California International Marathon 2017 - 2:44:01 (6:15/mile) - nearly a 3 minute PR, bouncing back after a sub par NYC just 4 weeks ago

(#CIM35)

I went all in on the NYC Marathon this fall. I knocked out a 1:16 half marathon and a 2:46 marathon (off of that half training in a weirdly run race) in the spring and felt like I was ready to knock off a huge chunk of time. Training went really well and I thought 2:38-2:42 would be feasible on a good course on a good day. In the build up to NYC I ran 6 weeks over 100 miles, 12 weeks averaging 90, several solid long runs and tempos. I was ready. The problem: NYC is a difficult course and the weather was not optimum for marathon-ing (60 degrees + 90% humidity). What I did not do: adjust for the course and run what I was capable of on the day. I knew I was fit at NYC and did not fly across the country to not go for a fast time. NYC marked 1 year of being blood clot free and to add to the emotions I raised some money for the National Blood Clot Alliance and wore a Team Stop the Clot singlet. I wanted to run a big PR and went out hot in NYC through halfway- 1:20:17- and this was after a very slow 6:50 opening mile, unable to move on the Verranzano Bridge. I basically ran 6:00-flat until halfway (2:37 marathon pace). I then really struggled home. The weather didn't help. I cramped up and was forced to walk/run in the last couple of miles. It was horrible. I wanted to run. I was trying to run. I ended up crawling home in 2:47 but wanted so much more. I was still on 2:42 pace at 20 miles but lost nearly a minute a mile from there to the finish. It wasn't fun to positive split by 7 minutes and to see 2:42, 43, 44, 45, go out the window. I went for it at NYC but paid the price. The price was maybe even running 2:42-43 had I just went out at that pace. I made a gut reaction choice to run the California International Marathon in the post race emotion of not running well. I wanted to shut it down after NYC but I also wanted to see a marathon PR that represented the work I've put in over the last year. I got a blood clot and didn't know if I would be able to run again. I then set PRs across every distance from 1500m to the Marathon in the spring/summer. I had to defer CIM last year because of the blood clot so I already had an entry, if I did not want to defer it again. I knew NYC took a lot out of me but I wanted to give CIM a shot, with more realistic expectations knowing it would be a difficult task to bounce back after just four short weeks.

I started my marathon recovery with some off days and then some easy running later in the first week after NYC. The first Sunday after I did a hilly, trail, long run with the group I train with that went 1 hr. 45 minutes. This is probably a bit much 1 week after 26.2 but I wanted to keep some distance on the legs in between NYC and CIM. The following Tuesday I hit an amazing workout just 9 days after NYC- 1 mile 5:26, 4x400m 79.3 avg., 1 mile 5:23, 4x400m 79.9 avg., 1 mile 5:16. It was all done on a bark loop in town which is a slower running surface than, say, a track or the road. This got me excited but little did I know I was just digging myself into a deeper hole not letting my body recover and trying to get ready for another marathon. One of my running buddies that did this workout with me said to me after I passed him in the last mile of the workout, "Just because you can doesn't mean you should." He was right. I did another small workout on Thursday and then 'raced' a 10k cross country race on Saturday. The race went poorly, for obvious reasons that I can see now. If I wanted to run well at that 10k I would not have run it two weeks after a marathon and not after a high quality workout a few days before it. This is something I'm going to keep an eye on for future racing- my goal races (versus what I'm training through) & how close I'm timing workouts before those key races. I ran 17 miles the day after the 10k, probably a bit too fast and then my feet started bugging me. I ended up with plantar on both feet and crammed in some PT appointments. I also left on vacation to Hawaii 1.5 weeks before CIM. This was a blessing in disguise for running. I relaxed, drank, hiked a ton, tried to surf. In the warm and humid Hawaii weather I was forced to run slow and cut my mileage, mimicking a taper from a full build up. I realized I had dug myself into a hole after that 10k so did not workout in the final two weeks before CIM except for a light taper workout on the Tuesday before the race. The foot pain was still there up until race day. I was contemplating not running but I kept working on my feet furiously and put KT tape on them on Saturday and I felt pretty okay running easy the day before the race. I had no idea what to expect at CIM. I knew I was fit but was still recovering from NYC. I decided to go out with the women's 2:45 pace group which was set up to help them go for Olympic Trials Qualifying Standard. Any woman that runs a marathon under 2:45:00 earns a spot at the US Olympic Marathon Trials for 2020. The top-3 from that race then go on to represent the US in the Olympic Marathon. It is no joke to qualify for the Trials.

Race Day: Logistically very easy compared to NYC. I caught a bus from downtown Sacramento and in 30 minutes I was standing by the start line. At NYC I took a bus that took more than 2 hours before I had to go through further security. This was much easier. There was plenty of space to warm up + do drills which I was unable to do in New York. Gear check was seamless. Corrals in NYC closed 1 hour before the race started. Here, I was able to give my bag to a volunteer 30 minutes before the race went off. CIM doesn't have corrals, which is maybe my only complaint. I was a little farther off the start line than I would have liked but moved up a lot. It took me about 10 seconds to cross over the start line. I could see a sign for the 2:45 Trials group right on the start line. I clicked off a conservative 6:15 on the first downhill mile of the race. Over the next two miles I worked my way up to that group, which I could see a little further ahead. I split 6:13 on a uphill mile 2 and then used a downhill mile 3 to catch up to the pack by hitting a 6:03. These two miles were probably a little quick but it would be ridiculous to run 10-15 seconds behind the group the whole race. I had such a unique racing experience. There was a pacer keeping the group right at 6:15/mile and there was a pack of maybe 20-25 women mixed with a similar number of guys. Everyone was super encouraging to one another. The pacer kept things light by telling stories and joking with all of us. He was also great in calling out the aid stations and where hills/turns were on the course. It was inspiring running with these women shooting for an Olympic Trials Qualifier. There was a communal attitude and buzz in the air in this pack. The energy was great. Everyone was motivated on the same time goal. Some of the women who had elite fluid bottles on the course offered to share with me which helped me make sure I was taking in liquids. That was awesome.

(you can just see me coming into the picture on the right side)

The race: After the first 3 miles I settled into the pace group and we ticked off 6:15s. Every mile for me from 3 to 20 was between 6:10 and 6:20. We were metronomes. Virtually every mile was 6:14, 6:15, or 6:16. I haven't run such an even marathon or maybe even race in forever. We went through halfway in 1:22:00 (I was 1:21:49) and were right on pace for 2:44:00 which would be a minute under the standard. I think it was good to have a little bit of a cushion. We maintained that pace through 20 miles and things began to spread out a bit at that point. Some fell back, some maintained (hoping not to lose that minute over the final 10k), and some sped up. After a 6:12 mile 21 for me, I was now running much more spread out and a little ahead of the group. I had definitely never felt this good running fast after 20 miles in a marathon before. I was almost a minute slower at CIM at 20 miles versus NYC 4 weeks ago but I was much more in control. My left hamstring had been cramping as early as mile 10 but it had held up to this point. Both calves were starting to cramp but I never got the sharp/stabbing pain that came on in New York that forced me to stop and start a couple times in the last 2 miles. Mile 22 was a 6:14 and 23 was a 6:17. Where was the wall? Just 5k to go? I can do that. I run 5k all the time. Much more than 5k. This is what I was telling myself. I was tiring. It was becoming harder to maintain pace but I know I could get to the line in one piece. 24 and 25 were a mental test. My calves were threatening to spasm with each step. I forced a gel down at 23.5. I split 6:25 and 6:28 here. Still under 6:30 and holding on. One more mile. You got this. The pep talk helped. The crowd started to pick up in the last mile. I could run one more mile. I shortened my stride a ton trying to balance out the leg cramps and finding where it felt better for my foot to land. I know at mile 25 I needed to average 6:0x to try to get under 2:44. I knew I would be well under 2:45 barring a total breakdown but I wanted to give 2:43 a chance. I dug deep and ran 6:15 for mile 26. 6:15 for the last mile of the race! 6:15 in the last mile of a marathon which is also what I ran mile 1 in! Whoa. I tried to kick in the last .22. As I came around a left turn to face the Capitol, I saw the finish line I saw 2:43:50 on the clock. I must have been just over 100m or so away. I knew I started 10 seconds after the gun so would get some time back. I officially ended up at 2:44:01- two seconds faster and I could be a 2:43 marathoner. Next time!

