Remember those days when bloggers would, like, *announce* that they would be *making an announcement* like they were some kind of celebrity and everyone was just waiting around on tenterhooks to hear about what was happening next in their lives? It always made me think that maybe the announcement was something so terrible, so horrific, so shocking that we all needed to collectively prepare ourselves and brace for impact.
And then after days upon days of Twitter-stalking or hitting refresh on their blog, the "huge announcement" would be, "Hey, I'm an ambassador for this race!" or even just "I'm running this race!" or "I am running a *different kind of race* than I usually run!" or even "Some random brand gave me some socks to give away" or something.
Like Jesus, Stacy. I thought you were giving birth to octuplets or starring in your own limited-run HBO mini-series. Don't toy with my emotions like this.
Which is all to say, sorry if I am taking you off guard, just MAKING AN ANNOUNCEMENT all WILLY NILLY like this without warning you first and giving you time to prepare your smelling salts and fainting couch.So, like. Here is the announcement:
BUT WAIT! Please also enjoy this bonus announcement:
Marathons: Why Now?
After running three marathons in something like 45 days (Oakland, Boston, & Big Sur) in 2018, I was not-not-NOT feeling the double digits. Even when I got back to running again after a couple of months off, I was a lot more interested in working on getting some speed back and didn't have much of an appetite for anything over 5- or maybe10K. Part of me felt like, "You know, I'm satisfied with where I stand with the marathon, even if I never run another one in my life, that will be just fine".
I mean. Another small part, the part with missing toenails and scars all over my body from Boston rain-chafing, was loudly yelling "I AM NEVER GOD-DAMNED EVER DOING THIS AGAIN **EVER**!!", but the rational part of me knows that sometimes you say "never again" right up until you don't. So I compromised with, "I'm not going to think about marathons until they actually sound exciting and appealing again. And if that's never, then it's never."
Which is where things stood for a while. Then we had (are still having) a pandemic. Then we had vaccines and a little bit of racing but I felt terrible and sluggish all the time and running more than ten miles still felt very much like Not It. Heck, sometimes even more than six.
Plus I was constantly dealing with my wonky hip and hamstring, and then I quit for 3.5 months despite having three half marathons on my race calendar.
But then it was 2022, and somehow against all odds, near year = new me. I had a blast at Kaiser Half even though I wasn't in shape to do anything but finish, then ran my fastest half in nine years at Oakland Half just a few weeks later.
Oakland Half 2022, 1:40:56
And then in May, I ran my fastest 5K in TEN years.
That spring I found myself hitting paces in workouts that I hadn't seen in years, and then one day as I finished a longer workout I found myself thinking....."You know, I wonder how fast I could run a marathon right now." (I mean. Not right-right now. But with a few months of actual marathon training.) And...it wasn't a horrifying thought??
I had short races planned up through the end of May, then a vacation for most of June. And I knew there was some stuff I wanted to train for in the fall so I didn't want to jump back into super-intensive training over the summer. So realistically, it seemed like the logical window would be end of 2022/early 2023.
I signed up for Mesa first. Logically, CIM in December should have been my immediate go-to. I and the entire rest of the marathoning world knows this. It's a great race, a great course, and the closest thing to a PR/BQ/OTQ factory within 1,000 miles of here. Still, part of me wanted a new and different experience.
After some investigating, the major candidates were Houston (Jan 15), 3M (Austin, Jan 22) or Mesa (Feb 4). All three have fast courses and a reputation for good weather. Mesa is the closest and would give me the most time to train, so Mesa it was!
OK but back to CIM???
Well, thennnn we started talking more about spring half marathons. And how a February marathon probably means not immediately jumping into training for something. Which led back to CIM. And coach was like, "Listen, I know you're into running a new & different race, but there is a reason CIM is CIM and if you want to go all-in on a fast marathon, that's really the one." Also, CIM is a Pacific Association long course race so as long as I finish I'll be reimbursed by the club. #sweet
So the logic kind of goes like:
- If CIM is a great day, I can always defer Mesa or drop down to the half.
- If CIM is bad weather or I know by mile 15 that I'm having a bad race, I can drop out & regroup for Mesa.
So that's how I ended up registered for two marathons in eight weeks!
Goals & Such
In keeping with my new philosophy of chasing happiness and not achievements, I don't want to get too caught up in chasing a particular time or goal and hanging my enjoyment of the whole experience just on that. However, achievements can be a nice cherry on top of a fun experience, and there are a few that I'm thinking about:
- Qualify for Boston again (sub-3:40). I'd said in 2018 that I might try again when I aged up and got another sweet, sweet 5-minute buffer; however, soon after that, Boston slashed the qualifying times again, meaning that my qualifying time at age 41 (or really 43 since that's how old I'll be on the day of Boston 2024) is now the same as it was when I first qualified at age 35--three hours forty minutes. (Though, given that the cut-off for who was actually getting into the race was pretty much five minutes under the standard at that point, the effective qualifying time had pretty much been slashed already.) Of course, anything can happen between now and then and a big part of having a good marathon is luck. I'm currently running as fast or faster as I was in 2016 when I ran 3:31, though, so this feels not unreasonable to me.
- Run a PR (sub-3:31:45). I haven't run a lifetime PR since qualifying for Boston in 2016, so that would be cool. :)
- Sub-3:30. From a fitness/perceived effort standpoint, there is actually no difference between running 3:29 and 3:31, so I think this is also not unreasonable to imagine.
- Qualify for New York (sub-3:26). A few years ago I would have thought this was wildly unlikely, but then I ran 3:31? And it didn't feel that hard? And I feel like (for the most part) I've been running *at least* as well as I was then? So while yes, it's somewhat of a stretch in terms of everything going perfectly on the day, I don't actually think it's an impossible stretch based on how I've been running lately.
OK fine, one last announcement while I've got your attention:
(Just to be clear, I'm signed up for the half marathon, not a third marathon. 😂)
Indianapolis seems like a long way to go for a half marathon, what's up with that?
The thing about looking at the New York marathon time standards is that they list the half marathon time standards right next to them. In case you're wondering, for my age group, the time is 1:37. In March I ran 1:40:56 pretty comfortably. My PR is 1:38:52. So while I probably couldn't run a sub-1:37 tomorrow, I'm also not completely out of range, either.
This, of course, led to investigating fast half marathon courses a month or two plus or minus Dec. 4. After chatting with my coach, we settled on The Monumental (Nov. 5). Yes it's a haul, but it's also an *extremely* underrated half marathon and marathon if all you want to do is run fast. The weather is usually cold with good weather, the course is flat and fast, and it's well-organized and well-run. (I'm guessing the only reason it's not more of an OTQ hot spot is because the competition isn't usually deep enough to lend itself to that the way it is at say CIM, Houston, Grandma's etc.)
So there you go. Blog-nouncements! Let the marathon training commence! 🎉💃🏻🎊
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