Meghann left me an awesome comment the other day. I teared up a bit reading it, but I cry at the drop of a hat, so that’s no surprise.
Two years ago, I stayed with her, her sister and Bobbi before the Chicago Marathon.
Bobbi had run the Boston Marathon, with a BQ time of 3:24 and Meghann had run 3 marathons, with a PR of 4:12. I wasn’t really sure how fast I could run Chicago, but all of their times sounded SO FAST to me. I’d never be able to run that fast.
I soaked up as much marathon knowledge from them as I could in the days before the race. Hopefully staying with these fast girls would rub off on me.
I finished that marathon in 4:59, and I was so happy with my time. It was a good 40-something minutes slower than the other girls’ times, but it was my first marathon. The former fat kid had just finished her first marathon.
In the year between that and the New York City Marathon, I trained and ran my heart out. I ran 5 more halfs that year and set a PR of 1:55:28.
I wanted so badly to break 4:30 at the New York City Marathon, and I did, running it in 4:19:56.
That’s a 40-minute PR. I knew I couldn’t do that between my second and third marathons, but I hoped I could take off just half as much time, and finish in 3:59.
I knew it was likely a stretch. I knew sub-4 was no joke, but I knew I needed an ambitious goal to aim for.
I read Dorothy’s post about figuring out a realistic goal time for a marathon. Based on my half PR, McMillan said I could do 4:03. In her post, Dorothy said “Often when deciding what goal you should have for a marathon it’s tempting to pick a number out of thin air.”
I’ll admit it. I totally picked 3:59 out of thin air. It was an aggressive goal, but I wanted an aggressive goal to push me. My body responds fairly well to marathon training, and so I wanted to reach for this. I so badly wanted to join that sub-4 club. For the bragging rights, sure, but because it would represent so much improvement over my first marathon. Because it would represent not only deciding to go for a healthier lifestyle, but putting my all into something and watching the payoff.
I remembered reading Sarah’s post about not making sub-4. And then her amazing PR a few months later.
And watching Jocelyn come within three minutes of sub-4. Homegirl has gotten fast, and her just missing sub-4 honestly really freaked me out about my own ability to do the same. I’m not as fast as her. Who was I kidding? I couldn’t do this.
Last year I felt like my training was 100% spot-on, but last year I was also unemployed and had just a bit more time to train. This year, I have been really busy (maybe too busy?) and my training wasn’t where it was last year. Although I truly was satisfied with the amount of training I put in, I wasn’t sure it was enough for sub-4.
I’d read comments on posts on my own blog and others’ blogs about just missing sub-4 and knew how audacious a goal was, but I wasn’t prepared to back away from it. I was going to go into Sunday’s race in touch with reality but still reaching for the goal.
I started with Ericka, who’d said in a comment on my blog she was aiming for 3:50. Why the hell was I starting with her? Who was I kidding?
Before the race, I thought about how I’d feel if I missed it. I knew I’d be disappointed, but this marathon thing is still so new to me, that I knew unless I busted out a bunch of seven-minute miles at the beginning or ate a piece of pizza mid-race or something else equally dumb, I’d be proud of myself. I knew it might take a few tries.
Sure enough, I finished in 4:04:37. And I am happy with my time—truly, I’m incredibly happy with it. I ran hard for it and pushed through the discomfort for it.
But I have some unfinished business. I tasted that sub-4 (or maybe just my ponytail whipping my mouth? It’s pretty aggressive), and I’m not satisfied yet. I still want it.
After I finished the race, and even the day after, I thought it was too painful. I didn’t want to try again. I was plenty happy with my 4:04.
But since when do I give up that easily? Never. Edited-to-add-because-I-thought-of-this-after-I-hit-publish: I didn’t hit sub-2 for a half on my first try…or my second…or my third, but when I got it that fourth time I tried, it was so, so sweet.
Laura and I talked the other night, she offered to pace me to sub-4, and I am seriously considering taking her up on it before the end of this year. I always thought multiple marathons in a year, or even in a “training season” was nuts, but I’m starting to contemplate giving it another try since I’ve already put so much training in. Let’s just say I haven’t ruled it out.
I gots questions for ya:
Have you ever done back-to-back(ish) marathons? And tried to PR at both of them? How much time in between?
Any good marathons on the East Coast between Thanksgiving and Christmas I should know about? (I have plans the other weekends between now and Thanksgiving. And I have a race in mind with Laura but would love to hear what you know of.)
