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Boston marathon training: weeks 3 and 4

On By shorterandfasterIn Fitness, Running, Uncategorized2 Comments

Well, I think I can sum up the past two weeks as one super solid week of training and then a black hole of Christmas plus a stomach bug plus insanely cold weather. My plan was to amp up the mileage just a bit each week this month, and all was going swimmingly for week 3! I had a really strong week of workouts and totally felt like I was getting into the groove of training–I even actually did my strength work and yoga 🙂 I also saw probably the most gorgeous sunrise I’ve seen while running! I did obviously miss my recap during the holiday craziness, but that was bound to happen.

After some Christmas festivities with J’s family we continued our Christmas tradition of going skiing on Xmas day, and we were treated to a full-on powder day–my fellow New Englanders know this is a rare treat. It’s definitely a lot more work to ski in powder–my quads were feelin’ it! When we got home I went to bed feeling a little off, and woke up to a full-blown case of norovirus. I was basically immobile for the next couple of days, and couldn’t stomach a full meal until Thursday.

I definitely beat myself up at first about missing runs, but quickly let it go–these things happen, and there literally wasn’t any way I was going to move away from the couch at that point. Luckily by Thursday I was back on my game, so I hit the treadmill to test things out and then Friday managed to get outside. Of course, the temps in Boston have been insane this week–in the single digits with crazy wind chill factors. So that wasn’t ideal. I toyed around with the idea of doing Saturday’s long run indoors but managed to convince Alexa to head out to Newton with me for a spin on the marathon course. Despite the cold temps and some super icy sidewalks, we got it done–although I was absolutely dragging by the end. It was one of the hardest runs I’ve done in a long time, but it’s worth it to make the extra effort to get out of the house.

The rest of the weekend we spent relaxing and celebrating 2018 with friends. This was a pretty phenomenal year both for me as a runner (PRs galore + my first BQ) and personally (finishing my MBA and getting married). I can’t wait to really dig into the meat of training–check back soon for a post on my 2018 goals!

Week 3: 37 miles

  • Monday: 5 easy + strides, banded strength circuit
  • Tuesday: 1600, 1200, 800, 400 (track workout) for 6 total
  • Wednesday: 3 easy + 90 minute vinyasa yoga
  • Thursday: 5 mile progression run
  • Friday: Long run workout! 6 easy, 4 MGP, 3 strong for 13 total
  • Saturday: Rest day
  • Sunday: 4 easy

Week 3: 22.6

  • Monday: Downhill skiing at Waterville–powder day!
  • Tuesday: Stomach bug–zero.
  • Wednesday: More stomach bug–zero.
  • Thursday: 5 dreadmill miles
  • Friday: 5 mile progression run
  • Saturday: 12.5 mile (hilly) long run
  • Sunday: Banded strength circuit, ankle PT, and stretching

Linking up with The Weekly Wrap (hosted by Hoho Runs and Miss Sippipiddlin).

Boston Marathon Training: Week 2

On By shorterandfasterIn Uncategorized2 Comments

Woo hoo, week two! No matter how long I take off between training cycles, I’m always a little overwhelmed/super impressed with myself that I’ve been able to do as much as I have. Getting back into training during the holiday season is definitely tough–and this week was no exception. Also, this was the first week I had to contend with icy roads and truly cold temperatures. So–here we go!

Monday I kicked things off with an easy-paced run–being super careful to shuffle around the patches of black ice on the paths and sidewalks. Tuesday I was grateful to be back indoors with my track crew–local folks, you can learn more about these workouts here! Wednesday was a very welcome yoga class (I love warmer classes in the winter) and Thursday was a TOUGH hill workout. I definitely don’t do hill sprints enough and this one was a killer. I’m glad I did it though, because it warmed me right up and it was the first time I did a weekday workout over 7 miles in 6 weeks! Back at it for sure.

