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The Woodlands Marathon

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Location:

UT,

Member Since:

Oct 14, 2008

Gender:

Female

Goal Type:

Age Division Winner

Running Accomplishments:

85 marathons, 5 times Utah Grand Slam finisher (division winner twice).

7 Bostons (2008, 2009, 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2016).

Two 50Ks, one 50 miler (Pony Express).

A handful of AG wins in all distance races.

Marathon PR: 3:57:09 (Boston'08)

Half Marathon PR: 1:48:41 (Bryce Canyon '11)

10K PR: 47:50 (Spectrum 10K '09)

5K PR: 22:31 (Nestle 5K '08)
 

Short-Term Running Goals:

2017 Races:

June 10 - Utah Valley Marathon (5:13:43)

June 24 - Morgan Valley Marathon (5:49:01)

July 8 - Hobbler Half (2:19:37, 2nd AG)

July 24 - Temple to Temple 5K (27:43)

July 29 - Timp Half (2:08:01, 3rd AG)

Aug 26 - Mt. Nebo Marathon (5:16:16, 3rd AG)

Sep 16 - Huntsville Marathon (4:48:53)

Oct 7 - St. Geroge Marathon (4:57:11)

Nov 4 - Canyon City Marathon (5:30:07)

2018 Races:

Jan 13 - St. George Half (2:19:45, 3rd AG)

Mar 3 - The Woodlands Marathon (5:01:35)

Apr 6-7 - Ragnar So. California

June 1-2 - Ragnar Wasatch Back

June 9 - Utah Valley Marathon (5:19:22)

June 30 - Morgan Valley Half

Sep 1 - Pocatello Marathon (6:00:43)

Sep 15 - Huntsville Marathon (5:37:08)

Oct 6 - St. George Marathon (5:25:43)

Oct 20 - SoJo Marathon (5:29:23)

2019 Races:

June 1 - Utah Valley Marathon (5:44:24)

June 22 - Morgan Valley Marathon (6:15:13)

Aug 31 - Pocatello Marathon (5:38:47)

Sep 14 - Big Cottonwood Marathon (6:03:51)

Oct 5 - St. George Marathon (5:57:46)

Oct 12 - SoJo Marathon (5:55:45)

2020 Races:

Jan 18 - St. George Half (2:38:28)

Feb 15 - Sun Marathon (5:51:54)

May 5 - Conquer Covid-19 Virtual Marathon (5:49:07)

May 16 - Clear Creek Canyon Half Marathon (2:32:15)

May 25 - Utah Valley Virtual Marathon (5:33:110

June 9 - Independence Run Virtual Marathon (5:55:22)

 

Long-Term Running Goals:

Run happy and healthy all the days of my life. Be an example and inspiration to my family.

 

Personal:

I'm 64, retired RN, happily married, nana to 14 beautiful grandchildren, mother to 6 children (1 daughter, 5 sons) who are kind, hardworking, caring, wonderful people! Wish they live closer!!!  :)  :)  :)

Picked up running in 2005 at age 50, to stay healthy so I can take care of my husband who had endocarditis resulting in AVR and MVR in 2004, end stage renal failure in 2014, kidney transplant on Dec 30, 2015.  Six months after the kidney transplant, we discovered that he has a rare auto-immune disease that was probably triggered in 2004 with then the undiagnosed infective endocarditis.  The doctors had to make up a name for this rare disease, Monoclono Gammopathy with Renal Significance (MGRS).  It is not curable.  After desperately trying different chemotherapies, the doctor finally found one immuno-therapy, Daratumamab, that works to treat the MGRS.  It is a miracle!!! 

Grateful for the gift of life, blessings, dear friends and loved ones!!! Thankful for the ability to move, walk, jog, and yes run!!!!

 

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Miles:This week: 0.00 Month: 0.00 Year: 0.00
Saucony Guide ISO Wide Lifetime Miles: 311.91
Saucony Guide ISO Lifetime Miles: 313.31
Sacony Guide ISO (2) Lifetime Miles: 225.26
Altra Torin (sz 7) Lifetime Miles: 44.49
Saucony Guide 10 (2020) Lifetime Miles: 60.91
Easy MilesMarathon Pace MilesThreshold MilesVO2 Max MilesTotal Distance
27.344.302.000.0033.64
Saucony Guide 10 (2) Miles: 33.64
Night Sleep Time: 0.00Nap Time: 0.00Total Sleep Time: 0.00Weight: 0.00
Easy MilesMarathon Pace MilesThreshold MilesVO2 Max MilesTotal Distance
0.000.000.000.000.00

60 min water aerobics.

Night Sleep Time: 0.00Nap Time: 0.00Total Sleep Time: 0.00Weight: 0.00
Comments(1)
Easy MilesMarathon Pace MilesThreshold MilesVO2 Max MilesTotal Distance
1.001.302.000.004.30

39F cloudy 4mph WSW.  Wore new shoes, exact same model, old ones has nearly 300 miles, so may wear new ones for the marathon...trying not to get them dirty.  There's so much dirt/sand/mud debri on the road from the snow which is mostly melted and black.