Reflection: This is the best paced marathon I've run in a while. It was nice to sit in a pack, zone out, and just click off the miles. To be honest, I never felt great in this one. My legs cramped early and often but they never completely let me down. I never felt that fresh feeling you can have early on in a marathon after executing a proper taper. This is definitely due to running the back to back marathons. I credit everything to running with the 2:45 group. The energy was there from the opening miles and did not go anywhere. It was smart coming in with tapered expectations. I set a goal of breaking 2:45:00 and I ran 2:44:00. Mission accomplished. My half splits- 1:21:49/1:22:12. 20 miles in 2:04:58- 2:43:49 projected finish. My last 10k- 39:03- only lost 12 seconds. I'm very happy with this race! A year after I had to defer it because I got a blood clot I executed my race plan to a t. I ran steady and within myself. It is nice to run a marathon so consistently. I haven't come this close to a negative split since one of my first marathons where I ran 3:24 in 2011...6 years later and now I'm 40 minutes faster. It's interesting to look back on that as well. In high school, I couldn't run 5k in under 20:00. I broke 20:00 for the first time in the summer 2011 (that 3:24 came that fall) when I was a year out of high school. Now I average 19:26 per 5k for almost 9 of them in a row. That's pretty cool.
You define your own path.

(#treatyoself)

Regret: Not running this race in top shape. I wish I had my day of NYC fitness at CIM or any fast marathon course for that matter. I would have felt much better on a perfect weather day and could have taken a shot at something closer to 2:40. My opening half at NYC had to have been worth something like 1:19 here. Mix in the cooler weather, the lower humidity, and I might have been able to sustain that and run something really fast. I'm super happy with this race but I'm nowhere near finished with the marathon. I'm running Boston in the spring and really want to put my newly minted 2:44:01 on blast.

Let's be smart: After two marathons in the last month I'm going to take all of December to recover and slowly build back some mileage. In January, I can launch into full training mode but I want to enter into my spring cycle feeling fresh. CIM was exactly what I needed to keep me hungry for the spring. #Boston2018...

NYC Marathon 2017 2:47:39

The NYC Marathon rolled up almost exactly one year after I had a blood clot in my lung. I chose NYC because of an opportunity that presented itself to run with the National Blood Clot Alliance (https://www.stoptheclot.org/). This organization does a ton of great work and has helped me out a great deal over the past year. The National Blood Clot Alliance had a charity team already setup for NYC. I had an auto qualifier for the race so did not need to do any fundraising but still set a goal of trying to chip in $1,000, which I barely met. The other team members were rockstars, raising a lot more than that. I thought that it would be fitting to tackle NYC a year after having a blood clot with a team full of runners that I have this shared experience with of either having a clot or knowing someone who did. I know that NYC is a tough marathon but I really wanted to go here to run my fall marathon. Training went really well and I was confident that I was due for a breakthrough. A breakthrough to me would mean a marathon run in the low-2:40s or seeing 2:39 on the finish clock. I ran 2:47 four years ago in Chicago and ran 2:46 at the Newport (OR) Marathon this past spring. Since Chicago, I have run massive personal bests all the way from the mile to the half marathon distances. I have not attempted a ton of marathons since 2013 due to some health issues and ran a couple of sub par marathons later to find out that I had a blood clot. I came back from the clot to run 2:46 but I know that there is more in the tank. I was stronger than ever coming into NYC and wanted to give myself a chance to run a fast time. I logged 100 mile weeks, doubled a few times a week, and put in a number of marathon specific workouts. I was ready.

Getting to the Race (possibly tougher than the marathon itself):

I could not sleep at all the night before the marathon, rolling over at 2am, 3 am, and by 4am, I just got myself out of bed. Once up, I took a cab at 5:30am from my hotel to the midtown public library to catch a bus to the start line out in Staten Island. Unbeknownst to me, NYC is a logistical nightmare. The line to get on the bus wrapped around several blocks and took about 45 minutes to navigate. All before 6:00 in the morning. I finally got on a bus and it then took 2 hours to get from midtown to the start area. The buses had to stall several times because they only let runners off the buses in small batches because there was another security line runners had to walk through after getting off the bus before we could enter the start villages. The security lines were similar to something like an airport and took another half hour. It was now 8:30am and I had a 9:50am start. I got to my corral (blue, wave 1, corral a) at 8:45am or so and then they shut the corrals promptly at 9:00am. Nobody in or out of the corrals 50 minutes before the race. We had maybe a half dozen restrooms in the corral to share among ourselves. At 9:15am I was in one of these said restrooms when our corral was released to the next staging area. When I got out of the restroom, they had already let corral b runners through so I was essentially bumped to the next corral down. From this staging area we were released twice more to get closer to the start line. A few minutes before the race, some NYPD and NYFD charity runners were placed in between us and the elite men. I did not understand this move at all. These are amazing groups and I am sure amazing people but why not have them lead out wave 3 or wave 4 so wave 1 corral a runners do not have to weave around them so early on? I was not able to get in any warmup for the race, was back from wave 1 corral a into corral b, and had a wall of charity runners directly in front of me at the start. Logistically, NYC was a nightmare.

The race:

(pack running in Brooklyn- I'm in the middle)

As one can imagine, I could not move when I crossed the start line. Mile 1 is on the Verranzano Bridge and is uphill but it was very difficult to get going. I was only running 8:00 pace (maybe a little under) through the first half mile. I hit mile 1 in 6:50, moving around charity runners and corral b folks, and things finally were spread out enough for me to run. My goal was to run 6:06/mile. I know the marathon is a difficult distance and starting slow is generally a good strategy but I wanted to be around 6:30 on the first, uphill, mile. It would have been good to run evenly instead of panicking and feeling like I needed to move past a ton of people seconds into the race. Mile 2 is completely downhill and I made up for some time on the bridge clocking a 5:40 that felt about right effort wise. Mile 3 flattened out and now I would be in Brooklyn until mile 15. I clicked off miles from 3 to 14 all in the 6:00-6:10 (or faster) range depending on the way the course rolled. There is a decent climb at mile 8 and then a bridge to climb right at the 13 mile mark. My legs were not feeling great from the start (lack of warmup? humidity?) but I didn't fly across the country to run a conservative race. I was passing a lot of folks in the first half and was probably sitting in the top-150 or 200 by the halfway point. I split 1:20:17 through 13.1 miles, on pace for a 2:40 finish time. I wanted to be feeling better at this point but was still hopeful that I could clock a 2:42 or 2:43 result even if I faded just a bit. 1:20:17 with a 6:50 mile 1 means I was averaging 6:00-flat aside from that mile which is 2:37 marathon pace. 2:37 marathon pace would be a reach time if I were time trialing on a faster course on a better weather day (NYC was 60 degrees with 90% humidity at the start, and is a course not known for fast times). That 1:20 through halfway would be like going through halfway in 1:19 or even 1:18 on another course. And I'm guessing I would have been feeling better on another course too! From 14-16 I went up and over the Queensboro Bridge. I made a conscious choice to slow down on the uphill and to recharge for the rest of the race. I let some people pass me on the uphill but then caught them on the downhill. The bridge was eerily silent. There were no aid stations and no people other than those running. I was left alone with my thoughts and the sound of my footsteps. I was excited for what was to come on the other side.