Friday was an unintentional rest day–the real feel was in the single digits in the morning so I planned to run home from work instead, and then promptly forgot my sports bra. Sigh. We hosted a small holiday gathering that night so it probably worked out for the best–I love hosting but it definitely stresses me out! I made a gluten free carrot cake (from this cookbook) and this mulled wine in the slow cooker. We also had candy cane brownies, chocolate mousse, and eggnog–a true treat feast! The next morning I was moving a little bit slower than usual so ended up being a little bit late for a group long run, but got to pound out a solid 12 miler with my girls. Sunday was going to be a rest day, but since I skipped Friday J and I braved the cold for a few miles together. I love when we can catch up on the run, and was glad I had company for this one.

Oh! Another exciting piece of news–I got chosen to be a 2018 Nuun ambassador! I’ve never been a brand ambassador before so this should be really fun. I love Nuun products and can’t wait to see what this new opportunity brings 🙂

Week 2: 33.6 miles

  • Monday: 4 easy + strides
  • Tuesday: 12 x 400 track workout
  • Wednesday: 90 minute vinyasa yoga
  • Thursday: hill workout! 12 x 90 second hill sprint at 10k effort, 4 x 30 second hill sprints at mile effort, easy recoveries down the hill
  • Friday: Rest day
  • Saturday: 12 mile long run
  • Sunday: 5.3 easy

Linking up with The Weekly Wrap (hosted by Hoho Runs and Miss Sippipiddlin), with Eat Pray Run DC for her training linkup, and with the Jess’s (Jess Runs ATL and The Right Fits).

Support my Boston Marathon run!

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Hey friends! This is going to be a short one, but in case you haven’t been bombarded yet, today is Giving Tuesday and I’m using it as an opportunity to kick off my fundraising for the Bowdoin Street Health Center. Their Healthy Champions Program is an anti-obesity, education, fitness, and community-building initiative serving children in the Bowdoin/Geneva neighborhood of Dorchester. While I secured my entry to Boston with a qualifying time, I’m honored to dedicate my run to this amazing program. To learn more or to make a gift, head over to my Crowdrise page at https://www.crowdrise.com/o/en/campaign/bidmcboston2018/leahofsevit. Thank you so, so much in advance for your support!

Even better, my brother is also dedicating his Boston run to the team at Tufts Medical Center who saved his life–more on that (and of course, the chance to lend your support) is here!

My bachelorette in NYC, aka the best weekend ever

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Something that I’m not very good at is accepting help from people without feeling guilty and/or obligated to immediately reciprocate. Being in a healthy and happy relationship for close to five years (crazy!) has helped a ton, but I’m still uber-sensitive about being indebted to friends. So wedding planning has been pushing me in a good way to do two important things–first, to take a deep breath and not be anal about every single detail, and second, to let my wonderful friends and family do nice things for me without feeling guilty.

I have eschewed a lot of the standard wedding stuff simply become it doesn’t resonate with me–I’m requesting no gifts at my shower, I’m skipping the expensive bridesmaid dresses, and I’m wearing something that’s non-traditional and very “me.” But I wanted to have a bachelorette party so that I could spend some quality time with my girlfriends before the wedding weekend–and I had a few requirements:

  • I wanted to go to NYC and go trapeze-ing outside, a long-time dream based only partially on that Sex and the City episode
  • I didn’t want people to have to do things they aren’t into or spend money they don’t want to spend
  • No invasive games, underwear gifting, or penis stuff (just, no.)

Well, my friends blew the thing out of the water and I had the most fantastic time. Other than snuggles and catch-up time with my favorite humans, the highlights included…

Delicious meals! We ate like queens all weekend–my favorite spots we visited were BKW by Brooklyn Winery (get their dry rosé and die happy) and Two Hands Cafe for brunch.

Two thumbs up for Two Hands!

Running! I harangued a few of my friends into going for a jog with me along the river and the High Line. The weather was perfection and I just couldn’t stop smiling the whole time.

