I did not plan to run the All American marathon. I had registered for the half, intended as a long run within my Oklahoma City training plan. Once I saw a forecast for beautiful weather and felt my body was healthy enough to pull it off, I bumped up registration at the expo- totally on a whim.
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| 24 hours ago, it was 13.1 |
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| "Runs" in the family |
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| A cannon, rather than gun, marks the start of this race |
I have described this race in detail in a
previous post, so I'll spare details here. How does one approach 26.2 miles on a whim? Same way she does when it's planned out months in advance.
"Run the first 10 miles with your brain. Run the second 10 miles with your legs. Run the last 6.2 miles with your heart.”
Put another way: the first 10 miles is the warmup. The second 10 miles is the workout. The last 6.2 miles is the race.
That's probably the best advice I’ve been fortunate enough to receive and the way I approached my 48th lifetime marathon.
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| The Blue Mile memorializes those who gave all |
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| Best part of the course, thanks to Wear Bluek |
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| In the pain cave |
Just as any race effort, the last 6.2 miles were tough. There were several points where I knew I could either hold pace and earn a respectable sub 4 hour time OR put the hammer down. I chose the latter.
It was painful.
It was worth it.
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| Last 100 meters. Feels like 100 miles. |
On Sunday, I earned my second Boston qualifying time since the Goodwin triplets were born. Once I had crossed the finish line (where the clock read 3:40:03), I knew that I either missed it by a few seconds or secured it by a few. Thanks to chip time, – I BQed by 9 seconds (3:39:51) and earned 6th female overall while I was at it.
I'm proud of answering the call to
dig deep and can say, without a doubt, I ran the last 6.2 with my heart.
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| BQ- by the skin of my teeth! |
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| Great 13.1 for Mom, 26.2 for me |