(flying in the polka dots)

Coming off a nice downhill, runners hit mile 16 and plunge into Manhattan. Coming off of the downhill on the Queensboro Bridge, there are hay bales so that runners don't go crashing off the road. There is a four mile stretch along first avenue at mile 16 where you get a little downhill love and some flatter miles. The crowds are YUGE at this point in the race. The volume is comparable to the Wellesley Scream Tunnel at Boston. I was hurting but could not hear myself think so I just carried forward. I clipped off a couple of decent miles on this stretch. I passed a couple runners and a couple passed me who had done a better job conserving energy in the opening half. All in all, I was still holding my own. At mile 19 or 20 you climb yet another bridge into the Bronx. You do a little out and back section, climb another bridge back into Manhattan, and then are on your way to the finish line in Central Park. I reached 20 miles in 2:04-flat which is 2:42:30 marathon pace. For NYC, this would be a great result for me. With 10k to go, I was hurting but still moving forward. I figured if I could tough out some miles in the 6:30 range that I could still run an okay time given the day and the course. This would still get me to the finish in the 2:43-2:44 range, which would have been a good effort. At 35k (21.7 miles) I was still on 2:43:37 pace. I then lost 4 minutes over the last 4.5 miles. Mile 23 to 24 is all uphill. The crowds were getting big again but it was miserable. I clicked off a 7:00 mile, my first of the day. My legs cramped awful over the last 3 miles. At 24.5 or so I actually pulled up because I basically got a Charlie horse in my right leg that I simply couldn't run through. I was in so much pain that I was forced to stop. It was a stabbing pain and by leg locked up entirely. I tried to fight it and keep going but this would happen two or three times more on my way to the finish. I watched 2:44 (23- 2:44:25), 2:45 (24- 2:45:28), and my 2:46:43 (still on 2:46:30 pace at 25) PR frustratingly slip by as I couldn't run in the last stretch. I walked. I shuffled. I ran. My heart was full but my legs had nothing. I wanted more than anything to get to the finish line in at least 2:45 when I was at mile 24. I wanted to pick up the pace but the pain would not relent every time that I tried. I saw my family with about a half mile to go. I threw my arms up, smiled, and waved back at them. I knew that I wasn't going to get my PR at this point and I also knew that they didn't care. They were proud of me and stood out there for hours just to see me for a few seconds. I couldn't do any of this without their support. The last quarter mile is a cruel uphill grind to the finish. I was running 7:00 pace with no semblance of a kick. I waved to the crowds which were deafening in that last stretch. I crossed the finish line in 2:47:39 (6:24 pace)- less than a minute off my PR. It is my third fastest marathon. I ran 2:47:18 (6:23 pace) in Chicago in 2013 and ran 2:46:43 (6:21 pace) in this past June. After crossing (falling over) the finish line I had to walk about 20 blocks to get out of the park. I struggled with my thoughts and my emotions, trying to figure out what had happened.

(What's up fam?)

What had caused the cramping? No proper warmup? The humidity? Time change? I knew I was fit and had not come to New York to run slow but then I ran slower than what I think is a soft marathon PR. If I can go through halfway here in 1:20-low, that's 1:19 or better on a flat/faster course. If the second half were flat, sure I could've faded but still probably would have been looking at something in the low-2:40s. I should've opened in 1:21-mid or even 1:22-mid on this particular course, and knowing that the weather was less than ideal. I spent six weeks over 100 miles and put in a ton of big workouts, practicing running at 6:00 pace. I chose a difficult course but still went after it like I was time trialing Chicago on a perfect weather day. I could have run a few minutes faster but I gave myself a chance at 2:40. You live and you learn.

In running, we are often defined by our times. It is frustrating that I am still "just" a 2:46 marathoner. When you plug in my NYC time it comes out to a 2:45 or 2:46-flat on other courses. And this is with terrible pacing. I could have paced better and run 2:43. Then the calculators would have told me I can go 2:41 somewhere else. NYC is probably my best effort in a marathon but it still leaves me a little disappointed. I wanted a PR on the difficult course and think that my PR is a bit soft considering my 1:16 half marathon and all the work I put into this cycle. I got passed by a ton of folks in the last few miles to finish in 327th out of 50k+. Yes, this is good but I should have been in the 150-200 range. I want so much more out of running and you don't get a lot of good chances to race the marathon. It could be 90 degrees when I run Boston in April. It could be 75 degrees at whatever marathon I pick next fall. I'm going to recover from this race but am going to see if I can bounce back on December 3rd at the California International Marathon. I was signed up last fall but couldn't run after having the blood clot. I'm going to run it, knowing that New York took a toll on my body, but also knowing that the fitness is there to run well. If CIM was my only marathon this fall, I might consider opening up in 1:18 or 1:19 and really giving sub-2:40 a go. I'm thinking of targeting a 1:21 opening half which should feel a lot easier than the 1:20:17 I ran in NY. I think I could run low-2:40s or better given CIM's favorable course. It's a net downhill course but loses just 300 feet over the course of the race so it is not as downhill as some of the other Boston Qualifiers out there where you might lose thousands of feet- plus you can still qualify for the Olympic Trials at CIM. USATF sets tight standards for what courses runners can get an Olympic Trials standard on so if I run well I wouldn't have any problem considering this to be a legitimate run. I still think that 2:39 is possible at CIM but I want to make sure I run a PR and something that will give me some confidence heading towards Boston. It will be easier mentally to chase 2:39 at Boston if my PR is 2:42 versus the 2:46 that it is now. So there it is. As I try to make sense out of what happened in NYC, I am just going to circle CIM a month out from now and shoot for a PR. My training went great for NYC and I ran a solid time on an okay day for running. I should be a little happier about this performance but I also do not have to let one race define me or tell me what I am capable of. I'm looking forward to the next one and am still optimistic that I can breakthrough at the marathon.

Calm before the Storm

At the time of my last blog post, I had just finished up a 112 mile week- the longest I have ever done. I followed that up with another week over 100 (103) and then my taper began. From 3 to 2 weeks out I ran 90 miles and then from 2 to 1 week out I hit 74. The anticipation is definitely building now. Here's a small sample of what I've been up to the last few weeks:

10/10 4 miles 23:11 (4:00 jog), 2 miles 11:23 (2:10 jog), 2 x 1 mile 5:35 (2:15), 5:28
10/14 Lents Park 5k XC 17:22, post race 2 x mile 5:45, 5:48
10/15 23.25 miles @ 6:32 pace w./ some hills, 10 @ 6:17, 13 @ 6:20, last mile = 6:06
10/18 2 x 5 miles w./ 1 mile jog 30:47 & 30:01
10/21 Gabriel Park 4 miles XC (hilly AF) 24:25
10/22 30km @ 6:38 pace w./ some hills- last 10 @ 6:20, last mile 6:00
10/24 9 x 3:00 w./ 1:00 float, hit 10km in 35:18…
10/27 4 x 200m hills, 2 miles 11:50, 4 x 200m hills, 2 miles 11:39
10/31 2 miles 11:58- 6:05, 5:53 (.25 jog), 4 x 1km w./ 200 jog (<60s) 3:27 avg.

At 3 weeks out I did a 23 mile run @ 6:30 pace the day after a 5k + post race workout. I was definitely happy closing it out with a 6:06 mile. My last marathon specific workout came 2.5 weeks out. I copied from the Hansons 2 x 6 mile workout but made it 2 x 5 because I thought the volume was a bit much. It was a windy day and the first 5 were a little slow (headwind) but the second 5 were right on 6:00 pace. After that bulky workout I ran a 4 mile cross country race three days later. Gabriel Park is the hilliest cross country course on the planet. You basically go there and run half marathon/marathon pace for 4 miles. I've done this race 3 times now and I've run 24:12, 24:05, and 24:25 this year. This years weather was truly awful- rain & wind. I kept things pretty relaxed and just ran steady the whole way, knowing I put in a good workout a few days before and that I had a long run the next day. The first year I ran 24:12 (6:03 pace), I ran a half marathon a couple weeks later at 5:56 pace on the roads. I've now run 5:50 pace for half marathon and this course still isn't easy. I ran a solid long run the day after, going 30km with some hills and a 6:00 last mile. From there, it has been all about the taper.