 

Theater! I’m a total musical nerd, so we snagged tickets to see Josh Groban in Natasha, Pierre, and the Great Comet of 1812. It was a really interesting and offbeat show–definitely not your typical cutesy musical–but the singing and staging were fantastic.

Trapeze! We channeled our inner Carrie Bradshaws and 8 of us intrepid adventurers did a flying trapeze class at TSNY. It wasn’t my first time, but it was my first outdoor class and SO much fun to do it with friends. I’m glad we don’t have a place to trapeze in Boston any more because all of my money would be gone. Such a rush!

NOT graceful.

If you ever have a chance to try flying trapeze, it is incredible. It was a perfect cap to a incredible weekend–we even had nice weather smack in the middle of a disgustingly cold and rainy week. On top of everything else, my mom drove down and came with my cousin and her daughter (my junior bridesmaid) to brunch before everyone headed out. I felt so overwhelmed and loved all weekend long, and it made me even more excited for the wedding.

Back to more running-related posts soon, I promise! Linking up with Amanda today 🙂

 

Sugarloaf marathon week 6: more weather woes

On By shorterandfasterIn Uncategorized10 Comments

Well, as you might have guessed from the title of this post–winter is back with a vengeance in Boston. I had a fantastic week of training and was super stoked to hit my first 40+ mile week, but mother nature sure didn’t make it easy. This was actually my second-highest weekly mileage ever–and it didn’t even feel that hard!! Hurrah for training and especially hurrah for wise coaching 🙂

I started things off with a nice long recovery run before hitting the track for probably the last time in a little while. I love Nike’s track workouts but they’re a little bit shorter and faster (ha) than the speedwork I should be doing for marathon training–my workouts should be geared more towards stuff like tempos and mile repeats. Wednesday I did my banded strength routine and then went to my favorite yoga class for a much-needed sweaty stretch session.

Thursday morning I had tempo miles on the books–and I did NOT want to get my butt out of bed. But I did, and it was pretty great. The only runs you regret are the ones you don’t do, right? I had 5 miles at half MGP, and while the first one felt pretty intense, the rest really flowed and ended up being even faster than expected. It was definitely the confidence boost I needed before I race this coming weekend.

Friday I shook my legs out and unfortunately started the process of freaking out about my long run Saturday. I had 17 on the books and a couple of my pals had 18 and 20, so we joined a group bright and early for a bus ride from downtown Boston out to Ashland, which is at mile 3 of the marathon route. It was really, really, really cold, with “real feels” below 0 degrees for the entire run. I wanted to take it really easy but we ended up running a little bit faster than goal pace, mostly just to keep warm! Word to the wise–gels turn into chews at sub-zero temperatures…

I was super grateful for the company on this run, and even more grateful for the free burrito bowl at the end! My 17 miles turned into a strong 18, and I’m feeling even more confident that I’m on track to meet my goals. The rest of the weekend consisted of an annual bonfire party with friends and lots of cooking and blizzard prep–we’re slated to get 16″ tomorrow. Here’s hoping it clears up for my half marathon next Sunday…

Week 6: 43.2 total miles

  • Monday: 7.1 recovery
  • Tuesday: Track attack! 5 miles total, workout was 6:45 avg. (details here)
  • Wednesday: Strength circuit and 90 minute vinyasa yoga
  • Thursday: Tempo tempo tempo–1 up, 5 at half MGP (7:30, 7:28, 7:26, 7:11, 7:22), 1 down
  • Friday: 5.7 easy
  • Saturday: 18.3 freezing miles!
  • Sunday: Rest 🙂 + mobility and corework

Linking up with The Weekly Wrap (hosted by Hoho Runs and Miss Sippipiddlin) and with Eat Pray Run DC for her training recap linkup. Also, joining the Jess’s (Jess Runs ATL and The Right Fits) for their weekly recap linkup!

