This is a race recap by Love Training More athlete Allana Cameron.
September 19: Working on a repetitive task. Mind wandering:
Many of my running buddies have Fall races. I should do a Fall race! I wonder if I could do a marathon? Which marathon could I do… hmmm… PEI! Oh, PEI is in 4 weeks. That’s probably a crazy idea. I will ask my running buddies. I’m sure they will bring me back to reality.
Within minutes, they were ALL ON BOARD, saying, “Do it!”
Next up: Feeling a bit silly asking Coach Erin Poirier about running a marathon in 4 weeks. But, why not? She’ll probably say it’s not a good idea. Then I can just relax again.
Email sent. Subject line: Crazy idea?
Short time later: Coach says: Love it! 42.2 on the menu.
I had 3 weeks to build up distance, one week to taper. Then race day. No sweat. But, really, I was worried. In fact, I didn’t actually sign up for the race until the week of. I made excuse after excuse of why I didn’t think I should sign up. But, then race week arrived and my weekly training plan landed in my email. There it was. Sunday: PEI Marathon. I told Coach: “I guess I have to sign up now, because you wrote it in my schedule. I always have to complete the running in my schedule.” Signup complete.
Coach Erin wrote me a totally awesome marathon plan in March 2017. Unfortunately, I bonked 10km into that marathon and, although I finished, it was not how I had hoped it would turn out. So, more than 2 ½ years later and only 4 weeks notice before the PEI Marathon, it seemed like the perfect plan to try again.
0-21km: It was a beautiful chilly morning on PEI’s North shore. Feeling relaxed, with a broad goal of finishing between 4hrs – 4hrs 30min, I chatted with people around me. All I had to do was relax and run. And, remember not to be an idiot by going out too fast. I was careful and forced myself to hold back several times during this period. I played leap-frog with a few different runners, which I enjoyed as I imagined we were running buddies, just silently helping each other along. However, always reminding myself – don’t be an idiot – go your own pace! There was a man that seemed to instantly appear every 5-6km to give out high-fives with a Lobster Oven mitt on. This made me smile every time! I finished this segment a little faster than my plan called for, but I was feeling ok.
21-34km: At 21km of the PEI marathon, we turned onto the Confederation Trail (i.e. Rails to Trails). I immediately felt less energy and felt that the trail required so much more effort to maintain my pace. My Garmin seemed to be jumping all over the place, so I relied completely on feel for the entire duration of the trail, about 14km. In the 4 weeks leading up to the marathon, I had focused on relaxing, being patient with my body and running by feel. So, this worked out ok! My splits during this segment were fairly consistent despite wonky Garmin.
35-42.2km: I was so glad to leave the trail segment of this marathon! All I had to do was FINISH this race by getting downtown. I really wanted to walk. Just up ahead, I spotted a girl that I had been leap-frogging with earlier on in the race. I decided to “let her go” within the first couple of km’s into the trail segment because I knew I wasn’t being smart to stay with her then. But now, heading down from the airport, step by step, I caught up! This was a great distraction! With 5km to go, I realized I could beat my best estimate of 4 hrs. All I had to do was run. Not walk. Those last hills towards downtown were hard!
Coach always encourages us to be fearless in the last segment of our races. I think that we can train our minds to be fearless. But how fearless is exercised on a particular day, in my experience, may look different depending on the conditions: how your body feels, pain, injury etc. The point is: Be Fearless! On this marathon day, I was able to put fearless to practice by pushing past what my mind said I had left. Result: 3:50:27. Completely unexpected. I am happy.
After the race, I saw three of the people I had been leap-frogging with at various points. We just smiled at each other and said, “Congrats!”. That seemed special. We shared an experience. And, that’s what keeps us coming back!
Post-marathon – coach advice to frame:
