Marathon Milestone
I DID IT!!! WOO-HOO!!!
Yep, I achieved my sub-4 hour marathon goal in the CIM yesterday. I felt strong through mile 16 and stayed confident throughout, even when I started hurting later in the race. I followed my plan (take the hills conservatively, start out with the 4:00 pace group, eat every 2 miles), and broke away from the pace group after the half-way point. I stayed in front of them the entire rest of the time, and rounding that corner onto Capitol Mall to see the "3" on the clock was absolutely fabulous.
My gun time was 3:59:03, but my chip time (aka my "real" time) was 3:57:28, which is a 9:07 pace and almost a 10-minute improvement over the Madison Marathon from May.
Phew! All the training was worth it. The morning runs, the "dread"mill workouts, the 20+ milers. It all made me stronger and faster and more confident, so I was able to reach my goal. Yay!!!!
So after some well-deserved rest, the next focus will be the Davis Stampede 1/2 marathon the first weekend of February. This has always been a fast race for me for some reason (my current 1/2 marathon PR), even though I've never really "trained" for it to reach a particular time goal. This year, however, I'm going to make that little extra effort to see if it pays off. More on that later...
For now, I'm going to bask in the glow of my sore quads and admire my finisher's medal as I savor this marathon milestone.
Yep, I achieved my sub-4 hour marathon goal in the CIM yesterday. I felt strong through mile 16 and stayed confident throughout, even when I started hurting later in the race. I followed my plan (take the hills conservatively, start out with the 4:00 pace group, eat every 2 miles), and broke away from the pace group after the half-way point. I stayed in front of them the entire rest of the time, and rounding that corner onto Capitol Mall to see the "3" on the clock was absolutely fabulous.
My gun time was 3:59:03, but my chip time (aka my "real" time) was 3:57:28, which is a 9:07 pace and almost a 10-minute improvement over the Madison Marathon from May.
Phew! All the training was worth it. The morning runs, the "dread"mill workouts, the 20+ milers. It all made me stronger and faster and more confident, so I was able to reach my goal. Yay!!!!
So after some well-deserved rest, the next focus will be the Davis Stampede 1/2 marathon the first weekend of February. This has always been a fast race for me for some reason (my current 1/2 marathon PR), even though I've never really "trained" for it to reach a particular time goal. This year, however, I'm going to make that little extra effort to see if it pays off. More on that later...
For now, I'm going to bask in the glow of my sore quads and admire my finisher's medal as I savor this marathon milestone.
posted by jms | 11:01 AM
1 Comments:
LNJ was just visiting and noted-
Red Sox win the series and then a sub 4 Marathon... this must be your year. Go you, Doc J. :)
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