Sugarloaf Marathon, here I come! #bqorbust

On By shorterandfasterIn Uncategorized15 Comments
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Save the date sneaky peek

Hey friends! I’m back with a wee little update on my 2017 goals, which have changed a fair amount since I last posted about them. First and foremost, I did some hard thinking/planning and decided that if I want to run a marathon in the next year or two, this spring is really the best time–since fall 2017 and spring 2018 are both out due to my wedding and honeymoon (I know, rough life!)

So of course, the next step was to figure out which marathon to run! I did a lot of reflecting after both New York and Chicago, and I knew this time around I wanted something small and not too far away. I immediately thought of the Sugarloaf Marathon, which was where my brother ran his first BQ in 2014. I actually ran the 15k that year and loved it, which is a good sign since it’s last 9 miles of the marathon course. Sugarloaf known as a fast net downhill race and a great place to BQ. Plus, it’s within driving distance and near our cabin (where J and I are getting married in September). It’s also in May in Maine, which usually brings some nice cool weather. Sold, sold, sold!

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The other thing I’ve been threatening to do for a while is to bite the bullet and hire a running coach to help me reach my goals. I did some poking around online and ended up entering a giveaway for a 2 week coaching trial from Laura over at This Runner’s Recipes. I’ve been reading her blog for years and I think she provides some of the smartest, sanest, most well-researched running advice out there. Plus, she ran an incredibly well-executed BQ marathon at CIM this December–basically, she ran the race I hoped to run in Chicago.

When I didn’t win the giveaway, Laura offered a free coaching trial anyway and I loved it. I’ll go in-depth in another post, but having a coach has been fantastic–it takes all of the guesswork and planning out of marathon training! I know the plan I’m following makes sense for my background and my goals. Laura has been really flexible in incorporating my group runs and races into my plan. Here’s a quick overview of what the last few weeks have looked like–not sure if I’m going to officially call it marathon training just yet, but I’m easing into ramped up mileage and getting ready for my half in March.

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Learning to SLOW DOWN.

Week 1: 31 miles

  • Monday: 3.5 recovery miles + strides
  • Tuesday: Track workout (details here), 6.4 miles total
  • Wednesday + Thursday: Rest (fighting off a cold, boo)
  • Friday: 4 easy
  • Saturday: 10 easy
  • Sunday: 5 mile race (7 total with warmup, race recap here)

Week 2: Cutback week! Lots of easy miles, 30 total

  • Monday: 60 minutes of yoga and 3 very slow recovery miles
  • Tuesday: Rest
  • Wednesday: 5.6 easyimg_1521
  • Thursday: 4 easy
  • Friday: 4.3 treadmill miles on “rolling hills”
  • Saturday: 13 slushy, cold miles
  • Sunday: 90 minute yoga

I’m hoping to get back into my weekly marathon training updates–I really enjoy reading everyone else’s and hope mine are helpful too. It’s going to be so fun to jump back into some really strategic training and finally get that BQ I know I’m ready for! Round 3 here we GO!!

Linking up with The Weekly Wrap and with Eat Pray Run DC for her training recap linkup!

TOL: Post-marathon fall fun

On By shorterandfasterIn Fitness, Running, UncategorizedLeave a comment

speedrun_10_25_16__mg_3427It’s officially my favorite season–cool temps, #foliageonfleek, pumpkin everything–how can you not just LOVE fall?? I’m also really enjoying have a bit more flexibility in my workouts instead of following a strict training plan. I’m definitely very type A so I’m sure this will change soon, but I’m going with it for now. I definitely thought I would miss having a training plan more than I have so far!

