Started the run with my boys. The crowds were thick so I got separated a few times, but all in all we kept together. As we were running, everyone kept yelling "Happy Birthday!" Poor Ron finally asked "how many people did you tell???" I told him I had a sign on my back - it said "Today is my 30th Birthday!". This was one of the most fun things I did this race. I got so many comments all throughout the race. At mile 3, I missed my mom on the sidelines because about 10 other runners decided to sing Happy Birthday to me as we ran. How much fun is that? Tom asked before the race how obnoxious I was planning to be this race and I told him it would be pretty bad. I guess the sign helped that goal right along!

Before the race, we had no real time goals. Earlier this week my dad announced he was probably ready to run a 4:30 so that became our goal. Well, he was on a mission! I told him we needed to run 10:15s to get there, you can see from the splits he wasn't convinced. Poor Ron was expecting us to run 10:15s (maybe because I told him that's what we were running) and pushed too hard to keep with us, so at mile 4 or 5 we lost him. At mile 9 we hit the turn-around for the half so Chad left us there. Now it was just my dad and I.

I felt great, running along. My dad was in charge of the walk breaks because I can't be trusted to keep the time. Turns out he can't either, he kept missing them. I'm ok with that, but he likes the walk breaks on the long stuff.

I was having trouble with hydration, I was super thirsty the whole race (probably due to the stomach issues of the morning) and kept having to stop to pee. That cost me several minutes since I had to stop twice in the first 15 miles, the first time waiting on line for an extra minute.

Besides the hydration, I felt great until about mile 13. That's when my stomach reminded me of it's presence. At mile 16, my dad wanted to start walking more because he was hurting. That would be fine except for the fact that walking made my stomach worse then running. Normally it's the other way around. Every time we walked it got worse and I was fighting the urge to lie down on the ground and hope to die or start hurling, I honestly couldn't decide which would be better. At 17.5 we decided to split up. He needed to walk and I honestly don't think I could have finished if I kept walking. So, off I ran.

We did the math and knew I had a shot at finishing in 4:30. However, my legs felt great and I felt best when moving fluidly, so I kept a happy pace. Several miles later, I realized my happy pace put me on schedule for a 4:20!

At mile 19 or so my hip started hurting, so I had to focus on my abs. I did break down and take some advil, first time in a good year or so. It made me sad to do it, but I had a shot at a 4:20 which I was excited about. I met Chad and my family at mile 23 and only stopped for a second. Chad goes "You're on pace for a 4:30". I told him "No! A 4:20!" and ran off. The last few miles I knew I was pushing it close, plus I felt incredible so I picked up the pace some more. It wasn't until after the race that I saw I picked it up significantly. I made myself continue to walk for 30 seconds every 5 minutes (I didn't want to burn myself out). Sometimes the 5 minutes took hours to come (or so it seemed), other times it was there before I knew it.

Finally I saw it, the last turn. I walked the block before because I knew the finish line was close and I wouldn't want to walk once around all the crowds. I turned the corner and took off. I imagine I passed a good 50-100 people in that last half mile. I was flying. I kept hearing the crowds saying "Look at her!" "How is she moving so fast at the end" Even the announcer as I came through said "just a reminder that this race is 26.2 miles long because you wouldn't know it the way these 2 are moving!" It was at that point that one lone guy passed me. Oh well, he looked awesome so more power to him! I do need to remember how long the last stretch is, I picked it up too early, luckily I was able to hold on, but it hurt! I looked up the final race statistics, in the last 7.5 miles, I passed 952 people and only 1 passed me (I think I know who...). How awesome is that???



Trade in my stomach for one that works properly. Also, get the hydration under control, that cost me a good 3-4 minutes. If I were really trying for a time, I would have started further up, it took a lot of mental and physical energy to break through the crowd at the start.

Walked to get my finishers picture, then walked around the post-race area for a while until i decided it was time to stretch. Stretched it out and chatted with a very nice guy (an ultra runner who just BQed) until my dad called, he finished in 4:47 which is a great time and much faster then I thought he would be when I left him!


Stomach / hydration issues. I'd say running the first half at my family's pace, but if I ran that faster, I might have been slower in the end, so who knows? I also could have trained better. The plan was to come off of Marine Corps and take 2 weeks rest, then start training. instead I ran a 50K 2 weeks later, then raced a 5K the next weekend, then realized I not only missed my recovery weeks, but had missed the beginning of my training! So, I would definitely plan better next time and map out my training more accurately if I were planning to PR.