My 20-Year Anniversary of Road Racing

Exactly 20 years ago I attended my five-year college reunion at the University of Virginia. My college roommate, Lisa, and I shared a hotel room and she was looking through the program. 

"Elizabeth, there's a two-mile race tomorrow morning," she said. "Why don't you do that?"

"2 miles is shorter than I usually run on the treadmill," I replied. "I was planning to run 5-6 miles on the
gym treadmill tomorrow morning."

"Yes, but wouldn't this be more fun?"

"I suppose I could run on the gym treadmill afterwards if I wanted to run more," I said, realizing that she was probably right. Why not do something a little different?

At the start of the race, I began talking with a guy friend of mine who I had graduated with. The race began and we continued chatting. I ran with him at his pace mostly focused on the conversation and not really thinking too much about the race. When we finished, I was informed that I was the first female finisher, which meant I won. I was handed a special silver tumbler. How cool! I wasn't even trying to be competitive - I was just chatting with my guy friend.

Lawyers Have Heart 2005

He then told me that there was a 10K race in DC the following weekend. He encouraged me to sign up for it. It was called "Lawyers Have Heart" and a lot of lawyers would be there. Seeing as I was single and actively looking to date, I figured that would be a good opportunity for me to meet a lawyer! I asked him how long a 10K was and he told me it was 6.2 miles. I knew I could definitely handle that because I ran that almost every day on the treadmill. 

The following weekend, I showed up at the 10K. There were hundreds, if not thousands of people. I was given a little computer chip to attach to my shoe and was told I would be officially timed. I wore cotton gym shorts, a cotton tank top, and no watch. I had no idea what a "good" time was - I would run it as fast as I could and that would be that. I didn't realize that you were supposed to use the porta potty beforehand and I learned that the hard way. After drinking so much water and pushing so hard in the heat, I couldn't control the leakage, which was extremely embarrassing. And I was wearing cotton shorts. Needless to say, I would not be lingering around afterwards to meet a lawyer.

My time was 53:09, which was good enough to be in the top 20% of the women. It wasn't an outright "win" like the 2-mile race, but given the fact that I had never done this before, I thought it was pretty good. And strangely, I didn't consider myself a "runner". I was someone who liked to workout at the gym and use the treadmill. 

Thus began my love of racing. It was a hard race. I peed a little in my cotton shorts. I didn't meet a lawyer. But the satisfaction of crossing the finish line and being in the top 20% was enough to make me want to do more. 

Lawyers Have Heart 2025
Fast forward 20 years and the Lawyers Have Heart race is still going strong. They've added a 5K and they've moved the race from Georgetown to Hains Point. If I had realized that this was my 20-year anniversary I would have signed up for the 10K. But with all the drama around my move and also my trip to Paris, it totally slipped my mind and I signed up for the 5K. 

This race bore little resemblance to the one that I ran back in 2005. It wasn't nearly as hot, the location was different, and I was running half the distance. But it was still fun to reflect back on my 2005 experience and think about this really long journey. I never expected that the 10K would lead to multiple marathons, a book, and a large social media presence. 

Before the Race
Even though we live much closer to Washington DC than we used to, it still took us 40 minutes to get to the start. The idea was for Greg to drop me off and for my friend Chad to drive me home. Greg always comes to my races, but we had literally just moved into the new house and there was so much unpacking to be done, and weekend time was limited! 

It took us 40 minutes because so many roads in DC were blocked off due to graduation ceremonies. Greg navigated us to the "ride share" drop off address that the race provided, but we couldn't access it due to road closures. So we drove out of DC, back into Virginia, along the GW Parkway, up through Spout Run, back over the bridge and he finally dropped me off as close as he could to the start. I didn't bring my phone, so I asked a few police officers how to get to Hains Point and they told me where to go. 

All of this made me very anxious because I didn't even have my bib yet and I was certain I wouldn't have a chance to warm up. Thankfully I got my warm up in by running all the way to the start line, which was over a mile away from where Greg dropped me off. I got in line to get my bib and a few minutes later, Chad lined up as well. So apparently I wasn't horribly late!

After pinning on my bib, I continued my warm up and made two separate trips to the porta potties. I didn't want a repeat of 2005! It was lightly raining during my warm up but that rain tapered off for the actual race so I decided not to run with my hat. It was about 68 degrees, overcast, somewhat humid, and windy (about 10-15 mph sustained). I give the weather a 5 out of 10 on my personal weather scale. Too warm and windy to be a good morning for a race, but the overcast skies and the fact that it was under 70 degrees was helpful. It could have been better, but it could have been worse.

15 minutes before the race started I took a few swigs of water and a caffeinated Maurten gel. And then I lined up at the start.

Goals and Strategy
Last year I ran this race in a time of 20:38. The weather had been cooler and I believed myself to have been in much better shape. But this year, I had not run any speed workouts since early April. It had been about 5 weeks. I decided I would not look at my Garmin and not have a goal time. I would run hard and relaxed and see what I could do. The race would be a good benchmark for future 5Ks this summer.

