Race Recap: Indy Monumental Marathon

Well hello!

I am coming at you today with a long-winded race recap of the CNO Financial Indianapolis Monumental Marathon. Let’s just hope that the post is less windy than race day in Indy! I don’t really even know why I am back on the blog writing this, but perhaps, “I just felt like writing.” If that last sentence conjured up some sort of mental image of Forrest Gump saying, “I just felt like running,” in your brain, then you are my people. I mean, have you really even lived if you haven’t referenced Forrest Gump in a post about running on the internet? You’re right. You really haven’t. Now, where were we? The short version is that I felt like running a marathon and subsequently felt like writing about it.

I’m finding that it’s a tad tricky to just jump back in with a race recap blog post without filling you in on some of the details along the way. I will try to be brief, but if you have read a single one of my blog posts in the past, you know that is not really my style. I seem to be flipping and flopping back and forth about whether or not I want to write about my life, training and races on the interwebs. As of right now, the answers seem to be no, maybe and yes, respectively. Ha.

Life

Seeing as how I JUST said that I don’t want to write about my life on the internet, I will actually keep this part brief. A lot of things in my life are still the same (same wonderful family, same friends, same job, same adorable doggo) and a lot of things are … well … different (new boyfriend (although he’s not really all that new at this point 😉), new home, new goats and an entire new outlook on life). I’ve always been a bit of a perfectionistic, people-pleaser and while I am sure there are still a few remnants of that hanging around, I really feel like I have started to let go of other people’s expectations about what my life should or should not look like. I am happier and more confident in myself than I ever have been and honestly, it feels REALLY GOOD.

Training

After a disappointing (yet completely expected and understandable) race at Boston, I started thinking about the idea of a fall marathon. My coach suggested Indy as a goal race and that was really all it took for me to jump on the wagon. I was even able to secure a spot in the “elite” field, which was such a wonderful experience. It should be noted that they had so many applicants for the elite field this year that they actually had to lower the time qualifications along the way. If I hadn’t signed up in May before they changed the standards, I likely wouldn’t have been accepted into the field.  

Even with a marathon on the calendar as my primary goal race, I wanted to spend the summer months focusing on speed and racing some shorter distances before building the volume up and easing into marathon training. I ran a 5k in June (my last blog post!), a 5k and a 2 mile race in August and another 5k in September. I ran 17:37, 17:36 and 17:21 for the 5ks respectively a 10:58 for the 2 mile race. I was satisfied that my speed was where it needed to be, but I knew that the bigger challenge was going to be getting my endurance up to par. Over the last couple of years, it has become increasingly evident that speed is my strength, while endurance tends to be a bit of a struggle (which is obviously not wonderful when your goal race is a marathon).

During September and October my workouts got longer as the focus shifted towards working on my stamina and being able to comfortably sustain marathon effort. A few of my key marathon pace workouts went really well, but I had a few flops too. The key ones that stand out as “good” now were 12 miles with 8 miles at marathon pace (6:09 avg.), 17 miles with 10 miles at marathon pace (6:03 avg.), 18 miles with 12 miles at marathon pace (in the form of 3 X 25 minutes (6:17 avg.)) and another 18 miles with 12 miles at marathon pace (in the form of 2 X 6 miles (6:11 avg.)).

I also had a few really, really strong threshold workouts. The threshold workouts really seemed to be my sweet spot throughout this cycle. I really wish I had gotten to do a 10k this fall because I know my threshold work had me set up for a big PR. I was supposed to run a 10k in October, but I had a minor hamstring niggle and also got a cold shortly thereafter, so I didn’t end up doing the race. I remember telling my coach that I wasn’t as disappointed about missing the race as I thought I would be because I KNEW that my fitness would be back to this same level in the future. That was a mental turning point for sure. Last fall, I distinctly remember always feeling like I would never be this fit again in my life. Getting back to that same level and even a little bit stronger this fall helped me realize that perhaps the best is still yet to come!

A few of my key threshold workouts were 12 miles with 8 miles at threshold pace (in the form of 4 X 2 miles (5:44 avg.)), 10 miles with 7 miles at threshold pace (in the form of 4 miles, 2 minute rest, 2 miles, 1 minute rest, 1 mile (5:49 avg.)), 9 miles with 6 at threshold pace (in the form of 4 miles, 3 minute rest, 2 miles (5:50 avg.), 11 miles with 10 X 1k at threshold (5:35 avg. (got a little carried away on that one)). I also did a 16 X 400 meter repeat workout not once, but TWICE during this training cycle (5:10 avg. & 5:16 avg.). Holy moly. Those were some REALLY long track workouts!

My hope going into all of this was that my fitness would reach a level that would put me in a good position to qualify for the U.S. Olympic Trials. In order to do this, I needed to run faster than or equal to 2:45:00, which is the women’s B-standard for 2020. My previous personal best was 2:53:05, so I needed to take just over 8 minutes off of my time. My training indicated I would be really close and I was ready to take a swing and see what happened!

