Today I took the boys out to the Carmel Marathon to cheer for Glenn and several other friends who were running. I just love cheering people into the finish of a race.
Glenn was pacing the 3:15 group for the marathon for his third year in a row. It’s his thing now I guess. He came in right at 3:14:30 for the third year in a row, a not slow 7:25 pace. It’s funny though because he’s not in “racing” shape right now at all and I kept saying to him, are you sure you can hit 3:15 easy? His marathon PR is 2:49, but the last time he’s ran even 20 miles at once was 7 or 8 months ago. He found out he was severely anemic last fall and has been taking it really easy while getting things back up to normal. He was depleted. He did a couple of 18 milers over the past few weeks but his weekly mileage has been way down too. Then I found out it was going to be super hot and just told him not to blow it. haha. He ended up saying he got tired around mile 22, but never felt like it wouldn’t be easily manageable.
The boys and I ran up and down the last mile of the course a couple of times so I could get a short run in too, cheering for people in the process…. but Marshall made it difficult as he kept wanting to get out and run next to me. Big Lou hung out like a champ for a solid 2 hours in the stroller. Even when we weren’t running or walking, he just sat there.
I had a lot of friends today going for big goals though and today was REALLY HOT. Today was the perfect example of why running based on effort makes most sense. People really need to take this into consideration at Boston on Monday too, as it’s supposed to be pretty hot that day. And not to mention Boston has an insanely late start time.
In my last podcast chat with Tina Muir, we talk about this quite a bit. I asked her if she had a time goal for the London Marathon, which is coming up next week. She said she’s not really a time goal person, more so a listen to my body and run a great race person. She did mention a 7 minute range that she’d likely run, but said she doesn’t really pay much attention to her watch. My conversation with Tina has kind of encouraged me to run my next big race watch-less. My only real fear is that I’d go out too hard though without it to keep myself in check. But then again- if I’m running based on effort, I should really know how easy or hard the first few miles of a half or full marathon should feel like.
We get so tied down to times, that it sucks the joy out of running. I’ve been there. And I have times I want to run no doubt, but if conditions aren’t just right, the effort it “should” take to run the time you want could end up being much slower. Think heat and wind. Big factors. And if you’re a woman, think time of the month. It freaking effects your running.
Glenn and I were talking about the heat today a lot after the race and he makes a great point that spring marathons are just hard to train for for those of us who live in cooler winter climates. You train all winter in mostly cold conditions and them boom, race morning pops up and it’s 70 degrees and sunny. There is no way your body will be ready for that. So make the proper adjustments and run based on effort. Easier said than done and pride can very easily get in the way.
I’m really proud of everyone who got out there and ran today, regardless of goal times that were or were not accomplished. I’m telling you, I was hot sitting on the sidewalk in a tank top and shorts.
Marathon day is always a motivating and happy day to take part of, weather you are running, cheering, working or volunteering. And great job to the Carmel Marathon Team- the race is always smoothly executed and this year seemed to be no different from years past!
GOOD WORK People!