Didn't feel like doing the prescribed 2x1000m workout; so just ran 2 miles at threshold pace after 1mi warm up.  Paused watch to clear phlegm, wait for traffic, recover, etc.  I've never trained with such a long 4 weeks taper before...wonder if my body goes into vaca mode...  On the other hand, I've run multi-marathons 3-6 weeks apart before and the body was essentially on a constant taper mode. Haha! :)

4.3 miles in 41:35.  AP: 9:40 (10:26, 9:16, 8:55, 10:00, 9:54)

 

Saucony Guide 10 (2) Miles: 4.30
Night Sleep Time: 0.00Nap Time: 0.00Total Sleep Time: 0.00Weight: 0.00
Comments(8)
Easy MilesMarathon Pace MilesThreshold MilesVO2 Max MilesTotal Distance
0.003.000.000.003.00

32F windy cloudy storm brewing, no sense doing a 3 shake-out-miler in this yuck when I can simulate race day temp of 70F at home watching half hour of morning news, haha!

Set TM incline @ , pace @5.5 to 5.7.  Coach Green prescribed 10:30 so nothing heroic here.  3miles in 31:20.  AP: 10:27.

Now off to do laundry, pack, clean house...

Flying out to Houston tomorrow morning.  Excited to see my daughter and grandkids! :) 

Saucony Guide 10 (2) Miles: 3.00
Night Sleep Time: 0.00Nap Time: 0.00Total Sleep Time: 0.00Weight: 0.00
Comments(5)
Easy MilesMarathon Pace MilesThreshold MilesVO2 Max MilesTotal Distance
0.000.000.000.000.00

No running today.  Hubby wants to beat the rush hour traffic so we left the house at 6:15am for our 9:30 flight to Houston.  Traffic was actually fine and we got to airport in 35min.  Airport TSA line was long but moved pretty quickly.  So we sat at the gate for 2 hours.  Hydrate with 12oz gatorade before boarding, 8oz OJ and water in flight.

Landed in Houston at 1:30.  Daughter and son-in-law picked us up and went to Costco for quick lunch before heading to their house.  Larissa drove me and her dad to the Woodlands packet pick up.  Was hoping the pacers would be there, but met Coach Dan Green who was peddling his training programs at one of the exhibits.  He appeared to be in his late 50s or early 60s.  I asked if he was going to be running tomorrow to which he replied: "NO, the only running I do is "this booth", but  I will be at the finish in my TGR booth."  He didn't offer any word of advise, encouragement or even asked about our training.  When I asked him about the weather forecast, he showed me his phone's app's weather channel and said that it would be perfect race weather.  He then went on to talk about his weight loss (20 lbs) in the last three months by limiting red meat and beer.  I got the impression that he's not even running anymore.  What a disppointed meeting!  I went away feeling doubtful that his training program would help anyone improve.

Larissa made us a yummy lasagne dinner.  After visiting and playing with the grandkids we retired to bed at 10pm.  

Night Sleep Time: 0.00Nap Time: 0.00Total Sleep Time: 0.00Weight: 0.00
Add Comment
Race: The Woodlands Marathon (26.2 Miles) 05:01:35, Place in age division: 4
Easy MilesMarathon Pace MilesThreshold MilesVO2 Max MilesTotal Distance
26.340.000.000.0026.34

This is my 70th marathon.  The first time I ran this Woodlands Marathon was 3 years ago in 2015 with a time of 4:43 and I was about 10-15lbs lighter.  It was a much cooler day, in fact some Texans were wearing sweat shirts/pants then.  Today the temp would've been ideal if not for me having trained in colder and dryer climate this winter.  Starting temp was in the mid 50s, sunny.  Finish temp for me was 73F. 

Got up at 3:45am.  Ate a yogurt and 6oz water.  Larissa's friend, Jill, picked us up at 4:15am, in her snazzy BMW convertible!  Nibbled on a banana, breakfast bar and 6 oz gatorade on the drive.  Got to the start with an hour to do pre-race prep.  The potty lines were long so we barely had enough time to make one potty trip, took couple of selfies and headed over to the corrals.  Larissa went to Corral A which closed at 6:40am.  Jill and I went to Corral B and stood for over 20 min. before the race started at 7am.  We started with the 5:15 and 5:45 group.  Either the corral was smaller or there were not as many participants so the pace groups were bunched together.  Jill has had some knee issue so she was planning to walk most of the race.  She ended up taking a ride after run/walk the half.

Jill and I ran together the first 0.25 mile with the 5:15/5:45 pace groups and then she started to walk and urged me to go after the 4:45 group.  It was such a pleasant run under sunny blue sky, with friendly runners.  The first mile goes around a posh neighborhood in a giant U-shape.  Last year the lead motorcycle cop missed the first turn of the U inadverdently leading the whole marathon field off course by 0.8 mile short.  This unfortunate mistake caused many BQers (my daughter included) to not be able to register for Boston 2018.  They remedied this debacle by painting big red/pink arrows on the pavement at every turn this year. 

