Ok, so here it is. The race was Sunday. I was going to write a report. Then I wasn't. Then I started one. Then

 I deleted it.  Damn thing was too long and boring, even to me. (if you find this version boring, then just keep

 it to yourself. ) Then I was going to do a point form report. Then  decided why tell the story at all if I'm not 

really going to tell the story? Then I got distracted by a phone call, then another phone call, then some crap 

on TV. Then some people said "hey where is  the race report". I said to myself "they are just being polite, they

 don't really give a hoot". OK I didn't say "hoot" in my head but you get the picture.  

I don't get a lot of comments on my race reports. I'm not a new runner. I'm not a fast runner. I'm not a prolific poster.

I don't run a ton of miles. I'm not a good writer. I'm not funny. So who is my audience and why am I bothering?

Then I figured what the hell, I always copy and paste them to my private blog for memory keeping purposes so why

not?  And for anyone who is just bored and can't find anything better to do while playing  on their Ipad during commercials.

This race report is for you.

And since I decided to actually write the damn report it's going to be as long as it needs to be to tell the story so get

some popcorn or some alcohol and settle in.

THE EVENT 

Fredericton Marathon - May 12/2013 - a city 1.5 hours away from where we live BUT this race is fairly flat and

home is very hill so we have driven up every year since 2009 to run either the half or full marathon.  About 1 mile

into the race you cross the walking bridge over the big river. This is my favorite part of the race, especially crossing

the last time knowing you are almost done. So beautiful. This is me a few years ago at the same race.

MY TRAINING

I have always been a low mileage runner (compared to most marathoners) simply because I have too many other things I would rather be doing than running more miles and I love to cycle and kayak and garden and hang out with friends and family and our kids (and now to swim ) and don't want to give up any of that time for more miles of running. 4 days per week and 35-40mpw works fine for me and has kept me injury free since 2005 so I figure why mess with what works? 

Besides for some reason I seem to have good endurance and the ability to hold pace quite well over long distances despite the low mileage and since I already do everything "wrong" according to most traditional marathon training plans I just ignore them and do what I want. My splits for each marathon up to this one have been positive but not large: 11 minutes, 5 minutes, 6 minutes, 5 minutes, 3:14 minutes

So the first week of January hubby and I joined the local pool in our quest toward becoming better swimmers and for him doing his first tri. Swimming 4 times/week along with life issues (84 yr old aunt moving in with us) lead to me not doing much mileage at all until 10 weeks prior to the race (7 weeks of training, 3 of taper) 

Swimming was going great and by the first week of March after only 2 months I was swimming 1,000 yards easily and I figured it was time to get back on track for the marathon.  I had 7 weeks of training before taper with the following total miles per week :

44, 42, 38, 25, 40, 40, 33, then taper.

Long runs were as such during that time: 15.5, 16, 18, 19, 18.5, 19.75, 18.5.

On all except one I hit my target long run pace within a few seconds either way.  

See the % of long runs to total miles? I told you I do everything wrong.

Less than ideal marathon cycle however I 100% believe that the swimming (and occassional session on the bike trainer in the basement) have left me feeling more ready that I had for any of my previous races. 

RACE DAY

Up at 4:30 to get ready and pick up a friend and then do the 1.5 hour drive, packet pick up, pre-race pre and be at the start line for  8am. I was tired before we got there.Drove up in rain however by race time the rain had stopped and it was merely cloudy, cool, and overcast.  Perfect for a marathon! Turned back into heavy drizzle for my last 10k of the race but much better than pouring rain.

Race time, kissed hubby and said "good luck, see you at the finish line" our race day tradition. Said hello to our friend Mark ( a forumite who we would later have lunch with along with his wife, our friend and our son and his GF) and good luck and hugs to some girlfriends who were running.

Feeling good, keeping pace easily and enjoying the day on this beautiful course and just happy I'm not totally soaked from rain at this point.  Saw hubby coming back from the turnaround and he was looking great. All was well with the world. One thing I do like about this race is because it is single track out and back I get to see hubby and lots of my friends twice on the route (if they are doing the full). Shout outs and hand slapping of friends passing by is a ton of fun.

Got to the turnaround at 10.5 km and realized I had been following the same lady for a while so I pulled along side and asked what her goal was. Hmmmm, same as mine. We ran and chatted together came back to the start and through the half point at exactly our goal time. We stayed together until the 25km mark, she couldn't hold the pace any longer and told me to go ahead. I run and race by myself and this was the longest I think I have ever run with someone other than my husband. I was sad to drop her. She really inspired me. An

early 40 something Mom of 5 and a breast cancer survivor of 4 years doing only her 2nd full marathon. 