In the last 1.5 weeks of the buildup, I cut the doubles and have brought the mileage down. I did a 9 x 3:00 workout on the roads as my first taper workout. When the workouts have been things like 2 x 5 miles, running for 3:00 and then jogging easy for 1:00 felt like a breeze. I kept the 3:00 portion pretty honest and, even with the recoveries, rolled through 10k in 35:18. I've only ever run 10k in 35:31. I should probably be a 34-mid 10k runner right now but I don't really get a lot of good opportunities to run them because I'm either in a marathon buildup or it's summer and it's hot. I'm excited to tackle a 10k after NYC. After that 9 x 3:00, I did a light mix of hills and tempo the Friday after. 1 week out I ran 14 miles all at an easy pace. This past Tuesday I did two miles at goal marathon pace and then 4 x 1km somewhere in between 10k and half marathon pace- nothing too draining. My flight east was on Wednesday. I did a super easy 6 miles Wednesday morning in Eugene before my flight and got in 6 miles on Thursday in Rhode Island. I did 3 x 2:00 @ half marathon/marathon pace w./ 2:00 easy in the middle of the 6 just to get my legs going a bit. Each of the next two days will be just an easy 30:00 or so. I never feel great about tapering but I know that I'm ready for this race. I've done the most mileage I've ever done (370 in September, 420 in October). It will be nice to go out and run this marathon in a light week versus the 100 mile weeks I've been logging. My long runs have all come after days where I've doubled or raced. A couple of days of running 30:00 should have me restless for Sunday.

My goals for Sunday:
A- 2:38-2:39:59 & top-100
B- 2:40-2:43
C- PR- 2:44-2:46:42

My big goal is to crack 2:40 and be in the top-100. I can't control for place but a sub-2:40 time should put me very close based on past results. My race plan is to start easy on the bridge, not overdoing things on the uphill or downhill. From there I want to settle into miles in the 6:05-6:15 range in Brooklyn (miles 3-15). This should hopefully feel relaxed because it is a little slower than I want to run. My goal at halfway is to be 1:19:00-1:20:30. I think faster than 1:19 on this course would be a mistake. If I were running Chicago or CIM, I might be a little more aggressive in the 1:17-18 range but this course is challenging and I'll need to conserve in the front half. I know I'll lose some time on the Queensboro Bridge. My goal is to still be feeling in control at 16 and to be able to run close to 6:00 pace from 16-22. That is the stretch where I see myself making up time. 22 to the finish roll and feature some unwanted uphills. This is where I'll be repeating my mantra and doing everything I can to reach the finish line. I say all of this knowing that a lot can happen over 26.2 miles. I've trained to run 6:00 pace so I know that my body can handle that. I'm ready to roll on Sunday.

Exactly a year ago from yesterday I went to the hospital with chest pain to then find out that I had a blood clot in my lung. I've written about this enough on here but while that moment has been on my mind a lot lately, I'll say it again that the last year has certainly had its ups and downs. I always used to be the calm one in my friend group, always described as easy going. For the last year it has been the opposite of that. Anxiety hit me hard. I find myself constantly trying to read my body and assess danger. I think every heartbeat that doesn't sound right must mean that the blood clots are back and that I might have a heart attack or stroke. The blood thinners that I take daily keep me healthy but they can also cause internal bleeding. How does one know if this is happening? The last year has been filled with the unknowns. Running has been a constant and has helped me to refocus my anxiety. I did not know if I would be able to run and run at the same level. I took some time off in December and January. By March, April, May, and June, I had set PRs in the 3k, 5k, 10k, half marathon, and marathon. Each run is validation that I am healthy and am moving away further and further away from a year ago. On the surface, things are going much better but I know on days where I've run a PR, I've spent the second half of the day listening to my heart to make sure nothing was wrong with me.

I'm excited to toe the line at NYC, 1 year after having a blood clot. I'll be donning a Team Stop the Clot singlet and did some fundraising for the race to try to give back a little bit to the National Blood Clot Alliance who provided me with awesome resources over the last year. Like the marathon, blood clots have a lot of unknowns. Research isn't always clear on how to prevent them and how to treat them. I'm happy to do my small part to try and help on this front. NYC is the biggest marathon in the world. I want to go there and prove that I can still do what I love. Prove that I can still run at a high level. Prove that I can improve. It's hard to put everything into one race like this. I can't control the weather, if I cramp up, or whatever. Yes, there will be other races and New York isn't everything but that's not how I'm treating Sunday. I don't just want to run well, I need to run well. I think there is a difference between those words. All I know is I'm going to give it my all on Sunday and whatever happens happens. I'm going to get everything out of me that I can.

#StopTheClot #NYCMarathon

50k trail/ultra marathon debut, jk let's just do 4 weeks @ 100mpw

My summer training was supposed to be geared towards the McKenzie River 50k in early September. This race would be a training run before the New York City Marathon in November but also something I would be very competitive at. The McKenzie 50k is a point to point trail ultra marathon that runs along a river here in Oregon. There are some hills on the course but it is a net downhill race. Not a bad way to get acclimated to running 31 miles! The start line is about an hour away from where I live. My training had gone well. I did a lot of 2-3 hour runs and a lot of training on the course itself. I was told 4 hours-flat was a really good time on the course and one that would put me in the top 3 or top 5, even potentially in the hunt to win it. I did a 22 mile run on the course going out and back that averaged 3:50 50k pace. The first half of that run averaged 4:00 50k pace going uphill (opposite from how the course actually runs) and the second half at 3:40 pace (the right direction!). I was in shape and looking forward to this new challenge. Oregon, however, had other plans for me. We got some intense forest fires at the end of August and into September. The air quality got truly awful. It was hard to run in town even though we were hours away from the nearest fires. People were being evacuated from their homes just an hour from where I live. The race directors did a great job keeping us informed. They just sent us messages starting 10 days out from the race saying to keep still and wait for further direction. We seemed to be getting these messages daily and they made the official announcement to cancel the Wednesday or Thursday before what was supposed to be a Saturday race. It was the right decision. We were not about to go and run a race where people had been evacuating from just a few days before. I tapered for this race and then had nothing to show for all of my summer miles. I decided not to dwell on things and shifted gears immediately to go all in on the NYC Marathon. The ultra would have taken a lot out of me and I would have needed some time to recover in between the two races. Instead, I was able to run four solid weeks of 91, 104, 103, and 112 miles (9/11-10/8). 112 is the most that I've ever done in a week. I actually hit 122 at some point in here over a 7 day period when I had a long run on a Sunday and then on the following Saturday. I count my weeks from Monday to Sunday so 112 sounds good enough to me.

Here is a sampling of some of the workouts and long runs that I have been putting in:

9/10- 18 w./ 8 @ 5:53 pace

9/12- 4 x mile in 5:33 avg. (on bark) + 4 x 400m in the low-70s, closing with a 67

9/17- 20 miles in the 6:40s

9/19- Lumberjack- 4 x 400m, 10:00 tempo, 4 x 400m, 10:00 tempo, 4 x 400m (400s in 74-75, tempo in the 5:40s)

9/23- 21.5 miles w./ 13.1 tempo in 1:19:12- 6:02 pace, last two miles 5:53, 5:49

9/27- 3 x 3 miles- 5:55 avg.

9/30- XC 5k 17:38

10/1- 20 miles in the 6:50s

10/3- 15 x 1km- 3:40 avg. (on bark)

10/7- 20 w./ 12 mile tempo in 1:12:22- 6:02 pace

I have been doubling on most of my easy days and have gotten in a lot of medium long runs in the 12-15 mile range. This has not been easy working anywhere from 8-12 hours Monday through Friday. You could say that I've been a little tired lately.

I am feeling very good about my NYC preparation right now. All of these workouts have been done in high mileage weeks, usually with a double the day before a hard effort. In my buildup to my 2:46 Newport Marathon last spring I only did two 20 milers, one 3 weeks out and one 2 weeks out. I was cramming for the marathon coming off of a goal half marathon (Eugene Half where I ran 1:16). This time around I've done four 20+ mile runs each weekend from 7 weeks to 4 weeks out and will do two more. My mileage is higher and more consistent than it has ever been over the last month. NYC is a tough marathon but I am still hoping to take a crack at a sub-2:40 time. I want to go through halfway in 1:20:30-1:21ish and then try to cut down from there once I get over the Queensboro Bridge. Mile 17 is where I will try to run my fastest splits. I have a solid base and a solid plan. I just need to stay the course and put the finishing touches on training and I should have a good race come November.

