1:14:10 🤠 & I was SO close to being a 113 girl 🙃 lost it the final few miles of 15 mph headwind but I almost got it back kicking in the final .18 at 4:16 pace (swipe to see end of race #raceface when I did see my time on the clock & kicked to try to be under but apparently just a lil too late 😜).
I mostly ran without looking at my watch except when it beeped a mile to see what I split. After CIM where I was so tethered to my watch & vigilant of splits due to the time barrier I did NOT want to race that way yesterday. I knew I was going to run through my old PR in a big way so I just let it happen by effort. 🙌🏽
When anyone asked, I had said I was solidly in 114 shape & could see the very realistic path to 113. Based on how many 5:3X and 5:2X miles I have split in training but more importantly how they have felt. On race day I let my body settle in where it wanted which it turned out was mostly mid 5:30s. I felt smooth, controlled, and strong the entire time. No hard miles, no feeling like I could blow at any second. If you recall when I finished CIM I said “that was hard the entire time.” Yesterday was not that way. It felt sustainable and very tangible.
I took in 5, yes FIVE @maurten_official gels throughout this race. I started slow feeding myself half a gel at a time at mile 2, I grabbed cups from every aid station but 2 of them. I trained for this bc there has not been a quality session in my training no matter how short since CIM that I haven’t taken in gels or drink mix during. My stomach is becoming my biggest asset for road races - I took in 100g of carbs per hour during this half marathon. I truly didn’t know if it could be done but I practiced this and executed it on race day.
No regrets over missing the 113 club by 10 seconds. Celebrating this 3.5 minute PR 🎉 (so long overdo) and also so looking forward to continued development of my faster road race distances in my future. I’m almost 37 & I’m continuing to run lifetime PRs. I’ve always been a late bloomer 🌹 so I welcome the late 30s & masters years of racing ahead for me. 🚀
Thank you @chevronhoustonmarathon - your event is so well organized. I highly recommend this race to everyone. 🙌🏽
This was hard fought. 2:36:28. 🥲 My 2nd OTQ. ✨ Years in the making. ✨
I saw this time in 2016 when I was a 3:03 marathoner watching the Olympic Trials from my couch. My short term goal was to break 3 but from there “what is possible for me? Sub-2:45 by 2020 & then sub-2:37 by 2024?” I believed then with years of work I could do it some day. I never wavered on if I could, only when. 💫
Each time I’ve chipped away & ran a PR no matter how small I was STOKED. 🎉 So proud & satisfied. 2:59, 2:56, 2:48, 2:45:13 (missing ‘20 OTQ by 13 seconds 😅), 2:42 ‘20 OTQ, 2:41 Trials, 2:40 Boston. (& there were DNFs, blow ups, & many hard long marathons along the way that I did not allow to linger & make me question myself & my long term goals). I never allowed the BIGGEST goal far off in the future to cast any shadow over each milestone I achieved along the way building towards what I felt was the ultimate goal for myself.
And the past few years despite a ton of instability in my life I continued to show up for myself working towards it. Whether it happened in this #OTQ window of time or not I would be so thrilled when it happened when it was meant to. 💫 This journey tested me so many times. Even yesterday the entire race I wasn’t sure I could do it that day. It felt hard the entire time (which I do know in part was due to weather. It was unusually warm & humid in Sacramento. I felt it from first steps & it impacted SO many runners yesterday. Carnage was massive.)
I executed the race I needed to - PATIENT early on, working with others, nailing my fueling strategy, staying calm & positive as each mile felt harder than the last. It was very much a “this is hard but you are splitting what you need to entire race.” I unlocked something new within myself when I went to that VERY dark place of bargaining/talking myself out of the goal bc it HURT. I was able to dig the deepest I ever have with a “how bad do you want this/you need to GO NOW” internal dialogue & turn it on closing harder than I ever have splitting my fastest miles at the end. 🔥
Never give up on your dreams. 💫
Thank you @nikerunning@maurten_official & my coach @neelysgracey . 💞
📸 @kevinlaraphoto
The marathon - I love training for it, I love racing it, I love spectating it, but most of all I love coaching it. 🥲
I love the atmosphere of race weekends, the culmination of months of hard work, the excitement of chasing down big goals, sharing miles with friends, training buddies, and often complete strangers over the course of a 26.2 mile journey, the pain yet the perseverance, and the glory and celebration of crossing each finish line.
A little shy of 3 years ago, a conversation in a bar post-Olympic Trials Marathon with @itsamarython led to a coaching job offer at @liftrunperform . I had been coaching on my own for years but what I didn’t have and couldn’t provide to my athletes on my own (among other things like strength, etc.) was a true community experience. I am so grateful to have found my way to the most inspiring and enriching job I’ve ever done with the best people to do it alongside. LRP coaches, I love you guys and I love the friendship we share. ♥️ And for the 2nd year it’s been my honor to co-coach the breaking 3 group with my soul sister @stefanieannflippin . I have so much love and respect for you. I can’t imagine not having you by my side for this. 💓
It’s not often that I get to be at the race for the athletes I coach who live all over the world. I truly cherish time spent in person at race weekends with them. I’ll be riding the wave of finish line feels and inspiration from CIM 2022 weekend for a long time. 🙌🏽💓
📸 @keithsutter
Snapshot of June in BV. 🏔️ Summer is already off to the best start & we’re only 2.5 weeks into time spent living high. 😍🙌🏽 Every day in this place shared with friends is so special. You are the architect of your life & you only get 1. Live it fully! 🤘🏽
Arizona will always have a big piece of my heart & the friends I have in Flag are a big part of it. 🫶🏽
These are the days. 🙌🏽 Big adventures & time spent with friends in amazing places. ⛰️ 🏜️ This is the smallest of snapshots from the past few days with incredible people I am grateful to call friends (both pictured & a few not in these photos). 🤍
@linz_mcd_@jbrazeau@heidi_n_runs@cpbarnes_ 💞
I’ve shaved over an HOUR off my road marathon time. 💫 3:39 ➡️ 2:36. 💫This Memorial Day Weekend marks the annual @runvermont Vermont City Marathon where as a 19 year old college student in 2006 (😱) I decided to check the bucket list & “do a marathon.” It was brutal 😂 & I ran 3:39. I then didn’t line up for another road marathon until 2015 (& in fact I didn’t run AT ALL for 6 years while in law school/ my first few years of being a trial attorney). I returned to running in 2015 & I’ve been chipping away at my road racing PRs since. In 2023 at 36 years old I ran my current PR of 2:36. ⚡️ And the really fun thing is I know in my late 30s & masters years ahead I have even more to give.
⭐️ Where you start has NO indication of where you can go in the sport. ⭐️
It’s never too late to pick it back up & get after your goals. 🚀 Self belief, positivity, working really freaking hard (& resting really hard 🦥), having an unbreakable resiliency & patience, taking care of your body/mind, and loving your daily training so much you just have fun with it 🤙🏽 yield RESULTS when you are consistent over years.
Dream big. Do the work. Have fun every day. ✌🏽 ❤️ 🏃♀️
So much run love. Always grateful for shared miles with old and new running friends. ☺️ The connections we make with others on our shared running journeys are what make this sport so special. 🤍 So much more to come this summer. ⛰️ 🤩
Can’t think of a better way to celebrate my birthday 🥳 than running in the woods for hours ⛰️🏃♀️ & spending the weekend with close friends & training buddies. 🫶
I lined up fully healthy after navigating a calf injury most of March. It’s never easy to watch your training plan get deleted week after week, lean into more rest and XT (temporary cyclist 👋) than you would ever typically do but I stayed mentally strong and confident in my aerobic fitness through it all. Ultimately I stood on the line not allowing this to predict my race or get in my head compared to what others did in their preparation. I had a strong start and finish to this training cycle. I loved it and had so much fun through it all.
I learned so much about myself on Saturday. I am thrilled with how I paced this & my goal was to come through the 50k feeling GOOD and I did (split 4:58 with 7.5k in vert feeling like I did an easy long run). I wanted to get through the climbing sections and have my legs for the more runnable ending which played to my strengths and I did bc my legs never fatigued on me out there. Nausea rolled in around 6:30 running time so I pulled my effort back and slowed fueling to work through it but unfortunately the next 2.5 hours it became a run/walk turned long walk bc I couldn’t keep anything down or take anything in. 🫠 53 miles was enough with the condition I found myself in and unable to turn it around safely.
I feel only stoke. Race experience is always good experience regardless of outcome. My body is strong for this. My aerobic system is a massive engine I’ve been developing for years and it’s also strong for this. My internal effort meter is great. Nutrition can always be fixed. Not missing peak weeks and longer long runs will help me work through more of this in training and fine tune everything ahead.
This is just the beginning for me. ⚡️ I can’t wait to do it again. 😈
📸 @shitinthewoods
In 2018 I passed through Boulder on an XC trip. I hiked up Sanitas while visiting and a guy ran by me on the trail. I remember thinking whoa people run this? I was exclusively a road runner then and was moving from Maryland to California so altitude also hit hard. I was admittedly very out of breath on my hike.
Fast forward 6 years and now I live here. 🤯 I spend my days running up these mountains, including that same trail on Sanitas (& feeling quite strong doing so). Every time I run up Sanitas I think back fondly on my first Sanitas hike. 🥲
What a wild journey it’s been the past few years for me for not only my running but just LIFE in general. All I know is that I am just really happy to be here. ⛰️ 🤍
Thank goodness spring running weather is here! 😉❄️🙃 I won’t complain, just happy to be back out there again. 🏃🏼♀️ First/only footsteps on the trail today. 🙌🏽
Anyone else lately? Relatable? 😅
Not forcing, just FLOWING with a rocky few weeks but grateful for a coach, PT, and friends (you know who you are 💜) helping me navigate rest to heal an angry soleus, XT to keep some fitness, and if you know me you know I trust things to work out as they should always 💫 and I am never one who would read the last page of the book if given the opportunity to do so. Rolling with it and staying positive (always). 😊
Hopefully I’ll be back running consistently again soon. 🤞🏽
