IMS Arizona Marathon Race Recap

by SkinnyRunner on February 21, 2012

WORKOUT – Ran

10.5 miles/1:28

easy flat miles

My mom rode her bike with for the last 2.5 miles which was fun. love some mother-daughter sweat time… not as much as mother-daughter Nordstrom time, but still.

THE RACE RECAP

I woke up at 4:15am not really wanting to race. I didn’t feel like wearing a running skirt, just wasn’t into it. But I had my couple cups of coffee and drove to the bus area at 5:15. I got on the 5:45am bus without any wait which was great because it was warm.

We arrived at the start in Buckeye around 6:40, I grabbed my bib without any hassle, found the bag drop (there was one!) and kept warm in the grocery store.

The small start was right across the street so it was easy to run over a minute before and get ready to run. We started a couple minutes after 7am and saw a beautiful sunrise.

As soon as I started running, I immediately decided that I wanted to run hard. I don’t know why I switched from “Ehhh, don’t want to race” to “Let’s do this, sub 3:20 on my own”; maybe it was the downhill, fast start or the cool weather. Whatever it was, I started with a 7:18 mile and cemented my goal of running under 3:20 in my mind.

This is a fast, flat course with a little downhill start and great weather. It just all came together for me for a very fast race. It also helped that I was wearing Roller Blades. I kid.

I tried to pull back a little after the first mile and stayed around the 7:30-7:35 mile area. I passed the 10k in 46:45 and then the 10 mile at 1:15.

The sunrise was so pretty – I had a few of those “grateful to run” moments during the race.

I was running at a pace that was slightly uncomfortable but not panicky, unsustainable pace.

I forgot my gels in California so I didn’t have one until mile 11 when they were handing them out. (I ate my standard Picky Bar 15 minutes before the start) So I took my 4 gels at slightly different than usual miles:

Mile 11

Mile 15

Mile 19

Mile 22.5

I ran 13.1 miles in 1:38 and was telling myself to simply hold on for another mile. You can slow down later but stay here for another mile.

At mile 14 I turned on my music which was a big boost; mile 15 and 16 felt great, teeth-gritting great…

I also forgot my running sunglasses at home so I wore Jimmy Choos. fabulous.

I never really hit a wall. My whole mental talk was telling myself to hang for one more mile and then I could slow down and still hit sub 3:20. My goal wasn’t to go faster than that, just get under 20.

I made it to the 20 mile mark at 2:29 and remember thinking, Hey I just ran the second 10 miles a minute faster than the first!

I felt like I was slowing down a little, but in actuality, I still was maintaining around a 7:20 pace.

The last couple miles were long and took forever, like every marathon, but I hit the final and only hill (a freeway overpass) at mile 25.3.

Another girl and I were running side-by-side up the hill and I remember thinking, Can I beat her? No, I don’t have the energy, I’ll let her go. I’m still going to get under 3:20. But somehow I dug in and moved slightly forward on the downhill and sprinted to the finish.

I finished in 3:14:18, 7:25 pace, the first woman, 11th overall and I actually set a new course record.

(this is a very small race and only in its’ 4th year)

It was a 13 second PR for me which was so surprising because I didn’t think I could run that fast without a pacer. I wasn’t even sure I could run under 3:20 on my own – I guess it shows you that sometimes your own mind is your biggest obstacle.

At the awards ceremony I got to get up on stage and shake the hands of the different mayors and race officials, read: I felt super important.

I was hoping to get a few pictures of the ceremony, but I don’t have any quite yet.

I’ll have the race review up in a few days for complete race deets.

Tagged as: arizona, PR, race recap

Skinny Runner

{ 178 comments… read them below or add one }

Sneakers2Sandals February 21, 2012 at 10:19 am

First woman! You seriously kick some booty again and again. Your body just must be built for running. I wish I had that. I run 13 miles and mess up my knee…gaah.

Congratulations, I can’t wait to see what else you do. You rock!

IMS Arizona Marathon Race Recap

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