Beth Montgomery ran the NYRR Mindful 5K and finished this distance in the time of 27:54.
It was warm but the weather was nice. My pace felt great and I really enjoyed the course. I didn’t fully race this but ran a more challenging pace than my usual tempo runs.
Brent Roper ran the Kansas City Corporate Challenge and finished with a time of 20:46.
The race is hilly, but the weather was cool. Perfect running weather. Slower than last year, but a solid effort!
Corrinne Mills ran the Indianapolis Mini-Marathon (HM) with a finishing time of 2:09:45.
After a tough winter I went in with modest expectations. And indeed, this is nowhere near a PR but it’s far better than I was expecting for today! Good conditions, a little muggy but not too warm and mostly overcast. Great crowds and race support. Stuck to the plan of 10-minute-ish miles for the first 10 miles and enjoyed the lap around the Speedway. Then it was time to race by feel. Wasn’t feeling great but was feeling OK, but still not sure where that final push came from. I just kept picking people to try to pass, passing them, cruising a bit, then finding another. 95/658 = 14% in F45-49. Feeling optimistic about the next half in early June.
Joe Allen ran the Run for Justice 5k, finishing this distance in the time of 29:44.
I’ve driven this road many times but running it is another thing all together. The course is a good hill workout, but unlike most courses, you can’t make up your time on the downhills because they are much shorter than the uphills. In the second half, as soon as you start descending, you are very quickly going uphill again for most of the remaining mile and a half. Was by far the oldest runner with no one in my age group (60 and up) but finished in the first half of the runners, so was happy with that.
Chris Sheldrick ran the Providence Marathon and finished this race in the time of 3:44:36, which was a PR!
I’m told that there are marathons that you dream of and marathons than you learn from. Today, I learned a lot. The end result was that I shuffled over the finish line with an official time of 3:44:36, 119th of 372 overall and 8th of 24 among men 50-59.
It doesn’t look that bad as I type it in, but wow—this really wasn’t the dream I’d had of 3:30 at worst, 3:20 as a target, and maybe—just maybe—enough below 3:20 to qualify for Boston. And everything seemed fine until mile 16 or so. I was running a 7:43 pace and felt great, thinking that as I turned down wind I might be able to speed up a bit for the last 10 miles. But I started to feel some minor cramps, so I slowed down. I figured I could at least keep up an easy pace and hit 3:30. But the cramps got worse, so I slowed down more. I ran that last .2 miles at a 15:58 pace!
Which is not to say that I didn’t have a great time—I certainly did. I finished my first marathon more or less intact and with no injuries. And I learned a lot. For starters, I need to respect the course. The organizers of the Providence Marathon described it as “mostly flat with a few hills.” True enough, but another equally accurate description would be “completely flat in a few places, with rolling hills over most of the course, and also rather steep hills at miles 3, 5, 10, 12, and 25.” In short, the first half of the course was quite hilly, and I should have planned better than that. The first half really did feel great—I wasn’t pushing—but it took far more out of me than I thought.
Second, I need to respect the weather. I really wanted it to be perfect. But the forecast had trended warmer and more humid for days. The weather records suggest that the temperature climbed from 65 to 73 during the race with a dew point of 58 to 59. The handy Runners Connect calculator says that I should have added from 13 to 18 seconds to my pace. But I pretty much went for it like it was a normal day.
Thinking forward to trying again in the fall, I’d like to learn a lot more about cramp prevention. I’d like to increase my endurance, perhaps by increasing my weekly volume of easy miles. But for now, I’m going to rest easy after completing my first marathon. Thanks to all at RC for getting me this far—there’s plenty of miles more to run.
Robin Whitley ran the London Marathon and completed this race event in the time of 7:47:54.
London #12…and it was very hot through much of the day – my sisters helped keep me going. While slow AF, it was an even day compared to the hottest London in 2018 where I was even slower. My head stayed in it the whole time and I saw countless people succumb to heat injuries. Simply grateful I got to start and finish this time.
Christina Kach ran the Time Trial – Cinco de Miles 5K and finished in a time of 56:05, which was a PR by 2 seconds!
My previous 5K pr from 2023 was on a flat course (same weather conditions) and today had hills. Couple big ones, and the finish line was even at the top of a hill. And I had a whole group of friends there and we had a lot of fun post-race b/c running is about more than just the time on the clock.
Vijay Vadali ran a Solo Marathon and finished with a time of 4:01:02. This was a personal record by 26 minutes!
I finally ran a SOLO marathon. I had originally intended to run the Avenue of the Giants marathon but they sold out in January and there weren’t many races around May 3/4 and I had some travel constraints so decided to run a solo marathon. A kind friend crewed for me by driving from one spot to another with gels and other hydration. I was the race director (thank you, thank you) and planned out a route that had some variety and wasn’t just some 2.5 mile loops and would still allow me access to hydration every 2.5 miles. It was a rolling hills route with overall elevation gain of 469 feet and loss of 492 feet.
