Marshall University Marathon

We are so excited to share this recap with you! We traveled to Huntington, West Virginia this past Saturday for the Marshall University Marathon (MUM). On Saturday, we left our house late morning and took the beautiful 4 and a half hour drive through southwestern VA and all the way through to WV. Mister and I both really enjoyed the fall foliage on the drive and saw beautiful scenery in the mountains. We also loved going through tunnels that went THROUGH MOUNTAINS!! Um, cool!

Going through a mountain tunnel!

Inside the mountain tunnel

There were lots of cool bridges in WV

Anyway, we arrived at the expo that afternoon and picked up our packets and all of our SwAg! This was one of the deciding factors in choosing this race, y'all. As full marathoners who signed up before September 1, we got an awesome jacket and a duffel bag! We also paid a little extra to get the tech shirt as well (and I got a women's fit! Yes!). The shirts are adorable. The jackets are SO FLY. And the duffel bags are so neat and a great extra touch! Also at the expo, there was a pasta dinner for runners, and that was so awesome! After we picked up everything and ate pasta, we checked into our hotel and took a surprise nap (my favorite kind!) until it was time to eat some more. We picked up an order of spaghetti from the local Olive Garden and ate it, prepared our stuff for Sunday morning, and went back to sleep for the night.

Swag-tastic!

Humongous salad trough at the pasta dinner!

On Sunday morning, we woke up very confused since the time changed overnight. But we got ourselves in order, got ready and headed to the Marshall University Stadium for the race start! We got parked and lined up pretty quick for a 7:00 AM start. The cannon went off very suddenly and away we went!

It's amazing how all the runners in a particular event can have such different experiences. For example, hubbs and I ran the exact same course, but we had totally different races. Stay with me, k?

HIS EXPERIENCE
This run was a little tough for Mr. Marathon. He felt ok at the start but quickly started cramping at mile 3. He had a huge mental struggle at this point. Should he stop and walk? Should he wait on his beautiful yet slower than him wife? Should he just give up and DNF? After walking for a brief little bit and refueling, he decided that he was going to finish. So that left him with two options- run with me or run it out on his own. There was one key word in both of these options: RUN. He knew he was going to have to run the rest of this race that was still ahead of him. So he decided that he was going to pull himself together and try to take control of the race and keep on keeping on! And that he did. Despite this early setback, he managed to turn out 7ish minute miles for the remainder of the race even though he couldn't get rid of the cramps officially until mile 18! He was so glad that he didn't just give up. He managed to get himself back on track for a 3:04:09 finish! This is still a Boston Qualifier and still an amazing finish time!


HER EXPERIENCE
I started out feeling ok, but also completely and utterly terrified. I had been training for 20 weeks officially, but since last November with my 100+ miles a month. I had built a really great base for myself. Since running Charleston in January of this year, I knew that I wanted a personal record really badly, but I also wanted to get my time under 5 hours. Um, that's ridiculous though right? Cutting off over half an hour is crazy far-fetched. Right? I was going to go for it, though. So I knew my paces and I had the confidence of my training with me. I managed to start on pace, and continue on pace all the way through the end of the first loop (this race was a half- 1 loop and full- 2 loops of the course) and I was still on pace and feeling awesome. I managed to keep up with my pace, and I was starting to get confused by miles 18-20. Um, am I doing this right now? Is this for real? Is my Garmin working? Or is it broken? Am I really STILL on pace to meet my crazy far-fetched dream-big goal? So I just kept going. At mile 20, I had the realization. If I could keep this up for just 10K more, I would get my marathon under 5 hours. I looked at the volunteers guiding us to the next water stop and I said "Hey guess what?? I'm going to get my first sub 5 marathon today!" and they clapped and cheered for me and I rode that high all the way to the finish line. In under 5 hours. In 4:56:51 to be exact! It definitely helped that my loving amazing supportive husband came back for me despite the fact that he was tired from running this course and giving it all that he had. He came back for me and met me at mile 24 to help me run it in. And I did it. I met my goal of breaking 5 hours in the marathon.

I have talked about this before as well. So many runners and even non-runners may think this is "slow". But I'm not about to compare myself to others in this regard. If you look at the fact that I have come from a 6:19 marathon all the way down to a 4:56 marathon with some intense training and commitment, I hope you can celebrate the accomplishment in that with me. I also hope you can be happy for me that I cut off 37 minutes and 10 seconds from my marathon time in January. I have not stopped training since Charleston, and I am so happy to say that it paid off. I cried crossing the finish line at the MUM, not because I was in pain or sad that it was over (lol), but because I accomplished something so huge for me. I thought this goal of mine was far-fetched, crazy, and impossible. And it was.... until it wasn't. As I said recently on a post on Instagram channeling my good friend Walt Disney-- "Do the impossible. It's fun."