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See, now you know why I do two at a time! :) I actually kind of cover this in my next post (coming out tomorrow AM). I know you have it in you to do sub-4 -- no doubt about it. You were hanging onto it almost the whole race, soooo do-able. If I were you, I'd try to find a race about 3-5 weeks from now. No less than than or the legs might be rough. I'm nervous about Philly (Nov. 18) but I'm just gonna do it! Oh...um, how bout Philly? :) When I did two weeks apart, it was hell. When I did three weeks apart, it worked out great.
Okay, loved this post, I'm done chattering. I look forward to hearing what you decide!
MORE OPTIONS WHERE YOU COULD CRUSH IT:
11/11: Fort Worth Marathon
11/24: North Central Trail Marathon (I've run it)
12/2: Las Vegas Marathon
12/2: Palm Beach Marathon
12/8: Kiawah Island Marathon (I've run it)
12/9: Dallas White Rock Marathon
1/13: First Light Marathon (I've run it)
1/13: Houston Marathon
1/20: Charleston Marathon
1/20: Maui Marathon
1/26: Yuma Marathon (I had a MAJOR PR there)
1/27: Miami Marathon
1/27: Galveston Mardi Gras Marathon
Loved your post. I also missed sub 4 at MCM by a couple minutes and considering the same exact thing! I live in MA and considering this marathon on 11/18 http://www.mylesstandishmarathon.com/. I'd love to hear what race you have in mind!
The Rehoboth Beach Marathon in Rehoboth, DE is a great, small, local marathon! It's my home-beach town and has a special place in my heart...and there's not a hill in site! you would crush sub 4!
Kiawah is an awesome race. Your friend is smart. Do another one in Decemebr -- you'll be shocked how great you'll feel the second race. I've gone long and went for a pr for both and killed the second race. Good luck, but you don't need it.
Ok I"m seriously, seriously considering this too and I'm eyeing the Rehoboth Beach Marathon on Dec. 9 (assuming Rehoboth is still standing after Sandy). It's enough time out that I can recover and taper and hopefully go in feeling strong. Plus beach town = mostly flat course. I'm not completely decided yet, but it's definitely something I'm chewing on. Let me know what you decide.
@Jess: I've been continuing to check in on Rehoboth and all reports so far seem to say it's relatively unscathed :) Dogfish Head, here we come!
@Laura: I'd be much more tempted to do this race if you guys were doing it too!
@Jess: I'm 99% sure I'm doing Rehoboth either way :)
brooklyn marathon= hills but with local support! or kiawah island (def want to do this one someday) which is ALL flat and very scenic, but you have to travel...what kind of training would you do in between??
@Rebecca: Kiawah was really pretty but every house looked the same so it actually got kind of boring, especially on the second loop. I have a half-finished race report I can send to you/Theodora/anyone else considering it; just let me know if you want it.
Great post. I'm a big fan of running two in one training cycle, and this year i was signed up for MCM and Philly. My training got off to a slow start though and I decided to just focus on Philly to take some pressure off. Last year I ran NYC (my second marathon) and Philly (my third) which were two weeks part. I ran a 3:51 in NYC and then 3:45 at Philly. Even though I had missed my 3:50 goal in NYC I had such a better attitude about Philly because I knew that even if I totally bombed Philly I still was really proud of my NYC time and being able to run two marathons back to back! I felt like at NYC I was super nervous, was constantly looking at my watch and I never really relaxed and enjoyed the race. At Philly, I was totally happy to be there, enjoy the course, and whatever happened happened. My garmin even broke at about mile 16 and I was shocked to find out that I had beaten my NYC time by so much. I say go for it!!! But don't stress about the sub 4. Just remember that you know that you have it in you, relax, and have fun. Good luck!
I went from a 4:24 to a sub-4 on my first attempt at the goal. I thought it was a big reach for me, but didn't find it crazy difficult probably because I had one of those awesome race experiences.
I know few marathon experiences are like that, but it's amazing what you can do when the stars align. Congrats on the PR.
I know NOTHING about back-to-back marathoning, only sorta-back-to-back-halfing, which I am always in favor of. I want to say do it, but only if you really have the desire to keep training between now and then, and only if you feel good enough on your first couple of runs back that you think you could recover fast enough to train well enough to get after it again in six-ish weeks. (I'm still trying to figure out if I can race a HALF in early Dec, and my marathon was a month ago!) I remember you getting burned out by the end of the 3 halfs you ran trying to get sub-2, so if you think THAT won't happen, go for it!