Lake Sonoma 50 - here I come!

It's official! Assuming everything goes as planned, I'll be running my first ultra-marathon on Saturday, April 12th!! I think. Turns out I entered the wrong credit card information while trying to breeze through the sign-up process. But, I did receive a confirmation email, so hopefully I'm OK. 

Approximately 300 people will run this race. It sold out in 37 minutes yesterday. Yowza!

Here's how I'm feeling today.......

What the balls did I get myself into?!!!!!

New Marathon PR! 2:53:28

At approximately 9:53am on Sunday, December 8th, I crossed the finish line at the California International Marathon in Sacramento in an unofficial time of 2:53:28...officially meeting my goal of a sub-3 hour marathon. 



I'm still flying high from achieving my goal and then some. Quite the 180 from how I felt after my marathon in Oregon: defeated, sad, and even a little embarrassed. 

I went into this marathon stating my goal out loud to anyone interested. A sub-3 hour marathon. The last marathon I ran, I had thought sub-3 was a given. This time around I was more cautious. I'd be happy with a 2:59:59. Of course, deep down I wanted a bit more than that. Realistically, I thought it would be sweet if I could run a 2:57 or maybe even a 2:56. It wouldn't be easy, but I thought I was capable of that. I never dreamed that I would see the numbers 2, 5, and 3, in that order, when crossing the line.

And, because I love hitting replay on a successful race, here's my recap of the....



The day before:
Travy and I checked in to a Hilton Garden Inn in Sactown around 3pm after breezing through the expo. It was really nice to be in a hotel room with nothing to do except relax. I took a shower and then got into PJs and watched TV and read for the next 5 hours. We had made dinner at home that morning (pasta/marinara sauce/broccoli + salad), so I whipped it out when I felt hungry and gobbled it down, in bed. Note: eating in bed is huge fantasy of mine that is never realized at home because Travy doesn't believe in it. So, I was in heaaaaven.

The night before:
I have a serious issue with sleeping the night before races. Well, actually, just marathon races. It's fairly common from what I understand, but for every single other marathon I've run, I have not gotten an ounce of sleep the night before. I'm not exaggerating when I say that. It's not like I have trouble falling asleep and then sleep soundly once asleep, or that I even just wake up constantly. It's that I literally lay there for hours on end, eyes wide open, and heart pounding as time passes

When this happened at the Boston Marathon, I told my Dad the next morning that I had not slept a wink and wasn't sure how this would affect my performance. His reaction? "So what? It's the night before the night before the race night that matters most. You'll be fine." His lack of reaction was very calming. Knowing that it doesn't matter how poorly I sleep the night before a race has not helped me sleep any better the night before a race, but I definitely don't freak out about it quite as much.

Still, it's a little depressing going into a night of sleep knowing that you won't sleep. Turns out that this time around, I got the best night of pre-marathon sleep ever. Which is to say, I fell asleep relatively quickly and then woke up tons of times throughout the night....but I slept!

The morning of the race:
4:45am alarm to meet the 5:15am bus to the start. Shovel down 2 packets of maple/brown sugar oatmeal. Take 5 or so sips of lobby coffee and a few swigs of water. Two small pre-race poops in the room. Pile on extra clothing because it's 26 degrees outside. Kiss Travy, and onto the bus. Bus arrives at the start at 6:15am. Stay on bus until 6:30am, then exit bus into frigid conditions. Lots of porto-s. Pee 3 times. One more pre-race mini poop. A little jogging. Drop off bag and head to start. Stare longingly at elite tent with heaters.

The start of the race:
Exactly what I hoped would happen, happened. I bumped into my Marin long-run group and then my teammate Emily at the start line. In my head, my plan was to take the first 3 miles out slower than race pace (6:55-7) and then drop down from there. This is a very standard, tried-and-true marathon strategy, as going out too hard in the early miles can have devastating effects later in the race. But when I told Emily this plan, she somewhat hesitantly told me that she was planning to start at race pace. In my head, I began weighing this option. Emily is an experienced marathoner with a PR of 3:01 / goal to break 3, and we have literally run every workout and race together, stride for stride. If she thinks she can handle this pace, can't I?  Before I knew it, the gun sounded and we were off. And just like that, my entire race plan had changed.