Ok so this is what the internet says Walt said

And of course, more photos from marathon weekend!

Hittin up the EXPO

Running through the park along the Ohio River

I don't know about you! But I'm feelin (mile) 22!
Channeling T-SWIFT

Finishing in Marshall Stadium!

He came back for me!

The majestic buffalo statue

My finish line photo! I'm holding the football like an idiot
BUT I'M A HAPPY IDIOT!

We finished!!!!!!

USA South Cross Country Conference Meet & Carolina Spartan Beast

As I typed this, we were en route to Huntington, WV for the MARSHALL UNIVERSITY MARATHON (MUM)! I just didn't get a chance to post it because we didn't have internet on the road and my computer was dying in the car.... so now we're home and it's finally getting posted before we post about the MUM!

Now, last weekend was quite exciting for Mr. Marathon. I thought he was crazy to do all of what he did the weekend before a full marathon, but whatever, he did awesome.

 On Friday, we both traveled separately to Georgia for the USA South Conference meet for cross country on Saturday. He had a good run on a challenging course and managed to finish at 30:57 in 17^th place overall. His team finished 5th out of 8 teams. Then after the conference meet, we headed just a little further into Georgia to visit with my family before making our way back to South Carolina for the Carolina Spartan Beast race. He was in the competitive heat on Sunday, and he took off at 7:45 AM. The course was 14.2 miles with about 35 obstacles. This was a race he had done last year, but it was 2 miles longer this year. And he managed to finish 2 minutes faster than he did last year with a time of 2:24:30, putting him in first place overall for Sunday’s competitive heat. He was interested in comparing his time with the Elites that competed Saturday morning, and his time would have put him in 4^th place out of the Elites!!! Um WHAT!

Then we traveled back from the weekend shenanigans and I still had to do my last “long” run before the MUM: 8 miles. He was so sweet because he offered to run my 8 with me when we got back home. So this put him at a weekend total of 32 miles. Crazy guy.

So he took all this past week to recover (don’t blame him!) and I have been tapering and cutting back on my miles. Stay tuned for our next post about our awesome run at the MUM this morning!!

Cross Country meet

Pre-Spartan (note that they are all still clean!)
with Mr. Marathon's brother, friend, and him 

The only picture I got of him on the course
(I may or may not have fallen asleep on the job...)

Brotherly love!!!

Finish time/place- 2:24:30, 1st place overall!

Great Goblin Gallop 5K 2016

Flashback to October 22, 2011. It was my first 5K! I ran it in 39 minutes and I thought it was the hardest thing ever!
Fast forward 5 years later. I ran the exact same 5K on the exact same date: October 22, 2016. I ran the whole thing, and I completed it 11 minutes faster than 5 years prior (read about the other years we did this race too: 2012 and 2013). I had a great race this past weekend, and I finished in about 28:23 (according to my Garmin.... still waiting for official results). What made it even better is that almost our entire Sunday morning running group (the "Breakfast Club") showed up to race!!!! It was so much fun spending time with the Breakfast Club and supporting a local race. Unfortunately, Mr. Marathon was working that morning and couldn't be there, but the Breakfast Club (and Mr. Marathon's entire family!) showed up to race. Oh, and I placed 1st in my age group, so that was pretty groovy too!

The Breakfast Club!!!!

I started reflecting after this year's Goblin Gallop. Five years ago, it took everything I had to do 3 miles. Three miles was my long run. My weekly training was something like 2 runs a week of 2 miles or less, and I was averaging 13 minute miles, even pushing my hardest. Fast forward to present day- I am running 20-40 miles a week currently, training for the Marshall University (full!) Marathon, and my training paces are averaging around 9-10 minutes per mile for most runs. Now, this may not sound impressive to many of you, but looking back I am so proud. 5 years later, and I haven't quit. Doing something for 5 whole years without giving up, just taking some breaks and suffering from some injuries and burnout. Staying committed for 5 years to something as physically and mentally demanding as running has been quite a challenge.

So I encourage you to take a moment to reflect. How long have you been running? Has it ever seemed impossible? Do you ever take a moment to appreciate how far you've come (or gone)? Be proud of yourself. Running is hard-- believing in yourself doesn't have to be.

High fiving! 1st and 2nd place in the 25-29 age group!

1st, 2nd, and 3rd place 25-29 age group

Me with part of Mr. Marathon's family....
What a good-looking bunch!

Oh, and we are 11 days from the MARSHALL UNIVERSITY MARATHON!!!! EEEEK!

Goodbye Summer, Hello Fall!