Mile 1:
We started running and I made a mental note of how many women were ahead of me. Five women. I would focus on trying to "race" and chase them down as opposed to hitting a certain time on my watch. I was surprised at how good I felt. Sometimes I feel just horrible at the start of a 5K, but this was not one of those times. My body adapted pretty quickly to the intensity and I told myself to work hard and focus on running the straight line tangents. My split for this mile was 6:40. I was pleasantly surprised by the 6:40 because even though it was hard, it didn't feel like 6:40. I would have estimated closer to 6:50.

Mile 2:
I mentioned that this race occurred at Hains Point. The 10K runs around the Point but the 5K does not -- it goes around the tidal basin and over the Memorial Bridge and back. It's still a fast course but it's not as flat as the Hains point loop. During this mile I was able to pass one of the other women, putting me in fourth place. I didn't think I would be able to catch the other three, but I kept pushing. My split was 6:44.

Mile 3:
The first half of mile 3 was up a hill (the bridge) and directly into the wind. It sucked the life out of me. I still felt strong, but I knew I had slowed significantly. I didn't let it bother me though because I knew soon enough I would turn around and I'd have a downhill tailwind. That did happen and I surged my way to a 6:51 final mile. 

I sprinted to the finish at a pace of 5:59. The clock was super close to 21:00 and I gave it all I had to squeak under but it wasn't going to happen. I was still happy with my time of 21:04.

After the Race
I waited for Chad to finish, and he came in about a minute later. We walked back to the start line together and he played the role of "Instagram photographer" and snapped some photos of me. We then ran back to his car which was just over a mile away. I later found out that I won first place in my age group and was the 4th overall female out of 528.

Final Thoughts and Key Takeaways
I wish I had signed up for the 10K because it would have been so cool to have a "then vs. now" comparison. But given the fact that it's not even the same course, it doesn't matter as much. 

Even though 21:04 is a "slow" 5K time for me and it's over 20 seconds slower than my time from last year, I am still happy with it given my lack of recent speed work. I'm also happy with how I executed this race, my mindset, and the fact that I had a lot of energy. Sometimes when I race I feel stale and my legs have no pep. That was not the case here and I was happy about it.

We moved into our new house the previous Sunday so I had a busy week of unpacking, getting everything set up, staying up late every night, etc. My body was out of its normal routine. I had very low expectations and I exceeded them!

I'm extremely grateful that I have been able to run consistently over the past 20 years and I that I continue to get joy and satisfaction out of racing. 

Another 5K, With Some Mishaps

I ran the Lawyer's Have Heart 5K over the weekend in Washington DC. Even though I have run Lawyer's Have heart many times in the past, this experience was entirely different.

Historically, this race had been a 10K, occurred in the middle of June, and was located in Georgetown. This race was my first 10K back in 2005 and my first large road race ever! I proceeded to run it every year from 2005 to 2012, and then stopped in 2013 because I was on vacation. Around that time, I decided to stop running summertime 10Ks because I would suffer from heat exhaustion and kill my immune system. 5K became my summertime distance limit. In 2017 they introduced the 5K distance in addition to the 10K, so I started doing that. 

Last year, the race moved from Georgetown to Hains Point and the date switched from June to May. I didn't participate last year, so I didn't know what to expect. Even though the Georgetown course was challenging, it was a tradition for me, so I was a little sad about the move. 

Before the Race
I decided to go with my adidas Adios Pro shoes for this race. I have determined that they are more responsive than the ASICS that I wore in Boston and the Greenway 5K two weeks ago. The ASICS shoes are fun and bouncy, but also a bit squishy. For really fast running, I like to feel more connected with the ground. I think the plush cushion is great for longer distances, but I've decided to stick with adidas for shorter ones. Even though they are unisex and not specifically women's running shoes, they have a streamlined, locked-in fit. 

Greg and I tried to park in our normal spot for Hains Point races, but the road was blocked off so we parked at the Kennedy center, as the website had suggested. In the parking garage, I saw my friend Chad, whose law firm always participates in this race. Chad and I ran to the start, which was just over a mile away and Greg walked. 

It was raining steadily, but it wasn't the torrential downpour that my weather app had called for. At 61 degrees and humid, I was thankful for the rain. On my personal race weather scale, this race gets a 6 out of 10. Not great weather, but also not horrible. If the rain had been heavier, I would have downgraded it to a 5 or 4. If there had been no rain at all but still humid, also a downgrade. Any time the temp is above 55, I would rather have rain than not. 

During my warmup with Chad, I told him about my lack of sleep over the past two nights. I had only gotten 5 hours of sleep each night because my mind was quite activated. Even with poor sleep I can usually race well, so I didn't let that get in my head. But the thing that was keeping me up was occupying so much of my mind, that I wasn't really focused on the race at all. I wasn't sure if I was mentally ready to run really hard when my focus was elsewhere. 

I had an A, B, and C goal. "A" goal was to run under 20 minutes. "B" goal was to beat my Easter Classic time of 20:14 from seven weeks prior, and my "C" goal was to beat my 5K from two weeks ago (20:40). 

We arrived at the race start and I retrieved my bib and pinned it on. Then I looked around for Greg and found him. He said he was going to walk up to the bridge where he would be taking a video of me about a quarter mile in. I decided to run a bit past there and turn around to continue my warm up.

When I saw him at the bridge I stopped and said "let's do a video of me warming up here." His response "It's 7:41. Don't you start in 4 minutes?" OH SHIT!!!

