From Zero to Marathon: Indy Monumental Marathon Recap

I chose the Indianapolis Monumental Marathon as my fall goal race because it is a fast course with
historically good weather. At the age of 46 (almost 47) I believe that I am “peaking” in my running career, so I want to run fast courses to see what kind of lifetime marathon personal best I can achieve.

I had run the Indianapolis Monumental half marathon twice, setting a PR there in 2019. I ran the marathon in 2017, and had a monumental bonk. I was registered for this race last fall, too, but I had to take four weeks off of training due to Covid, so I wasn’t ready in time.

I knew this course had huge PR potential, and I wanted to get revenge on the 2017 race.

Training Cycle

This was going to be my year to finally break 3:10. My training cycle went extremely well, and I set multiple training PRs. My weekly mileage averaged around 65, topping out at 70 with multiple weeks between 65-70. Here are the workouts that made me believe I was capable of running a 3:10 marathon: 

Speed: 6 x 800m in 3:15, 3:12, 3:09, 3:05, 3:03, 3:04 (400m recovery jogs) 2 x 400m in 1:29: 1:31. It took the legs a few reps to get warmed up, but once they were, I was able to run the 800m reps very quickly. 

Lactate Threshold: 3 x 5K with 4 minute recovery jogs: 21:41 (6:58 pace), 21:26 (6:54 pace), 21:13 (6:49 pace). These would be good 5K race times, and the fact that I ran three of them in a row with only 4 minutes recovery jog gave me so much confidence. 

Finishing a 22-miler

Endurance/Marathon pace: 20 miles with 13.1 averaging 7:06 pace, non stop. That’s a 1:33:15 half marathon in training, as part of a 20 miler. The full 20 mileages averaged a pace of 7:30 These were some key workouts. I also ran a 19-miler with 10 marathon pace miles, an easy 20 miler and an easy 22 miler. I was very confident in my fitness. Throughout all of this, I didn’t have any aches, pains or niggles. My body was absorbing the work beautifully.

The Paris Trip

And then I went to Paris. I wrote about this in my previous blog. I ran my 20 miles with 13.1 at 7:06 pace on a Friday morning, and then I flew to Paris the following Sunday evening. It was a work trip. It was not mandatory, but I had been asked to present my company’s global marketing strategy to other marketing leaders and I didn’t want to turn that down.

I was able to squeeze in two runs on this trip, but also took three rest days. This was quite the interruption to my normal flow of training and my main focus was to avoid getting sick. The last time I traveled internationally I ended up with Covid (see above reason for not running Indy last fall) and I was dreading a repeat.

While I managed to not get sick, I was thrown out of the rhythm of my training. I went from 50 days of daily running to three days off in a week plus two long flights. When I came back, that’s when I strained my calf, and from then on, I only ran twice in the remaining 13 days. Both runs were about two miles each. When race day arrived, It had been nearly three weeks since I was on my “normal” running routine. I believed that my fitness was still intact, but I don’t think my legs were prepared to make the sudden leap from 0 to marathon.

As for calf rehab, my physical therapist dry-needled the calf on the Monday before the race and that seemed to help with the final bit of healing. I went back to him on Wednesday and he said he thought the calf would be fine for the marathon.

Race Weekend
The Sunday before the race, Greg and I decided to cancel our flights and drive to Indianapolis instead. I wasn’t 100% sure I would do the race, given my calf wasn’t healed by that point. Driving offered more flexibility and Greg prefers driving to flying. Plus, a lot of flights were being cancelled or delayed with the air traffic control situation. The drive is about 8.5 hours, but we stopped a lot to stretch our legs and eat, so it took 10.5 hours.

I did not do a shakeout run on Saturday because I wanted to allow my calf every possible minute of healing. Instead we did a good bit of walking around the expo and to get lunch and dinner. In retrospect I think this was a mistake. Shakeout runs serve a purpose which is to keep the legs loose and prepare them to run. I can’t say for sure that doing a shakeout run would have made a difference, but if I had it to do over again, I would not have skipped the shakeout run.

At the expo, it was really cool meeting so many runners who recognized me from social media. I purchased a short sleeved shirt and a half zip running top. Part of me is always afraid to buy too much expo merch in case the race doesn’t go well or I don’t finish, but I was determined that I was going to have a great day no matter what, so I bought the merch with that mindset. Side note: I did once buy a half-zip for a marathon that I DNF’ed and I never ended up wearing it.

As for eating, I like to document my food so I can remember in future races what worked and what didn’t. My digestive system behaved itself nicely so it’s worth detailing my food intake. Breakfast was pumpkin spiced waffles, a small serving of berries, and an apple cider doughnut. A banana nut muffin for a snack. Lunch was a turkey wrap with lettuce, tomato and mayo. Pretzels for a snack. Dinner was chicken parm with bread and pasta. I drank about 75 ounces of water, including a packet of Skratch labs hydration mix. 

Before the race
I woke up at 4:00am naturally. I slept solidly from 8:45 to 1:00. I was awake until about 1:30 and then asleep again until 4:00am. I had recently discovered that magnesium glycinate helps with sleep, and I had been taking it all week long. This resulted in high quality sleep all week so I felt very well rested.

I had my typical race breakfast of a banana + almond butter filled pretzels along with 18 ounces of water mixed with Skratch labs hydration. I foam rolled my calves, used a lacrosse ball to massage my glutes (which helps activate them) and did some dynamic stretching for my hip flexors.

We hung out in the hotel lobby for about 15 minutes where I used the bathroom for the final time, and then went outside at 7:30 for the 8:00am start. I did some light jogging back and forth on one of the side streets and everything felt great, including my calf. Not even a slight hint of any problems. We then walked to the corral where Greg dropped me off.

Greg’s plan was to use one of “Pacers Bike Share” bikes to cheer for me at various places along the course. The race website had instructions on exactly how to do this. Greg couldn’t be 100% sure that a bike would be available so his back up plan was to use one of the electric scooters that were located all throughout the city.

Inside the corral, my first order of business was to have my UCAN gel. I like to take a UCAN about 20 minutes before the start because it’s a slow-release energy that gradually activates over an extended period of time. Inside the corral, I was recognized by a bunch of people who follow me on social media. It was really cool to talk to everyone and a great distraction from the fact that the marathon was just minutes away from starting.

Weather and outfit
The weather at the start was 43 degrees and sunny with 4 mph winds. Throughout the race the temperature rose to about 53 degrees, but cloud cover quickly came with it. I give this a 10 out of 10 on my personal race weather scale. IDEAL! That said, I did get warm early in the race before the clouds rolled in and I poured water over my head to stay cool. If it weren’t for the cloud cover, I might have downgraded this to an 8 or 9. 

I decided against wearing sunglasses because I knew that the majority of the race would be cloudy. I wore Zensah calf compression sleeves for added calf support. I opted for the Nike Alphafly because they had worked well in training. They were horrible for the track 5K I ran over the summer, but I ran two long runs with marathon pace miles in them during training and they felt great. My favorite all-time carbon fiber racing shoe is the adidas adios Pro 2, but they are now on version 4 which unfortunately doesn’t fit my feet.

I wore a necklace for the first time ever! I recently had a thin delicate necklace made from small stones in my grandmother’s wedding ring. I’ve seen other runners race in jewelry and I’ve admired it.