Since the 4th of July, we have been running amok! We have finished out the summer running strong, and we just cannot WAIT until the fall weather officially kicks in, which should be soon! We have been a little busy with running and non-running related events, so what's been going on since the 4th of July in our running lives, you ask?

Harvest Moon 10K
Mr. Marathon decided to run the Harvest Moon 10K back in September. He had a good run and managed to finish 2nd place overall in 39:16 with a surprise PR of 20 seconds from this same race 3 years ago!

He sure knows to add pizzazz to his finish!

Averett Cross Country
Mr. Marathon has also started his 2nd season with Averett University's Cross Country team. He has had 2 meets so far, and he managed to squeak out a PR for the 8K at his meet this past weekend! He finished in 29:57-- a PR by 39 seconds!!! Wowie! He has a couple more meets left in the season so we will see how they go.

100 Miles a Month
I'm not even sure if I've talked about this here on the blog, but I had a goal set to do 100 miles a month each month in 2016. So far, I have successfully gotten my 100+ miles each month! Now I just have to keep on rolling through October, November, and December!

Marathon Training
Oh, and we have decided on a fall marathon to tackle! We will be heading to West Virginia for the Marshall University Marathon on November 6th! We are looking forward to it. We are 5 weeks out and in full swing with training. I have already gone up to a 20 miler this cycle and have 2 more 20 milers planned... gulp! Things are on track for us to rock out the MUM! Can't wait!

Our first 20 miler of this cycle last month...
Can't wait until the next one...???

#RWrunstreak & 4 on the 4th

Those of you following me on Facebook or Instagram may have noticed I have been posting a lot more than usual lately! But I have a good reason, I promise. 6 weeks ago, I (accidentally) started a run streak on Memorial Day. A little over a week later, I saw a post from Runner's World on Instagram about the Summer Run Streak. The streak consisted of running or walking at least 1 mile each day from Memorial Day through the 4th of July. It started by accident, like I said, but I realized that I was already 9 (out of 36) days in. So I was like "Hey, I can keep this up for 27 more days, no problem!" This was only semi-true. I could keep it up, and I did, but it was challenging! There are people out there who keep up run streaks for a full year (and more!!!!) and I had a hard time keeping up for 36 days. I definitely appreciated the challenge (and managed to keep up with my other goal of 100 miles a month) and made it through. You never really realize how busy you are some days, until you have that mile looming in the back of your mind that you still have to do. I had several days where I got to the end of the day and thought to myself, OOPS I STILL GOTTA DO MY MILE!!!! And then that's literally all I had in me-- one mile. Anyway, it was fun and a new challenge. I had so much fun for the first 36 days that I continued on my streak for 42 days to round it out to an even 6 weeks! 42 days, 44 runs, and 145 miles later, I am very glad to be done!!!


I did an Instagram/Facebook post for each day of the run streak so I have have put together collages for each week for you to enjoy! (I didn't have pictures for the first 9 days... but I found pictures for them!) If these pictures are too hard to see or you want to see the posts that go along with each, check out the posts on my Instagram!

Week 1

Week 2

Week 3

Week 4

Week 5

Week 6

We also did a race on the last official day of the Run Streak! Mr. Marathon and I got to travel north to Roanoke, VA for the 4 on the 4th! It was such a fun 4 miler. We got to do a practice run with local running group C&C Runners two days before the race. It was a little hillier than the 4th of July 4 miler we had done previously in Charlotte (in 2014 and 2015), but for being in Roanoke, it was not bad at all hill-wise. We felt good on race day, but we didn't expect any personal records... but lo and behold we got 'em! Mr. Marathon finished with a time of 24:28, which put him in 2nd place in his age group, 9th place overall! I finished with a time of 37:24, which is a huge PR for me from last year's time of 42:16!!! And I came in 9th place out of 36 in my age group... Usually I tend to fall closer to the other end of my age group, so I was excited to see that. All my speed work finally paid off I guess! We were both happy to see PRs, and we hope to continue to train and see such awesome improvements. 

We aren't signed up for anything else for now, but there's a few local races and possibly a couple of Spartans (for him, not me, duh!) and we're looking at a couple of big race options for fall...!

Busted Soles, Running the Vines 9.33K, Appalachian Power Festival Run 10K, and Tuff Strutter 5Kish

We have had some excitement in our run-ventures during the month of May! So this is one big post recapping all of May! So hold on and away we go...

Busted Soles

Last year, Mr. Marathon took on the Busted Soles Trail Race Series, which is a series of trail runs each Wednesday in the month of May of varying distances from 3-6 ish miles in Danville, VA. Each week was a different distance with different weather and different struggles, but each week, the first place winner was ALFREDOOOOO GARCIAAAA! He ended up winning the series overall, and then the final Wednesday night, there was a delicious potluck dinner of tons of yummy foods! Everybody won at the potluck! Even me, although I did not run in any of the races. Hah!

