Back To The Drawing Board (Road to Boston) Part 4

By -

Returning home from Erie, I knew what I had did wrong...  1 week earlier before the goal race, the race I had trained for, for twenty weeks, I ran the R&R VA. Beach Half.  Now this race is in August and is usually a very hot event. Not one that I would normally "race" due to the heat!

But that year it was the coolest it had ever been and I was at the top of my game... So I raced it. That was not my intention when I started but that's what happened... So I guess I essentially peaked on that race.. I thought  a week was enough time to recover.. but it wasn't.

This is why my quads blew out at mile 19.

Training started for my second  BQ attempt in December 2015 for  the Emerald Isle marathon to take place in April of 2016, just one week before the 2016 Boston Marathon.

This go around we had a whole new plan. There was a new partnership and new goals.

On top of that, life had changed a lot for me in the last 6 months!

I felt driven to succeed. To show up every day and to grow as an athlete.

My training partner Heather was training for Boston.. she DID qualify at Erie and had run Boston the year before for her first time! Since the races were just one week apart we could train together.

Not too long into our training, we met Emily! A 27 year old runner that had one marathon under her belt but was on fire for Boston! She joined us on a long run one Saturday and decided she would train with us. Mostly on Tuesdays and Thursdays, our hard work out days and then on Saturdays for our long runs!

Emily reminded us of.. well.. us! Determined and feisty with a 190 cadence, she was all about getting it done and she showed up!

While we were all training together we had different pace goals, so therefore our warm ups and cool downs were ran together but the hard workouts, yasso's, intervals, tempos and other workouts were all done to the specificity of our own pace parameters based on our plan layout.

Emily decided she was going to run Emerald as her BQ race and to my surprise a couple weeks later Heather threw down the challenge... BIG TIME!!!

Here is what she said...

"So I think I am going to cancel Boston this year, qualify at Emerald and then we (Me and Heather) can run Boston together next year!"

What?? Okay.. so this is assuming I am going to qualify at Emerald!! Ummm... I need to improve my one time 3:32 to at least a 3:23 to somewhat guarantee entry into the race!! This is a big gamble and a lot of pressure to put on someone... right?

I mean... holy shit!! That's 9 minutes!!

If you remember I ran Erie with a 9 minute PR... so that means I would need to run THIS one 9 minutes faster than Erie.... Is that even possible?

I was still unsure! But training kept on!

Now might be a good time to read my race report on Emerald Isle!

So Emerald turned out like this.. I finally got by BQ! Qualifying with a 3:20:41! Without a doubt the best race I've ever run with negative splits for the last 6 miles or so! And that was with hills and headwinds!

The day ended with all three of us qualifying with Emily and Heather taking first place age group awards and a second place age group award for me! It was a great day had by all!

We were going to Boston!

My daughter was at the finish line that morning, driving up form Wilmington. I was so happy that I could share that moment with her!

Qualifying for Boston took a myriad of changes and discipline, total dedication and a few lessons learned! It brought camaraderie, friendship and new goals!

... and a 21 minute increase in my time over two marathons... I would have never believed it could happen!

But it did!

We spent the rest of the day celebrating our victories!!

Next up: Running the 121st Boston Marathon (Road to Boston) The Final Report


Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

My OBX Full... And She Ran How Many Marathons?

By -
Image
Sitting on the bus on the way to Kitty Hawk, NC, the start of the OBX Marathon, I over heard a women talking about a race coming up in the near future where she had requested the bib number 100. She was a little frustrated since she was told those bib numbers are reserved for the Kenyans. She replied I don't think the Kenyans would mind. I jumped in the conversation suggesting that maybe she just make her own or email Road ID and see if they would help.. then just pull that sucker off at the last minute revealing the "real" bib as she runs though the finish line. She seemed to think that was a good idea. I could not help but wonder so I asked what was the importance of the bib number? She told me it was going to be her one hundredth marathon!! Holy Crap, that is awesome I said. ..And what marathon would this be? She replied this one is number 90. I had to learn more so I continued to question her, asking when did she start running marathons and she told me in the year 200
Read more

Yeti 100! Our first 100 Miler

By -
Image
Getting Ready For Yeti I'm not quite sure how The Yeti came to be the one we signed up for, maybe it was a strong recommendation from some friends that ran it the previous year or maybe we heard it was a good course for a first 100 mile attempt. Whatever the reason, in hindsight I am so grateful that this was the one we chose. The Yeti 100 is made up of the Yeti Trail Runners, a community of ultra runners that exemplify what the ultra community is all about. Laid back, friendly, conversational and always ready for the next challenge! When a race sells out in like 6 hours.. you know it's got to be something special. And it is! Training for the Yeti started in April, a 24 week, somewhat modified plan taken from the book "Relentless Forward Progress" by Bryon Powell. The plan would take us up to 70 mile weeks at least three or four times and we even would end up having one 80 mile week at peak. Before all this started it was supposed to be four of us: Me, my
Read more

I Can't Run! (Road to Boston) Part 1

By -
"....so wait, what are you doing, Ed?" I exclaimed! "I'm going to walk around this track for 26.2 miles to see how long it will take me!" Ed repeated.. He continued on "...I'm running the OBX Marathon in November so it will be interesting to see how long it will take to walk that distance!" "Wow! That's awesome!! I can't run because I have a bad knee that acts up when i've been on it for a long time..." That conversation happened on the high school track during the Relay For Life in May of 2009. Ed will NEVER let me live those words "I Can't Run" down... EVER!! Ed and I met through a common friend under not-so-great circumstances! I was at the tail end of my radiation treatments for cancer when I was asked if I would talk with Ed about what to expect, as he just got diagnosed with the same cancer I had... Tonsil Cancer.  They said it was rare, but I met two others who were diagnosed pretty soon after!
Read more