The race started at 7:45, and I knew that, but for some reason I had it in my head that it started at 8:00. I hadn't yet had my gel, and the start line was not visible. How could I have messed this up so badly!?

Well, strides are normally part of my warm up, so I did a long stride at a sub 7:00 pace to bolt back to the start line. It was about a quarter of a mile away. At least if they could see me running towards it maybe the would wait a few seconds for me to get behind the line. The minute I got there I gulped down my Maurten caffeinated gel. It wouldn't do me much good. It takes about 15 minutes for the caffeine to kick in. Oh well. This probably goes back to what I said above - I was focused on something else so I didn't remember that the start time was 7:45, and not 8:00.

I lined up towards the front and didn't even have an opportunity to see who else was there, who the competition might be. I was still trying to catch my breath from my sprint to the start.

I think I stood there for maybe 60 seconds tops and then the race started.

Mile 1
Now that the race had started and I knew I wasn't going to miss it, I could relax. So I went out at a more
conservative pace. I needed to calm down and switch gears from "get to the start" to "run a fast 5K". It wasn't long before I saw Greg and yelled out to him "That was very close!" I still wasn't aware of how many women were ahead of me, and I usually try to have an idea of that when I run a local race.

The course wasn't the traditional Hains Point course. And I had only discovered this a few days prior when my physical therapist pointed it out to me (he was running the 10K). This meant that it wouldn't be pancake flat and there would be more turns. I welcomed this, though, because I have run on Hains Point a lot lately and thought a change of scenery would be good.

I ran with Chad for a little bit and then pulled ahead about half a mile in. Because I started a little slower than originally planned, I was now passing runners, which was challenging with the course being narrow. We were all running in the bike lane. We probably didn't have to be crammed in there, but I didn't want to be the only person not in the bike lane. This mile clocked in at 6:33. This put me on track for my C goal and I would need to speed up if I wanted my B goal of sub 20:14.

Mile 2
Lots of uneven pavement here and potholes which meant puddles. I didn't want to focus too much on dodging puddles, but I also didn't want my feet to be soaked. Ultimately there was no avoiding it. My feet got soaked which meant that heavy feet feeling. I was racing really close to one guy for this whole mile. Every time he started to get ahead I would make sure he wouldn't. This mile also had a steeper hill than I was expecting as we got onto the Memorial Bridge. It took the wind out of me so this mile clocked in at 6:38. UGH - not what I wanted, but it was the best I could do. I saw Greg again (he took a shortcut to another spectating point) and he yelled out that I was the 3rd place female.

Mile 3
I was really hoping the magical 5K gods would smile down on me and give me this amazing burst of energy to close the race in a sub 6:20 pace, but that was not happening. There was a hairpin turn and I felt like that stole any momentum I had. My main motivation at this point was to retain my spot at the third female. I didn't want any women passing me. This mile clocked in at 6:33, my fastest mile of the race, but not as fast as I would have liked.

The finish and beyond
According to my Garmin, I ran the final 0.15 mile at a pace of 5:51, so I had a good burst of energy. When I ran the Greenway 5K two weeks ago, I had no final kick whatsoever; my legs had been totally dead. 

My official time was 20:37, which means I got my "C" goal of beating my Greenway time by 3 seconds. Phew. 

I found Greg who told me that I was actually the 4th female finisher-- he had miscounted. On the plus side, that meant I didn't need to stay for the awards and hang out in the rain. We found Chad and we traded race stories, and then he went back to cheer on his law firm colleagues. 

Final Thoughts and Key Takeaways
There are two ways to look at this race: the positive way and the negative way. Of course I will ultimately view it the positive way, but it's good to articulate some negative thoughts that are only natural when you miss you A and B goals.

Negative way: It was only 7 weeks ago that I ran a 20:14 5K on a hilly course and it didn't feel all that hard. I've done plenty of fast workouts in between, and taking one week off post marathon shouldn't cause me to loose THAT much fitness. I should have at least been able to go under that time. This course was faster than the Greenway from two weeks ago so I should have been able to beat that time by more than 3 seconds. 

Positive way: I started the race recovering from a quarter mile sprint to the start and the anxiety of not getting there in time. I didn't take my gel in time for the caffeine to kick in. It was pouring rain and there were puddles everywhere + uneven pavement. I averaged 5 hours of sleep for the two nights before the race and my focus was elsewhere. These are not conditions for an amazing performance. And even though the Greenway course had more elevation gain, there were no turns, uneven pavement, or puddles to dodge. The March race got a 10/10 on the weather scale, so it's not a fair comparison.

Out of 443 women, I finished in 4th place, which I am pleased with.  The last time I ran this race (2022) I was the 9th female finisher out of 582, so that's a nice improvement too.

It was great to get out there in the rain, to see my friend Chad, and to work hard!

Guest Post: Greg's Vermont City Marathon

Please enjoy this guest blog post written by my husband Greg!

Choosing Vermont City
I ran the Rehoboth Beach Marathon in December. At dinner that same night, Elizabeth was already asking which one I wanted to run in the spring. She and I are different in that way – I wanted to continue reveling in my recent accomplishment, whereas she wanted to know, ‘what’s next?’. More than once we’ve had similar conversations where my answer is, ‘I’m not ready to think about that yet’.