And they're off!

Race #3, which was about 4 miles

Last race of the series! I had to be in the pictures too!

The gang after the potluck dinner (Mr. Marathon is on the far right front row)

Running the Vines 9.33K

May 21st was supposed to be the day for me. I have been trying to get my 10K in under an hour for quite some time now. My previous PR for the 10K was 1:04:19 in 2013, and I was determined to get it under an hour. I haven't been doing many 10Ks but I had been training for a PR. I did a couple of practice 10Ks, and one day I got a 1:01, then after a couple more weeks of training, I got a practice 10K in under an hour! I was thrilled, and I knew (hoped????) I was ready. So I signed up for the Shelton Vineyards Running the Vines 10K, which we had done previously and it was actually my first 10K in 2012. Anyway, we drove over an hour to Dobson, NC to the winery to get our run on. We got ready, warmed up, and took off. Nothing was super eventful, and we started just fine. Both of us were a little confused when we got turned around a little early. Since we had run the course before, we knew where the turn around was supposed to be. Granted, Mr. Marathon was well ahead of me. But he was still equally confused, Both of us trusted the course volunteers and thought maybe they had added some mileage at the end or added an out and back somewhere along the way. But no, we were wrong. He finished with a time of 36:19 and me with a time of 55:51. But neither of us could accept these great PRs because the course was 0.4 miles short! He ended up finishing 2nd place overall though! It was great that the race organizers offered a discount for next year's race or some other local events due to the confusion, though! That was very nice of them and I do hope to do one of the races they offered, BUT I still didn't get my official 10K PR! Luckily, I remembered the Appalachian Power Festival 10K that would be held the week after. So, I signed up for that, and tackled it head on!

We both won! Hooray! psych

2nd place overall prize- a bottle of wine! Just in case we didn't WHINE enough during the race ;)

Appalachian Power Festival 10K

This race was all me. Mr. Marathon had another event coming up on Sunday the 29th, so this 10K on Saturday the 28th was all for me. We traveled north to Roanoke for me to finally (hopefully) get my PR! Today was the day! It was fairly warm (low to mid 70s) and very sunny, so that's a little uncomfortable to run in, but regardless, I was determined. I lined up at the starting line ready to go. Now, I got a little excited I guess because I started waaaayy too fast, but I managed to maintain my necessary pace for a PR for the first 4 miles. Then, the heat started getting to me. My breathing was ok, but I did have to use my inhaler, and I had my handheld water bottle with me, but the water was getting warm as well. I stopped at a water stop for some ice cold water, and kept trucking along. Because hubbs wasn't running, he was just spectating and taking pictures. He ran in with me after mile 4.8 or so. By that point, I was not feeling well. But I had managed to maintain my pace, so I knew I had to keep going despite the fact that I had 2 somewhat challenging hills remaining on the course. I kept going until I saw the finish after the final climb. I usually give an extra OOMPH at the end, but I didn't even have that in me. I saw a number starting with 5 on the clock  (it hadn't gotten to an hour yet!!!!!!), and gave what little I had left, crossing the finish line at 59:46!!! I did it! But I didn't make it much further before giving what I had left... in my stomach... on the pavement. Blech. That heat really got to me, but I managed to pull of a PR and my sub-hour 10K!!!! Hooray!

Going up the first hill of the course

Running along the Greenway

Victorious finish

We found some fellow MHC Inspire fellas from our running community!

My surprise 3rd place finish

Closeup of my bling

Tuff Strutter 5Kish

So now we talked about why Mr. Marathon did not run the 10K with me... It was because he was signed up to do the Tuff Strutter 5K(ish) the very next day. This is a great race that he did a couple of years ago. It is put on in conjunction with the music festival Rooster Walk that is held here in Martinsville and Henry County, and last year, it was moved to a new location and they didn't get to have the race. Now, before the festival and the race moved, he ran and won the race in 2014. He had heard that this year's course wasn't as hard as the previous course, which he determined after running this year's course was a lie! Or maybe it was the fact that it was raining the whole night beforehand so most of the course was nice and muddy and slick! He had his trail running legs it seemed since he had won the Busted Soles Trail Series, and so he did very well in this 5Kish (the ish is because it was closer to 3.4 miles I believe) and he won 1st place overall with a time of 23:41! 

The Tuff Strutters are off!

And he's done!

Now, we have finished out the month of May strong (despite a surprise root canal for SOMEBODY the day before the Running the Vines race), and we are taking on June. We don't have anything officially on the docket yet, but we are hoping to do a 4th of July run. Other than that, we are just going to keep on running!

Surprise root canal!

Yay!

Until next time, guys!