Sascha Fennel ran the Rio Marathon in Rio de Janeiro finishing this race in the time of 3:42:41 which is PR of 11 minutes.
“If you can dream it, you can do it.” I always liked this quote from Walt Disney. If you believe in yourself and you prepare accordingly, you are able to push your boundaries more and more.
What I love about RunnersConnect is the fact that here we have a community that is ready to inspire and ready to be inspired. The support is amazing and is a big part of why the Maratona do Rio de Janeiro has been a big success for me. I decided to run Rio after the NYCM almost nine months ago. I wanted to crush my marathon PR and I did. Six months of training with lots of ups but also with plenty of downs and doubts. You read that taper time is often the time when you doubt the most. I did. But it was also at this time when the support of RC mattered the most. And it all paid off. I was better trained than ever. My last week of preparation was flawless. My race plan was smart and I respected and executed it doing better than the time goal I had put for myself with 3:45. As a result I was 19 minutes faster than in New York nine months ago and 11 minutes faster than my PR from a younger self in 1996 in New York. So far the Maratona do Rio de Janeiro has been the most outstanding race of my life and my happiest sports accomplishment so far. In reply to my long report on the dashboard stream Sarah Crouch ended with “and this is just the beginning!” Next race report will follow end of September after my second and last marathon of 2016 in Berlin. I intend to PR again to create other unforgettable memories, just like these from Rio de Janeiro. Big thanks to everyone for your tremendous support!
Paulo Correia ran the Rio Marathon in Rio de Janeiro finishing this race in the time of 4:53:15 which is a PR of 1 hour and 10 minutes.
I ran this marathon in the most beautiful city of my country. I was prepared better than ever due to all orientation I got here. Thanks RC coaches! I’m very tired but happy to accomplish this goal. I fell some days off to rest my heavy legs. I will be ready to training for my second marathon soon!!!
Hong Kwon ran the San Francisco Marathon in San Francisco, CA finishing this race distance in the time of 3:21:53.
Marathon was super hilly, humid and warmer than I expected (60F). However, I came in at 3:21:53 (unofficial chip time), which beats my previous SF Marathon result of 4:03:54 by quite a large margin. The final result is not a PR for me, but some positives:
I didn’t bonk! I had pretty solid energy through the 2nd half of the run and the very end. Carbo loading might’ve helped here! I ran negative splits for the first time in a race (1:39 for the first half, 1:37 for the 2nd) This course is much more challenging than either CIM (3:20:02) or M2B (3:21:52) which are both net downhill. I ended up running about an extra half mile according to Runkeeper. 🙁 Chip time was eerily close to the Runners Connect prediction of my finishing time… Looking forward to my next training cycle to prepare for NYC Marathon in 3 months. Thanks to the Runners Connect coaches and community for all your support!
Tim Peoples ran the San Francisco Marathon in San Francisco, CA finishing in the time of 5:31:57.
While this was far from a PR it was a test of my healing and a gutcheck. The weather was an amazing 60 at race time and there was fog over the Golden Gate Bridge which gave it an eerie feel to the section of the race. It was a brutal course with 25 hills by my count and some seemed almost vertical. I didn’t enjoy them at all. The crowds were non existent and the only real encouragement came from the bikers that managed traffic control. My goal was to finish strong with no new injury. I did!
Art Mercurio ran the Peaks Island 5 Miler in Peaks Island, ME coming across the finish line in the time of 41:31 which is a PR of 2 minutes and 15 seconds on this course.
Ran the Peaks Island Maine 5 miler for the 26th year in a row. Good running weather. My time was 2:15 faster than last year’s race. A few steep hills that slowed my pace a bit but overall pleased with the time and how strong I felt.
This was my best time in at least 10 years for this race.
Stacy Thomas ran the St. Dennis Festival 5K in Madison, WI coming across the finish line in the time of 23:30.
It was my 5th time doing this race and I’ve done it faster every year. So while it wasn’t a “5K PR” it was a “race PR”. Also, I place 2nd in my age/gender group.
Danielle Parker ran the Run Melbourne 20.1K in Melbourne, Australia finishing this race distance in the time of 2:09:51 which is a PR of over 22 minutes.
I only decided to run this half a week ago in preparing for NY. I decided to put into practice all the advice we receive here from the coaches. It was a still morning with no wind or rain which was great as at 3.30am it was bucketing down and I hate running in rain 🙂 The race was split into 3 Waves starting from 7am on wards. Some of the runners including me got stuck on the wrong side of the road due to some poor communication by the race organisers. However I thought this could happen to me in NY so don’t stress. Lucky I was standing next to a guy who gave me some advice to get across the road – not easy when half the race is running past you! I finally started and kicked off with a super easy first km. I watched people sprint past me and I hear the advice in my head run easy, run slow. I settled into a really easy pace sitting around the 6:15 – 6:30 km for the first 5km’s. As I settled into the race it dawned on me the training I have been doing for 6 months. Running down hills, running up hills, striders, etc. I felt super comfortable at the 10km mark coming in the first at 1 hour and 2 mins which is good as it means still running at the 6.15km mark. I love the turn back when you get to run the course again. I knew the hills that were coming on km’s 13, 16 and 17. I tried at this point to eat something which was interesting! I struggle with gels etc due to fructose malabsorption but managed to get a few dates down. But the time I got to km 17 I felt great and started to pick up the pace which is amazing as the last time I ran a half was so disappointing. I came yesterday at 2:09:31 watch time and 2:09: 51 result time. I couldn’t be happier as the last half I ran 2 years ago was at the 2:31: 56 time. I also have a number of things I need to work on for NY but running yesterday proved to me how far I have come and I am grateful! Here we come for NY 2015!
John Gardener ran the Poppit Sands 5km in Poppit Sands, Wales, UK coming across the finish line in the time of 23:54.
Multiterrain race consisting of road, sand dunes, ditch, stream with stepping stones and rough track; 2 laps! There is a series of 3 races each year and this one was the 2nd for 2015. I managed to improve by 25 secs despite running 32 Km on Sunday. No chance of Age Award as top was 50+.
Sue Kennedy ran the Morcombe half marathon in Morcombe finishing this race distance in the time of 2:11.
This was a flat run, as such it was fast, when I started it would have been to easy to get dragged into a fast start pace but I held back maybe a bit to much, ! at around 9 miles we looped passed the start line and ran away from it again, (very disheartening) when other runers are passing you at that point finishing and you know you have got some work to do, ! Think I need to learn how to push myself abit more. Think I finished to comfortable!