Basically, the past few weeks I’ve been sticking with doing something active 6 days a week (some habits are good ones to keep around), but more of those days have been things other than running (i.e. lots of yoga). In case you’re curious, I have a yearly unlimited membership to Yogaworks Back Bay. I did the math and figured out that if I go an average of twice a week, it’s much cheaper than buying class packs or waiting for sales. I have a whole post on saving money on yoga classes–check it out here if you’re interested!img_0719

I think in terms of marathon recovery, I probably could have taken more time off than I did, but I was itching to get back out there so I went with it. You live, you learn! I am still feeling some residual tightness in my hip flexors, but the yoga is helping loosen them up. I do have a half marathon in a few weeks, so I’m hoping to get in a couple of longer runs (8-10 miles) in addition to track workouts, and then see how things go from there. It is lovely to be able to vary my workouts based on what I’m in the mood for–or even skip them altogether if that’s how I’m feeling. We also got a hike in last weekend up Mount Monadnock, which is just lovely–under 2 hours from Boston and a pretty quick hike (2.5-ish hours total if you’re moving briskly). Not the easiest but the views are worth it.

img_0780In non-running news, J and I are finally making some progress with wedding planning! I have my dress and we officially booked our first vendor. I’m finding this process to be pretty annoying, so it’s nice to see a couple of things fall into place. My running/wedding related question is–is this worth $140?? I think it’s adorable and we’re gonna do some wedding weekend runs for sure, but it’s a fair amount of money! Thoughts??

Also, because old habits die hard, here’s a workout recap from post-marathon until now. I think it’s really interesting to see how other people transition from recovery back into a new routine, so I hope this is helpful!

Weekly Workouts:

  • 10/12-10/13: OFFimg_0734
  • 10/14: 60 minute yoga (ouch)
  • 10/15: 3.8 easy fall miles
  • 10/16: 90 minute yoga
  • 10/17: 3.9 miles at 8:09 pace
  • 10/18: Back to TRACK! 24×200
  • 10/19: First November Project stadium workout! 19 sections (again, ouch)
  • 10/20: OFF
  • 10/21: 90 minute hip hop yoga
  • 10/22: First “long” run–5.7 miles at 8:15 pace
  • 10/23: Mount Monadnock hike!
  • 10/24: 5.1 easy miles
  • 10/25: Track attack! 5.9 miles total, speedwork at 6:54 (details here)
  • 10/26: 60 minute yoga

Linking up with Running with Spoons for Thinking out Loud Thursday!

Chicago marathon recap part 2: the weekend

On By shorterandfasterIn Uncategorized2 Comments

img_0583Howdy, friends! I’m back to recapping my time in Chicago–click here if you missed my race day recap. It was such a fun weekend to be in town! Chicago is one of my favorite cities, and it happens to be where one of my favorite friends lives. Here’s a recap of what we did before and after the race–including lots of food and a little bit of Hamilton!

I’ll rewind back to last Thursday, when we flew out late in the day and popped into Lyfe Kitchen for a quick dinner. We really liked it–they had a nice and varied menu with lots of gluten free options. Friday morning we were up relatively early–J wanted to pop into the November Project workout and I wanted to get rolling pretty early to the expo. We hopped on a shuttle around 9am from one of the downtown hotels and it dropped us off right at the expo–definitely a super smooth way to get there.img_0600

Having been to the marathon expos in both NYC and Boston I have to say this one was really well organized and actually not that overwhelming–although we did miss Shalene Flanagan’s book signing, which I was bummed about. We snagged my number and t-shirt and then I picked out my splurge marathon swag item–a red half-zip I have basically been living in since the race. It’s really easy to get overzealous and spend way too much time walking around (and shopping around) at the expo, so I’m pleased we were able to sneak out with just a few purchases. J did get me one of these babies as a marathon present and I LOVE IT. Totally worth spending the money for the real deal.img_0610

After the expo we meandered our way up to Wheat’s End Cafe, where had to keep myself from ordering every single thing on the menu–the entire restaurant is gluten free!! Nirvana. In the end we split a pumpkin cinnamon roll and I had a fig, brie, and prosciutto sammie. Next time I’ll have to come back and try the gf popover!