However, on that particular night my answers were influenced by my Rehoboth Beach experience. As I detailed in that blog post, the race itself was not my fastest, but I felt good about it and I really enjoyed the entire trip, including the destination, race, dining, etc.

So, I was happy citing vague desires like, ‘I want to go somewhere new and exciting’, ‘I want a good experience’, ‘I want nice scenery’, ‘Not too big’, ‘Not too small’, ‘It’d be nice if we had friends there’, ‘I like mountains’, ‘Not too too hilly’, etc. She, on the other hand, was readily presenting actual options that satisfied my criteria. I would be participating in detailed planning, whether I was ready for it or not.

We ultimately settled on the Vermont City Marathon, in Burlington, VT. Burlington was supposed to be nice, it would add a new state to my running list, and one of my best childhood friends lived nearby. We also later learned that our friends from Virginia, Chad and Maria, were also coming. Chad would run while Maria and their 11-year old twins would cheer us along.

Training and Recovery
A May 29th target gave plenty of time for a healthy recovery and training cycle. After maintaining a base between 20-30 miles per week plus some rowing, the real training began mid-February.

Elizabeth created a 15-week training plan that steadily increased the weekly mileage from the high-40’s to the mid-60’s, including three cut-back weeks. I ran 6 days per week, including one medium-long run, one speed workout, one long run, and one recovery run.

Instead of just doing another training cycle, as I’ve done before, I wanted to challenge myself to be better this time. For me, that doesn’t mean running more miles, or working harder. It’s actually quite the opposite – my biggest area for improvement was getting better sleep. My sleep quality has steadily deteriorated over the years. I estimate it went from fair to poor over the past 4-5 years. Since sleep is one of the most important things for both physical and mental health, it was clearly the smartest focus.

Unfortunately, in this case, identifying the problem is way easier than fixing it. 12 weeks before the race, I eliminated alcohol. According to everything everywhere, alcohol is 100% bad and 0% good for sleep. This helped in certain ways, but it wasn’t a magic bullet. It was one variable removed, and resulted in a more regularly identifiable set of issues. 4 weeks before the race, I eliminated desserts. This helped a little more, but I still struggled. The final fix was eliminating screens after I finished working for the day. This seemed to be the final puzzle piece. My sleep got much better by doing this. Unfortunately, this was the hardest of all, so I didn’t end up doing it until the week before the race. I could say a lot more about all this, but it’s too much for this blog.

I was surprised with how much weight rapidly shed after quitting the deserts – I went from 173 lbs on February 19th to 162 lbs on May 20th with a sharp acceleration in those final weeks. So, sleep or no sleep, my efforts had many other benefits.

Travel, Arrival, and Impressions
Because Elizabeth already blogged about our experiences traveling to Burlington and the activities prior to the race, I’ll abbreviate this section.

Shakeout run on Saturday

I loved the view from our hotel room window. Lake Champlain and the Adirondack mountains in New York on the other side was very pretty. This more than satisfied my scenery requirement. I also really liked Burlington itself. The shops and restaurants on the walking-only Church street were quite nice. It was sad to see the many homeless and mentally-ill seeming people that were ever-present, however.

Goals and Strategy
My main goal is always to run a good race. That means pushing as hard as I can without giving up, but not so hard that I’m forced to give up. There’s obviously a lot that goes into that. Because my training cycle went so well and my physical fitness was good, I believed a personal record (PR) was realistic given the course and conditions.

Elizabeth was running the first half with me. I asked her to pace us for a 3:17:something. We decided that meant a ~1:40:00 first half and a ~1:37:30 second half. Planning for some extra distance, that meant averaging about 7:35 for the first half and 7:25 for the second.

The Race
Fortunately, I slept relatively well both Friday and Saturday nights before the race. Despite having a bib that allowed me to start in the first corral, at 7:00am, I started with Elizabeth in the 2-person marathon relay corral, which was the last corral, at 7:12am. This wasn’t a big deal; for me it was much more important to run with Elizabeth than to have the 12-minute earlier start.

Elizabeth had written the mile-by-mile pace plan on her left arm, incorporating adjustments for the hill profile and a gradual acceleration from a slower start to a faster finish. My job was to stick with her. The race was two laps of the same course. So, I knew to pay attention during the first half so I’d know how to pace the second half by myself.

Miles 1-5
Even though we started slowly, we rapidly caught up with the slower racers from the marathon corrals that started ahead of us. We were going a few minutes per mile faster than ~80% of the people on a fully-crowded course. The other 20% were having the same struggle we were.

It’s not easy staying with a pacer while weaving through so many people going such a significantly different pace. It meant accelerating to get through a gap before it closed, or going around the outside, etc.

At one point Elizabeth had to slow me down. I have a tendency to accelerate to pass and then fail to slow back down. At other points, Elizabeth was assertively clearing the way for us by announcing ‘Passing!’ as she squeezed through a small gap. I’d follow with a ‘thanks’.

This type of weaving consumed the first five miles. I can’t imagine trying to race at half-marathon pace through all that. This was definitely poor race planning.

Mile 1 – 7:44
Mile 2 – 7:43
Mile 3 – 7:48
Mile 4 – 7:45
Mile 5 – 7:30

Miles 6-8
Mile 6 was still very crowded but quite nice because it was on a path directly next to the lake. The scenery was serene and there was a beautiful cool breeze coming off the water. It was the most enjoyable section of the entire race.