My COROS watch showed me a fitness level of around 3:45 under ideal conditions. Every indication based on all my workouts and long runs was that at least 3:50 was achievable. So for this race I was hoping to run around 3:50. And I would’ve managed 3:55 if not for some GI issues at mile 22. At the end of it I just missed running under 4 hours. The whole idea behind this race actually was to run somewhat fearlessly since this was supposed to be a low-stakes race but I guess the occasion still got to me and I didn’t want to waste 4 months of training and get a DNF by running too fast. So overall while I think I ran well, it was still quite conservative.
I feel this was still a great marathon – I gained a lot of fitness and I feel like I am gradually getting a handle on preventing/handling cramping issues – focused on lower leg/calf exercises quite a bit in this training block. Learnt a lot about hydration in this marathon at the cost of some GI issues. I think I will shift my focus now to 5k/10k/HM for the next months.
Thank you coach @ruairi for a solid plan and the constant support and coach @hayleymunn for the gait analysis and recommendations on lower leg exercises.
Brooke George ran the Kirkland Half Marathon and finished this race event in the time of 1:50:53. This was a new personal record by 07:30.
I placed 1st in my age group (Female 49-44)! This wasn’t my fastest Half ever, but I shaved 7+ minutes off of my time compared to when I last ran this particular course in October, so still a big accomplishment for me. Lots of hills and minimal knee pain at the end, so overall no complaints.
Andrew Burke ran the Georgina Spring Fling Marathon with a finishing time of 3:17:00, which was a PR!
This was a satisfying and enjoyable experience for my first marathon. I found that the months of consistent training were enjoyable in themselves, and I felt that I could appreciate the arrival of race day while feeling confident enough in my abilities despite not having run the distance before. I was able to start out a touch conservatively for the first few miles before comfortably maintaining a 4:30 pace throughout the mid section. Towards the 30 km mark I did feel my hips begin to tire, which started to slow my pace, although I was able to at least maintain a sub- 5 min/km pace the rest of the way. To simply be able to experience the physical as well as mental challenge of a marathon’s final 10 km (which I had long heard about) was valuable for me, and I look forward to taking some of those lessons forward. Although I wasn’t quite able to reach the 3:15-3:10 range I thought might have been possible, I’m very thankful to have achieved this milestone in pretty good form, especially after beginning longer distance training (half & full marathon) within the past year. The scenic route, supportive and festive atmosphere, and presence of family is what I’ll always remember fondly about this experience, and I look forward to taking some time to reflect on next steps. Thank you!
Frederic Hayem ran the Sprint Mission Bay Triathlon 10k and completed this distance in the time of 2:12:05.
So much for Sunny San Diego, it was drizzling and a bit of wind. The Spring Mission Bay international triathlon was 1k/31k/10k swim/bike/run.
Ok, the 1K swim went slowly as expected… I feel good in the water but just not fast and I ended up 8/10 in my AG. Transition 1 was fine in 2:24.
The bike parts was four ~8 miles laps and with all the races going on, there was always quite a bit of traffic. There were also a few slow U-Turns. I averaged 18.47mph, the 4th time in my AG. In theory I could go a bit faster but given the course and traffic, I’m happy with it.Transition 2 was also fine in 2:14.
Then the 10K run was good. The first mile you need to recover from the bike and your legs feel tights. But then I was able to run around 7min/mil and a bit faster at the end. Average was 7:05 close to my 7:00 target but significantly better that the 7:30 that I did at my triathlon in October last year, so happy to see progress here.
That’s also the best time in my AG by 15s/mil and 14/165 overall. I’m definitely more a runner than a swimmer 😉 And great training by Andie as always!
In the end I’m 2/10 in my 60-64 AG and 41/165 overall. Good result for me, probably close the fastest I could expect. And most importantly, great fun!
Kevin Dorry ran the London Marathon and finished this race in the time of 5:44:45.
Race started well. Eased into a 12:10 pace using Pace Pro on my Garmin. Felt quite good but noticed my HR was higher than normal for a 12:10 pace. Thought is was race excitement but it never really came down than much. Still I felt create up to mile 15 when I started to feel unusually tired. Not typical bonking tired as I was pounding 40gram Maurtens every 30 minutes and drinking as much water as I could. I still thought a sub 5:30 was doable but around 20 I just had to slow down. Did not really mind as I was having such a great time enjoying the crowds and the scenery.
Shannon Smith ran the Cherry Blossom Ten Miler and finished with a time of 1:12:33.
Not terrible but not great. Two minutes slower than last year and the last couple miles were really tough.