After the first turnaround, lost the glove a short time before. Happy Happy. Feeling Great!

So after I drop Barb I continue along on my own. At the 25k point I found myself feeling so good that my pace was starting to get away from me and I ran several miles after that around an 8:40 pace feeling good but having done this enough time I pulled back and slowed the pace down purposely.

I approach the turnaround point and that orange traffic cone looks so good to me I want to kiss it! Two teen boys manning the turnaround gave me a big thumbs up and I was on the final stretch!!

Around the 32k point and just before I "got rid of" my other glove.

Ran a few more minutes and now the drizzle was getting quite heavy and I looked at my Garmin to find that it has switched to some damn screen that i have never seen before and for the life of me I cannot get it back to my pace/time/distance screen. Last thing I know at that point was that the 32km mark was 3:09.

I remember my P/T who treated me for a little achilles pull 10 days prior to my first full. He and his wife are both IronMen and superb athletes (she was 3rd in her AG at Kona in 2011). I asked his advice before running that first marathon.

He said: run the first 14k with your head, the next 14k with your legs and the last 14k with your heart. I have never forgotten that and now I am running the last 10k of my race with no Garmin, markers only every few miles, no one to pace off and no idea of my time or pace. I would truly be running this with my heart alone and giving it everything I had. I became very grateful for the 10 years I ran before purchasing a Garmin that taught me to run by feel alone. 

At the 33km mark I had a sharp pain in my side. Hell a side stitch now, just what I needed. Why? I wasn't running too hard or breathing hard or feeling tired. I continued to run and pressed on the pain until it went away about 1/2 mile later. Once it went away it became immediately evident why I had the pain. With no porta potty for at least a few more miles I did what I had to do and headed for a path I saw going into the woods.

I had worn gloves for the race because it was cool at the start and they come in handy for a person with allergies for nose wiping duties. At one point in the first half I had tucked the dollar store knit gloves into the back of my shorts and when I pulled them out again (to wipe my nose) one of them fell on the ground. I wanted to run this entire marathon without walking (except for those few steps during water stops). I had done my 3rd marathon without walking a step and wanted to do that again. So when the glove fell out there was no

way I was stopping and going back to get it. I could wipe my nose with one glove and change hands if I needed to keep fingers warm.

So now I am at the 33+km mark and heading  into the woods that one glove met it's demise for a good cause.

Although my Garmin was still on the wrong screen it was still recording my time/pace and after I got home and uploaded I found that my little trip into the wild had cost me 1:38 and would be the only time during this entire marathon where I stopped and was not running (I trotted throught the water stops slow enought to bea able to get enough water into me), therefore in my own little mind I am not counting this and I DID run another marathon without walking. After all I ran to the spot out of sight, did my business and then immediately started

running again. That counts right????LOL

Yup, so now it's on. Me, myself and I, no Garmin, no running buddy, no pacer, very few spectators out in the rain on this walking path through the woods. But some lovely wonderful and enthusiastic water table volunteers. It's all on me and my heart, determination and years of training to meet my "A" goal.

Up to this point I have not mentioned my goals for this race. Just wanted to keep you in a little suspense. Isn't that nice of me?  Since I had a 7 minute PR on my last marathon and didn't feel that I pushed myself much during that race AND had to stop at an aid station twice looking for a rain poncho to prevent hypothermia, still ran a 4:20 marathon with only a 3:14 positive split (the aid stop was on the 2nd half of the marathon) I knew in my heart that I could have run a 4:15 that day.  And that marathon had a fair amount of hills through

the middle section. This marathon was flat. So I had set the following goals for myself:

A goal - 4:10 (but heck I'm old and I ran less than 40mpw average for only 7 weeks, that's why it's the "A"

B goal - 4:15 (a 5 minute PR and another in a string of PR's would be pretty sweet)

C goal - 4:19:19 ( even 3 seconds better is a PR right?)

On the way back during the last 6 miles I passed 14 people and did not get passed by anyone. This is always good for the morale so I kept chugging along.  The last 2.5 miles I started to feel like I was slowing down but in retrospect upon look at my Garmin when I got home I was not slowing at all, it just felt like I was which I guess it pretty normal at the point. Nothing hurt, no sore feet, no sore knees, just a bit of tightness in my hip flexors from the  distance and the cold. Honestly I could not believe how great I felt and I just tried to soak up as much of the experience as I could into my little zoned out tired brain.