Miles 1-6
I wasn’t quite sure where to position myself within the corral. I didn’t want to get caught up in a large pace group because the course is crowded for the first 8 miles until the half marathon splits off. I also remembered from previous years that there were a lot of sudden turns and potholes and you really had to be careful where you were stepping.

About a mile into the race I found myself behind the 3:15 pacer. That pacer had gone out way too fast, as pacers tend to do, so I didn’t mind being behind that group. I also planned to negative split my way to 3:10 and I wanted to start at a pace that would yield around 3:15. In a perfect world, I would pace the first 10K at around 7:20 and then gradually speed up to 7:10 or faster by the end. All of my marathon pace workouts had my marathon pace at 7:06-7:08. So it felt super conservative starting at 7:20.

Mile 5

I relaxed into the race and I didn’t even think about my calf. I focused on making sure I didn’t run too fast and that I didn’t trip on a pothole. Admittedly, the road conditions here were much better than I remembered them. Perhaps they fixed the potholes or maybe I just remembered it worse than it was. I had read my 2017 blog the day before and I had stated that I was really frustrated during the first five miles with all of the crowding and the road conditions.

Things went much smoother for me yesterday. In terms of hydration and nutrition, I carried a 24 ounce bottle of water mixed with Skratch Labs hydration, which has both electrolytes and sugars. I drank from it every 12-15 minutes which allowed me to skip the water stations in the first half of the race. My plan was to take a Maurten gel every 40 minutes and use the Skratch Labs hydration and honey stinger chews intermittently. I had two of the chews 20 minutes into the race.

Greg had written “Elizabeth Clor” on my back which resulted in many runners on course saying “I follow you Instagram” or “I love your content” or “I’m a huge fan” as they passed me. I got to meet so many runners along the way and it perked me up whenever someone cheered for me by name. The name on my bib was “Zebra” so anyone cheering for Elizabeth likely knew me from social media.

Mile 1: 7:22
Mile 2: 7:28
Mile 3: 7:09 (not accurate after running under a bridge)
MIle 4: 7:20
Mile 5: 7:18
Mile 6: 7:17

Miles 7-13
My plan was to start increasing the pace after the first 10K. But instead of doing that, I found myself continuing to run around 7:20. Not the end of the world. I would have been fine holding 7:20 for the first

Around mile 8

10 miles if that’s what felt right. I still had the 3:15 pace group in my sights and by my math, they were on target for somewhere in the 3:13s. I seriously need to retire from competitive running so I can be a pacer!

I expected the crowd to really thin out when the half marathon runners split off during the 8th mile, but it did not. It wasn’t overly crowded, but there were still a lot of runners around me. It was somewhere during the 8th mile when I started to realize that my legs were already starting to tire. I was supposed to be speeding up, but instead I found it difficult to maintain my 7:20 pace. I had to work harder than expected. After having run 37 marathons, I know what the effort level should feel like at mile 8, and you absolutely should still be in control of the pace at that point. It shouldn’t feel strained.

During the 9th mile I realized something was wrong. I had executed according to my plan, taken my gels and chews and hydration mix. Paced it conservatively, but my legs started to feel tight and achey. Specifically, it was my high hamstrings on both legs. Was it from sitting in the car for 9 hours two days before? I wouldn’t think so. I didn’t want to do it, but I thought that if I stopped for just a few seconds to stretch my hamstrings, maybe I could get some pep back. But no. It did feel good to stretch them, but it didn’t seem to help matters. 

It was also my upper calves (gastroc) that felt tight. I had strained my soleus muscle, which is the lower calf, and that felt 100% fine. I kept running with the realization that I would not be able to speed up, and instead I was being forced to slow down. The immediate urge was to start analyzing the heck out of it, but I quickly shut that down and told myself that I didn’t need to figure it out. I just needed to deal with it the best I could.

I knew that I would see Greg at mile 11 and I wanted to look strong for him. But I also knew he would see the 3:15 pace group ahead of me and wonder why I wasn’t ahead of them by that point. When I saw him I smiled and waved. He said, “feel good?” as I passed and then I yelled back “no!”. I had to be honest with him. I was not feeling good, but I was going to still try my best. A nearby runner said “don’t believe it!” which was good advice. You can’t run a successful race if you are focused on how bad you feel. And I wasn’t focused on it - I was just being honest. I was determined to keep pushing along even though I had to stop at several points to stretch.

Mile 7: 7:17

Mile 8: 7:17
Mile 9: 8:19 (stopped to stretch)
Mile 10: 7:30
Mile 11: 7:39
Mile 12: 8:03 (stopped to stretch)
Mile 13: 7:56 (stopped to stretch)

Miles 14-20
My official half marathon split was 1:39:36 which is the equivalent of a 3:19 marathon. I had ruled out a sub 3:20 a few miles back, it was now just a matter of if I could beat my time from 2017. That was my next goal. In 2017 I ran a disappointing 3:43 on a goal of 3:18. If I could set a course PR, that would feel good.

Another benefit of my name being written on my back was that I didn’t want to be seen walking. I was supposed to inspire people, right!? Once when I was stretching, someone asked me - “oh no, is it your calf?” I replied, “no, it’s everything else!”

It’s kind of surreal when so many of the runners know your life story. At one point, multiple runners said to me, “Hey- I recognize you!” This led to another runner asking me if I was famous. I told her no, but that I had a lot of social media followers.

Miles 12 through 18 were the hardest miles of the race. I had to stop about once each mile to stretch. Greg was cheering at me in the 17th mile and I stopped and talked to him for about 30 seconds. I told him I was having a really hard time, but that I would finish. Miles 16-19 were also net uphill. The course is mainly flat, but this section was an exception. I struggled my way through it, keeping a positive mindset throughout.

When I reached mile 18, there was an aid station labeled “Vaseline, Ibuprofen, and Sunscreen.” I had never taken pain killers before or during a race, but I knew that Ibuprofen was a muscle relaxer and that could potentially help. After all, I had nothing to lose at this point, so I might as well try it. The woman at the aid station handed me a cup with two ibuprofen and another small cup of water. I swallowed them quickly and hoped for the best.

Shortly after, a runner came up from behind me and told me she followed me on Instagram. Her name was Jill. Jill was my savior during this race. She told me that she had been running with the 3:25 pace group, but that they had gone out too fast and so she couldn’t keep up with them. She seemed content to run at the same pace as me, so we chatted on and off. I totally would have stopped more if it weren’t for her. I felt like I was holding her back, but she said she was running the pace she wanted. Chatting with her was such a great distraction from how I was feeling. And my goal was just to keep on moving forward with her.

Mile 14: 7:57
Mile 15: 8:59
Mile 16: 8:47
Mile 17: 9:41 (stopped to talk to Greg)
Mile 18: 8:56
Mile 19: 8:26
Mile 20: 8:22 (Thank you, Jill)

Miles 21- Finish
After about two miles, Jill said she needed to stop. I told her I was starting to feel better so I kept going. My legs started to feel much looser and I am guessing this is from the ibuprofen kicking in. We were also past the uphill section and I had two miles with a new friend to distract me.

From then on, I miraculously did not have to stop and stretch anymore. I could run straight to the finish. Back at the halfway point, I had envisioned myself walking it in, but that’s where my training came into play. Even though my legs failed me so early in the race, I was still able to keep running. Sure, I wasn’t going to get the 3:10 I wanted from my training, but it didn’t go to waste. It enabled me to still run strong during the final 10K.