Mile 7 was the least enjoyable of the race; It included a ~200 foot climb up the pedestrian Church street area I mentioned earlier. The surface was brick, so it was also necessary to watch your footing. Mile 8 started with a short and steep climb and ended with a long gradual climb. I knew the next time I’d be enjoying this hilly section was miles 20-21.

I had pulled ahead of Elizabeth on the hills. Partly because I’m stronger up hills, but also because she steps gingerly when the footing is questionable. She caught up though and we carried on together.

Mile 6 – 7:34

Mile 7 – 8:02

Mile 8 – 7:41

Miles 9 – 10

These miles took us through an out-and-back detour through a residential neighborhood. The crowd support in this section was fun – people had sprinklers and hoses they’d spray you with if you seemed so inclined. There was an impressive 80’s-style hair-rock band playing in one front yard. The singer had on quite the outfit with a wig and makeup. I didn’t look closely enough to see if they were trying to impersonate KISS, or if it was just similar. Either way, it was fun.

This section was made challenging by the turns and potholes. I noticed that I had pulled ahead of Elizabeth again, but this time she was on pace, and I was going too fast. I welcomed the throttling – there is no surer way to ruin a marathon than to go too fast too early.

Mile 9 – 7:31
Mile 10 – 7:43

Miles 11-13

Early during mile 11 I started pulling ahead of Elizabeth again. This time she told me she was falling behind and that I should go ahead. She told me the prescribed paces of 7:20, 7:30, 7:15. With that info, I was off. It was exciting to be responsible for my own pacing. The paces were fast too, which meant I’d be running downhill. These would also be the final three miles of the entire race once I had come around the loop again, so it was of particular interest to envision that. These miles were also on a different section of the path by the lake. This time we were higher up, so the view was more majestic.

With all this excitement and newfound purpose in mind, I overdid it by a little bit, but not too much. It felt good and I was ‘easily’ able to crank out some fast paces.

Mile 11 – 7:16

Mile 12 – 7:17
Mile 13 – 7:13

One more time around
I hit the half-way point at 1:40:18 with a Garmin distance of 13.2 miles. 0.1 was more than I had expected to run extra, but time-wise, I was spot-on. My pacing strategy was to average 7:25 for the second half. I figured I could adjust the mile-to-mile pace around that based on what I remembered from the first half. I knew the first couple miles were slower. I knew there would be the glory mile by the lake followed by the hilly section, which I’d endure until the start of mile 22. Then I knew it was time to run the neighborhood hose and rock band gauntlet. And finally, I had those wonderful fast finish miles where I’d give it everything I had.

Having this segmented picture in mind really helped me with my mental game.

Segment 1 – the slower miles
The course wasn't crowded this time. I’m glad I knew they had a challenging hill profile or I may have gotten discouraged with how difficult this section was. I felt my legs starting to ache and thought it was too early for that. The hills that I had such power on during the first half were much harder this time around.

Somewhere around mile 17 or 18 I passed my friend Chad. I was sad to see him because he had a 9-minute head start. So, I knew it meant he was having a hard time. I encouraged him to run with me, but he wasn’t having it.

Mile 14 – 7:29

Mile 15 – 7:32

Mile 16 – 7:32

Mile 17 – 7:25

Mile 18 – 7:24

Segment 2 – the lake and the hills

The lake mile lived up to my expectation. It was incredible. The hills however had gotten bigger since I last left them. The sun was stronger. The day was warmer. Everything was harder, but I had two things going for me – first, I knew to expect that it’d be hard, so, no big deal. Second, I knew Elizabeth would be waiting for me at the top. We planned that as the ideal spot where she could come spectate as a way to help me get through it. It worked well. I was very happy to see her and it gave me a good boost. 

Mile 19 – 7:15

Mile 20 – 8:05

Mile 21 – 7:36

Segment 3 – the neighborhood
Generally marathon miles 22 and 23 are among the hardest for me, mentally. They’re quite far, but not far enough as to where I believe myself when I try thinking that I’m ‘almost done’. If the race is going well, they’re like the boring part of the movie where it’s hard not to just turn it off. If the race is going poorly, it feels like being stranded in the middle of the desert or on the moon. Nothing is close enough and everything is too far away and there’s no hope in sight.

However, this time they were nothing like that. This time they were just that one last little thing to do before the fun begins. This was a first for me. If Yogi Berra ran marathons, he’d agree it’s 90% mental and the other half is physical.

Mile 22 – 7:35

Mile 23 – 7:17 

Segment 4 – the finish

I had been looking forward to these miles since mile 11. I was now living my prior vision for myself. It felt great.

I knew I was in really good shape because I was able to calculate that I would PR if I ran better than xyz pace based on the time on my watch and the distance left to go. Being able to do such calculations so late in a race, gave me even more confidence.

As I confirmed the pace on my watch was better than I needed, I had a positive feedback loop going on mentally and it carried me through to the finish. I gave it all I had for the final ~1.5 miles.

Mile 24 – 7:17

Mile 25 – 7:20

Mile 26 – 7:04 

Final 0.41 – 6:57 

Final time – 3:18:15 

This is a PR by 1:36. 

Post Race
Chad stayed strong and finished the race. He was beat up some, but felt well enough to join us for a celebratory dinner that night. It was great to spend time with them after not seeing them in person since the start of the pandemic.

Also, I really appreciated Maria and the kids cheering me on at four different points throughout the race. It was so much fun seeing them on the course. On Monday we had lunch with my childhood friend Jim, his wife Rae, and their son, Andy. We haven’t seen them since our wedding, and we’d never met Andy. I really enjoyed our time together.

Reflection
I accomplished everything I set out to with this race. Both the journey and the destination provided life-enriching experiences which I treasure and am proud of accomplishing. After all, that’s the whole point, isn’t it? It’s got me asking myself, ‘what’s next?’.

Vermont City Marathon: Pacing Greg

Yesterday morning I ran the Vermont City 2-person relay, which enabled me to run the first half of Greg's marathon with him. 

Greg chose this marathon because he wanted to experience a new city/state, and he wanted a late Spring marathon, having run Rehoboth Beach in December. Even though I am not a certified coach, Greg and I agree that I am qualified enough to be his coach, so I created a training plan for him. I have been his coach for his past 4-5 marathons, and it has worked out well in the past. 

We flew to Vermont on Friday. Our flight was delayed by about 90 minutes, which wasn't too bad considering the massive thunderstorms and tornado watch that came through the area during our originally scheduled departure time. We had dinner outside at a restaurant on Church Street, which is part of the marathon route. 

On Saturday morning, we did a shakeout run along the course. We identified where the big hills would be and we scoped out the start/finish area. Then we met up with Chad and his family for brunch. We've run a few marathons with Chad including Sugarloaf, B&A Trail, and New York City. Chad's goal is to complete a marathon in all 50 states. Chad's wife and twin children (11 year-olds) would be our cheering squad for the marathon. 

The twins were very excited about cheering for us in the morning. They wanted to wake up early to make sure that they were able to see us on both the first and second loop of the course. One of the twins, Nathan, was fascinated by my Instagram following and he got really excited about the opportunity to take a photo that could be seen by thousands of people. We told him that I got free shoes because of my Instagram following, and then he saw a sign at the restaurant that said "Follow us on Instagram". He asked if the restaurant would get free plates if people followed them on Instagram. Chad explained that it didn't exactly work that way. 

The expo was surprisingly not within walking distance of our hotel. The start/finish was very close to our hotel and many other hotels, and yet the expo was held at a hotel that was two miles away-- not even in the downtown area. Chad drove us there in his rental car and we met up with my relay partner, Emily. I met Emily on Instagram when I asked if anyone who lived in Vermont wanted to run the half marathon relay with me. She was very quick to reply and within 24 hours, we had signed up for the relay together. 

Even though I have run close to 200 races, I have never run a relay. I wasn't sure how the hand-off worked. Apparently you wear the bib on a belt around your waist. But Emily and I agreed that the belt felt awkward and we'd rather have it pinned to our chest, even if it cost us a minute at the transition. So we didn't take one of the belts and the plan was for me to start unpinning the bib as I approached the exchange area. The name of our relay team was Racing Stripes!

Before the Race
The alarm woke us up at 5:00, which rare because I am usually awake well before my alarm on race morning. We ate breakfast and got ready. We had outfits that matched each other and matched the colors of the race: forest green. We had the same shoes, too: the New Balance Fuel Cell RC Elite. This would be Greg's first time racing in "super shoes" with the carbon fiber plate. I recommended these shoes to him because I find them to be the most stable of all the super shoes I have tried. Chad knocked on our hotel door at 6:30 and we walked to the start line together. 

In the starting area, the announcer was very loud. No matter where you went, the speaker was blaring in our ears so we couldn't talk to each other. And the announcer spoke continually about how to line up in the corrals. So it was was 15 minutes of the announcer repeating the EXACT same thing over and over, really loudly. The funny thing was that he was telling some groups to go to the "left" and some to go to the "right" but of course, that could be either direction, depending on where you are facing! Chad lined up in his marathon corral and Greg lined up in my relay corral.

Even though Greg had a "preferred corral" bib enabling him to start at exactly at 7:00, I was not allowed to start with him as a relay runner. All of the 2-person relay teams started in the very last corral, which was released at 7:12. We had emailed the race director asking if I could be in the preferred corral with him, but he said that all relay teams had to start in the 7:12 corral, no exceptions. So Greg started with me. That meant 12 extra minutes of running in warmer weather at the end of the race and having to weave through the slower marathon runners. 

I asked the race director about the weaving in my email but he assured me that it wouldn't be a problem because the course was wide enough to pass people until you got on the bike path at mile 4. 

So Chad started the race at around 7:01 and Greg and I started at 7:12.

Weather
It was sunny with no cloud cover, a very light breeze and about 40% of the course was shaded. It was 58 degrees at the start and warmed up to 69 degrees by the time Greg finished. I would guess that it was about 63 when I finished. Thankfully the humidity was low. On my race weather scale, I give my race a 6 out of 10 -- too warm to run my fastest, but not detrimental either. If I had been running the full marathon, I would give it a 3 out of 10 because running in the upper 60s at the end of a full marathon would be extremely difficult for me. However, we knew that running in late May would likely be warm, so this weather was not unexpected and it was fairly decent relative to what it could have been.

Pacing Strategy
Greg races best when he runs a negative split. He has done this at most of his marathons and that was our plan for yesterday. He wanted to beat his PR of 3:19:51 from the Two Rivers Marathon (set in March 2021). So the plan was to run the first half in 1:40:00- or slightly under, and then for him to negative split by 2-3 minutes. 

We looked at the elevation profile of the course and I wrote down mile-by-mile splits on my arm based on

the elevation. 

Miles 1-4
I made the mistake of not warming up beforehand. We didn't have a ton of time, and we needed to be in our corral so I figured I would run in place as my warm up. Usually the first mile of any run I do is a pace of around 9:30-10:00. My Achilles in particular need to be warmed up.

So Greg started out as planned at a pace in the 7:40s and I struggled to keep up with him. It seemed like he bolted out WAY too fast and I was running at an extreme effort, but then I looked down at my Garmin and realized that I was running a pace of 8:30. And it felt ridiculously hard. I knew I needed to catch him but I would have to run even faster to do so! 

I caught him about a half a mile in and I felt like I was running a 5K! But eventually we settled into a rhythm and my body remembered that running in the 7:40's was not all that taxing. 

It wasn't long before we caught up with some of the marathon runners. At first it was just some weaving here and there and then we had the entire 5:30 pace group to run around. It's hard enough to weave around a huge pace group, but twice as hard when you are trying to stick with a running partner. I tried my best to run the tangents and have Greg follow me but that wasn't always possible. 

At some point during the 4th mile we passed the 5:00 pace group. There was so much weaving involved and it was very difficult to stay on pace with all the speeding up and slowing down to get around people. I think that having the relay runners start behind all the marathon runners was a bad idea. I think it should have been done by pace. No matter what race you are running, you should be lined up according to pace. We were running in the 7:40s around masses of people running in the 10:00's and 11:00's. It makes it hard for all runners - whether they are passing or the ones being passed. 

Mile 1: 7:41 (planned 7:45)
Mile 2: 7:41 (planned 7:50)
Mile 3: 7:42 (planned 7:45)
Mile 4: 7:46 (planned 7:40)

Miles 5-8
We were happily on pace by mile 5 and enjoying ourselves. The scenery was beautiful, and we really loved the bike path. At mile 6 it was time to get off the bike path and go back to the streets. This is when the hilly section started. During mile 6, we were pleasantly surprised to hear our names being called by the twins. They had woken up early to make sure they were out in time to see us. Nathan took a bunch of photos and Chad's wife got a video. It was a huge pick-me-up.

Photo by 11-year-old Nathan

The uphill section seemed to go on and on. Mile 7 was had over 80 feet of gain and some of it was on an uneven brick surface. Greg started getting ahead of me as we reached the top of the hill because he's better on hills than I am. He was running the planned pace, but I was a little slower. I think I had underestimated how hard the hill would be in my pacing plan. 

At one point Greg turned around and asked if I was going to fall off pace and not be with him anymore. But I just needed some time to catch up to him post hill. As soon as the hill ended I was right back with him. 

Another challenge of the hill was passing the 4:00 pace group. So not only were we running uphill on an uneven surface and trying to stay together, but we were weaving through a large group of people. Did I mention that I think it was a mistake to have the relay runners start at the very back of the race? And it's not just the pace groups that we had to weave around-- it was constant weaving throughout the entire race. The pace groups were most difficult, though.

Running uphill on brick surface

Mile 5: 7:31 (planned 7:30)
Mile 6: 7:34 (planned 7:35)
Mile 7: 8:09 (planned 7:55)
Mile 8: 7:35 (planned 7:45)

Miles 9- 13.1
We were able to make up for the slowness of mile 7 during mile 8. So we were still perfectly on pace by the time we reached the 9th mile. We had planned for mile 9 to be 7:15 because it was supposed to be all downhill, but it ended up not being as fast as I had imagined, so we only ran 7:31. 

My legs were feeling great at this point, but I was beginning to feel the effects of the sun and I was starting to get tired. We reached mile 10 and everything was still going well. Then we ran through a neighborhood that had a lot of turns and potholes. I ran gingerly over the uneven pavement and slowed down to avoid the potholes. This meant Greg was getting ahead of me. It was a combination of me slowing down due to the course and him being a little faster than what we had planned. And he needed to be going faster than planned to make up for our slow mile 9.

Photo by Nathan

At that point it seemed like it would be a huge task to catch up to him, especially since I was getting tired. In hindsight, I know I definitely could have surged to reach him and kept pacing him, but I wimped out. He was running really well and I figured he didn't need me anymore because we were almost at the halfway point. So somewhere during this 11th mile I yelled at him to go ahead and have a great race. 

I felt like a wimp, but I was also really tired and didn't have the drive to be pushing any harder. Once I was on my own, I ditched the pacing plan and just cruised in at a comfortably hard pace. I wasn't super motivated to go any faster once Greg had gotten ahead of me. I wanted a respectable relay time, but I wasn't going to kill myself over a minute or two. Somewhere around mile 12 I passed the 3:45 pace group. There were a few relay runners going my approximate pace, so I used them to help guide me through the pack.