Around the 38k mark, almost there and still feeling happy with enough energy to smile!

With less than one mile to go you have to cross two streets to get back to the park and the finish line. Crossing  the first one I momentarily lost my focus and suddenly felt like everything was going to come  crashing down around me. My body felt like I was melting into the pavement and a chill came over my entire body. I think "OMG I'm going to collapse right here, then it will be all over".  I KNOW in my heart, despite the lack of Garmin, that I am SO SO close to my "A" goal and I tell myself to suck it up and keep going. And so I do. I come back into the park area, turn a hard right and see my wonderful hubby, our son and his GF about 300 feet from the finish line cheering me on. I wave and feel like I'm going to cry but then I refocus when hubby yells " sprint to the finish" and so I do and i look up at the clock to see 4:10:08.......................by reflex I raise my hands as I cross the finish line in relief and know that despite everything I went through personally in the months prior to that fleeting point in time that I have made my "A" goal. Man that is one of the best feelings in the world for a runner!!

So now I'm thinking that maybe a sub 4 and my BQ is not so far away. Perhaps I  might even consider the radical idea of running 5 days a week and more than 40mpw  to see if I can go sub 4? Not such a crazy idea methinks!

CONCLUSION: There was some type of an glitch with the timing. Was it the mats or the clock|?. We really dont know. What we do know is that for both hubby and myself our Garmin and clock  times were both 40 second faster than the official posted times.  Despite only a 10 second different in the gun/chip times.

My joy at my BIG FAT PR was tempered by the fact that as soon as I crossed the finish I was told by hubby and several others that he had re-qualified for Boston with a clock and Garmin time of 3:29:32. however the posted time is 3:30:09.  I have written to the RD but don't have much hope that this can be recitifed. Hubby just says he will run sub 3:30 again this year and not to worry about it.

For me according to clock and Garmin: 

My half time was 2:03:45            My time at 25K was exactly 2:30           My time at 32 K was 3:09

And my final time according to Garmin was 4:10:08. (posted finish time 4:10:48).   The potty stop took 1:38

Take 1:38 off the 2nd half  and you get splits of 2:03:45 AND 2:05:15, a positive split of 1:30 in the total running time.

Actual positive split of 2:08.

I would call that a very well run and paced race and I didn't walk one step that wasn't through a water stop.

All in all a very successful and happy day! Two races in the season and two huge PR's!!

And OMG if you made it this far you deserve a freaking medal. I have lots so if you want just PM me and I

can mail you one.

Day after race soreness was almost nothing. And today pretty much back to normal. Good Stuff! 

Handsome son and his cute GF at finish line with gifts. Tech shirt and running headband and smelly stuff! Score!

Super handsome and fast marathon running hubby and I after the race.

I love reading race reports, thank you for taking the time to write this

"I have always been a low mileage runner (compared to most marathoners) simply because I have too many other things I would rather be doing than running more miles", love this! Gives me hope that 100 mile weeks aren't mandatory to become a great runner.

I did read all the way through, where's my medal Congratulations on your PR! Obviously your training works, as you have great results. The discrepancies with timing really sucks though. It's great that your husband has such a positive attitude over it all.

Congratulations on the HUGE PR!! I definitely see a sub 4:00 in your future!

Woohoo I loved reading through the WHOLE race report! What an incredible PR and you ran a phenomenally smart race. Being able to dial it back down when your pace dropped to 8:40 is NOT an easy thing to do during that euphoric section of the marathon, but your experience paid off in the long run.

I know you give yourself a hard time about being a low mileage runner, but your fitness level is INCREDIBLE from all the cross-training you do ... and don't even get me started on how I envy your swim progress. Kudos on a great race on Mother's Day and getting to spend time doing what you enjoy with those you love. Nice job!

Hopefully they'll get the times rectified for DH's BQ time, but like he said I'm sure it'll come at the next one. (I'm leaning along those lines myself)

Congrats Beth

Great job, Bestie. Terrific time! And yes, your DH is a hottie.

Great job nailing that A goal, Beth!  I definitely think you've got faster marathons in you, but I also see where you're coming from with not wanting to carve more time out for running.  DW and I have certainly had that talk when my miles got up there.

This may be the first time I had to read like nine pages of an RR before I actually got to the RR. 

Congrats!  A big PR after all you have been through is even more awesome.