NYC will come almost exactly 1 year after I had a blood clot in my lung. The last 11 months have not been easy. I did not know if I would be able to run again or train this hard. I missed time last December and January, scared that running would bring clots back into my life. The anxiety has not gone away completely but I got back into training last spring and, over the last 6 months, I've set PRs in every distance from the mile to the marathon. Now I want to see 2:3x on the clock in NYC and bust these clots once and for all. I'm really looking forward to this race!

An Up & Down Kind of Summer (& an all over the place blog about it)

I have not written anything since early June when I ran 2:46:43 to take 5th at the Newport (OR) Marathon in a new PR. My summer plan was to recover from Newport, tackle the shorter distances, run 10k and half marathon PRs, and get in some quality long runs prior to my debut 50k coming up in September. Now that I see everything laid out like that, I probably should have refocused and picked something a little more tangible than basically saying I'd like to PR from 1500 to the half marathon while building my endurance for the fall.

(Bend Mile Classic- 4:53)

I took a week (4 days) off after Newport and then did 4 x mile in 5:40 on the bark mile loop at Amazon in Eugene and felt fine. A friend convinced me to run a 3k the following Friday (less than 2 weeks after Newport). The result was a 9:58, which is way off of the 9:24 I ran in March when I was in shape for it. This should be an indicator for how the summer has been going. With the disappointing (expected) result I went all in on the shorter distances and started to hammer mile paced things like 2 x 1km, 5 x 300m, 3 x 600m, 3 x 800m. My mileage stayed in the 70ish range throughout the summer as I did these workout. On July 6th, I raced at the Oregon Track Club All Comers Series four weeks in a row. I ran a small 1500 PR on the 6th in my opener at the distance in 4:27. It was on my birthday and I won! I would have liked to have had some competition but this result was okay. The Saturday after that race I decided to cram for a track 5k at the next All Comers. I ran a workout that went like this: 2 miles 11:15, 1 mile 5:15, 2x800 2:36, 2:34, 2x400 74, 71. I had run 16:36 in April and wanted to better this. My results on 7/13 was a 16:54 5k with k splits of 3:20-3:17-3:23-3:35-3:19. I really fell off hard on that 4th k. The endurance was simply not there with all of the shorter workouts. I went back to the 1500 the following week and ran 4:27 again. Two days later I was in Bend, OR, and ran a 4:53 road mile. I did this one for fun, having run the morning of the race and having had a beer at lunch... Anyways, I got after things on the last Thursday in July and ran 4:25 for 1500m. I got out a little bit quicker than I had through 800m in 2:22 (versus 2:24-2:26 the previous weeks). That made the two second difference. I was 3:33 at 1200 but did not have much of a kick as I was redlining more throughout this run. I closed faster in the previous two 1500s but this one was the fastest. I basically maintained pace on the last lap. If I had had any semblance of a kick I would have wound up in the lower-4:20s. All in all, I was somewhat satisfied with my summer of 1500s. I would have liked a better 5k in there and to shave off a few more seconds but the speed did make an appearance.

After that last 1500 it sort of hit me that I was signed up for a half marathon in less than a month. I got in a few good workouts: 6 x mile in 5:45, 4 mile tempo 22:50, 10 mile tempo 60:00, 10k race in 35:48. This looked encouraging so I thought that I could take a shot at my 1:16:40 PR. I went to San Diego with a running buddy for America's Finest City Half Marathon and there is no other word for it other than I bonked. I went through 5 miles on pace but the wheels fell off hard. It was 70 degrees with 100% humidity which is not something I had bee

(Hood to Coast- 4th place of 1000+)

n training in. Eugene is usually in the low-50s without much humidity in the summer. By 8 miles I was slower than the 10 mile tempo I did just a couple weeks earlier. I actually walked for a couple minutes as my legs were cramping. I crossed the line in 1:23:00 with some walking which is slower than what I ran the first half of my last marathon in. It was disappointing. I wanted another crack at the half before jumping into a marathon block. I ran a workout the Tuesday after- 5:18 mile, 16 x 400m w./ 200 jog in 73. Find me a 1:23 half marathoner where that workout is a piece of cake. After Tuesday's workout I jumped onto a Hood to Coast Relay Team the following Friday and Saturday. I ran 3 legs- 4.66 miles @ 5:14 pace, 7.25 miles @ 6:00 pace, and 5.32 miles @ 5:43 pace. I think I needed this run to happen before I toed another start line in the fall. I got some confidence putting out decent splits in a hectic environment. I had a blast with my teammates and we took 4th overall out of 1050 teams and 2nd in our division.

I think that Hood to Coast was a good way to end the summer. I tried to do too much. Running Hood to Coast was probably doing too much but it helped show me that I do have some fitness. It also helped me to loosen up and take things a little less seriously. I am nowhere close to elite level in this sport. I am pretty good but I know I can improve by a ton and I want to. That is why there is no let up in training. I think it will be important to choose goal races a little more carefully in training moving forward and recognize that not every race is setup to run a personal best.

What's next? I am running a 50k in a week and a half. I am going to try not to think too much about my training before this one but my mileage has been good and I have gotten in a number of solid long runs. I have done some running on the course, which includes a nearly 3 hour long run well under sub-4 hour 50k pace. I'm ready for this challenge and my debut ultra. After this I will be able to put in a marathon specific block before the NYC Marathon. I'll tackle NYC almost exactly 1 year to the date that I first got my blood clot. I'm excited to chase after a fast time.

I know this blog post was all over the place but that's sort of where my training is. All I know is that I have done workouts for a variety of distances and am plenty fit. Up next: my debut at 50k! Let's do it.

NEW MARATHON PR- 3.5 years in the making... 2:46:43 (6:21 pace) 5th overall Newport Marathon

Finally.

I have finally erased my 2:47 pb set at the 2013 Chicago Marathon. My best in the half marathon at that time was 1:19. I took out that race aggressively in 1:20:48 and struggled to maintain in the second half to finish in 2:47:18. I thought, with more even pacing, that something in the 2:43-45 range was possible that day. My training over the past 3.5 years has been sporadic, but not due to my own choosing. In the spring of 2014, I started to develop a light headed feeling on runs. I dropped out of 2014 Boston because I was already dizzy at 20k. In the fall of 2014 I was over the dizziness but developed an IT band problem the week before a scheduled marathon. I dropped out of my goal race after not being able to walk at the halfway point. In the spring of 2015, I began to feel dizzy on my runs again and I decided against starting the Boston Marathon, which I was signed up for.

During these low points, my mileage and workouts were great. When I was able to, I would knock out 70-80+ mile weeks and do the kind of workouts to make me think a 2:40ish marathon was possible. In the fall of 2016 I moved to Oregon for work and things started to turn around. I was not feeling any of the dizziness from the previous spring. I was not injured. I had found a training group to do my workouts with. That fall, I ran a 1:17:50 half marathon. Progress! I trained hard all winter and spring and ran the 2016 NYC Half Marathon in 1:17:48. I had a lot of things go wrong on the logistical side of things that day and thought a 1:15-16 half was in the cards. I then wanted to do a spring marathon but the dizziness had come back. Despite feeling awful, I ran 2:59 after a 1:22-mid opening half. This is a ways off from 2:47. I had a great build-up for my fall, 2016, marathon but cramped up very early in the race. A couple of weeks later, I found out that a blood clot had moved into my right lung. I had a pulmonary embolism. I didn't know if I would be able to run the same again. Anxiety was plaguing my day to day activity in the months following the PE. 

I did what I knew how to do to cope with my anxiety. I ran. I targeted the Eugene Half Marathon, put in great workouts and ran a 1:16:40 (5:50 pace) PR. In the couple of months before this, I ran 3k (9:24), 5k (16:36), and 10k (35:31) PRs. I am not entirely sure what happened this spring but I came back hot from the clot and found my groove. Four weeks after the Eugene Half, I toed the line for the Newport (OR) Marathon. My race plan was to take things out easy, in 6:15-6:25 pace for the first five miles or so and then run 6:00-6:15 for as long as I could to the finish. If I was feeling good, I would have a shot a the low-2:40s and if I wasn't I still wanted to PR. My A, B, and C goals for the race were as follows: A-2:39-2:42, B- 2:43-2:45, C- sub-2:50 and/or PR. Here's how things panned out.