I was running faster than I had been during the middle 20K! It’s probably rare to have the first 10K be the fastest, the last 10K be the second fastest, and the middle 20K to be the slowest, but that is how I ran this race. It’s the best I could do with the legs I had!

I really perked up during these final miles and I finally felt like I was racing the marathon. No more stopping and stretching. I did get a cramp in my foot during the 25th mile, but I just ignored it and kept going. The crowd got bigger and bigger as I approached the finish line. I looked around for Greg but I did not see him.

It almost felt as amazing as the Boston Marathon finish line. The crowd was going wild and I felt like a rock star. I was so proud of myself for making it there and getting a second wind! My official finish time was 3:32:28, which honestly feels like a miracle. If you would have told me I would run that time at the halfway point, I would not have believed you. Based on how I felt, I was thinking that I would be lucky to run under 4 hours. I ran over 10 minutes faster than my previous Indianapolis Monumental marathon from 2017. I qualified for Boston by over 12 minutes! A huge victory!

Mile 21: 8:33
Mile 22: 8:13
Mile 23: 8:11
Mile 24: 8:15
Mile 25: 8:25
Mile 26: 8:27
Last 0.41 on my Garmin: 7:45 pace

After the Race
No vomiting for me this time. That only happens when I run at max effort and my legs didn’t allow that to happen during this race. In fact, I think I set a PR for the most fuel ever consumed in a marathon.
Everything went down smoothly - 5 gels, 10 honey stinger chews, and 1 serving of Skratch labs hydration.

Our hotel was literally right at the finish line so the walk took maybe two minutes. I met up with Greg and I was so happy to see him. His biking plan worked out perfectly. He was at the finish line taking photos, but I did not see hi in the crowd. I was eager to start relaxing, so I didn’t hang out at the finish line. We went straight to the hotel room.

Final Thoughts and Key Takeaways
I’m not sure if I would call this a bonk or not. I didn’t hit “the wall” - my legs just failed me early on in the race and I kept having to stop to stretch. I guess speeding up for the final 10K means I didn’t actually bonk. I just had a 13-mile rough patch in the middle of the race.

I didn’t do much walking and my Garmin data supports this. I have only 29 seconds of walking time for the whole race but about 90 seconds worth of “idle” time - which is stretching or talking to Greg. Strava has me at 3:30:25 for moving time. For some reason, if you stop moving, Strava stops the clock! If you look at my Strava splits, they are different from what's in the blog because Strava removed all of my stopping in the splits and only included the walking. The data in the blog is directly from my blog and includes all the stops.

This obviously wasn’t the race I wanted. I would say “this wasn’t the race I trained for” - but it actually WAS the race I trained for. If I hadn’t done all of those workouts, I would not have been able to run so strong on dead legs. Even after they loosened up, they were still very fatigued. You don’t just train for a particular time, you train to be able to handle whatever the race throws at you.

I was determined to finish strong and stay positive, and that’s exactly what I did. I think this race was a win for me, even though it wasn’t what I was hoping for. Nobody hopes for dead legs.

As for why this happened, it could be a million different things. I’ll never really know for sure. My best theory is that the Paris trip three weeks before the race got me out of my groove, and then I strained my calf after having a few extra days off. Not running for 13 days made running feel stale. Even though my fitness was intact, my legs were shocked by the task and they didn’t want to cooperate. That’s my best guess.

If I had to do anything differently, I might have run longer on the anti-gravity treadmill on the Wednesday before the race and done a shakeout run on Saturday. I would have spent more time foam rolling and stretching the day before. Would I have turned down the Paris trip? Maybe. But there was no way to know that the Paris trip was going to be such a disruption. I knew there was a risk of getting sick, and I went anyway. Running is a big part of my life, but my life doesn’t revolve around running. I was invited to speak at a marketing event, and I saw that as an honor. While I do think the Paris trip set off the chain of events that led to my race day issues, I don’t regret it.

My biggest takeaway is that I truly enjoyed the marathon and it was surreal to have been recognized by so many people. And not only to have been recognized, but to have so many people tell me that my book inspired them, or that they appreciate my posts. I pour a lot of my time, energy and soul into my social media, and experiences like this show that it’s really making a difference to people. A BQ by over 12 minutes and a course PR by over 10 minutes is not too shabby given everything that happened in the three weeks leading up to the race.

Thankfully my soleus strain is 100% recovered and I don’t have to worry about it anymore. I can recover “normally” from this marathon and look forward to winter training. 

Leg Wounds, Paris, Calf, Eyes

I may have just set a PR for longest time away from my blog. And it's not a good PR. Life has been rather hectic lately, so I will give the highlights of my last two months. 

Leg Wounds
In mid-August, I scraped my leg on a moving box shortly before my long run. It hurt briefly but I quickly forgot about it. On my run, lost my HOVER Air self-flying camera in thick brush near a trail. I tried to

retrieve it, but quickly realized it would not be possible after stepping into the brush. The next day, I noticed a dark scab on my lower right calf. I figured it was from scraping my leg on the box. 

12 days later, the scab began to puff up and get red. It started to slightly throb. I wondered if it was infected. The next day, it was much larger with yellow pus. I went to urgent care and started taking a mild antibiotic. Over the weekend the wound got bigger and redder and new areas of redness showed up. By Monday, I had four areas of concern and I was back in urgent care. I was given a stronger antibiotic. The doctor assumed it was a staph infection. 

Two days later I had a biopsy at the dermatologist. They suspected it might be a reaction from a poisonous plant or an insect bite. So we had two theories: scraped on a box and got infected OR contact with poisonous plant or insect. I had to take three days off from running because the leg kept oozing pus and I wanted all my body's resources to go towards healing. These wounds were not painful or itchy. They felt tingly here and there but that was it. Maybe a 1 out of 10 on the pain scale.

Day 1 through Day 18

Meanwhile, the Internet was blowing up with theories about my leg. I was getting 30-40 DMs a day from
dermatologists, doctors, nurses, and people with personal experiences. Everyone had an opinion! I resumed running, using compressive bandages to keep the wound covered and prevent pus from dripping everywhere. I bought these bandages in multiple colors, matched them to my outfit, and they became an instant fashion statement.

It took over a week to get the results of the biopsy and everything came back negative. No infection. No autoimmune disorder. They said it was most likely contact dermatitis, which is an allergic reaction to a plant. But it seems suspect to me that it would take 12 days after walking in the brush to appear. I had that scab for nearly two weeks and it acted like a normal scab!

Finally, after about two weeks, the wounds started getting smaller. 

Paris
I did my last long run for the marathon on Friday, October 17 and then I flew to Paris on Sunday the 19th. The company I worked for is based in France, and this is the second time they have sent me to Paris. I had some meetings with colleagues and a full-day forum with marketing leaders from other companies that

Eiffel Tower Track

were backed by the same private equity firm as my company. I was even asked to present my company's global marketing strategy, which was a great career opportunity. 

From a running perspective I was successfully able to flee from the Louvre after obtaining some jewelry running around the picturesque exterior. I also ran on a track that sits right next to the Eiffel Tower. I was only able to fit two runs in during my trip, but I was fine with that because my taper had begun. I didn't fully adjust to the Paris time zone. I think my body landed somewhere in the middle of the Atlantic. I was there for five days, so it wasn't long enough to fully adjust, but it was too long to try and stay on my natural body clock.

On the flight home, I was paranoid about getting sick. The person in the seat next to me was coughing up a storm and ordering hot tea. I wore TWO masks, headphones, glasses, and my fleece hoodie for the entire flight. I had trained so hard and I was in the best shape of my life. I couldn't afford to get sick like I did last summer during my European vacation.

Calf
I was relieved to be home from Paris feeling strong and healthy. With just two weeks until race day, my top priority was not getting sick and recovering from all those weeks of hard training. I decided not to push it my first day home and I ran five miles at my easy pace. Everything felt good. I even added in some strides at the end to shake the legs out.

The next day, Sunday, I went out for a 16-miler. Typically I run 16-18 miles two weeks out from marathon day. I woke up feeling groggy and jet lagged, but after walking around my house for an hour, I felt normal. I started running, and within the first mile, I noticed some tightness in my left calf. I didn't think much of it. I stopped briefly to stretch it but that didn't seem to help. I continued running and stopped at a Whole Foods to use the restroom. I noticed that my calf was tight and sore, but it didn't seem to be anything major. I did, however, decide to turn around and head home just in case it worsened. And of course, it did worsen. Instead of calling Greg to pick me up, I figured I could run 4 miles home on it because it didn't really hurt. 

I arrived home and BAM - I knew something was wrong beyond tightness. I was shocked. After having such a strong training cycle with ZERO aches or pains, this calf issue comes out of nowhere - AFTER having a very low mileage week in Paris. Apparently when you do a long run streak, your body gets used to the daily pounding. And if you get out of that daily rhythm, the tissues settle. I should have done more of a warm up, apparently. Maybe this is just what happens as you get older. After all, I am almost 47 years old. I firmly believe that if I had just trained normally without the Paris training gap then this would not have happened. But it's actually impossible to know. An 8-hour flight can also cause tightness. 

I saw my physical therapist the following Tuesday and he said it was probably a mild strain, but that it would probably be fine for race day. I stopped running entirely except for Thursday when I did an 8-minute treadmill test, and Friday when I tested it again with 2 miles. Neither of those tests were probably a good idea, but I felt 100% walking around, so I wanted to see how running felt. I shut it down completely on Saturday, Sunday, Monday, and Tuesday. I had dry needling done on Monday and that worked wonders. Today I tested it on an anti-gravity treadmill and I didn't have any pain. I ran at 80% of my body weight, with the machine removing 20% of the load. 

My physical therapist also tested for strength and I have 100% of my strength. He told me that I was cleared to run the marathon. He couldn't guarantee that it wouldn't be an issue, but he was confident that that it wouldn't flare up.

Eyes
In the midst of all of this, I have been having vision problems. When I am wearing my contacts, I see blurry spots on my iPhone screen and computer screen. I went to the eye doctor who told me that my astigmatism has worsened and I will need new prescription. But he wants me to wait four weeks to see if eye drops help and to ensure that the prescription stabilizes. Thankfully this has not impacted my running.

That was my long overdue update. I plan to blog again after my marathon on Saturday!

Donut Dash 5K

One might assume that a late August 5K in the Washington DC area would be warm and humid. But
amazingly, the Donut Dash last Sunday was 58 degrees with low humidity. It must have been among the coolest mornings this area has ever seen for August 31. 

The weather was so good, I'll start out with my personal weather scale. The race gets a 10 out of 10. There was almost no wind, and while I usually consider 58 warmer than ideal for racing, it was perfect for a shorter distance, especially since I was already acclimated to the heat. And the low humidity was hugely helpful too. 

Before the Race

I switched up my pre-race routine a bit and instead of having my normal almond butter-filled pretzels, I drank half a packet of UCAN energy drink. I figured the UCAN would sustain me longer. Before leaving the house, I laced up my New Balance SC Pacer shoes, which I had determined were my favorite shoes for the 5K. But then I looked in my closet and I saw that the Brooks Hyperion Elite 4 PB matched my shorts so perfectly. I had worn these shoes in the Firecracker 5K and they worked well there, so I figured I would swap them out because I simply could not turn down wearing a pair of perfectly coordinated shoes. 

Another point of coordination was my outfit. I wore leopard print shorts and I had a leopard print leg bandage to wrap. Why the bandage? That's a topic for a blog I plan to write soon. But as long as I needed to wear bandages around my lower right leg, I made sure to coordinate them to my outfit! So the leopard print bandage matched the print of my shorts, and the Brooks Hyperion Elite matched the color scheme. I was delighted by this!

Greg and I drove to the race, parked near the start and I picked up my bib. Everything went very smoothly. I saw a few friends at packet pickup and we chatted briefly. 

Then I warmed up on the course for 2.4 miles and I had a caffeinated Maurten gel 20 minutes before race start. 

Goals and Strategy
I am in the midst of training for the Indianapolis Monumental marathon, so this was not a goal race for
me. My purpose was to practice racing, have fun at the race, and get a solid speed workout in. Time-wise I wanted to set a course PR. The Donut Dash is run on the Fairfax Corner course, which is used in the Frosty 5K, the Veterans Day 5K, the Run Your Heart Out 5K and more! I had run this course in 8 different races over the years and my fastest time on it was 21:01 from last December at the Frosty 5K. My goal was to beat that time. 

I looked at my mile-by-mile splits from the Frosty 5K and my pacing strategy was to run slightly faster for each mile. Running under 21 minutes on this course would be a huge accomplishment because it's very hilly. 

Mile 1
I started out a little slower than most of the runners around me and then passed many of them during the first downhill. The race starts downhill and it's easy to go out way too fast. I felt strong and fast but kept the pace controlled. The time to beat was 6:33 and I did so in 6:31. That was only two seconds faster than December, so I didn't have a lot of room for error. 

In terms of placing, I wasn't exactly sure how many women were ahead of me, but I knew it was at least three. I wasn't running close to any women as the mile finished out and whatever place I was at that point would be the same place I finished in. Unfortunately my leg bandage slid down my leg during this mile which was a little annoying. It was fine to have the wounds uncovered because they had mostly scabbed over, but I wished I had made the bandage tighter. The main purpose was to keep them protected from the sun to prevent scarring.

Mile 2
This mile was hard but I focused on staying positive and mentally strong. I focused on my form and my rhythm. This mile is rolling hills-- never flat. It seems to go on forever and the hills feel way too long. I passed a few guys during this mile, but no women. My Frosty split was 6:39, so I was delighted to clock in at 6:35. I was now six seconds ahead of my December time. But I was by no means "safe".

Mile 3
This mile is killer. The final hill of the run feels long and steep and comes at a time when you are already exhausted. I expected this to be a huge struggle. However, I was pleasantly surprised! For the first time, this hill did not seem so massive or steep. I am not sure if it's because I live in a hillier area now or if the Pilates classes have made my legs stronger. It was definitely challenging but not quite as painful as I remember it from my previous 8 races. My December split was 6:52 and I clocked in at 6:45. A full seven seconds faster! 

The Finish
I gained another 2 seconds on Frosty in the final kick, and crossed the finish line in an official time of 20:46.

I beat my December time on this course by 15 seconds, setting a new course PR!

• I placed 1st in my age group (45-49) out of 54.
• I was the 5th overall female finisher out of 439.
• I placed 20th overall out of 790 runners.

