Lady Peaceful

And here we are, again, on the other side of the marathon. This time I split the difference: 3:41:50. Not a BQ, not a PRbut I’m more okay with this than after Baystate. The expectation and work weren’t in this one as much although I won’t say that I didn’t work at this one. I just didn’t work as hard as I had for last year’s Baystate so I’m happy with my result. Also it was a wet and not warm race, although I think the tempature wasn’t too bad until I was done. Granted I ran 24 miles in a poncho so maybe not ideal either... What I will say is the following: afterwards and when my husband mentioned how this race took grit I hadn’t thought about that before but I suppose that’s what this one. Yes people have run much worse ones (I live in Boston and remember 2018) but this was a race where I just went out and did it, not thinking. Also it is the first race where I didn’t have my headphones on and I liked that. It caused a different type of focus. I also really focused on the “let’s try to push and see what happens” once I passed a point where I needed to decide if qualifying was an option. That was a nope, but I think some of that stemmed from the no music and really needing to just focus on the running. Lastly, my legs hurt so bad towards the end but I am proud of keeping it together even with slower splits. I wanted to walk really badly but I didn’t and just allowed myself to slow down and put on foot in front of each other. It was a race that I felt like I lost focus with about 8-9 miles to get which is a tad earlier than I’d want. I think some of that stems from the training that I was missing so the fatiage and discomfort came earlier. Some could have also been the weather and my muscles being colder even if I didn’t totally recognize that or feel it. So here are my take aways: I’m in better base shape than I expected which is pretty cool. I can handle the marathon distance and have yet to have a total implosion which is kind of nice. I think I need to keep up the longer speed training and maybe try the long tempos with a longer base which I’ve kind of done before but not entirely. I also need to try and make my longer runs just a bit longer, more like 23-24 when I get up there. I also want to work on diet more and see how that goes especially before the longer speed and long runs. I may also slowly switch back to AM runs once I get back out there. Which leads me to the point that: yeah, it seems I’ll do another marathon. Not sure if I’ll try to find one in the fall or wait until next fall and focus on Hyannis and Eastern States for the winter. I don’t think I want to try a really train hard for a fall race; I don’t think I’ll have the motivation and winter is too picky. So, we shall see but I think I have a 3:30 in me so maybe I’ll try to race a fall half (1:40 goal) and placing in my local turkey trot. But for now, I am resting and enjoying that.