When the gun went off, I was in a big pack of about a dozen runners. One guy went out faster and had already put a little bit of a gap on the group. The whole pack hit the first mile in around 5:55-6:15 depending on where you were. I was there in 6:06. 6:06 is 2:40-flat marathon pace and I wanted to start slower and then get into faster running in the middle of the race. A few guys around me said they wanted to back off after we hit mile 2 (which had an uphill) in 6:20. We were back to averaging 6:15 pace but I was content to hang in the 6:20ish range for a few miles. The crew I was running with all said they were hoping for a mid-2:40s marathon which sounded good to me with the hope that someone might want to push the pace later. I didn't dictate the pace as we hit 6:22, 6:36, 6:34, and a 6:27 to bring us to 6 miles in 38:29- 2:48:10 marathon pace. I wanted to be around 2:45-46 marathon pace through the first 10k and then bring it down. Newport is a pretty small race so I was happy to be in a group but I surged a little in mile 7 with a 6:18. Nobody went with me but I had made my choice. Maybe folks would catch me later but I wanted to go for something a little faster. I had a blast running the first 6 in that group. Folks were cracking jokes and it kept me very relaxed. I hope everyone in there had an awesome race! From miles 7 to 19 I ran 1:20:14 for 13 miles- 6:10 pace- 2:41:49 marathon pace. I passed a few guys who went out too hot but was running solo other than that. Every mile between 7 and 19 was between 6:00 and 6:20. At mile 17, my projected finish was 2:43:33. By mile 20, I was looking at a 2:44:05. This is where the race got tough. I lost 2.5 minutes from here to the finish.

I'm very happy with what I was able to accomplish on Sunday but I know that there is still room for improvement at the marathon distance. This buildup was really geared towards the half marathon. I only got in two runs over 20 and most of my workouts were in the 5:35-5:50 range. I did not have any long tempos at marathon pace. I did not do a lot of specific running at goal pace. I have been saying since my 2:47 at Chicago that a sub-2:40 is right around the corner. That marathon was pretty similar to this one. In Chicago I went out hard and was on 2:41 pace through halfway. I still had an opportunity to run 2:43-45 but faded hard over the last half. In Newport, I was much more conservative early on and ran that opening quick half from Chicago from miles 6 to 19. I didn't have enough miles left in Newport to fall to a 2:47. I am still optimistic that I can hit a 2:38-2:42 marathon the next time out. I was on pace for a 2:43-44 through 20+ miles on Sunday. I probably should not have dropped down under 6:10 on Sunday. Maybe that would have helped me to a faster time. All in all, I'm happy to finally have a more recent race to claim as my marathon PR. I'm excited for what I can do with a marathon specific training block. Next up is some mile/5k training early this summer before I move into a specific buildup for the New York City Marathon which will also include my debut ultra marathon which will be a 50k setup as a long training run.

Here is some quick data from Newport:

2:46:43 (6:21 pace) 5th overall 

1st 6 38:29- 2:48:10 pace

Next 13 1:20:14- 2:41:49 pace, projected 2:43 finish

20 in 2:05:10- 2:44:05 projected finish

Last 6 miles- 39:39- 2:53:16 pace

Eugene Half Marathon Race Report- 1:16:40 PR !!!

(final mile grit)

On Sunday I ran my first half marathon since having a blood clot in my lung in November, 2016. The last 6 months have been hell. I have been battling with anxiety since this time. With that being said, I really used running over the last three months to help me feel like myself again. Over the last 12 weeks I have averaged 75 miles/week. With each step I run, I am able to prove to myself that I can move on. I am not done yet with running and have more to accomplish.

Selected workouts:
3/21 Michigan 1 (full) mile track 5:15, 1 mile bark 5:54, 1200m track 4:03, 1 mile bark 5:53, 800m track 2:34, 1 mile bark 5:54, 400m track 67, 1600m track 5:38
4/9 8 mile tempo 47:25- out in 24:15, back in 23:10. 6:04, 6:01, 6:09, 6:00, 5:53, 5:54, 5:49, 5:34
4/12 3 mile tempo 16:56- 5:41-5:46-5:29, jog over to track (3:30), 10 x 400m (78.0 avg- 76-79 on the reps) w./ 200m jog :55-57, jog to 3 mile start (4:00), 3 mile tempo 16:53- 5:44-5:42-5:27
4/17 5 mile tempo 28:55 + 4 x 400m
4/21 8 x 1600m w./ 1:00 standing rest 5:34 average (1st rep 5:39, last rep 5:25)
4/26 3 x 2 miles w./ 2:00 400 jog 11:17, 11:16, 11:15

Tuneup Races: 9:24 3k, 16:36 5k, 58:19 10 miler (controlled)

In short, the workouts were there for a good one. After the 8 x 1600 workout I thought 1:14:59 might be possible but I probably needed a few more weeks of similar workouts to make 5:40-5:45 a little more comfortable. The 3 x 2 mile workout was good but it felt a little too hard to be half marathon pace. I went into Eugene with a time in the 1:15 range as my A goal, with a secondary goal of running a PR (previously 1:17:48). On the day of the race I woke up to low-40 degree weather and sunny skies. Great for racing! My plan was to take it out no faster than 5:50. The first four miles have some incline so I wanted to conserve some energy. I executed pretty well in here. On my Garmin I went 5:40, 5:51, 5:51, 5:58. The Garmin was a little off. I ended up getting 13.2 miles and they were clicking the miles off just a few seconds early each mile. The course gave me a 5:45 mile 1 and 11:35ish at 2 miles. I went through 5k in 18:07. After mile 4 I made a conscious effort to try to pick things up. The Garmin gave me 5:42, 5:43, 5:39, 5:43. I went through 10k in 36:04 (17:57 2nd 5k). 8 miles in I was averaging 5:45 pace and on target for a 1:15 finish time.

(hanging with Andrew Wheating post race)

After mile 8, the course climbs college hill. The half marathon is tough because you are basically red lining the whole time and the pace you are trying to hold becomes increasingly difficult the farther into the race you get. I split 5:57 on the uphill mile 9 and my race got a lot more difficult. I took a gel at this point and then clicked off 5:53, 5:57, and 5:54 miles to reach 12. I hit 10 right at 5:50 pace or so. My Garmin gave me 57:5x. I was knocked off of 5:45 pace in here and lost more than 40 seconds. I reckon I could have kept my pace in the 5:40-range had it not been for the hill. I worked hard during the final mile (5:50) to reel in 2 runners and put in a decent kick during the last 200m where the race finished on Hayward Field. I crossed the line in 1:16:40 for a new PR on more than one minute. I finished 18th of 2500 and 2nd in my age group. Look, 6 months ago I did not know if I would ever run faster than I had pre blood clot. On Sunday, I proved to myself that I am not done yet. With that being said, the workouts still tell me that I can break into the 1:15 range. I know that time is possible and have something to shoot for next time out. I had a blast running in my Team Stop the Clot jersey and got a lot of love on the course. I can tell you that the feeling crossing the finish line last weekend was awesome. It is among the happiest I have been in 6 months. I've battled a lot with anxiety the last 6 months and was happy to run well.

(#TeamStopTheClot)

Next up is the Newport Marathon on June 3rd. That's right! I'm not slowing down. I ran a half now it's time for a full. I am going to keep up the mileage the next month and try to run between 2:38-2:42. I want to thank my family, friends, running buddies, and the blood clot community for encouraging me, inspiring me, and supporting me over the last 6 months. I am feeling more like myself thanks to a lot of amazing people.

