Ocean Drive Marathon

March 30, 2008
I decided I wanted to complete a "double" last summer, after talking with an experienced ultramarathoner in the waiting area of an auto mechanic’s garage. After discovering the Saturday/Sunday schedule of the National and Ocean Drive marathons and confirming the less than 4 hour drive between the two, I was in. Simply finishing would be fine…but completing both in a combined sub 9 hours was the goal.

Ocean Drive Marathon: For those of you who don’t know my Dad, he is absolutely THE most positive, energetic person in the world…hence, the perfect person to keep me in good spirits while accompanying me to race number 2. Having never been there, we both had different (stereotypical) expectations of New Jersey. Dad thought it would be busy and dirty. I was convinced we’d see a lot of gold chains and hear the F bomb every other word.

Of course, it was NOTHING like that! We actually drove through a lot of quiet farmland on the way to the shore, which was simply beautiful. The course was a perfect point to point, running from historic Cape May, NJ, north to Wildwood, Wildwood Crest, Avalon, Stone Harbor, and then to Sea Isle City. For most of the race we traveled on the closest road to the beach, except through Wildwood and Sea Isle City, where there was a very cool boardwalk.

The people in NJ were so friendly. In fact, the only curse word muttered all weekend came from my own mouth when I felt the cold winds on race day morning! There was a steady 10 mph headwind throughout almost the entire course, with serious icy gusts over all the inter-island bridges. I had battled wind like this at the Las Vegas marathon last December, so beyond having ran 26.2 a day prior, I knew I was in for a gut check.

This time, the sign on my back read: "52.4 OR BUST! I ran 26.2 yesterday in DC"...again, this allowed me to again trade my mp3 for conversation and I even met 2 others who had done National the day before! During mile 12, I met a 60 year old gentleman who was running his 206th marathon. When amazing athletes like that are willing to talk with me, I soak up all of the information possible about training, nutrition, mentality and strategy...however, when I asked him for advice he simply said, "Just keep moving!" When I asked how long he’d continue running he said, "Until I stop moving!".

All the towns we traveled are summer beach towns so there aren’t a lot of people there in March. However, for 600 runners the crowd support was good and the camaraderie among participants in this race was unbelievable. My Dad saw me several times along the way, enthusiastically shouting to the top of his lungs and wildly ringing a cow bell each time! I actually skipped 3 of my Galloway-style walk breaks because he was at the front of a pack of spectators.

The end of the race was as tough as I had imagined back in the auto mechanic’s garage. From mile 25 to the finish, I literally repeated out loud "I feel good. I feel good. I feel good" over and over again. Seriously, 10 minutes of it! "I feel good. I feel good. I feel good." People must have thought I had gone nuts! "I feel good. I feel good. I feel good..."

I’ve never wanted to feel a medal around my neck so badly...and finally I got one, coming in at 4:10:27. Not only did I run Ocean Drive faster than National, but I was well within the 9 hour goal!

National Marathon

March 29, 2008
I decided I wanted to complete a "double" last summer, after talking with an experienced ultramarathoner in the waiting area of an auto mechanic’s garage. After discovering the Saturday/Sunday schedule of the National and Ocean Drive marathons and confirming the less than 4 hour drive between the two, I was in. Simply finishing would be fine…but completing both in a combined sub 9 hours was the goal.

National Marathon: I met up with a myspace friend, Kim, at the expo. After several months of race reporting, running chats, and messages of support, it was very cool to finally meet her face to face! Running is, of course, a very individual sport- having others to be accountable to (even if it is online) is a major source of motivation. If you are reading this blog now, odds are YOU fall into this category as well. Thank you.

My roommate, Claire, is a coach for TNT so my Dad and I grabbed a ride to the start at RFK Stadium with some of her runners. The excitement of first-time marathoners really lifted my spirits and positive mentality for the upcoming 26.2! Mayor Fenty, who was also running the full marathon, spoke as we lined up and I began to get nervous. Those nerves turned to heavy emotion during the national anthem when I thought about Trey, who is currently in OCS at Ft. Benning.

I tried to take the first part easy because I knew the overall challenge would be staying within my limits and preserving energy for the next day. The first few miles were the real "welcome to DC" miles – past the Library of Congress, National Gallery, and US Capitol Building. Even though I have been running past these things on a regular basis for over a year, I was as excited as the newest tourist…DC is a beautiful city. Also, the Howard University marching band and step teams were great support additions that I normally don’t get during my weekend training runs!

I had a sign on my back that read: "26.2 today + 26.2 tomorrow = 52.4 miles in 48 hours"…this invited a lot of conversation from the beginning. Typically, I run with music the entire way; this time, I only had my ear buds in about a third of the time! I got a lot of "which race are you doing tomorrow?", "I couldn’t imagine doing this tomorrow!", "You’re insane, girl!", and welcome advice from experienced runners who had already accomplished the feat. I talked at length with a woman who was running her 83rd marathon, a man who was completing his 27th state of 50 plus DC, and another who was using National as part of training for his 7th Comrades ultramarathon. No doubt about it, at races you will ALWAYS find someone who has crazier running goals than you do!

