Jack and Jill's Write Up

First up, the numbers:

- 7 months into the #Sub3ForPtR campaign and we've surpassed the original goal for the year of $3000! So, it has been changed to $6000! Because of the change in hosting site to GoFund Me the goal is set at $3000, basically making the second half like round two of the fundraiser.

- One person guessed my finishing time of 2:40:29 EXACTLY, over 30 people guessed within 1 minute, and several guessed within 5 minutes! That totaled up to an additional donation of $850! I honestly thought it would be harder to guess close to my actual time since it was such an aggressive goal. But everyone was confident in me and I delivered! More to come on that below.

- 7 marathons complete, cumulative time of 20:43:45, average time of 2:57:38. That puts the average finish time at #Sub3ForPtR and 5 out of 7 have been under 3 hours.

I guess you could say Jack and Jill’s was lucky number 7. The story for this one goes back to November 30th when I realized I was too late to register for Chicago, which takes place in OCTOBER nearly a YEAR after registration! I was bummed and started thinking of any way I could get a registration for this year. No bib transfers are allowed and I wasn’t going to run as a bandit.

I did some research recalling a program that used to be called the Top 100 that Chicago had in the past. It turns out it has been rebranded as the American Development Program and accepts registrations through early September or until all 300 spots are filled. YES! An opportunity!

There was a catch though. I needed to run under 2:41. Thank goodness I just turned 40 because the time standard for under 40 was under 2:31! Still, the idea of running within 3 minutes of my personal best 7 years after having set it and while running a marathon a month was pretty daunting. I started searching for downhill marathons figuring that I needed to give myself all the advantages I could. Plus the only stipulation for the American Development Program besides the time requirement was it had to be USATF certified.

I came across Jack and Jill’s Downhill marathon at the end of July. Originally, I was thinking about running San Francisco in July because the weather at least was sure to be tolerable. The course however is pretty hilly. Given the weather in the Seattle area is pretty comfortable in the summer, I decided that Jack and Jill’s was my best shot at sub 2:41. Plus it would give me a chance to see good friends and family.

Come the end of July and I’m on my way to Seattle feeling good physically but wary of the weather since it had been a warm summer out west and Seattle was no exception. Temperatures had been getting well into the 80s and even the low 90s which is unusual for the Pacific northwest. The race director was obviously aware of this and sent out a weather update a couple days before the race. They had someone run the course starting at 11am and monitored the temperature the entire way. Amazingly, the temperature only rose above 60F in the last few miles. Since the race started at 6:30am I was comforted by this knowing that the temperature would likely remain below 60F for my race on Sunday.

Sure enough the temperature held below 60F and the air was crisp and cool. All I had to do was run my third fastest marathon ever! I executed my plan to a tee and things rolled out almost precisely as I had expected. Ate my pre-race breakfast, got to the start with plenty of time for a pre-race warmup routine, got my mind set, and was at the start line ready to go.

The gun went off and I started out the first couple of miles a little slower than goal pace as planned. Within a quarter mile the course went through a 2 ½ mile tunnel! That was a neat experience and a unique feature for a marathon. Coming out the other side I was in 4th place and getting comfortably into goal pace. After mile 4 I was in 3rd and watching 1st and 2nd slowly pull away. No worries, my goal was under 2:41 and that was it.

As the miles clicked off there was some slight difference between the mile markers and my Garmin which isn’t unusual. Plus this marathon is on a rail trail so I expected it. Based on the splits and my estimates I was expecting to go through the half in about 1:21 to 1:21:30. I hit it in 1:20:29. Off by 1 second of being exactly on pace. And I knew the halfway mark was accurate since there was also a half marathon that started on the same course. Needless to say, that made me feel pretty good and I continued on hitting the pace.

Around 16 miles I caught 2nd place. A young kid (17 years old!) that was a little ambitious for his first marathon. Felt bad for him a little bit but he’s young and can learn from the experience like most of us have! First place on the other hand didn’t seem to be in sight. Again, my goal was under 2:41 and I was well on my way to that.

Around mile 20 I started to feel some fatigue and my mental strength was being challenged. I faded a bit that mile and started to get worried. But then I came around a bend and saw first place. It appeared he was slowing down and I thought “I’ll kick myself if I don’t at least try to catch him.” So I pulled it together and got back on pace.

Sure enough he was slowing down and I was closing in on him. My splits kept clicking off on target and I continued to close ground. With 5K to go a I caught up with him. He responded to me coming up beside him and we started running together. I thought to myself at this point “I don’t want to battle with this guy for the last 3 miles.” So I picked up the pace a bit and he responded, fortunately only for about a half mile. Consequently mile 24 was my fastest mile of the race!

With just over two miles to go (can't forget that last .2!) the prospect of winning as well as getting under 2:41 helped me push through the fatigue and building desire to just pull over to the side and lay down. What seemed like way more than two miles later I came around the last bend and saw the finish line. Eventually I saw the clock clicking away in the low 2:40 range and I knew I’d pulled off what seemed like a huge, nearly insurmountable challenge only a few months before. Not only had I just ran fast enough to get into Chicago’s American Development Program, I had just won my first marathon. It was a wonderful feeling to do this all while supporting Pumped to Run!

Thanks again to everyone for your support and confidence in me. Now it’s time to go run number 8 here in Alaska!