Racing with Emily in GGP, stride-for-stride

The race:
Our first mile was a 6:30-something. I thought - OK, this is going to be interesting considering all of my marathon pace runs were done in 6:42-6:48 goal pace. I immediately reminded myself about something Topher had recently proclaimed about being able to run a marathon pace ~5-10 seconds faster than you train, thanks to race day adrenaline.

We cruised through the 10k in what is now my 10K PR. (In all fairness, I haven't run a true 10k race in at least 15 years). Still, I was feeling good and it was time for a Shot Blok and a water stop. It was so cold out that all the excess water people were throwing was freezing on the ground and forming black ice. 

Around mile 10, I could feel my hamstrings tightening and the little voice in the back of my head started yapping. Boy did you just royally screw yourself by going out this fast. You're going to feel like an idiot when you DNF or when you're crawling to the finish line at 3:30. At mile 10, I also saw one of my Marin friends cheering from the sideline. One of my Marin friends who had clearly just dropped out of the race. AHHHHH.

The next major milestone was the halfway mark - 13.1. Another PR for me. 1:26:13. Instead of panicing, I thought to myself: why the FFFFF have I never been able to run this fast in any of my previous half marathons???? Like, I seriously struggled to run a low 1:28 on a flat course in Oakland earlier this year. Travy was at the halfway point, so that was also uplifting.

Mile 15 - I'm starting to get reaaaaaal tired. 11 miles to go seems like an f-ing eternity with how I'm feeling. I have to fight the urge to look at my watch constantly and try to block out the miles.

Mile 17 - Just get yourself to mile 20 at this pace and then worry about it from there. 

Running with Emily on the homestretch

Mile 20 finally arrives, and surprisingly, I'm feeling OK. As in, I'm not in the declining state that I imagined I'd be in at this point and that's something positive! In fact, I can almost feel Emily falling a minuscule step off my pace and that makes me a feel tiny bit better because at least I know she's hurting a lot too. Everyone's hurting. It's not just you, Lydia!!!!

Miles 21-25 were miserable, but I tried to take it one mile at a time and focus on maintaining my pace for that mile alone. Four things stand out from these miles: 1) we were starting to pass people (mostly men), 2) I was starting to calculate what would happen if my pace fell off; the results were promising, 3) I could not feel my gloved hands, and 4) there was a really nice crowd along this part of the race and they were definitely cheering for us. On top of random cheers, several of our Impala teammates were there as well! In fact, one of the men we passed commented that we had quite the fan club with us.

The finish:
By the last mile of the race, I was about a half step behind Emily. But at this point, I knew I was fine and I forced myself to stay with her. When my watch said 25.9 miles, I made my move and "sprinted" around the final two turns and headed for the finish. Emily and I crossed the line 3 seconds apart. I don't think either of us really comprehended that we had just run a 2:53. We embraced and then stumbled over to other teammates that had finished a minute or two ahead of us. Our coach was there and he snapped a photograph (see below). Travy was all smiles. I was exhausted, beyond happy, but also freezing cold, thirsty, and a little nauseous.

At the finish with teammates Susan and Jen

Post-Race:
We darted out of the finish area and back to the car approximately 20 minutes after the race and headed for home. I was too cold to stick around. Plus, the Eagles were playing and something exciting was clearly happening as people were texting me "you watching this shit?!?"


At home in the shower, I was alone with my thoughts. I had survived, and not just survived, I had thrived. I overcame a huge mental battle with myself over the last 11 miles. I fought off literally hundreds of voices in my head that told me to slow down, or worse, to stop. In Oregon, I had given in to those voices, but not this time. I am most proud of this race because I did not give in.

What's next, I'm not sure. Maybe the Miwok 100k, but I likely won't get in. A different ultra? Another faster marathon? Some 5k training? Whatevs. For now, I'm hitting the beer and wine and celebrating my 2:53.