Because of the recovery benefits, I had planned to use the "Galloway method" both days, meaning I would run 9 minutes and walk 1 throughout both races. As the crowds began to thin out around DuPont Circle, I put Galloway into action and by Adams Morgan the ratio was consistent. Somewhere around the Maine Avenue waterfront and new Nationals Stadium, dialogue with other runners surrounded my falling behind to take a walk break and then quickly passing them (again, again, and again)! To credit the run/walk method, I beat each and every runner I played this "game" with. I finished Saturday’s race strong with an "official" chip time of 4:16:17. One down, one to go….

Rock N Roll Phoenix Marathon

January 13, 2008

The Boston Marathon is my ultimate runner's dream. I first tried to qualify in 2006. I was in great shape and had already broken the 4 hour mark but a string of injuries kept me from being 100%. I gave my body a rest before making the resolution that I would run my 3:40 at some point during 2007. The year came and went, and I was still within minutes short of qualifying: 3:46, 3:45, 3:49, 3:51.

Being SO close is sometimes worse than being far away…you're taunted with the reality of achieving your goal but still you cannot have it. There were many races in 2007 when I just knew I had it, but in the later miles of the race I hit the wall and could not recover. The disappointment of seeing my watch turn to 3:41 while I still had less than a mile to go was gut wrenching. And it happened over and over again.

At the beginning of this year, I made plans to do a double (2 marathons, 2 consecutive days) in March. The sheer challenge, of course, fascinated me but a huge part of me just wanted a major running goal that was NOT tied to Boston. I was tired of feeling like a failure! It never occurred to me that the Rock N Roll marathon in Phoenix would be a possible race to BQ…

On a whim at the expo, I decided to wear a 3:40 pace band and even join the pace group. Hell, I may as well TRY, right?! On race morning, I ate breakfast with Amanda and Jen (who were both running their 3rd marathon that day) without giving much thought to my time OR strategy. As Trey and I drove to the start in downtown Phoenix, he told me to "stop talking so much and focus on a PR". He never sugarcoats anything, which I appreciate because it is always exactly what I need to hear.

I met up with the pace group and headed north away from downtown for the first 5 miles. We were at 52:09 at the 10K, 8:24 minute miles- dead on for 3:40. It was refreshing to see friends at mile 7 (Trey, Ashlea, Jeff, Shane, Zach). Near mile 8, we saw Camelback Mountain for the first time and it got closer and closer as we continued east. While I enjoyed the camaraderie of running in a group, a lot of the girls were really talky. Had our leader not been so efficient, I would have left them earlier than in mile 10, when I pulled away.

The "signature" piece to the RnR marathon is a band at every mile; it's a great boost to hear them even if you don't like their style of music! They also had a ton of local kids participating in "spirit squads". Since my name was on my shirt, I got to hear their appreciation. "Way to go Suzy", "You can do it Suzy", "Suz, lookin' good". The support helped, because at the halfway mark I was running at a pace of 8:18 and hit 1:48:37. This gave me a very small amount of cushion for 3:40.

At mile 19, we entered downtown Scottsdale and I was feeling GREAT. You talk to yourself a lot during 26 miles, and I kept reminding myself that the uncontrollables were in my favor: great weather, flat course, super crowd. I could only focus on what I could control and…no pressure…but I was the controllable. If I had to see another 3:41 while still in the race, it was my own fault. Maybe this thought sped me up, because at mile 20 I clocked 2:44:55 and had an 8:13 pace.

As we crossed over the bridge at mile 23, I could see ASU and Sun Devil Stadium. It was 3 miles away and I knew that was the finish. At this point my legs, knees, hips were hurting. It was quiet, not like the start when everyone's all talky. Almost eerie. We all just kept moving forward.

I held off thinking about the reality of qualifying for Boston until I got to the final mile. Mile 25 started with a detour around a water main break. As Young Jeezy and R Kelly sang "Go Getta" on my mp3, we ran through the Salt River Project compound. I looked at my watch at mile 26 and knew that this WAS in fact going to be my BQ race.

Perhaps exhilarated by the realization, I began my final "kick" to the sound of TuPac's "Hail Mary" and took my pace down to an 8:08 minute mile. This would not only solidify my negative split, but also my BOSTON QUALIFYING time of 3:32:59. I finished 773rd of 6489 marathoners, 163rd of 2974 females, and 39th of 620 in my age division. Having committed to a full 2008 calendar (including the aforementioned double), I will run Boston in 2009...FINALLY!