After the Race
I was thrilled with my performance! I got my medal and then reunited with Greg and my friend Laura, who had come out to cheer for me. After a quick chat, I ran a cool down of just over a mile. Then it was time for donuts and the awards ceremony. They wouldn't have a "donut dash" without offering donuts as the finish line food! I won a gift certificate to my local running store, which covered about half of my race entry. 

Final Thoughts and Key Takeaways
This was a good speed check! The Frosty 5K was about 10 weeks before the One City Marathon and this Donut Dash was about 10 weeks before Indianapolis. I'm 15 seconds ahead, so I think a PR is realistic for me in November. Of course you can't base your marathon time on a 5K, but it's a good data point. I like to race regularly (once a month) to practice pushing hard and flexing my mental muscles. 

Most of my time savings came on the final hill, which shows my legs are stronger than they were in December. That could be from Pilates, from training on hilly terrain, or both. 

The Brooks Hyperion Elite 4 PB performed really well. They are a fast shoe and they are a contender for my marathon along with three other shoes. Most importantly, they matched my outfit perfectly!

The weather was gorgeous and this race was the perfect way to spend a morning outdoors.

It was awesome to spend time with my friend Laura post race and it meant a lot that she came to cheer for me. Greg, Laura and I enjoyed breakfast together at one of my favorite local spots.  

Should Influencers Get Free Marathon Bibs?

With the World Marathon Majors becoming increasingly harder to get into, the influencer bib debate seems to have escalated. There aren't a ton of controversial topics in the amateur running world, but when they arise, I like to address them.

I'll provide an overview of why this is so controversial and then break down the three different parties responsible for these influencer bibs: the marathon itself, the sponsor, and the influencer.

The Debate
Social media content creators, more commonly called "influencers," are running the World Marathon Majors with bibs obtained from sponsors. Instead of entering these races through the lottery, charity, a tour group, or qualifying times (which is how most people gain entry), some influencers run these marathons

with "gifted" bibs from the race sponsors. I put "gifted" in quotes because even though the influencer doesn't pay money for the bib, he or she is responsible for creating content to promote the race and the sponsor. 

Runners try for years to gain entry into the NYC marathon lottery, which has hundreds of thousands of runners seeking only 50,000 spots. Likewise, many runners try for years and years to qualify for Boston by improving their race times. Others spend large amounts of time and effort raising money for charity. The demand for these marathons is rapidly increasing, but supply is staying about the same. Therefore, when these runners browse social media and see that an influencer got a "free" bib without having to fundraise, qualify, or win a competitive lottery, they get irritated. Or angry. Or jealous. Or a mix of all of these. 

The Marathon
To understand how this works, let's start with the marathon: Boston, New York, Chicago, London, Tokyo, Berlin. These marathons have two main sources of income: 1) registration fees 2) sponsorships. In order to pay for the extraordinary expenses of hosting these events, the income needs to be significant. A sponsorship package may look something like this: large booth at the race expo, logo on all race materials, advertisements in the race packet/program, and a certain number of race bibs. Do these bibs have to be part of the sponsorship package? Not necessarily. But if you are Bank of America and are paying hundreds of thousands of dollars (more likely millions of dollars) to sponsor the Boston Marathon and you don't even get any race entries? That feels wrong. "Thank you for this enormous amount of money to fund our marathon, but no - we will not be letting you have any bibs."

The reality of the situation is that large marathons need big-ticket sponsors. And when they are taking that kind of money from a sponsor, it seems like they should give the sponsor a few race entries as part of the package.

The Sponsors
Bibs in hand, the sponsors can do whatever they choose with them. They can give them to employees, executives, customers, nonprofits, partners - whatever they want. Do the sponsors have to give the bibs to influencers? No. So maybe you should direct your anger towards them. It's fine to give the bibs to your employees but don't give them to influencers who will shove it into our faces that they got in for free!!! 

That logic falls apart quickly. The sponsors are businesses, too, and they want the most mileage out of their sponsorship (pun intended).

Blame the sponsors all you want, but the reality is that they want maximum exposure, and they should want maximum exposure for the price they pay to sponsor the marathon. That said, another option for the sponsors is to give them to customers through a sweepstakes or contest. "Buy a pair of our shoes in the month of August and you'll be entered to win a free bib to the NYC Marathon". That's probably what many sponsors did before the rise of social media, but I'm guessing they've done the math and found the social media exposure to be more valuable. So can we get mad at the sponsors? Largely no, but maybe a little bit annoyed that they don't go the sweepstakes route.

NYC Marathon 2013

The Influencers
Imagine if you received an email offering you a bib to one of the World Marathon Majors, and all you would have to do in return is what you normally do every day? Would you take it? Yes. Kind of a no-brainer. 

This exact thing happened to me in 2013. I gained entry into the NYC Marathon through a sweepstakes bib from ASICS. I had already run NYC and hadn't planned on doing it again, but I could not turn down a free entry into a race that was so hard to get into, and expensive too!

The reality is that sponsors are going to offer bibs to influencers and of course that's going to be appealing to the influencers! Can you get mad at the influencers for accepting a bib from a sponsor? No! Because if someone offered it to you, you would probably accept it.

It's not unfair. It's not unearned. Sponsored entries are a legitimate way to gain entry into a marathon. The influencer has earned it by building a social media audience and working hard day after day to create content that resonates with the running community. If this bothers you, then you are free to start your own Instagram or TikTok or YouTube, build a following, and then get a sponsored bib. Nobody is stopping you. 

But here's where things get tricky, and here's where I think the heart of the debate really lies. Once the influencer has accepted the sponsor bib, how do they talk about it on social media? What is their message? Is it positive? Entitled? Inspiring? Informative? What does it offer the running community? Are they genuine? Do they acknowledge the fact that hundreds of thousands of runners want their bib, but couldn't get it?

So while you can't really fault the influencer for accepting the bib, you can be annoyed by how they promote it on social media. Be annoyed at their content, yes, but the mere fact that they are part of a marketing opportunity is simply how business works. 

What Would Elizabeth Do?
I have never run a World Marathon Major with a sponsored bib. I've had offers in the past, but turned them down because I didn't want to travel to Berlin and Tokyo at those times. If I had wanted to run those marathons, I would have accepted the sponsor bibs. But as with any brand partnership I take on, I only partner with a brand when I actually WANT their product. I'd love to run Berlin and Tokyo someday, but the timing needs to be right. 

Boston Marathon 2022

In 2022, Amazon sponsored me to run the Boston Marathon, but I did not accept their bib because I already had one that I had gained through qualification. I received some other perks from Amazon, but the bib was not one of them. At the time I asked myself, "If I hadn't qualified yet, would I accept this sponsored bib?" My answer was no. And that's not because I am selfless! It's because qualifying is what makes Boston special to me.

Other people may see Boston as special for other reasons, which are just as valid as mine, but given my 7-year struggle, to me it's all about earning the spot through time qualification. I wouldn't genuinely be excited about Boston if I hadn't qualified, because to me, that's the main reason to run Boston! It's why I have run Boston six times but Chicago only once. London only once. New York twice (but one was the sweepstakes)! 

So yes, I would have earned the sponsor bib because of my social media presence. Yes, it would be a legitimate entry. But it wouldn't be the Boston I know and love. 