4 weeks 4 races 4 personal bests just 5 months after a blood clot

I had no idea what running would look like after I had a blood clot last November. I did not know if I would be racing this spring, next fall, or in the years to come. I did not know if I would be able to push myself in the same ways I had been able to before. I did not know if I would be able to run as fast as I had before. In February I really started to feel like myself again. My mileage was getting closer to what I would consider normal and I was able to do some workouts again. I hopped in an early March 5k and ran 16:51. Not bad. I followed that up two weeks later with a 9:24 3k which had me pretty excited. It is a much stronger mark than the 16:51. This started a string of races over the last 4 weekends. I did not taper for these races or back off my mileage so they were sort of a mixed bag. I feel like I could have gone faster in all of them but each one served a different purpose for training. Here is what I was able to manage:

3/18- 9:24 3k in a college meet- I was close to 5:00-flat pace for just under 2 miles. This is a very good time for me. I hung onto a small pack early and ran a strong/consistent race with k splits of 3:07-3:08-3:09.

3/26 Couve Clover 10.3 miler- I had tickets to the Blazers on 3/25 and stayed with a buddy who was running a 5k the next day. I had a long run with some tempo miles planned so I hopped in the 10.3 miler. I averaged 5:50 pace for the whole thing, running consistent splits the whole way. This came at the end of an 80+ mile week with a hard 4 x 1 mile workout the Friday before (3/24) and 7+ miles on Saturday (3/25). I hit 10 miles in 58:19. The only 10 miler I had ever run before this was a 59:06 at Pear Blossom last spring so this is a new pr on some tired legs. My thought is that I can roll through 10 miles of a half at this pace or faster on tapered legs. We will see.

4/1 Linfield 10k- It might have been too much to ask for running a 10k just 6 days after a decent 10 miler and with a mid-week workout. I wanted to run 34-mid, something that seemed possible based on the 3k two weeks previous. I, however, ran like an amateur and went out way too fast in this one. It was a small field and I went with a small pack of guys and ran 5:20 for mile 1. This is more or less 5k pace for me and I had 5.2 miles to go. I ran 5:30 for mile 2 and was in over my head. I slowed to reach 5k in 17:22. If I could do that again I would have had a time I would be satisfied with but I was trending in the wrong direction. I ran 5:50s the rest of the way and finished in 35:31- gross. My road best is 35:32 so this technically is my PR now even though I think I can go much quicker...

4/7 John Knight Twilight 5k- 8:50pm on a Friday night under the lights! There were only 11 in the field and it was a D2 meet with some D1 runners in the field. The pack went out hot and I hung off the back in last. There was a pacer up front going through 2 miles in 10:00 which is close to my 3k pace so I was in over my head. I went through the first 1600 in 5:05 and was already a few strides back from 10th. By 2 miles (10:28-30ish), I was about 10 seconds from 10th and this gap would stay the same to the finish. After a much too fast 5:05, I ran 5:23-25 for the next 1600. I was basically where I wanted to be a 3200- 5:15 pace- but trending the wrong way after a hot first mile. I wanted to run 5:15s but ran a 5:30 third mile. I hit the last 200 in 36 to go 76 on the last lap. I feel like I left some time out there with some bad pacing but you can't say that I didn't go for it. I need to be in a 16:10-30 race. I was on 16:00 pace through 2k and 16:10 through 3k but then faded hard because I went out too fast. I want to be in a race where I come through 3k in the same time but do so with even splits. 16:36 beats my old 16:37 road time. That came on a downhill course so it is good to have a more official PR in the 5k.

4 weeks. 4 races. 4 PRs. I don't know what I was expecting post blood clot but I have proved to myself that I am a fighter. I will not quit. I will not give up. I did not focus on any one particular race here and am excited that there is more room for improvement. The goal right now is the Eugene Half Marathon. My training over the next month will turn more half marathon specific. I am optimistic that a 1:14-1:15 time is within reach.

#teamstoptheclot

Some semblance of normalcy (March = Blood Clot Awareness Month)

I finally am starting to feel like myself again. The anxiety still comes and goes in spurts but I am slowly convincing myself that I am okay. I have been able to do this largely due to running. The more I am able to run and get through each day, the more I feel like I can get through each day- if that makes any sense. Over the last 5 weeks I have averaged more than 70/week with a high of 84. This is what normal looked like to me pre clot. I have been able to race twice this March: one 5k and one 3k- both on the track.

On 3/4, I raced the Willamette Opener in Salem. Workouts in February showed me that I was getting closer to pre clot form. My weeks in February generally included one tempo of 3-4 miles, 1 short speed workout, and one long run. The tempos were all done on the bark at Amazon so I was mostly going by feel instead of for time but I could tell that I was getting stronger from week to week. I was originally thinking of doing the Willamette 1500 on the 4th so I was doing things like 2 x (k-200-200) or 1k-800-600-400-200 all at mile pace. The long runs really helped me with the anxiety as I was going 15-18 miles every Sunday. I did a 3k time trial on the track in 9:38 and then a couple days later ran 5 x (1k, 400m) averaging 3:16/k and 75/400. Those two results made me switch to the 5k at Willamette. I was definitely fit but pulled a classic marathoner move before the race. In the few days leading up to the race I ran 10 miles, 8 miles, and 7 miles. I did the 5 x (1k, 400m) workout the day before the 10 miles. I should have cut the mileage in half the three days before if I wanted to run faster but I kept the volume up and the race played out accordingly. I wanted to go through 3200m in about 10:30 or so to give myself a chance at 16:15. I, instead, ran my first 1600 a couple seconds under 5:20 and the next 1600 a couple seconds over 5:20. I was locked into 5:20 for the first two. I could not move and quicker and my legs felt very heavy. I slowed to a 5:30ish on the final 1600 and then brought it home in 16:51. This was a college meet so the race was hot from the start. I was near the back of the field and went through the first 400 in 74ish. I went through 800 in 2:35 or so. I started too quick and then my heavy legs had to endure the full 12.5 laps on the track. I beat a few college kids and ran under 17:00 so not all was lost. I'll be honest that I was a little nervous before the race, attempting to run all out just four months after discovering a blood clot. This race showed me that I can run fast again and not think about the clot at all.

I put in some solid training for the next two weeks and ran the Lane Community College Preview 3k on 3/18. There were two heats for this one, as the first heat featured two University of Oregon runners and two elite Japanese runners. In between the 5k and the 3k, I got in two solid workouts that made me feel like something good was coming. I did a 2 x 1600m workout w./ an 800m jog and hit 5:05 and 5:02. I then added on a fast 600, 400, and 200 to cap off that workout. The Tuesday before the Saturday race I did a big double workout. In the morning I did a 2 mile tempo, an 800m, and another 2 mile tempo. In the evening, I got to workout at Hayward Field with the UO Running Club and did 3 sets of 600-400-300-200. I ran faster splits in that evening workout than anything I had ever done before. I ended up with 18 miles that day. I was smarter Wednesday through Friday as I ran 8, 7, and 6 miles. The 6 on Friday included 4 x 200m averaging 34. The race on Saturday was in the afternoon so I did 2.5 mile VERY EASY in the morning around 8am. I got to the race and warmed up around 3:15 for the 4pm race. I tried something a little new during the warmup and did a 2:00 tempo about 1.5 miles in. The segment was at 5:40 pace and then I finished nice and easy around 2.25 miles. I then did drills and some strides before changing into spikes. There were maybe 8-9 runners in our heat. I went out in 74 for the first 400 and felt like I was in control. We were single file but everyone was still in contact as the leaders were 71-72 or so. I maintained the pace on lap 2 and hit 800 in 2:28-29. I was sitting behind a Western Oregon runner and a UO Club runner was just in front of him. The UO Club runner started to gap us on the third lap but we were consistent and were 3:43-44 at 1200. I wanted to maintain contact with the UO runner because we had done the workout together on Tuesday night at Hayward but I did some quick calculations and figured it might be best if I stay behind the college runner in front of me. We passed 1600 in about 4:59. That's 9:20 pace for 3k and was consistent with our first 3 laps. My race plan had been to go out in about 5:00 and then try to hold on/see what I could do. I moved around the runner that had led me through the first 1600 on lap 5. When I got to 2k, however, I was maybe 5-6 second off of the UO runner who I wanted to try to stay on. It's tough to make up that kind of ground in a 3k. For the final k, I basically just maintained pace. I did not catch the UO runner but he picked off somewhere around 4-5 people to finish close to the top. I passed one more runner and was closing in on two more but just ran out of ground at the finish line. I missed the runner in front of me by 1 second and another person was just ahead of him. In retrospect, I should have worked harder to maintain contact with the UO runner who ran 9:13. I finished in 9:24 which I am really happy about. I don't think that I would have run 9:13 but maybe could have dropped under 9:20 if I wasn't running alone on the last k. My splits were very even- about 3:07-3:08-3:09. 9:24 equates to just over 10:00 for 2 miles and about a 16:20 5k, 34:00 10k and 1:15-flat half marathon. I still have to do the training but the potential is there this spring for some solid times and PRs.

