I’ve often been asked at expos and night-before-the-race speaking engagements for last-minute tips. At those times, your training is done. Sorry for all you procrastinators right now (believe me that I am sorry for I am one of you!), but doing sprints the night before the marathon is not going to fix any lack of training :) One part of training that runners often neglect is brain training – and it’s honestly too late to do much on that now either. {Read More}
Race Report: Rock N Roll San Diego Marathon
August 6, 2013 by 16 Comments
This race was run on June 2, 2013, but I have taken FAR too long to write up the post. It was an amazing race and it always feels overwhelming to me to try to capture every bit of races that are this special to me – hopefully I can do it justice! But today is a particularly auspicious day to finally post this, since it also happens to be Blake’s birthday! If you have a spare 20 seconds/two clicks, {Read More}
4:30 Marathon or Bust! Treadmill Workout
June 21, 2013 by 14 Comments
On Monday, two weeks after my last marathon (yes yes San Diego race report still in progress), I finally got back to running. While in upstate New York on Monday morning, I went for what was supposed to be an easy three-mile jog around the SUNY Albany campus. It was beautiful scenery, but my legs just felt heavy and dead throughout – I think from all the squats in Refine Method on Sunday) – so it wasn’t quite as relaxing {Read More}
Race Report: Vermont City Marathon
June 7, 2013 by 8 Comments
Yesterday happened to be National Running Day, and today is the third anniversary of the day I broke the world record, so I think it’s an especially fitting day for me to finally post this year’s Vermont City Marathon race report. On May 25 2008, the Vermont City Marathon was my first marathon. I was terrified going into the race – would I be able to finish? – and got through it by “running to the ice cream,” as it {Read More}
Race Report: Rock N Roll USA Marathon
March 19, 2013 by 12 Comments
Unlike Sevilla, my night before the race in DC was practically perfect. My flights to DC from Dallas went smoothly, including upgrades to first class so I could stretch out, and I even had time to grab some oatmeal in the Delta SkyClub on my layover in Cincinatti. I arrived in DC midday, hungry for lunch, and after meeting up with Theodora, I picked up a falafel wrap for lunch at a nearby food truck. The pillowy pita bread was {Read More}
Race Report: Vermont City Marathon
June 1, 2012 by 6 Comments
Going into the weekend, I was really excited. While I had a few “obligations” (working the expo booth, doing an hour-long talk on my marathon journey, and of course running the marathon), it was all stuff I was excited to do. Plus, I had plenty of downtime to catch up on sleep, drink beer, eat my favorite pizza, and hang out with my mom, whom I hadn’t seen in a while. This was exactly what I needed to start blowing {Read More}
Race Report: RnR USA Marathon
April 20, 2012 by 14 Comments
This race report has been a few weeks coming – but this time, for a different reason than just not having the time to write it. Even during the race, I was wondering how I was going to write about it later (ugh, I sound like such a blogger cliche), because it was really a not-very-fun pacing experience for me (as you’ll soon see). Then I got so far behind, that I personal-paced another race in between, and that one {Read More}
Making My Marathon Comeback
May 1, 2011 by 10 Comments
So now that I’m being honest, I can admit that I was terrified in the days leading up the New Jersey Marathon. After my failure at the National Marathon (which I haven’t even finished writing a race report for, since I was so embarrassed to finish 2 minutes late), I was terrified about pacing again. What if I just sucked as a pacer now? Maybe I should quit running marathons and move onto something else… though I couldn’t imagine what {Read More}
Race Report: National Marathon (Part 1)
March 28, 2011 by 9 Comments
Unfortunately, I did not sleep very well on Friday night. I had gone to bed around 9:30pm, but had to be up at 4:45am for my very early ride to the start. I just kept waking up over and over, thinking I had missed my alarm and was late. Every time, I kept not looking at my cell phone to see what time it was, because I didn’t want to get completely woken up by the bright light. I figured {Read More}
Sick and nervous
March 23, 2011 by 6 Comments
Ever since getting back from Denmark, I’ve been even sicker than before. No surprise, I suppose – biking around without adequate gear on in 30 degree temps, drinking a ton of beer while sick, and then spending 8 hours locked in a metal tube with plenty of other germy people will do that to you. With the National Marathon coming up on Saturday, I knew I needed to recover… but that’s been harder than I thought, and now I’m starting {Read More}