Race

I mentioned earlier that I was accepted into the “elite” field in Indy and what a huge blessing this was! As it turns out, McKirdy Trained (my coaching group) had 15 athletes in the elite field and the majority of these were women. We were given bottles to use for our fuel and I was able to meet most of the other women the day before the race at either the shakeout run or at the elite athlete meeting. I really enjoyed the team vibe that we had going!

The race did a really good job hosting a whole heap of elite athletes. There were 62 women and 60 men in the elite marathon field. There were also elite fields for the half marathon as well as the 5k, so it was A LOT of runners to accommodate. I believe this was actually the first year that the entire race itself sold out with 19,000 participants! Wowza. We were asked to give a predicted finishing time for seeding purposes and I ended up with bib #61 out of 62. Ha. Like I said, got in the elite field by the skin of my chinny chin chin. For whatever it is worth, I predicted a finishing time of 2:50:00 and I’m assuming almost everyone else predicted closer to 2:45:00, as it seemed that just about everyone was gunning for an Olympic Trials Qualifier (OTQ).  

We had an elite meeting Friday evening to go over a few of the last-minute logistics (most of it had been communicated via email already). The main thing that we did at the meeting was drop off our water bottles and learn how we would actually locate them during the race. They set up 10 tables at the 10k, 20k and 30k marks. Each table had 12 bottles, 6 bottles for women on the left side and 6 bottles for men on the right side. The tables were well spaced out and the bottles on the tables were also well spaced out. We were all assigned a specific table and bottle position. I was table 10, position #1, which meant that each time we came to a fluid station, I was always going to grab the first bottle from the tenth table.

In addition to meeting several of the McKirdy Trained crew, I also got to meet up with a couple other “internet friends” that I have followed on various forms of social media on and off for years, which was wonderful. Sara and I messaged a good bit before the race and planned to pace together. After the meeting, I also got to meet Elizabeth! We had a wonderful, early dinner and then headed back to the hotel so that I could lay out my paraphernalia (and believe-you-me, it was A LOT) for the next day and get some rest.

The temperature race morning was in the twenties and it actually never got above freezing during the race. The majority of my training was done in temperatures in the seventies, so this was quite a stark contrast and shock to the system. I feel like one of the biggest challenges of the race was actually figuring out what to wear. Minor details … running 26.2 miles. Major decision … WHAT DO I WEAR?! While I originally planned to wear a crop top and shorts, I also was not anticipating running in temperatures that felt like the teens when I was planning that. I ended up with a singlet instead of the crop, shorts and basically any and all sorts of extra “warming accessories” I could get my hands on. These included things such as gloves with hand warmers inside, ear muffs, a neck warmer, arm warmers, sunglasses and an extra set of hot hands tucked into my sports bra. The sunglasses helped to keep my eyes from watering (and the tears subsequently freezing on my face). I also wore a throw away jacket for a mile or two, but tossed it earlier than I expected.

The elite athletes had access to a very nice, very warm building before the race, which was nice, especially given the frigid conditions. The plan was that we would be “escorted” to the start line fifteen minutes before the race, but I was in line to go to the bathroom when they came and got everyone. I ended up making it to the start line with less than five minutes to spare, which on one hand was a teensy bit stressful, but on the other hand meant that I was in the warm building for a little bit longer than I would’ve been otherwise (and I was definitely A-Okay with that). Thankfully I was still able to find Sara, Tawny and few other women that I was planning to run with before the gun went off and it was time to get the show on the road.  

Pace-wise, my plan was to start out between 6:20 and 6:25 and gradually drop it down every six miles (or every 10k). It was supposed to look like something along the lines of 6:20 to 6:25 for the first six miles, 6:15 to 6:20 from six to twelve, 6:10 to 6:15 from twelve to eighteen and 6:00 to 6:15 from eighteen to the finish. Fueling-wise, I planned to take a gel at miles three, nine, fifteen and twenty-one as well as have my bottles (with water and fuel) at miles six, twelve and eighteen. Support-wise, I had someone to look for at miles two, six, ten, seventeen, twenty-two and twenty-six. I really like how my plan had everything spaced out, as I basically had something to think about every few miles … whether it was taking a gel, seeing Richard or his mom and dad, grabbing a bottle, dropping the pace, etc.

According to my data, our average pace for the first six miles was 6:13, but according to the race data, our average pace was 6:19. My splits were a tad wonky, so I am assuming that the race data is more accurate. While 6:19 per mile isn’t much quicker than my range of 6:20 to 6:25, in hindsight I think I really needed to be at the upper end of the range at least for the first 10k. I took a gel somewhere around mile four. I was planning to take it at mile three, but I honestly got so caught up in the race that I completely forgot! I saw Richard at mile six and was supposed to get my first bottle shortly thereafter.