As for the other world majors, I would accept a sponsored bib if I was interested in that marathon at that time. I would create content that expressed gratitude for the opportunity, and show the day-to-day of how I was preparing for the event. It wouldn't necessarily have to be my goal race, but I would have goals for it, because that's how I roll!

TLDR
You can't be mad at the marathons for giving bibs to sponsors. You can't really get mad at sponsors for giving the bibs to influencers (though you might be a little annoyed). You can't get mad at the influencer for accepting the bib, and you can't claim that it's not fair. Every step of the process is a business transaction. You CAN be angry, annoyed, jealous, judgmental-- whatever you want-- if the influencer creates content that you think disrespects the opportunity that has become more and more elusive. If the influencer is me, at least you now know my position. 

Firecracker 5K: Fast, Fiery, and Fun!

I ran my annual Firecracker 5K today. I have run this race almost every year since 2010, with my course PR being 20:28 from last year.

If I am in good shape, I usually try to set a course PR. It's always hot, hilly, and measures 3.17 on my watch, so it's not a good comparison to a Turkey Trot or other 5Ks I run. But it's a great year-over-year comparison. 

Background
With the move, my training took a back seat so I ran some less-than-stellar 5Ks earlier in the season. I ran a time of 21:04 in mid-May and a time of 21:02 at the evening track 5000m. After the track 5K, I knew I needed to focus on 5K-specific training if I wanted any chance at getting a course PR at Firecracker. 

My training consisted of hill repeats, track workouts, medium long runs, and Pilates classes. I was very consistent with all of these for the entire month of June. We had several heat waves in June, which made things particularly challenging, but I adjusted my expectations for paces and was able to complete all of my workouts. By contrast, we had freakishly good weather in June of 2024 with plenty of low-humidity mornings. 

Before the Race
I woke up at 4:00 naturally, having fallen asleep at 9:00. I had a few almond butter pretzels at around 5:45 and then started to get ready for the race. I got a new stars and stripes outfit for this race, even though I already have several of them, because I didn't want to wear the same thing as last year. I actually prefer last year's outfit, but it will make an appearance again in 2026. 

I decided to wear the Brooks Hyperion Elite 4 PB. I had done several track workouts in them and they had felt really fast. My paces in them had always exceeded what I thought I was running, so I figured I would try them out. I didn't want to wear the Nike Alphafly because those felt like too much "shoe" during the Track 5000m. I seriously considered the New Balance SC Pacer 2, but I had already run two 5Ks in them and I figured I would give the Brooks a chance. 

Wetting my hair pre-race

Greg and I arrived 50 minutes ahead of time. I had retrieved my bib in advance so I didn't have to worry about doing that. Our first order of business was to find the porta potties. They weren't where I expected them to be but it wasn't long before I found them. After that I began my warm up. I like to keep the warm up short for summer races so as not to get too warm before the race even starts. I poured water on my head to get my hair nice and wet. 

I took a Maurten gel 15 minutes before the start. Usually I take a caffeinated one, but I had run out of them unknowingly. So no caffeine for me! That's okay, though. I think my caffeinated gel from the Tracksmith 5000m contributed to my stomach cramp so it could be for the best.

Soon it was time to line up at the start. I lined up about 6-7 rows back because the race had a large competitive field and I thought that would be the right spot for me. In hindsight, I wish I had lined up closer to the front, but more on that later.

Goals and Strategy
My goal was to beat my 20:28 from last year. The weather was very similar - 74 degrees with lowish humidity. It could have been much worse this time of year, so I was generally grateful.

On my personal weather scale, I give this a 3 out of 10. For July, its probably closer to a 9 out of 10 but my personal race weather scale considers ALL potential weather, with low 40s being ideal. That's why this sits solidly at 3 out of 10. It might be great for July, but it's not great racing weather generally speaking. 

I had my splits memorized and I knew what I needed to do each mile to beat them. I had done a lot of mental prep to ensure that I would stay strong during that final mile and really push up the long hill.

Mile 1, photo by Cheryl Young

Mile 1
The race started and I tried not to get pulled out too quickly like I did at the track 5K. But that backfired because I think I ran the first minute at a 7:30 pace. And then I had to weave around many runners to get back on pace. I was passing people left and right for the entire first mile. Clearly I should have lined up closer to the front. My goal for this mile was 6:26 but despite how hard I ran to make up for the slow start, I couldn't get my pace below 6:30. Finally my watch beeped at 6:29, but I knew I had some major work to do for the rest of the race. 

Mile 2
I wanted this mile to be around 6:20. It's mostly downhill so it's easy pick up a lot of speed. It's also where the field starts to spread out so weaving isn't as much of an issue. I saw Greg at the beginning of this mile, and that definitely pepped me up. This is where I felt like the shoes were maybe stiffer than ideal. They have a firm ride, but I think I might have appreciated more bounce on the downhill. Usually this mile is a breeze but I felt like I worked extra hard here in comparison to previous years, but my watch wasn't necessarily reflecting that. My watch beeped at 6:24 which was nice and fast, but at that point I suspected my course PR would be unlikely. 

Approaching the finish

Mile 3
I had planned out my mental strategy in advance for mile 3. It's always the hardest mile with a killer hill. I told myself that this is where it really mattered and my job was to make it hurt. My job was to push as hard as possible no matter how hard I was hurting. I didn't think about what I wanted my split to be
because I already knew a course PR was unlikely. The best thing for me to do would be to focus on my form, stay mentally strong, and not ease up on the effort. I did not look at my watch at all during this mile. I was focused and dialed in. That hill seemed to go on forever and ever. I was happy to be passing a lot of runners during this mile, and that kept me motivated. I clocked in at 6:45 and then gunned it to the finish.

The last 0.17
According to Strava, I somehow managed to run this at an average pace of 5:49. That's kind of a long time to maintain that pace uphill! (Yes, the hill kept going). I think this is what I was most proud of. And it was faster than last year!

My official time was 20:39, which won me first place in my age group out of 81 runners! What a large age group field for a local race.

After the Race
I was very happy to be done, knowing that I had given that race everything I had. I wasn't sure if I could beat my 20:28, but I was happy to be only 11 seconds shy of that. It does make me wonder. . . how did I ever run that time!?

Laura and me - 1st and 2nd Age Group

But, given that I have been running this race since 2010 and I am now 46 years old, I am very content to have run my second fastest time. Considering I ran a time of 21:04 just six weeks ago on a flatter course, I think this is a huge accomplishment. It shows what consistent 5K training can do and it positions me well to start marathon training. 

I found Greg and a bunch of my friends and we exchanged race stories. It was really fun to see everyone and that's one of the main things I love about this race. It's a big one and so many people come out for it.

I collected my age group award and then Greg and I left the race to go have breakfast at a place near our house that we still hadn't tried. Afterwards, I decided to run home because I did not do a cool down at the race. It was a new experience to run for 13 minutes shortly after eating a full meal, but I did it!

Final Thoughts and Key Takeaways
I'm very happy with my effort at this race and the fact that I stayed mentally strong. My only regret is starting too far back (my chip time was 10 seconds slower than my gun time) and then having to run extra hard to make up for a slow start. 

I have a lot to be thankful for. I am healthy, I won first place in my age group, I got to see many of my running friends, I had Greg supporting me the whole time, and I ran my second fastest ever Firecracker 5K. Strava credits me with a time of 20:13 and even though I know it's not official, it's a confidence-boosting data point for sure. Of course Strava also told me I could have run it harder. . . 