We spent the rest of the afternoon wandering down through the zoo–I’m not the biggest zoo person (they make me a little sad) but we had a great time. It’s super cool that the zoo there is free and easily accessible. img_0618We met up with my college bestie Deby and made our way to The Northman, which is a cider bar! So cool–I really loved the ones we tried. We need one of these in Boston, stat. The evening was spent catching up and chowing down at Homeslice, which has fabulous gf pizza. Good food, good times, good people 🙂img_0670

Saturday morning I harangued J into coming on my shakeout run with me, so we did some run-sightseeing and stopped by the bean for the requisite photo opp. We also checked out the runner reunite area to get our bearings for Sunday. Post-run we met back up with Deby and ventured to Grange Hall for my pre-race lunch burger. This baby is sitting on top of two slices of gf french toast and is topped with bacon, Canadian bacon, cheese, and an egg. WOOF. I swear there is actually a burger under there somewhere…img_0626

Basically all that eating had to be enough to sustain me through the many emotional ups and downs of finally seeing Hamilton!!! I am a total musical nerd and have been obsessively listening to the soundtrack for a good year, so when I saw the show was going to be in town I bit the bullet and spent way too much on a couple of tickets. I have to say that it was totally worth every penny–I laughed, I cried (a couple of times… ok, maybe 3…) and just absolutely adored it. It was hands-down it was one of the best theater experiences I’ve ever had. Other musical geeks, get at it–it’s worth it.img_0655

Post-Hamilton we grabbed a simple dinner at Whole Foods and hunkered down for some TV time while I prepped all of my race stuff. Then, you know, I ran a marathon (obviously it has its own post). After the race we wound down at Deby’s and then had lunch with another college friend. I’m usually not super hungry after a big race (the next day though, watch out!) so we took things easy. It was so nice to celebrate with these fine folks!

dindinJust to make our departure experience extra exciting, we got to the airport to watch our flight get delayed due to the hurricane… twice… so we bit the bullet and decided to reschedule for the following morning, which meant staying at a hotel and eating some microwaveable meals for dinner. Definitely not a high note on which to end our weekend, but I was SO ready to sleep and grateful to get home at a reasonable hour. Overall it was a wonderful weekend and lovely to see so many great people and eat so many delicious things!

I’ll be back shortly with a more running-centric look at what went well, what went not so well, and what my future plans are in regards to the marathon.

Talk to you soon!

Leah

Linking up with Tuesdays on the run!

Chicago marathon recap part 1: the race

On By shorterandfasterIn Fitness, Running, Uncategorized14 Comments
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The many feelings of marathon running.

I think it’s going to take more than one post to fully cover all of my thoughts on my Chicago Marathon experience, but I’m going to dive in and get right to the heart of it with a recap of the race itself. Warning: long post ahead!

Let’s go back in time to early Sunday morning, when I woke up around 5 and headed down to the kitchen of our (super cool and nice) hostel to make my bagel and banana. The whole place, of course, was full of sleepy runners chowing down on their pre-race meals. I left myself lots of time to eat and sip coffee leisurely… by which I actually mean running to the bathroom 7 times. #runnerprobs. The coolest thing about Chicago other than the fact that it actually starts at a reasonable morning hour (looking at you, NYC and Boston and your post-10am start times) is that most people end up staying close enough to walk to the start. Even in the dark, at 6 am, the city’s main streets were full of runners all heading downtown. Excitement! Nervousness! I have to pee again!img_0656

I rendezvoused with the girls at Alexa’s downtown hotel and we made our way together to the start area. Despite being a huge race (around 40K finishers–for reference NYC has around 50K and Boston has approximately 30K) everything was incredibly well organized, and we found our start gate no sweat. We had a few minutes to spare before our 7:30 start time so we waited for one last stop in the porto potties before entering our corral. We squeezed up to the front and chatted a bit with some of the vets around us–and then we were off!

As pretty much everyone will tell you, you run under a bridge during the first mile or so of the race and everyone’s GPS watches get completely thrown off for the rest of the race. So that happened. For evidence, take a look at my Strava which somehow thinks I ran 27.6 miles… yeah, NO. Also, we tried our best to follow the blue line painted on the street that is supposed to help you run the shortest race distance–not sure it was helpful, but it was definitely distracting!

