Heather Scullen ran the Red Nose Half Marathon and finished with a time of 1:49, which as a PR by 4 min!
This was a GREAT race for me. Between my husband out of town for work and child care issues, I almost backed out of it, but am so glad I didn’t!! I had 2 so-so marathons in Nov and Dec. Didn’t meet my goal times and the weather was super hot for both of them. So, this race made meeting my goal extra special. The weather was great–50, light mist. The course was really muddy though due to recent flooding. I started off the first 3 miles at 9:00 pace (following directions of Coach Jamie). At mile 4, I tried to dial it on down. I just told myself, one mile at a time. About 2 miles to go and I realized I may even be able to get under 1:50 if I pushed a little bit more. I was definitely hurting, but kept focusing on how proud of myself I will feel if I just keep going!! I was so proud of myself!! Fueling wise– I had my normal oatmeal and 1/2 UCAN drink. I felt good at this race though! Maybe with me…less is better!! Thanks to RC!!!! First race of 2016 was a success!
Diane Souza ran the LCEF winter road race and finished in a time of 45:44. This was a personal record by 5 minutes!
I ran this race back in July and struggled, this time I felt so much better stronger and faster and PR BY 5 minutes!
Kirsten Reynolds ran the January Freeze #2 10k and finished the distance in the time of 58:14.
I took 45 seconds off my 10k race from last weekend, which really surprised me because I had a week of missed runs, fever and a sick kid. Two more races in the series, I can’t wait to see what they’ll bring.
Jo Bourke ran the 5km cross country with a finishing time of 19.48.
This was a true mud bath of a cross-country! It had been raining for days prior and due to the relatively mild winter temperatures the ground wasn’t frozen so it was a real roller coaster of slippery ups and downs. I didn’t have a fantastic race – ended up being beaten by two younger women in the final straight before the finish line – but it was loads of fun and brought back all sorts of memories from high school!
Sascha Fennel ran the Prom’Classic 10k and finished in 44:59, which was a 47 seconds PR!
I had two goals for this first race of the year. The 1st was to start the year with a PR. The 2nd was to beat 45 minutes. Goal time 44:59. I PRed only four weeks ago with a time of 45:46, but it was on a hilly course and I was confident despite a two week training break.
I decided to start in the 40-45 minutes starting block as it was too crowded in “my” 45-50 minutes section. Good decision. It gave me a start where I did not have to zig zag and the pace was fine just 3-4 seconds under goal time for the first half. 5k PR ! ☺ 10 seconds to spare if I kept a 4:30 average to the finish line.
I tried my best to keep the pace but it was getting more and more difficult. The shock came at the 9km mark. Not only had I lost my “10 seconds in my time bank”, I now was behind by 11 seconds. My first reaction was to increase my pace but I felt I would explode. So I “just” kept it steady until 300m before the finish. I know I can always count on my final sprint and these last 300m I was certainly pushing my limits once more.
After the race I had to wait four hours to find out if I had met my goal or not. Then came the news: 44:59! PR and Sub 45! I could not be happier! This race serves as a lesson : believe in yourself ! Even in doubt give it everything until the very last step. You miss – you will be proud as you know you did your best. You make it – the boost of your morale is just tremendous.
Thank you everyone for your tremendous support and encouragements! It is amazing to see how much I have progressed since joining RunnersConnect 18 months ago.
Anup Sharma ran the VIRA Pioneer 8K and finished this race event in the time of 00:43:12.
I learned a lot training for the race, I have prepared for and races of distances including a marathon before. What makes this training special, is Runners Connect. The biggest lesson was to run slow on your easy days, this was hard to do in the beginning but later on it made running and training a lot more fun. I also discovered how “speed” was really hidden on your easy run days, as per strides, fast finish long runs or surges.
Support and feedback from my coaches at Runners Connect and encouragement from other community members has been phenomenal. Believe it or not, when “learning” to run slow, I was aware of the fact that when I post my workout tomorrow, my coach will look at it and might give me a speeding ticket !
Thank you RC ! I am already planning for my next race 🙂
Claire Bartholic ran the Resolution Run Half Marathon and finished with a time of 1:30:55. This was a PR by 5 minutes!
I won! First female, 11th place overall. The other great thing is that I executed the plan exactly to Danny’s direction instead of trying to push it harder than necessary. This was a test of pacing for me, which I feel is my biggest weakness.
April Palmer ran the Mississippi Blues Half Marathon, finishing this distance in the time of 2:10:20.
This race is very hilly with most of the hills between miles 4 and 11. I did best on this course when the hills were at the beginning. At that time my record was 2:00:01.
Jo Bourke ran the Bolzano Classic 5k and finished with a time of 19.20.
Beautiful New Years’ Eve race in the lovely town of Bolzano, Italy. I didn’t have a fantastic race, the start was a jostling mess and it took me a lap of the course (1.25 k) to find my stride, but I’m very happy to be back on the horse after not racing for several months post marathon.
Fred Beers ran the Walt Disney World Marathon and finished the distance in the time of 3:22:09. This was a massive PR by 29 min 36 sec!
This was a huge PR for my by 36 minutes and 29 seconds. I was ecstatic that I also achieved my goal of qualifying for Boston by 2 minutes and 51 seconds.
Everything went pretty well until I started having GI issues at around mile 15. I started feeling better but then at about mile 19 I started having cramps in my legs. I told myself that I would keep running through the pain and I thought of Dean Karnazes quote which I saw posted on the side of the road: “Run when you can, walk if you have to, crawl if you must; just never give up.”
I decided that I would keep running unless I fell to the ground. I reached the last 10k and I pushed myself as I hard as could as Coach Jeff described in his marathon strategy article.
Thank you RunnersConnect for your support as I could not have reached this goal without your support and guidance!