This is one of my favorite races of the year and I am happy I was able to participate!

We've Moved: First Impressions of the New Location

After much drama surrounding our move date, we finally moved into our new home. We've now been here for about six weeks, and here are my first impressions. 

Walking to everything
We chose this location because it was walkable but we continue to make discoveries about just how walkable it is! Within a one mile radius we have over 20 restaurants, a movie theater, a grocery store, three smoothie places, a Starbucks, two homemade ice cream places, a track, a UPS store, a post office, and two of my friend's homes. We can also walk to a farmer's market which has everything you can imagine, including freshly made bagels (my favorite!). 

Unfortunately, as soon as we moved in we had a long period of continuous rain. And now we are in a heat wave with temperatures reaching 100 degrees. But in between all of that, we have done a lot of walking. I even started taking Pilates, which is something I would not have signed up for if I had to drive there.

The walkability of the area far exceeds my expectations and Greg and I are enjoying discovering new places to walk to. It feels like we are on vacation and exploring a new area. I know this "vacation feel" will wear off soon, but I am soaking it in while I can. I've been getting loads more FitBit steps than I did in our previous house. 

Finally, when we take walks for the sake of taking walks around the neighborhood, I enjoy the wide range of home styles and the greenery from the larger, older trees. It's not a cookie-cutter neighborhood. Each house is unique and they were all built at different times. Some as early as the 50s or 60s spanning all the way to today, as they are tearing down the older homes and building new ones.

The actual house
We are mostly settled in, but there are still a few boxes and backpacks that remain to be unpacked and sorted through. Just like the walkability has exceeded my expectations, so has the actual house. It's super open, modern, airy and fresh! Our basement gym is a walk-out with a huge window and two french doors. My home office gets way more light. The piano looks amazing in our living room. 

The house is a blank slate and there is so much we want to do with it. It can be overwhelming to think about, but we are prioritizing our long list. About half of our artwork is hung, but there are still some pieces that don't quite match the color scheme of this house. 

The community
Perhaps the biggest contrast between this location and the previous one is the community and how it "feels" walking around the neighborhood. This is a very active neighborhood and people are always out walking, running, or biking. Everyone waves and people strike up conversations. It feels like a community. Previously, I would be the only person out running - I would maybe see 1-2 other runners if I was going five or more miles. As I mentioned earlier, I have two friends who live within half a mile of me, so I meet up with them intentionally or unintentionally! Both are runners.

The running
I had all my running routes figured out in my previous location and I was a bit worried that I wouldn't find ones I liked as much. Even though the topography here is hillier, there are still routes I can run that are flat-ish if my legs are really tired from a previous workout. I found a hill that I love for hill repeats, a long run route, and a track. I haven't found anything I really like for tempos/threshold work, but that's fine. I might just have to suck it up and run those on hills. Or drive to Hains Point - which is a flat part of Washington DC.

What I didn't expect to appreciate so much was the running community. There are so many runners around here! I have been recognized a bunch of times from Instagram and I love it when they stop to chat with me. I was somewhat isolated in my previous area. 

One of my favorite things to do is end my run at a coffee place or a smoothie place and then walk home. It's really motivating to look forward to that and then take a nice stroll home while enjoying my drink. 

The negatives
There are only a few negatives and they minor in the grand scheme of things, but worth mentioning as to not paint a picture of a complete utopia! The first is that our garage is slightly smaller than our previous one (I thought all two-car garages were the same size!). We struggle to fit both cars in it and have room to maneuver around them. The interior of the house has more space than we need, so why didn't the builder allocate some of that space to the garage?

When we bought the house, the property had five huge trees in the backyard that blocked our view of our back neighbors. Unfortunately, the builder damaged those trees during construction and had to remove them so now we have baby trees and a view of another house instead of trees. 

Finally, it's noisier than expected. Monday-Friday during business hours we hear noise from trucks backing in and out of a nearby facility. This facility will likely be replaced by a "green area" in 2035, but that is a LONG time to wait!

Final thoughts
I am thriving here more than expected. I feel like I am living my best life because of the walkability and vibrant community. I didn't realize just how isolating it was to be in my previous area for the type of person that I am. The house is gorgeous, lets in so much natural light, and it already feels like home because of Greg and all of the zebras that adorn it!

Tracksmith Twilight 5000

Last night I ran the Tracksmith Twilight 5000 in Washington DC. Normally I run 5Ks in the morning on the road, and I refer to them as "5Ks". This was a 5000 meter race on the track at night. It bore little resemblance to the 5K I know and love, even though the distance was the same.

Why I Registered
I was a pacer for this race back in 2022 and I really enjoyed it. The idea of racing a 5K on the track at night in the summer was completely unappealing to me, but I figured it would be fun to help someone else. After pacing it, though, I got the itch to run it myself. I was even signed up to run it either last year or the year before (I don't remember) but it was cancelled due to the weather. 

Pacing the 25:00 group in 2022

I registered because I wanted to see what it would be like to run a race on the track. I thought the vibe was really cool at the 2022 event and I love challenging myself in new ways. When I registered for the race a few months ago, I entered my predicted finish time as 20:20. I had run a 20:08 5K in February so I factored in some extra time for the heat. I had totally forgotten about the time I registered with when I received an email a week before the race with my heat assignment.

This race is run in "heats" of about 20-35 runners each. This avoids there being too many people on the track at once. Each heat has a different starting time. The faster the heat, the later the start time. Runners are assigned a heat based on their self-predicted finish time. I was placed in the 19:30-20:20 group. Having just run a time of 21:04 two weeks ago, I was really nervous about this. Realistically I thought the best I could hope for would be 20:30, which meant I might be the last finisher in my heat.

I could have emailed them to switch to the next slower heat, but I decided not to. I figured if I was going to challenge myself, I might as well go for it and see what would happen. I am typically pretty conservative with my race goals, but this seemed like the perfect opportunity to be more aggressive.

Race day eating and activities
I had no idea what to do with myself all day. I didn't want to do anything too strenuous, but I also didn't want to sit around and do nothing but get nervous. I decided I would spend some time making a different kind of Instagram video, explaining my pacing strategy.

In this video, I discussed how I would be using my Garmin as a stopwatch, not a GPS device, to pace myself. I would use the lap button and lap myself every 400m. My goal would be to run around 1:35-1:36 per lap and keep up with the 20:00 pacer. I had it all planned out and I visualized myself hitting that lap button and nailing those splits, just like I did when I paced the 25:00 group back in 2022.

Eating wise, I had a normal breakfast: Nova lox, a bagel, and a banana. For lunch I had rice pilaf, almond butter pretzels, and more nova lox. For dinner I had an English muffin with almond butter and a banana. I wanted to keep it pretty light. I ate my dinner at 4:30 for a 7:40 race start. I figured that would be plenty of time to digest the food. I felt like I had kept the food really light, but consumed enough calories so I wouldn't be in an energy deficit. 

I started to feel nervous right before we left the house with that "I have to go to the bathroom" sensation that never quite materialized. For morning races, usually I can empty everything out in advance.

Other things I did yesterday to distract myself included playing the piano and unpacking my CD collection from the moving boxes and organizing them by date, but without looking at the dates. My CD collection is like the sound track to my life from ages 15-30 so I remember the order they go in. 

