Racing’s taken a backseat this year – more on the season of travel and fun later – but I knew I had to do something. So after my hammie (mostly) healed and I was home long enough to string together some consistent weeks of training, I signed up for my second ever 26.2: Twin Cities Marathon.
Not gonna lie, it was weird dialing back the swim and bike volume and keeping the run volume the same as an ironman build. And there was fomo as Nick hopped on his bike for seven-hour Sundays. But like anything, I adjusted and found the time back in my week pretty fantastic. Life outside of triathlon exists, and it’s been pretty fun to find it again (don’t worry, I still love triathlon! It’s just been refreshing to step back for a bit).
Anyway, my build was a bit shorter than coach and I would have liked – my longest run was 17 miles – but unlike the past couple years of training, I thoroughly enjoyed almost every training mile. Sure, there were weeks I didn’t wanna run long – mostly because of am-I-gonna-have-to-race-to-the-porta-potty anxiety (anyone else experience that, too?). But I once I was running – usually after a lovely lazy morning of coffee and reading – the River Road miles were fun and somewhat effortless.
So the race!
There’s not much to say other than I had so much fun running my favorite routes in two of my favorite cities. We hit the weather jackpot: 50F and sunny with a tailwind the last five miles down Summit. I should have taken an Imodium (two porta-potty stops: miles 6 and 14). My legs felt fresh and strong – even on the Summit uphill – and given how much I had left the last couple miles (um, hello, 7-minute pace), I wonder if I could have run a bit faster the entire 26.2. But that’s why we race, right? To continually challenge ourselves to see what we’ve capable of (it’s always more than we think) and as a reminder that we can do hard things!
And the race highlights!
Seeing my team. Nick popped up everywhere on his bike. Best and most supportive husband. ♥ Kendra and Monica (yay for visiting from Oregon!), Michaela, Megan, Kelli, Katie – seeing your smiling faces and hearing all your cheers… so fantastic. And Johnny – thank you for the warm car ride straight to the start line.
Nailing my nutrition. I’ll always be the biggest Skratch Labs fan – I’ve used it consistently since my first IM in 2013 – but I needed something more calorie dense that was easy to ingest. So the past couple years I’ve added in Maurten with great results. For this race, I had two of their 100 cal gels during the race, and another 320 mix in my handheld. Probably could have used one more gel, but overall I felt properly fueled the entire race.
Staying mentally in it. This is the biggest win of the race. It’s been really hard the past few years to stay present, to get comfortable being uncomfortable in the late miles of a race, to not want to check out and just stop moving. And I’m not entirely sure why. Burnt out? Social media pressure? Internal pressure? Likely a combo of all. But this race – I’m so proud that I stayed in it and embraced (rather than endured) the hard. Because it’s not supposed to be easy.
Official results // 3:29:39, 20th AG
(Thinking about running a marathon? Do this one. Twin Cities in Motion puts on top-notch races, and this is one of the best!)
1 Comment
Erin! Congrats! I can’t believe this was only your second solo (non-Ironman) marathon! It was a glorious day. Also, I always take an Imodium before a race longer than 13.1, and it does help. I do it once or twice before a long run during training, just to make sure my GI system is working like I remember. It at least gives me piece of mind, too.
PS – I got the pink shoes. 🙂