Catherine Schroeder ran the Brooklyn Half Marathon and finished with a time of 2:17:29.
So I fueled well last night, then went to bed as early as I could. I woke up feeling pretty good, and continued a pretty smart fueling strategy. I walked the 0.8 miles to the corrals, and made my final plan: hit all the miles in the park as I felt, but no faster than 11 minutes (so if I looked down at my watch and saw 10:xx I’d slow down). Then after that I’d go as I felt.
At the starting line there was a pretty decent fog and it was *muggy.* I reminded myself to get water at every station there was. I went out at what felt like a jog down the hill and stayed easy and effortless. I stayed comfortable and effortless till I hit the 10K, where there was a downhill. I didn’t look at my watch through that but I decided to take that as easy as I could.
Once I hit Ocean Parkway (mile 7 or so), I knew it was flat the rest of the way so I ran how I felt, though if I looked at my watch and it was under 10:xx I’d slow down. Sometime around mile 11 the sun came out and ruined this great plan to feel amazing the entire race. The sun beat down, the breeze from the ocean hadn’t quite hit, and I kind of melted. I told myself to hang on and I would be fine.
I ended up finishing 2 minutes slower than the time I was terribly embarrassed of in 2019, but I ran a fantastically smarter race in significantly more humidity so I feel much better about it than in 2019. It’s about 7.5 minutes off my PR, but that’s OK. My goal at the start was to run nice looking splits and I did that.
Jason Lakes ran the Impact a Hero 5,10K, Kids K (10k), finishing this distance in the time of 42:50.
I had a great opportunity to go out and race a 10K this morning. As I always do, I will start our with the negatives and work to the positives on my race report. This race really was a tale of high high’s and low low’s. While I said I would not mention it as its going to be the weather the next 4-5 months, today was especially brutal weather wise. We started out with the temperature at 82, feels like 93 at 7 AM, but at least it was cloudy and there was a breeze. However, about 800 meters into the race, the sun came out and it was absolutely brutal.
For the lowest of low’s, not only did I not get sub 40, I was 1:41 slower than my PR (though that was 20 degrees cooler weather wise). I was really hoping to get sub 40 as an A goal, and PR as a B goal. Clearly neither of those happened – and I sort of knew my A goal was out the window as I started my second lap (the 10K was a second loop of the 5k course) – though I thought I could still PR. However, I just did not have it in me.
I was also disappointed with my splits as I hit the first mile at 6:33, so I felt like I had a chance, and I did not feel like I was hammering. I thought I can get sub 6:30 by mile 2 and around 6:25 at 5k. Clearly I was wrong as my splits were a great example of how not to run a race – every mile got slower.
Then, after the turnaround, I got a huge pick me up, and a experienced the highest of highs for the next 5k. When I made the turnaround and went back out for the second loop. I realized I was in the first place for the race.
The way I realized that was I had my own police escort for the next 5k – as the leader. In all fairness, it was a small race (62 in the 10K, 181 in the 5k), but I have to admit, it was pretty cool to be the runner following the police motorcycle and having the police ask people to move to left or right to make room for me – me who I have to say felt like the biggest imposter of leading a race given the way I was running. Having said that, as crazy as it sounds, for those 20+ minutes, I felt like a rock star – thinking of all of the races we have watched with the police and cameras following the leaders.
By mile 4, I realized sub 40 was beyond unlikely, and I also thought, I may never be leading another race in my life, so I went from a mission to PR and run sub 40 to just enjoy it as much as a I could, despite how much it hurt. The course had several turnarounds, so I know I had a size-able lead.
In fact, when I thought someone was chasing me down, I did get a little extra kick – turned out it was a wheel chair racer, but that got the adrenaline going. Once I realized (and we waved friendly to each other as I passed them after a turnaround so we were going opposite directions) the size of my lead, I went into do not blow this, do not crash and burn – you may never be here again, so soak up every second that you can.
While I am disappointed in the time and the fact I did not have enough mental or physical toughness to push myself outside of other racers, I also had what is probably a once in a lifetime experience. Now, when I watch a marathon and see the police bikes, I can say I was there (forget the fact they are running 2x my speed and 4x as far as today’s race). So, it really was a once in a lifetime opportunity. After the race, I also took an opportunity to thank the policeman on the bike as that became my focus – keep up with him and don’t make him slow down.
All in all, I would consider a good day as I have never won a race, I beat second place, who is literally 20 years younger than me by 3:54, and most importantly, the race supported wounded veterans, who had a big presence at the race. Sub 40 will come one day – I will just keep pushing and working – and I think I may add one more 5k to go for sub 20 in July before digging in for sub 3 in October.
Kim Kossick ran the New Boston Half Marathon with a finishing time of 2:58:16, which was a PR!
We are having record high temperatures up here in New Hampshire. A couple days before this race the organizers sent an email giving people the option to go down to 5k or get a refund or do virtual, etc. They also changed the cutoff time to 03:15:00 and were going to turn people around to do a 10k if they had not reached 5k at 0:46:00. Soooo, my immediate goals with this race were to not get turned around and to come in under the cutoff time.
It was about 75F and sunny at the start with a nice breeze. Starting out was good. I was trying to run fast enough to hit the 5k time but not so fast that I wore myself out at the beginning. It was pretty shaded at the beginning. Then there was a long stretch of road where the sun was just beating down. That wasn’t so great. When I passed the 5k mark, I was happy that I would be allowed to run the whole race. A friend of mine was also running and she was way in front of me. As the race went on the temperature was rising and it became really difficult to keep up any kind of pace. You can see from my positive splits that I walked a good part of the last two miles. By that time it was 86F and going back on that sunny stretch of road really had me questioning my life choices. However, as I got closer to the finish I realized that, while I wasn’t going to make my original goal of 02:30:00, I could get in under 3 hours. So when I got to the finish I ran at what felt like lightning speed to get in under 3. My friend, who I had eventually caught up to, DNF. As far as the mental side, I tried to keep the negative talk at bay.
I can tell you that I needed every milligram of sodium and every carb in my body to finish this. I had to use another salt stick when I got home because I felt so dizzy and weak.
I’m pretty proud of myself for running this race after so many people didn’t start it at all. Although I did not hit my original goal of 02:30:00, I did reach my revised goals for the day. Including the one I set in the last 5 minutes of the race! In the results they give your age-graded time. Mine was–wait for it–02:30:05! so I reached the original goal on a technicality! And I got heat acclimated all in one day.
I want to thank the coaches and everyone on here for your wise advice and support. Especially Jason Lakes and Bill Leppert.
Grant Crabtree ran the Fargo Marathon and finished in a time of 4:09:13.
Conditions were good, mostly cloudy, cool, a little windy. Was hoping to break four hours and went out at about a 9:15 pace which I maintained for the first ten miles before hitting a rough patch. Miles 11-14 I slowed to around 9:30. Even though I didn’t feel strong, I forced myself to pick it back up and did around 9:10 over the next four miles. Mile 19 was 9:50, so I tried picking it up again and managed about 9:30 over the next three miles. However, the last three miles I could only manage 10:30, missing breaking four hours and also missing a Boston qualifying time of 4:05 by 4+ minutes. Despite the missed goals, I feel pretty good about my performance. I could tell early on that I wasn’t as strong as normal as it was taking more effort than to run the pace I was running. I am taking satisfaction that I never threw in the towel and was trying to give it my best shot all the way through.
Katherine Janca ran the Cleveland Half Marathon and finished in 2:15:45. This was a personal record by 4:08.
Ran my first half in Acadia ….was looking to PR here. Huge win. My best friend ran with me (she is usually sub 2hrs/9min pace). Hills and bridges were tough but overall happy with this time. Course was lovely, weather held and temps dropped. I thought 2:10 was possible but maybe next one!
Kevin Dollard ran the USATF MASTERS 1mile Road National Championships in Rochester NY and finished this race in the time of 5:41.
Tough course and heat. Ran smart. Very pleased to win another team national championship 60+
Stephen Miller ran the Cleveland Marathon and finished in a time of 4:12:22, which was a PR!
Finished the Cleveland marathon in Official time of 4:12:22. This was my first so overall satisfied with the result, although was trying for 4 hours even. At the start it was 68 degrees and then a cold front blew in 90 minutes into the race and dropped the temperature to 55 which was nice.
The 4:00 pacers started quite fast so after a few miles I linked up with an experienced marathoner who offered to set the pace. That brought me to the half right at 2:00:08. Then I started slowing around mile 17. The last 2 miles were very painful. Mostly pain was on tendons connecting front of hips and ankles.
Thanks to RC coaches for a plan that let me get to the race injury free, with adjustments along the way for vacation travel.
Kasey Jordan ran the Harrisburg Halfity-Half (10k) and finished this distance in the time of 1:05.17.
I ran this race last year and suffered from a back injury post-race. I was nervous going into this race again this year because I was scared of getting injured again, but am happy to report no injuries/aches/pains were sustained this time. I wish I had beat my time from last year (1:03.55), but I was proud of the race I ran given that my training leading up to it had been a bit inconsistent.
Ps- it was a really hot day for a race.
Troy Tabor ran the Zoom thru the Zoo 4 mile and finished with a time of 32:58.
Well… The race went as I planned it, I ran at 276 watts which was my plan. The course was rolling hills, but I paid no attention to pace only power. Before the race it rained for several hours, and the race was delayed for 15 minutes until the rain stopped. I warmed up on the course while it was still raining and the pavement was very slick. I was beat by 10 seconds for 1st in my age group, but him and I always seem to be the top 2 for quite a few years. My critical power jumped by 4 points to 273, I thought it would be more. I need some hard runs from 10 seconds to 2 minutes to get my true critical power. The course had 15 turns in it, and was pretty slick. I’m happy with the outcome. The next race is in a week, a 5k.