I went out too fast.  I think my body was conditioned to run fast in this training cycle which had me running 2 speedworkouts at VO2max and threshold paces and one long run at marathon pace a week for 8 weeks.  There was no step down or recovery week.  The mileage and pace build up for 8 weeks then a 4 weeks of tapering in mileage but pace intensity still increased.  My last long run was 20 miles 4 weeks out and I was not able to maintain the prescribed marathon pace of 11:00.  I think my body was just too trashed from the weekdays' speedworkouts to do marathon paced long runs on weekend (it's like racing a 5K or 10K every week). Anyway that's my theory, I feel like I don't know how to dial in marathon pace anymore.  I soon caught up to the 4:45 group within the first couple miles and hang with them for most of the first half.

My feet started to burn after about 10 miles.  I felt hot spots forming in the ball of my feet perhaps it from wearing new shoes on concrete road or the warm and humid weather.  I finally stopped at a med tent somewhere before mile 13 to take off the socks and shoes and put bandaids on my forefeet.  I also took a salt cap and ibupofen.  While sitting there I watched the 5:00 pace group ran past. 

I slowly reeled the 5:00 group in over the next mile and decided to hang with them after the hair-pin turn around (mile 15) when the course turned direction and I found myself running into headwind and sun in my eyes (I had forgotten to put on sunglasses but thankfully had running cap). 

I was good at hydrating remembering what Slick told me to do in warmer temp.  I would walk and drink 3-4 oz gatorade/water and dump water on my head at every aid station.  The aid stations were spaced about every 1.5 mile apart after the first 3 miles which was more frequent than I'm used to.  I planned to take Gu every 5 miles but the aid stations were not positioned near any mile marker.  At one point I started to take a Gu in my 20th mile seeing a nylon flag ahead thinking it was an aid station coming up, but in fact it was a relay exchange point.  That really confused me.  The course is a giant loop with many turns and road crossings which were manned by police or volunteers.  I found myself thanking and highfiving them, taking fluids from little kids.  This was such a well organized and friendly race with big city style but hometown feel.  The pacers were from local running clubs and have many followers.  The 5:00 pace leaders were an older man (60s) with a right sided lean (like his spine was crooked) and a younger girl (40s) who's originally from Utah.  She and I chatted up a storm.  Anyhow, I was feeling good until after 20 miles.  I think the lack of volumes in my mileage affected my stamina, and started out too fast finally caught up to me.  My calf started to cramp and my breathing was a bit labored (did I mention there was a headwind in the second half). 

The older pacer began to have the group take walk breaks.  He was really good at keeping pace and counting down the seconds to when we walk.  I really welcomed the walk breaks.  However with my shorter and fatigue legs, I could not walk as fast as the group.  They started to gap me with each walk break.  I stopped at the mile 23ish aid station and fumbled around to take a salt cap and ibuprofen.  And when I resumed running, the group was about 400-600 meters ahead.  I kept them in my sight and would walk when they walk. 

The last 5K was a death march with me fighting calf cramps and way behind the pace group.  My watch battery died and with more turns in the course,  I couldn't see the group, I lost track of my time/distance.  I leap-frogged with a lady and we started to talk a little and encourage each other.  At the south end of the park, with less than a mile to go, I saw my hubby who told me Larissa finished in 3:43 which put a smile on my face.  There was also a clock tower indicating a time of 7 min. to noon.  So I thought there's no way I could finish by noon or under 5 hr.  I started to walk a bit more.  The finish was around a curved cobblestone pathway.  A lady sprint past me by a pedestrain bridge urging me to go with her.  As I do so my calves started to cramp.  I was scared to death of charlie horse seizing me.  I mustered up enough energy to jog to the finish with a smile.  So happy to see my son-in-law and 4 grandchildren cheering me by the finishers fence.  They told me Larissa was being tended to in the med tent. 

After gathering my shirt, medal and some food, I sat down with my family at the tables and ate waiting for Larissa.  So glad that I finished upright, although not meeting my A goal, and had a wonderful time with my daughter and grandchildren. 

Mile 1 to 5:  10:38, 10:30, 10:41, 10:29, 10:49

Mile 6 to 10:  11:13, 11:05, 10:27, 11:44, 11:07

Mile 11 to 15:   11:27, 11:43, 14:53, 10:40, 10:35

Mile 16 to 20:  11:00, 11:10, 11:56, 11:27, 11:42,

Mile 21 to finish:  11:16, 11:33, 11:44, 12:47, 12:25, 12:38, 11:55

Saucony Guide 10 (2) Miles: 26.34
Night Sleep Time: 0.00Nap Time: 0.00Total Sleep Time: 0.00Weight: 0.00
Comments(4)
Easy MilesMarathon Pace MilesThreshold MilesVO2 Max MilesTotal Distance
27.344.302.000.0033.64
Saucony Guide 10 (2) Miles: 33.64
Night Sleep Time: 0.00Nap Time: 0.00Total Sleep Time: 0.00Weight: 0.00
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