The first 13 miles were a little bit of a blur, but a really fun/fast one where I got to see J and my Boston running friends Aime and Liz all within the first few miles (hi guys!!) One of my buddies, Danielle, had a 3:30 pace bib on her back so we ended up with a little crew of people all aiming for the same goal time. We ran with them for about 15 miles or so–they were lovely! Given our messed up watches we had to put a fair amount of mental math into keeping ourselves on pace, but we hit the half mark at 1:45:40, putting us almost exactly on track for our goal. (I think this was mistake number one, TBH–more on this to come!)

img_0650The second half was where things started to unravel a little bit. I lost both Danielle and Alexa around mile 16. I ran with one of our other newfound 3:30 buddies until mile 18 or so when I stopped for a quick bathroom break. This was followed by a couple of miles of pretty bad cramps, which I think may have been due to a bit too much water too fast (it was getting hotter and I was definitely drinking to compensate). Either way, I was not feeling fantastic, and my pace definitely reflected that.

It was about at this point that I knew 3:30 wasn’t going to happen.img_0645

I’m actually glad I was alone at the moment of that revelation. It wasn’t easy, and I needed to keep my head in the game to keep putting one foot in front of the other. I plugged in my headphones and set my mind on thinking about mile 21, where I knew Jeremy and my bestie Deby and her bf would be cheering. Headphones on, my new goal was just to keep moving. My cramps had cleared up but I was feeling it in my legs. And hot, still hot–it had been in the mid 50s at the start but it inched up to almost 70 in the sun at the finish. I trooped by my fans, which gave me a big boost, and aimed my mind ahead to the finish. I HAD this. I was going to finish and I was going to hit a big PR! The last few miles were loud and crowded, and I kept my focus forward, trying to ignore the runners around me who had juice left to pick it up for the final push.

At the very end of the race there is a tiny hill/bridge that feels like a mountain–I pushed myself to work up it and ticked off the 800, 400, and 200 meter signs to plod through the finish line. It was a big rush of emotions–mostly grateful to be done, mostly proud, a little bit angry that I still had to walk to get to Jeremy and a place to sit, and a little bit disappointed. I held it together and hobbled out of the chute (which is not as long as NY but not short) and grabbed a water, snack bag, and a bag of ice (because why not…?) I trekked through family meeting area, where I pretty much collapsed onto J and let a couple of tears and a bunch of sweat fly onto his shoulder. I was DONE, and ready to be happy and proud. I did something I never thought I could come close to doing.img_0646-1

So the big overall takeaway? I ran my first marathon 11 months ago in 4:05:54, and I ran my second marathon this past weekend in Chicago in 3:36:03. I am incredibly proud of this accomplishment–I know that it’s no trivial feat to cut 29 minutes off of a marathon time in less than a year. That said, I would have loved to scoot in under 3:32 or so for a Boston Qualifying time, and I think that given the right circumstances it’s something that I still have in me. Much more to come on my weekend adventures in Chicago, HAMILTON, the marathon expo, and my reflections on this training cycle–where I’ll revisit my takeaways from last year and and see how I measure up. Plus I’ll include some thoughts on what’s next for me 🙂

Thank you for reading, commenting, and supporting me throughout this training cycle! I’ve had so much fun documenting everything and will absolutely be continuing to chronicle my journey moving forward. Happy trails!

Leah

Linking up with The Weekly Wrap!

Chicago Marathon = DONE!

On By shorterandfasterIn Uncategorized3 Comments

Though sweat, pain, and tears, I did it! It was just shy of my goal but with a 3:36:06 finish, I managed a 29 minute PR. Lots of thoughts and a full recap to come, but the deepest thanks and lots of love to Jeremy, Alexa, Danielle, and Deby for being the best supporters during every step of this journey.

“If you are losing faith in human nature, go out and watch a marathon.” – Katherine Switzer

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Linking up with The Weekly Wrap, hosted by HoHo Runs and MissSippiPiddlin!