Before the Race
We left the house at 5:30 for a 7:40 start. Even though I live much closer to Washington DC than I used to, it still took us 45 minutes to get there because this race was on the other side of the city, closer to Maryland. 

We arrived, parked and made it to bib pickup an hour before race start. Tracksmith was promoting their new Eliot Racer shoe which meant runners had the opportunity to test them out. They encouraged me to take a lap around the track in them, and I did. WOW - did I fall in love with this shoe. So soft and bouncy, very similar to my beloved adidas Adios Pro 2 but with even more bounce. These have the potential to be my new favorite shoe.

However, I currently have the many different carbon fiber plated shoes and I cannot justify the purchase of another one: Brooks Hyperion Elite 4 PB, Adios Pro 2, NB SuperComp Pacer, ASICS Metaspeed Sky, ASICS Metaspeed Edge, Mizuno Wave Rebellion Pro, Saucony Endorphin Pro 4, and Nike Alphafly.

I ran this 5000m race in my Nike Alphaflys. I had tested them out during two track workouts and they felt very fast with a lot of forward propulsion. I liked the Achilles-friendly 8mm drop and the fact that my feet weren't overwhelmed with cushion. I find the ASICS Metaspeed Sky to be too soft and the Saucony Endorphin Pro to be too firm, so the Alphafly was the perfect middle ground. I also really love the New Balance SC Pacer for short races, but I wanted to give the Alphafly a shot!

I changed back into my Nikes and ran a few more laps in the outermost lane of the track to warm up. I made multiple trips to the porta potty but not much was happening. 15 minutes before the race started I had a caffeinated Maurten gel. I debated having caffeine so late in the day and I knew it would bother my sleep, but I still did it. I figured I would be up late anyway, and lack of sleep would be worth it for the performance boost of caffeine. 

Weather
It was seasonably cool for May 31st. It was only 65 degrees, not humid (in fact, quite dry) and windy. If you were just standing around and not in a sunny spot, it felt cold. Greg wore jeans and a jacket. I warmed up in shorts and a lightweight jacket. 65 degrees is not exactly cool, but that wind was serious. On my personal weather scale I give this a 7 out of 10: somewhat favorable. With the sun having gone down below the buildings, the wind and the low humidity, the temperature was quite good. But the 16-18 mph sustained wind with heavier gusts made for a brutal 200m stretch! I am also thankful that it wasn't raining. We had quite the thunderstorm with hail earlier in the day!

The Race
Normally I break my race reports into a mile-by-mile recap, but that is not how I experienced this race. The whole thing was one big blur of "the same" and after the first mile I had no idea how many laps I had run because I wasn't even thinking about that.

I'm wearing the race briefs!

As I said in my Instagram video, the plan was to hit my lap button every 400m, but the more I thought about it, I realized I didn't need that level of granularity and I would lap every 800m, and shoot for around 3:10-3:11. 

There were about 20-25 people in my heat. There was a 19:30 pacer and a 20:00 pacer. My friend Sergio was running, and I often find myself running very close to him in races. He wanted to run 20:00 as well so I told myself I would tuck in behind him and the pacer. I didn't really think I was in 20:00 shape, but I was going to go for it anyway. Who knows, maybe being in a pack would make me faster! 

We all lined up close to the start. I started in lane 1 (innermost lane) about three rows back. I could have been closer to the front if I started in a further lane. 

Oh how easy it felt that first lap! I felt so good that I was actually vying for position and wanting to be closer to the pacer! I had all the confidence in the world after lap 1 because I believed that pace to be totally sustainable. It was hard running on the track with so many other runners close by. Everyone wanted to be in lane 1, running at the exact same pace. There was only one point where I rubbed elbows with another runner but I somehow managed to keep my own space the rest of the time. 

I knew that Greg would have 12 opportunities to cheer for me and take photos and videos. I figured he would be moving around and I didn't know where or when to expect him. 

The first four laps were a dream! Here are my official splits, which start at 200m and then go every 400m.:

200 46.63
400 1:36.78
400 1:36.55
400 1:35.24
400 1:36.13

That's 1.12 miles of perfect execution! Shortly after that, my pack started to get ahead of me. It was weird because I was maintaining my effort level, but I was trailing behind. So I upped the effort. I really didn't

want to lose the pack because I needed them to block the wind. But no matter how much I pushed, they got farther and farther ahead. 

At this point I stopped focusing on my pace and how many laps I had run and I did everything I could to keep going. I developed a tight cramp in my upper abdomen. I am not sure if this was from pushing too hard in the beginning, from eating a larger meal than I normally would have, or maybe the caffeinated gel just "sitting" there. Whatever the cause, it got pretty gnarly.

I did not feel good or strong or fast. I felt like I was slogging away at a very slow pace. Everything felt heavy, the wind felt like a massive obstacle and the stomach pain was intense. And that's really all I have to report about the second two miles! I didn't count laps, but thankfully the football stadium scoreboard showed the official race time. I figured I would stop when that big clock got to be around 21 minutes. Yes, I had the same clock on my Garmin but I couldn't even bring myself to look at that. 

It was a blur of pushing hard, looking at the big clock and feeling the pain in my upper abdomen. I was also running completely alone and I was hoping there was at least one person behind me so I wouldn't be the last finisher. 

The final 200m was a tailwind so I sprinted as hard as I could and I almost caught the guy in front of me. He beat me by 3 seconds and had previously been much farther ahead.  More splits:

1:39.44
1:43.06
1:44.87
1:44.61
1:44.57
1:46.38
1:44.48
1:43.89

I was running slower than my half marathon pace for the last mile! 

My official time was 21:02. This was surprising to me because I had expected to be closer to 22:00, but I
guess I had a fast first mile to pad the rest of the race with. I the official race result, they group by age and gender I placed 2nd in my age group out of only 5 women. I am thinking these evening track races are more for the younger crowd! The fastest woman in my age group ran 20:55 so I wasn't too far behind.

After the Race
The next heat began almost immediately after ours was finished. Greg and I hung out for a bit and chatted with Sergio and a few other runners. We all agreed that the wind made this one tough. My nose was burning and running and I was sneezing my head off. This happens when I run really hard in low humidity. My nasal passage gets dry and irritated. The cramp went away about five minutes after finishing. 

Greg and I left the meet and had dinner at a local diner. I got chicken and waffles - a great combination of protein and carbs. 

Final Thoughts and Key Takeaways
This one was really hard. Much harder than anticipated. I was happy that my time was 2 seconds faster than my 5K time from two weeks ago, but I had to expend way more effort to do it. 

I knew 20:00 was an unrealistic goal, but sometimes you have to challenge yourself and just try and see what happens. I almost never do that, so it was a great experience to do it. I am pretty sure I could have run a faster time (maybe 20:45) if I started out slower and didn't crash and burn, but I took a risk. 

This race has motivated me to get back to where I was last summer. Last summer I ran a time of 20:28 at the hilly Firecracker 5K. I was consistently running speed workouts, lifting weights, and paying attention to my nutrition. For the past two months, the move has been front and center and taking care of myself has suffered. I haven't been focused on my nutrition, taking supplements, doing strength training, getting quality sleep, etc. 

Now that we are all settled in our new time it's time to get back to my normal fitness and wellness routine. I am proud of myself for getting out there and being aggressive even though it meant a painful and sluggish second half. It was a fun event and it has lit the fire in me to get back into my training groove.