During the last mile, someone recognized me from my Instagram and ran with me to take some selfies together. It was flattering, but given that it was the last mile of my race, it was difficult to focus on anything other than getting to the finish. I wasn't really in the selfie mood! Finally I came upon Chad's family and it was awesome to have a cheering squad.

Mile 9: 7:31 (planned 7:15)
Mile 10: 7:29 (planned 7:30)
Mile 11: 7:32 (planned 7:20)
Mile 12: 7:36 (planned 7:30)
Mile 13: 7:20 (planned 7:15)
Last 0.15: 6:56 pace

Relay Handoff
I stopped my Garmin at 13.15 and still had some more running to do after that. I knew that I would be running around 13.3 miles and my partner would be running a little less. And also there had been so much weaving that I probably ran even more than that. I stopped my Garmin because I planned to slow down significantly to unpin my bib while running. I wanted to be able to hand Emily the bib as soon as I saw her and not waste time unpinning the bib while stopped. So I ran slowly to the exchange point while unpinning the four safety pins. 

She spotted me and I handed her the bib. She quickly pinned it on, and I wished her a great race and she was off!

When I stopped my Garmin, I had 13.15 miles in 1:40:15.  Ironically, that was Greg's official half marathon split. Even though he was maybe 30-45 seconds ahead of me by that point, all of the weaving meant our Garmins wouldn't match the official time/distance, so it was good he sped up!

After the Relay
I went back to the hotel, which was close by, but I walked slowly because my SI Joint decided to act up. I wish that pain was completely gone, but sometimes I feel it on random occasions. At the hotel, I was able to freshen up a bit, change shoes, change tops, re-apply sunscreen, and grab my phone.

Greg at 25.5

The course was two loops, and I decided to go to mile 20, which was the top of the big hill we ran during mile 7. It was close to the hotel and it would be a good place to see everyone. I saw Greg come through exactly on schedule, and then Emily about 5 minutes later, followed by Chad. Apparently Greg had caught up to Chad and passed him. Once my three runners had come through the 20 mile mark, I proceeded to the finish line area and waited about half a mile before the finish line.

It was so much fun seeing all the runners come through, and Greg looked so strong! After he ran by me, I proceeded to the finish area.

I realized I hadn't had any water since finishing my half marathon, so I went to the finish line chute and asked a volunteer to hand me a bottle of water. She told me I wasn't able to have a bottle from the chute and I had to get a cup of water from a different location. I have to admit I felt like a second-class citizen at that point! When I finished the relay and passed the bib onto Emily, there had been no place to get water that was immediately visible. Otherwise, I would have grabbed a bottle then.

He ran a time of 3:18:15, which is a PR by 1:36. The pacing strategy was for 26.3 miles in 3:17:30, and he ended up getting 26.4 on his Garmin (due to all the weaving), so he probably did reach 26.3 in our projected 3:17:30. So Greg paced it exactly as planned! He is going to write a guest blog post, so I won't say any more about his race. 

Relay team Racing Stripes finished in a time of 3:28:17, which earned us 8th place in the women's open division. I can now officially say I have run in a relay!

Team Racing Stripes

We all reunited, and Chad's son was so excited to give me the pictures he had taken of us. His photos were excellent, and I posted one of them on Instagram. He caught us both smiling and looking at the camera, which is more than I can say for the official race photographers!

Final Thoughts and Key Takeaways
All goals were achieved: Greg ran a PR. I ran my first relay. We experienced a new city/state. We had fun with friends. This was exactly the experience we were hoping for!

In hindsight I wish I would have pushed harder to stay with Greg during miles 12-13. I know I could have, but I just got tired and decided to be comfortable instead of uncomfortable. 

Since I wasn't yet acclimated to the warm weather, I wasn't even sure I would be able to run with Greg for as long as I did. I thought I might actually bonk at some point, but that never happened. 

My heart rate was seemingly back to normal. The mile paces lined up consistently with their corresponding average heart rates. And considering that it was warm at the end, my heart rate didn't even spike or drift higher! It was consistent throughout the whole race, which is a sign that I am fully recovered from my post-Covid heightened heart rate.  

There were many wonderful things about the race including the beauty of the course, the volunteers, and the free photos. But there were some things that I think they could improve for next year:

• There was no runner tracking (unless the runner ran with a smart phone) and the results weren't posted in real time. Many races are now using the RaceJoy app, which doesn't provide official splits and is entirely reliant on the runner carrying a phone. Chad carried his phone so that his family would be able to know where he was, but he normally does not race marathons while holding an iPhone.
• The expo was not within walking distance to where most of the hotels were, and Ubers aren't easy to get in this area. If it hadn't been for Chad, we would have had to take a taxi there. That's not the end of the world, but it seems like they would have bib pickup closer to the start/finish/hotels.
• The 2-person relay teams were placed at the very back of the pack, which meant weaving through slower runners for the entire first half of the race. Passing pace groups was particularly challenging on the narrow bike path. I think this cost Greg nearly a minute in his finish time. If this had been a BQ, those precious seconds would have made a big difference in terms of having extra "cushion".

Despite the areas for improvement, I definitely recommend this race because it's a fun course and the city of Burlington is fun and beautiful. Overall it was a wonderful experience! We couldn't have asked for a better weekend. Greg even had the opportunity to see a close friend from childhood the day after the race.

Next for me: 5K training!