremely grateful that I had packed a long sleeve athletic shirt with a hood at the last minute. It saved me!
I arrive at the starting area around 7 am, pick up my bib and other goodies. The race started at 7:45, so I had a bit of time to get ready, stretch, and visit the bathroom. It was still dark when we lined up to start. “Oh my gosh, am I REAAAAALLLY doing this?” “WHHHHHY?”
The race director shot the gun starting the race and, ever-so-reluctantly, off I went. The first 9 miles were three 3-mile loops, and they were pretty boring miles, but there was one stretch where the wind, rain, and cold was almost too much. At the start of the race, I could barely feel my quads from the cold. Any hope I had of them warming up was extinguished during this stretch. I remember thinking about what I would do if I couldn’t warm up. Was I even going to make it the three loops? Ugh.
Physically, I felt fine. I was still running easy, although I was aware of my pace. I told myself to keep a 9:40 pace for as long as I could. In the beginning, it certainly wasn’t hard. I was fresh, and there were very few hills. By the end of the third loop, the rain had picked up, and we were nearly soaked. Did I mention that it was barely above 40 degrees? SO COLD AND MISERABLE.
Upon reaching the 10-mile mark, the real hills made their appearance. Great. I went into this race thinking that it was at sea-level and relatively flat. Oops. My plan was to turn on my music some time after 10 miles, and I think I made it to 11 before wanting some music to counter the boredom that comes with running the last 17 miles of a marathon on an out-and-back route. First up? Switchfoot.
I passed a few marathon runners and quite a few of the half marathon runners that started 15 minutes before the marathoners. I was happy to be seeing people, but I was not at all interested in running with or talking to anyone. I was super focused and in the zone. My legs still felt great, and I wasn’t hungry or in any abdominal pain. Few.
Around 17 miles, I passed an older man probably in his 60s. He was walking when I ran by him, and then when I look to my left, he’s right there running with me. Really? Come on, I just said that I wasn’t looking for company! Also, B1A4 was blasting in my ears, so I literally have no idea if he said anything to me, and if he did, I most certainly didn’t hear it. Sorry, dude, wasn’t trying to be rude, just get more out of Korean boy bands voices while running than chatting with random strangers. Eventually, he went back to walking, and I had my personal space back. Few.
On the ‘out’ portion of the out-and-back, I told myself that it was okay if my pace slowed a bit on all the uphills, since I would surely glide down them on the way back. Hah. After I reached the turn-around, I experienced the rude awakening of my impressions of the course being completely inaccurate. I was still on pace to PR (AMAZINGLY?!), but as I began to tire and feel deceived by the course, my confidence weaned. “Come on, where’s all that downhill? It’s gotta be coming up soon.” “Why does it feel like I am going uphill both ways?”
Frustrated though I was, I had no choice but to keep going and try not to lose the motivation that still remained. By mile 23, I was ready to be done. I had been looking at my watch, and basically had it calculated that I would PR assuming that a disaster didn’t happen within the last 3.2 miles, but the finish line didn’t seem to be nearing at all, and my legs were starting to hurt. I began to get hungry and the dark chocolate I was carrying was hard as a rock (FROM THE EXTREME COLD!!) and I didn’t want to chew anything. I tried sucking on a candy for a bit of extra energy, but amidst all the uphills, I didn’t notice any difference.
I sang along to the songs playing in my hears, hoping the lyrics”力にしてえ〜” and “その痛み乗り越えて” would actually speak profoundly to me and allow me to forget all the pain. Well, it worked a little, but I was just so ready to be done. Most runners understand this feeling.
At mile 24-ish, I took one last swig of water before decided that I shouldn’t stop again until after finishing. I had about 25 minutes to finish and still PR by a close margin. I knew I could do it. I could even taste it.
My memory did not fail me as we reached what I remembered to be the last hill of the out-and-back section. From there it was all downhill…well, except for final hill connecting you to the final straightaway. The volunteer standing at this final turn surely got a kick out of my reaction, “Another hill???” I made it up that and let out a huge “YOSSSHH!” “よっしゃ！！” as I began the final stretch. My finishing time was going to be closer than I predicted earlier in the race and almost too close for comfort. I nearly sprinted the final few hundred yards and finished so strong that the bystanders started clapping and cheering for me. You know, all 7 of them, not including the Wicked Witch of the West, the Tin Man, the lion, and Toto. I couldn’t believe they were at the finish line. Hah!
So, my official finish time was 4:16:10, a PR by a little more than a minute. WOO HOO!! I can’t even begin to explain how or why this was able to happen given all the stress and mental chaos I had been through in the recent past, but it did, and I wasn’t questioning it. Officially, I was 1st in my age group (F25-29), 7th overall among women, and 17th overall among all marathoners. HELL YEAH! An age group trophy is in the mail, and I am awaiting its arrival. ^-^
Even better, my watch at the end of the race said 26.45 miles, so that meant my actual time for the official marathon distance was less! My data says that my marathon time was 4:14:22, roughly a 3-minute PR. If you have to ask which time I will be considering my best time, then you don’t know me, or runners, at all. 😉
After the race, I slowly made my way back to my car and to the hotel I was staying at. Although I was beyond happy with my time, I was still wet, tired, and SOOO COLD. I wanted nothing more than to take a Japanese-style bath to warm up and soothe my achy muscles. Alas, I settled for a hot shower at good ole Motel 6. I spent the day relaxing, talking to family and friends about the day and the amazing feeling of accomplishment that I had amidst so many other negative experiences/emotions. Of course, I was also posting all the details on social media, too. I celebrated a bit in my hotel room with peanut butter, chocolate, gin and March Madness basketball. ROCK CHALK!
The rest of the trip was rather uneventful–THANK GOODNESS! I headed home the next morning around 5 am. I wasn’t surprised, as I completely expected to be awake at such an early hour. It happens quite frequently after strenuous exercise, so I gathered my things and got out of that crappy hotel room as quickly as my achy body would let me. Almost as a test, it was sprinkling that morning, but the rain let up completely after an hour or so of driving. I made it back to Boulder around 12:30 pm, after having only spent about 8 hours in the car. Not getting delayed by storms or snow–imagine that!
I was so glad to be back in Boulder with such a satisfying result at the race. To be quite honest, not much else about the trip was enjoyable. The weather and atmosphere were far from ideal, and I was without the friend that had promised to travel with me, so I was just ready for the whole experience to be over.
I’ll conclude with some pictures!
natari 