I finally ran a race in a time that I feel like represents my fitness pretty well. I'm excited to race on the track some more this spring. I'm signed up for a track 10k and 5k in April. I then have a 5 mile road race and the Eugene Half Marathon to look forward to. I'm still going through some good and bad but I am starting to realize that a lot went well over the last several weeks.

the doctor said I have blood clots...

It's been a while since I have written a post. 2016 was supposed to be my year. For the first 10 months, it was. Work was going great. I was adjusting well to my new Oregon home. I was logging some of the best miles of my young life.

I closed out 2015 with a 1:17:50 PR in the half marathon in late November. I trained all winter and ran the NYC half marathon two seconds faster (1:17:48) in March, 2016. The result was solid but a little disappointing. Workouts were indicating that I was closer to 1:15-16 shape. I then set my sights on the Eugene Marathon. For whatever reason, this race did not go well. I ran 2:59 but my 2:47 PR from fall, 2013 is much faster and I was in much better shape heading into Eugene. I accepted this race and figured I would get my chance in the fall. I trained hard all summer and ran PRs in the 1500 (4:27 = 4:47 mile or so) and the 10k 35:32. The 10k was a little weak and was run on a warm day on a hilly course. I then started to attack marathon training for the Twin Cities Marathon. Here is a little sampling of the training:

8/17- 3.5 @ 5:54, 2.5 @ 5:42, 1.5 @ 5:30

8/21- 18 w./ 12 @ 6:01 pace

8/28- 19 @ 6:31 average w./ a 4 mile push from 13-17 in 5:55, 6:02, 6:05, 5:57

9/3- 21- 2 mile warmup, 4 mile tempo @ 5:55 pace, 9 miles easy, 4 mile tempo @ 6:05 pace, 2 mile cooldown

9/7- 4,3,2,1 x mile(s)- 4 miles 23:39- 5:56, 5:57, 5:55, 5:51 (4:00 rest), 3 miles 17:28- 5:48, 5:52, 5:47 (3:00 rest), 2 miles 11:29- 5:44, 5:45 (2:00 rest), 1 mile 5:36

9/11- 24 @ 6:44 average w./ a 4 mile push from 17-21 in 5:53, 5:57, 5:53, 5:45

9/18- 18.5 total miles w./ Albany Half Marathon as a marathon simulator run in 1:18:52 (6:01 pace)- rainy/muggy day, 1st AG

9/28- 4 x 3200m- 11:25- 5:44, 5:41 (2:11), 11:24- 5:44, 5:40 (2:10), 11:23- 5:45, 5:38 (2:09), 11:06- 5:39, 5:27

In short, I was in the best shape of my life and was ready to run under-2:40. I flew to Minneapolis and crashed with a good friend. On Saturday morning, the day before the race, I woke up with my calf cramping. This was not good but I had worked too hard to let something like this stop me from competing. On Sunday morning, it was cold (low-30s) but I like that for running. I had to, however, wait for a decently long time before starting my warmup. It could be that my body never got fully warmed up and that the lingering calf cramp played a role but the 6:00-flat pace I ran for 13.1 on tired legs 3 weeks ago felt much too fast. By 10k into the race, my legs felt like they were cramping. I tried to settle in with a group hitting 6:10/mile but I fell off it a little after 11 miles and went through the half in 1:22-mid. I was perplexed. I'm not a quitter so I just kept going even though my body was protesting with another half to go. At 22ish, my right calf cramped so bad I had to stop and walk for about 10:00. I started running once I could and crossed the line in 3:00:23. I didn't even break 3 when 6:00 pace was feeling pretty comfortable in training.

In the couple weeks after the race (which was on 10/9), I started to log some miles, determined to get in a good marathon in 2016. I signed up for the California International Marathon. It is always the first weekend in December and is a point to point, net downhill course. The drop a couple hundred feet so it is not as downhill as other courses can be. It still counts, for example, for US Olympic Marathon Qualifying. I got back into workouts and hit a particularly good long run (10/30 22.3 total miles 2:26:55 (6:35 pace overall): 5 x (2 miles easy, 2 miles @ MP)- 14:31/12:09- 6:09, 6:00, 14:10/12:00- 5:58, 6:02, 13:53/11:55- 5:58, 5:57, 14:07/11:57- 5:59, 5:58, 14:05/12:01- 6:02, 5:59, 2.3 mile cooldown 16:05 (10 miles easy 1:10:45 (7:04 pace), 10 miles @ MP 1:00:02 (6:00 pace), 2.3 mile cooldown 16:05)) but my legs were cramping during the whole thing which was very weird and made things significantly tougher. What was going on?

The next night I woke up in the middle of the night to some pretty intense chest pain/pain in my lung. I went for my run that morning and to work. There was pain when I took a deep breath during the day. I woke up again in the night for the second time. I repeated the process and went for a run and to work. I then woke up for the third straight night and was sensing something was wrong. I did a workout on 11/2- 3 x 4 miles in 24:35, 23:57, 23:39- and then went to the hospital. The doctors did not seem overly concerned. My vitals looked normal. They were just going to do a CT Scan of my lung/chest just to make sure that everything looked good. A new doctor came into the room after the scan and told me that I would be staying the night. I had a blood clot in my right lung.

I don't think I was able to process this news in the moment. I'm 24. My health has always been good. I had never taken any sort of medication. My routine for the last 6 years had been to go for a morning run and then take on the day. I was given a series of shots and told that I was to be on blood thinners for the next six months but possibly longer. I was told not to run and to take things easy. I was told that I would not be running a marathon next month. 

I started to run again after taking two weeks off. My PCP said a few miles a day would be fine. I was starting to feel more like myself after the first month since finding the clot. The doctor had told me that I had to be careful because the clot could, at any time, detach and move to my heart or brain which could cause some serious medical problems (heart attack, stroke, etc.). The day before Thanksgiving, I was picking up a pie at a local bakery and everything went from being good to not so good in a matter of seconds. I felt dizzy, my heart started to race, my body was shaking. I did not feel in control. My partner was with me and she immediately drove me to the ER. After being there for 6 hours or so, everything was just fine. Things were better than fine. All of the blood testing was normal and we did another scan to see if the clot was getting bigger but the clot had actually fully dissolved. The problem was that I just did not feel well. I stopped running for a month and went back to the hospital once more feeling the same way. I checked out again. It was starting to sink in that I was having panic attacks. I was feeling anxious 24/7. I was not running. It was difficult to work.

When the calendar year switched to 2017, I was relieved to leave 2016 behind. I started 2016 feeling like anything was possible and closed out the year scared to live my life. Over the last few weeks I have got back to running. Work has gotten much better. The anxiety is still there and that is the biggest thing holding me back right now. I am fearful of developing another clot. I am fearful that if I feel a twinge in my chest that the worst is about to happen. There are days where I am unsure if I will ever be happy again, days where I forgot what happiness feels like. Anxiety/depression are often stigmatized and they are hard to understand if one has never experienced them before. It takes an incredible amount of patience to help someone through this and I am beyond grateful to people in my support system who have been helping me. I do not know what the future holds but I am determined to keep fighting. I am going to run a spring half marathon. I signed up for the 2017 NYC Marathon and will raise money for Team Stop the Clot. The race will be almost exactly one year after my diagnosis. Right now, things are still very difficult. I go through good days and bad days. But I'm not done.

I am a survivor. I will keep moving forward.

(shout-out to the entire blood clot community that I have connected with online- the support/love I feel from this group has been huge over the last several weeks)