This was my first time having my own bottles provided at a race and also my first time trying to grab said bottles off of a table whilst running by at a decent clip. I actually did try to practice this at home, but my version was definitely the “you might be a redneck if” version, as I was grabbing my bottles off of a step ladder and of course, there were no other bottles on the ladder. When I went to grab my first bottle in the race, I misjudged how much the hand warmers stuffed into my gloves would affect my grip. My palm (err well, the hand warmer) hit the bottle before I thought it would and instead of grabbing the bottle, I knocked it over and wasn’t able to grab it. In hindsight, I should’ve just slowed down a tad to make sure that there were no fumbles, but … oh well. I knew that there was a possibility that I would miss one of the bottles and I still had plenty of gels and other fuel ahead, so I didn’t worry too much about that one.

One of the other girls even offered to give me some of her bottle, which was incredibly kind. I didn’t know what she had in it and I didn’t want to mess up her fueling either, so I politely declined. I was still with the pack and I was feeling really good. The miles were clicking by really smoothly and quickly. There were several times where we would come to a mile marker and I would be completely surprised that we were already there. I kept thinking we were a mile or two behind where we actually were. It was always such a nice surprise … think you’re at mile eight? Nope! You’re at mile ten! Sweet! I really didn’t look at my watch at all during the race. I didn’t want to obsess over the pace or splits or how far we had been (or rather, how far we had left to go).

According to both my data, our average pace for the next six miles was 6:14. Again, while 6:14 per mile isn’t much quicker than my range of 6:15 to 6:20, I likely still needed to be at the upper end of that range. I took a gel around mile nine as planned and was extra careful when I grabbed my bottle at mile twelve. I successfully grabbed the bottle this time! However, when I tried to drink the contents, nothing came out. I don’t know if it was frozen or if I mixed it too thickly. Perhaps it was some combination of the two, although I didn’t hear anyone else say that their bottles were frozen … so maybe that wasn’t it at all. I tried my best to get anything I could out of the bottle, but I was not having much luck and it was honestly more exhausting than helpful, so I ended up just tossing the bottle.

We still had a pretty decent sized pack when we came through the half in just over 1:22. This was technically a half marathon PR for me, which seems crazy, but going into the race I knew that I would potentially be running one, if not two, half marathon PRs en route to what I hoped would be a full marathon PR as well. I didn’t do any longer races during the training cycle, but I really think that my half marathon fitness would’ve been right at or just under 1:20 if I had raced a half leading up to the marathon.

Our pack slowly started to dissipate somewhere around mile sixteen or seventeen. I felt really strong all the way to seventeen, but then I got a terrible side stitch around mile eighteen. It was bad enough that I actually stopped to stretch it out for a minute, which helped, but I couldn’t ever get back into a good groove after that point. If I hadn’t stretched it out when I did, I think it would’ve just gotten worse and potentially caused me to slow down even more. I’m still not entirely sure what caused the cramp, but I think that lack of fluids might have something to do with it. I drank a few sips of water along the way, but definitely not as much as I planned to had I been able to drink both of my first two bottles.

According to my data, my average pace for the six miles leading up to the cramp (miles twelve to eighteen) was 6:24. This means that I ran eighteen miles at 6:17 average, which oddly enough is the EXACT pace that I needed to run in order to get the OTQ. Granted I didn’t know this at the time, nor would I have been able to hold that pace if I had known, but still … it’s at least promising that I did what I needed to for that many miles.

At this point, I was running pretty much alone. Every now and then I would either pass someone or get passed by someone, but I was never in a group again. Unfortunately, it also got pretty windy at this point as well, making things even more challenging. I needed someone to block the wind for me, but I didn’t have any luck with that. I had been decently warm up until this point as well, but once the wind came out, I got really chilly. Miles nineteen to twenty-six were all about survival.

I knew that I wasn’t going to get the OTQ, but I also knew that I could probably still get a PR if the wheels didn’t fall off too badly. I averaged 6:46 for these miles and I’m really proud of that. When I got the side stitch, it would’ve been really easy to just “give up” and jog it in (or you know, not finish the race like I did in Boston), but instead I kept fighting! I ended up working with a couple of other girls during the last two miles, which was really nice. One of us would lead for a bit and then another would pull ahead for a bit and so on. I didn’t know these girls, but in my mind, we were working together. My hamstring also started to get really tight during the last two miles as well, but it wasn’t debilitating. Again, I just knew that I had to keep on fighting.

I fought my way to a 4-minute PR and a sub 2:50 marathon (official time was 2:49:16). I was SO HAPPY when I got to the finish line. This was like one of those on cloud nine, over the moon, super-duper elated happies. While I didn’t get the OTQ I was hoping for, I did run a faster marathon than I ever have before and I gave it my very best effort on the day that I was given. I am simultaneously thrilled with my race and excited to take the lessons that I learned and put them to good use.

What’s next you ask? Oh … you didn’t ask … well, let’s just pretend, shall we? I am planning to run the Louisiana Marathon in Baton Rouge on January 19, 2020, which is actually the last day that you can earn a qualifying time to run in the U.S. Olympic Trials for 2020. I feel like I have nothing to lose at this point and as long as I can stay happy and healthy during the training, I might as well give it one more shot. Who knows what the standard will be 4 years from now and who knows where my life will look like 4 years from now?! For now, I stand by my sentiment from earlier that the best is still yet to come.