Derek Damon ran the Lake Sammamish Half Marathon and finished with a time of 1:32:25. This was a massive personal record by 9 minutes!
Results were 13/271 overall, 2/16 in age group. So happy with this result!! 9 minute PR in a half marathon race, and that was just 5 months ago. I had no idea I could drop this much time, I really was just trying to finally break 1:40, but Coach Dylan said he thought 1:31:30 was possible. I actually didn’t believe him, but he was much closer than my estimate.
There were about 350 racers, starting in waves of 5 every 3 minutes. I was in wave 7, when I registered I said my est finish time was 1:40 so I ran faster than my group. Tried to run the first 2 miles at 7:15 pace, was successful for the first mile then I sped up. Was able to hold the 7 min pace for 7 miles, then I backed off a little for miles 9 and 10 to keep from fatiguing too much. There was a headwind for most of this point-to-point course, and miles 5-9 were on gravel.
I stepped it up for mile 11, thought I could hold it until the end but had to back down to 7 min miles for the last 2. Felt so great, and I’m beginning to read my body’s signals about speeding up and slowing down.
I’ve run several HM’s in the 1:42-1:45 range over the last few years, this RC plan has totally changed my running ability. And I don’t even know how it happened, I just followed the plan (mostly 😁). Thank you to the RC coaches and community, it’s been a great year. I hope to ride this momentum for the next 10 weeks into my full marathon in May.
Jason Lakes ran the The Woodlands Marathon with a finishing time of 3:56:47. This was a new personal record by 50:35.
First of all, I had an absolute blast. Thanks again to great coaching and the community over the last nine months, I made huge improvements.
I’ll start out with the “negatives” as I promise there are plenty of positives and want to end on the positives. The negatives were I did not hit my stretch goal of 3:18 (BQ) on this race l, nor did I hit my second goal of sub 9 minute mile pace (9:02 so I blame the quick porta potty stop after 10k 😁). I also had the dreaded marathon bonk in two spots – mile 16 and 24. At 16, my goal was still in reach (7:50 miles total) so tried to think of the last ten as my last ten mile tempo at 7:31. Unfortunately, when I tried surges, tempo pace, strides, etc – I just didn’t have it in me to kick under 7:40 – … And mile 24-25 was definitely the bonk. I was jogging but people probably walk faster than I was moving that mile.
Having gone over areas for improvement, there were a ton of positives. The first is obvious – there was a race today! The second is I set my PR by 50:35 – obviously a huge drop thanks to the coaching and the program. If I could even get 1/2 to 2/3 of that improvement with more work, I could be cruising into Boston – so the positive of not qualifying is I have an opportunity to continue to improve. Also, I executed my strategy with my 10k pace at 7:58 and my halfway pace at 7:53. I was running negative splits and felt great. So, even after the bonk, I was able to recover for the last mile. And another good thing on the bonk – in my previous best race, I bonked around 21-22, so I made it further – again thanks to the great nutritional guidance. Another positive is while I did not BQ, I can now officially say I’m a sub 4 marathoner (which was my third or back up goal that keep me kicking the last mile).
Thanks again to everyone – I’ll plan to follow the plan this week with a few off days and light running – and look forward to gearing back up to improve for a potential fall race.
The splits were:
10k – 49:23/7:57
13.1 – 1:43:11/7:49 (too bad I wasn’t running a 1/2 😁)
16 – 2:97:05/8:14
20 – 2:43:54/9:12
Finish – 3:56:48/11:45
Jaime Castellanos ran the FTC Hawthorne Marathon and finished in a time of 3:07:15. This was a huge PR by 22 minutes!
It was a nice race, I really wasn’t sure how I would do it since my last race marathon was 2 years ago in Disney (I just did a 50K in December, but that is a different story). My last pace was 7:59, but felt overall better since the last race and I was planning to target a 7:30 pace, but I really thought I could not keep up that target the whole race. But then I just started following a couple of guys that were going at around 7:00 and kept behind them and I started to realize that I wasn’t that bad, got a couple of miles under 7 and many around 7-7:10, which was a nice surprise and ended up with a 7:09 pace average. Got a BQ!!!!, big surprise!!! (hope I can ever sign up with the covid situation). It was on the cold side and I think it made a big difference. It also rained and was humid, but I think that the low temperature was the most important. No injuries!!. Race was well organized, small and certified. It was on a nice trail in North Florida, all paved and with a lot of trees that helped with the wind and rain. Thanks guys for the nice schedule and support!!
David Hammar ran the Florida Track Club Half Marathon and finished this race in the time of 1:40:27.
First half marathon in over a year. Six weeks ago I wasn’t sure I’d even be well enough to compete. Training was going well in late 2020 then Covid knocked me down in the first half of January. My Dr. told me not to run but that went in one ear and out the other. I decided to take a few days off, then run easy and just listen to my body. For a few weeks I ran easy runs and shortened long runs. No speed or tempo runs as my lungs couldn’t handle hard breathing. February came and I found 14 or 15 easy miles were possible without great difficulty. I changed my schedule accordingly to start running once a week at race pace for a few miles at a time. This was possible.
I found myself at Disney World a few weeks ago on the morning that I was originally set to run their half marathon ( which had been canceled months ago) so I made my own 14 mile long run along the Boardwalk. Unplanned but it turned into a fast finish for the last four miles at race pace which I finished comfortably hard. I felt a noticeable improvement in my lungs then and thought maybe I could race a a decent pace afterall.
Race day comes. My goal was to go out conservative for the first 3 miles, then listen to my body and adjust accordingly so I wouldn’t struggle and have a strong finish. So what goes wrong on race day? Whether it was heavy cloud cover or dense woods surrounding the paved trail, shortly into the race my GPS was giving me slower times than I knew I was doing. Total mileage was off too so I knew I couldn’t rely on what it was telling me. The course was two laps around the trail so I had somewhat of an idea of how many miles were left. I finished the first lap in just under 50:00 which was slightly better than what I had hoped for so I knew I was doing well but would have to keep it up for another 6 plus miles.
I took a Maurten gel and was using their 320 mix with caffeine for hydration. I feel this really helped me concentrate and focus for the 2nd half when things began to get difficult to keep my pace “”comfortably hard”” and not let up. My lungs were feeling good. I was able to keep the pace and have a strong finish. Surprisingly I ended up missing a PR by 15 seconds but that was not my goal. Very pleased with a a good run and thankful for my health.
Louise Mackinlay ran the St Albans RFS 5km, finishing this distance in the time of 26:02.
Fun Run raising money for the Rural Fire Brigade. Hot and humid, 18 turns and mix of grass and great dirt trails loads of fun 275 m elevation so I’m more than happy with this time. Really happy. Loved the Bullet Proof Program.
Evangeline Aranibar ran The Woodlands Marathon and finished with a time of 4:36:00.
I didn’t cramp up. My last two marathons I cramp up really badly to the point I had to walk the last 4-5 miles. It felt really good just feeling good. This marathon was on a flat course which was excellent. It got a little warm but nothing I feel like was miserable. One thing I did was hydrate well before the race and during the race. I had about three 3 gels. So I feel my fueling was on point. This was my first far away full marathon so that was a lit scary. Because I didn’t know how much pain I would be in after the race. But I was OK. All in all your program worked for me. I felt like I built a base fondation. and I love that my longest run was 18 miles that was enough for me. I did want to push at mile 21 but my hips felt so stiff, that my only regret, wish that once I reached mile 20 I would have pushed into race mode.
