Glenn DeCou ran the Little Rock Marathon and finished with a time of 5:37:21.
My training went well leading up to the race. I don’t know if it was nerves or what but started have GI issues the day before the race. I drove the course and realized there was a 3 mile uphill section starting around mile 14. That sure put a damper on my expectations. The first half of the race was on track. It was cool and experienced about 1hr of heavy drizzle. I knew I wasn’t eating quite enough UCAN, but my stomach was causing issue. Then I hit the hill and the wheels fell off. There was a lot of run/walk but mostly walk. I did completed the race. So that was good.
Jared Spencer ran the Florence Forth 10K and finished this distance in the time of 36:22. This was a personal record by 1 minute!
This was the North Carolina 10K State Championships. My time of 36:22 was good for a 31st place finish out of 469 total runners. I also finished 4th in the masters division. This is a new 10K PR by 1 minute. My garmin watch indicated that during the race I ran a 17:31 5K split which would make it a PR also well. This lowered my 5K PR by 26 seconds. Can’t ask for much more when I set 2 PRs during 1 race.
Thanks RC for the great preparation even though this was technically only a tune up race. Really looking forward to my goal 1/2 marathon is just over 1 month.
Kathy Balme ran the Chilly Half Marathon with a finishing time of 1:58:36.
This is the first time I have run this particular course, so didn’t know what to expect. I had no idea where my fitness level was, so I thought, “maybe I can try to just break 2 hours”. My legs felt dead and heavy for the first half of the run, and I thought I was going to be way off base and finish somewhere around a 2:10. However, I discovered at about 11k that my math had been wrong, and I was ahead of where I thought I was! Anyway, the heavy feeling lasted for awhile, making me run more slowly than I wanted to, but that may have turned out to be for the best. Because at 13k, we turned, we then had a tailwind, and I was able to pick it up significantly in the last 8k to get to the finish with a 2 minute negative split. The time is nowhere near my PB, however, I felt really good about how I finished. AND, I had just had a birthday the day before, and moved up an age group into the 55-59 age category. I am having some trouble adjusting to the idea of being in that category, however, I felt like I started it off pretty well, so my day ended on a high note.
Zachary De Pian ran the Nafplion Half Marathon and finished this race in the time of 1:50:54. This was a PR by 18 seconds!
This was my target race for Spring 2018. My expectation was to break the 1.50 barrier but from the warm-up I knew that this would be a challenging task because of the unusually hot weather (16-20C, 70-50% RH). I started as planned and kept a relatively steady pace around 5.15 min/km. HR was climbing and I just ignored it. Feeling was getting tougher (as expected) and I tried to keep some strength for the last 3K. I was able to up my pace but fell below the target by 54″. The good news is that I PBed by 18 seconds so overall I am very satisfied. Thanks to the RC team for the journey.
Teri Barrett ran the End of the Trail Half Marathon and finished in a time of 1:37:22.
Official race time 1:37:22, not a PR but I’ve only run 1 half, and that was my goal race. I wasn’t sure if I could do 7:30 pace but thought it was possible if everything went right. I went with the plan to try to stay with the 1:40 pacer and see how that felt. The pace felt a little fast to me, but I decided to hang with them for a bit. First 5k I felt fine. I was planning out how to run the last 5K fast. LOL, that changed by the halfway point.
The pacer had fallen off the pace so I went past him with another guy. I noticed that we were running into the wind that I wanted to draft off of him. Lasted until right before mile 6 when I fell off to take my nutrition. Then I just ran a steady effort, which turned out to be fairly consistent with previous miles. Then I just started taking one mile at a time. Mental game. Mile 9 was my slowest. And wonderfully, the wind was at my back, nice how that worked out at the end of the race. I could tell I was running faster but the effort wasn’t too much more than what I had been doing. Mile 10 I really dropped time and then mile 11 too. I hoped I could continue the pace.
Last mile was tough. I felt a major sideache coming but I just tried to maintain pace. I realized that I had only taken 2 very small drinks and dehydration always gives me sideaches. I miscalculated where the water stops were. Lesson learned. But a great race, I got first in my age group, 7th woman overall.
Travis Dowell ran the Boston Buildup Silvermine 25K and completed this distance in the time of 2:32:15.
This was the first time I ran a race this distance, so I can’t say this is a PR. However, the pace of 9:49 for 15.5 miles beat the 9:59 pace I had for 13.1 miles at the Icebreaker Half Marathon on Jan 27, and the 9:52 pace I had for 9.3 miles at the Boston Buildup 15K on Jan 21. It was only 1 second per mile slower than the 9:48 Boston Buildup 20K 12.4 mile race that I completed on Feb 11. So this was a very special result for me, making me feel stronger with every race this year. This 9:49 pace sets a new target for any race of 15K to 25K for me, and gives me more confidence of setting a PR for my next marathon.
Laurie Householder ran the Palmetto Bluff Marathon with a finishing time of 3:22:47.
What a day! I ran a very small local marathon on a windy day and happened to win first female! How crazy is that?!? Since I finished my last marathon in December feeling like death pretty rapidly after mile 20 and finishing with a 3:21, I was determined to start conservatively and fuel better. Well, I can honestly say this time that neither pace nor fueling was the limiting factor. I just felt pretty junky from very early on and I started to fall off my goal pace of 7:30 pretty steadily as early as mile 12. I feel like I came into this marathon with a bit of an energy deficit that I never fully recovered from during the taper. The only thing that kept my going was the fear of the 2nd place female catching me! It was super windy so at times I felt like my pace suffered significantly as I just didn’t have the energy to overcome it. My body clearly needs rest.
So, while I didn’t get the 3:16 I was hoping for, in the end, it was worth the suffering to come through the finish line and hear the announcer call my name as the female champion (because let’s face it, that may never happen again!). And despite finishing a minute slower than my last marathon, I was encouraged that my legs never really felt beat up (and still don’t feel sore) and I improved on the things I knew I needed to set a new PR. I didn’t hit the wall” and didn’t feel like glycogen was the problem, so I am not discouraged. I just know the short time between these marathons and a number of other factors led me to tip the scales ever so slightly in the balance of being overtrained. So, some new lessons to learn… ????
Shai Zukerman ran the 22. Mazda Lauf (RUN) 5k and finished this distance in the time of 21:10, which was a PR!
It was a tune up race two weeks before my next 10k race. The race was taken in a small town (20,000 inhabitants). The route was 1X1k and 2X2k rounds, almost like running in the neighbourhood. My plane was doing splits of: 4:30, 4:25, 4:20, 4:15 and the last one as fast as I can, and try to be close to 21:00 min as possible. I was worry about wearing me out too soon in the race, cause this was my first time. Fortunately, It worked, and I want to thanks coach Laura and coach Dylan with the help and the advice about a realistic goals and what pace I should not be doing at the first 1-2km!!!
It was very hard race and I feel that I can do much better, with training of course, now that I’ve experienced it. After the first km I started to pass other runners and didn’t let any one passing me until the end, except one young guy that passed me at the end in 1 sec!!! By the way, I did 4:34, 4:28, 4:13, 4:15, and 3:40!!! and total of 21:10!!!
What have I learned?
*It is good to start easy until getting into rhythm.
*Maybe, with experience, I will learn doing the paces more closely to each other.
*Negative split is possible!!!
*You’ve got to have a clear goal for each race in order to really get it!Thanks to RC, it really works 🙂
Lisa Sluiter ran the Myrtle Beach 1/2 Marathon and finished with a time of 1:30:56.
Insanely windy! 20mph wind with gust up to 30mph. For the first 9 miles I was on pace for my goal and then we turned into the wind. Wow! Most everyone I talked to were 2 min off their goal times because of the strong wind. I took 5th place over all Female and 1st place Masters. Very pleased with placement but disappointed not to know what my time could have been without the wind. I was 86 seconds off my PR.
Amanda Haselden ran the Champoeg 30k and finished in a time of 2:12:08, which was a PR!
It was a WEIRD experience all around. The course was 3 “loops” of a 10k out-and-back, which made it challenging mentally to run the same path and hit the same obstacles 6 times. But the really cool thing was that you got to see all of the other racers 6 times and cheer them on/encourage them. And after the last turnaround, you would go by all the other people behind you who had seen you run this entire race, and they would tell you how strong you looked and “Great job! You’re almost there!” or “Finish Strong! You got this!” Mentally, it was really encouraging after the grind of running the same path.
Wade Bainum ran the The Woodlands Half Marathon and finished this race in the time of 1:35:38. This was a new personal record by 9 minutes!
This was my first half-marathon for time. My other half-marathons have been extremely hilly and I ran them for a workout. I was really happy with the result and would like to thank all of my coaches for their training suggestions and advice.
Andy McComb ran the Tokyo Marathon with a finishing time of 4:09. This was a personal record by 14 mins!
Organisation was superb coupled with enthusiastic local supporters and volunteers numbering 4:1 to runners. Mass start and I was in coral G and it took less than 10 minutes to get over the start line. Japanese runners are respectful of the environment and so there was no pile up of cups etc at drink stations. In Japan they make you feel like you are a super hero for running a marathon. Jet lag and food is a potential pitfall for us western runners but with some planning and some luck can be overcome. This was my 3rd marathon and I have now progressively improved from 4:33 (NYC 2016), 4:23 (London 2017) to 4:09 (Tokyo 2018). I just love these mass marathons with a huge diversity of runners trying to accomplish something and all motivated by different reasons.
Kumar Rao ran the Tokyo Marathon 2018 and finished with a time of 04:05:12.
Tokyo 2018 was perhaps the best of my seven marathons to date and my second Boston Qualifier with about 20 minutes to spare. Although I missed my sub-4 target as well as the PB of 3 years ago by 7 seconds, the consolation was that the age adjusted time was 5 minutes better than the previous PB.
This was the first race I ran with STRYD Power as the pacing guide rather than working out pace targets for each km. This took pressure off trying to keep up with pre-determined splits and I was able to concentrate on running form and feel. The weather and temperature were very ideal and crowd support was wonderful. The run felt good and easy throughout, until the last 3 km. Again, for the first time, I could run continuously without any break.
One factor which was less than ideal was race nutrition, as Tokyo marathon does not allow gel bottles, which I used in training. So I carried two UCAN pouches, bur ran out of them by about km 30. Not sure if this was the reason, or if it was games my mind was playing around km 40 because of runners in the opposite direction on the other side of the road divider making the race seem interminable.
My sincere thanks to Runner’s Connect as I could not have achieved success in this race without the support from the RC coaches, resources, and the runner community. After two seasons of training with RC, I am delighted and surprised that the Marathon distance has now started to appear easy, at least in ideal weather conditions.
