Carmel Marathon: A new PR & a BQ!!

I wasn't particularly confident going into this race. I knew that come Saturday morning, my time would be close but wasn't sure which side of 3:30 I would be on. Because when you're doing focused, dedicated training, you know your goal time and that for a marathon you should be within 5-10 min(at most) of it barring any sort of catastrophe.

I felt undertrained. I wasn't trusting my training of doing shorter long runs with loads of cumulative fatigue. I hadn't done anything consistently nutrition wise (a huge deviation from my obsessive training of years past).

But....

I put in a lot of solid, quality training. Every workout had a purpose. I was well rested. I was healthy. And probably the most important thing: I overdressed significantly on every outdoor run so that I would be acclimated to warmer temps. Even if the temp was a delightful 47, I would be in my Nike Hyperwarm long sleeve (those shirts are HOT), a lined windbreaker, gloves, a fleece buff, hat and tights.  I would also be very minimal with taking nutrition (save for water/OSMO) so that race day GU would have a bigger effect for me. (or at least in my head).
I woke up at 3:30 to eat a Belvita banana bread biscuit and a banana and made weak hotel coffee to hopefully get things moving. I went back to bed and woke back up/tossed and turned until 5:45 when I got up for real to get ready for this race. 2 main issues arise at this point: 1. There was no shuttle coming to our hotel as I mistakenly thought. 2. I couldn't "go" but knew I needed to.

The first issue was easy to take care of- we drove to a parking lot a 14 minute walk from the start. The second issue began to consume me.  We got to the start about 30 min before the race, took some pics in front of the start and then I went to wait in the port-a-let line while L dropped my bag at the start. For high 40's I felt warmer than expected and decided not to use my throw away hoodie. I decided while waiting that even if I started the race DFL, that it would be worth it, and because chip timing.
I waited in line for a while and 5 min before the race started, the port-a-let was mine and all systems were a go! THANK GOD. I scampered over to the start and ended up standing near the 4:30 or 4:50 pace group. As I was listening to the National Anthem and another song about Indiana, a wave of emotion came over me and I started to ugly cry. At this point, I knew I was going to BQ. <-- I just got emotional typing that 4 days later. I never feel confident before a race, cautiously optimistic, sure-  because the marathon must always be respected. I've been humbled by the 26.2 before and know nothing is a give in. But, I just knew it would be my day. As quickly as the emotion came I told myself "get yourself together, you haven't even ran a step yet!!"
The gun went off and I shuffled to the start- I got on the sidewalk so I could get into a groove with pace instead of being a jerk and weaving through people. My plan for the race was to take the first 4-5 miles easy, then settle into high 7's until 20, and then hustle that last 10k.  I was a little shocked to see low 8's the first few miles, but I felt good, the pace felt easy so I was going to roll with it.
These photos taken just after the start show my big ass grin which was plastered on my face the entire freaking race. I was so happy to be racing a marathon again after taking 2 years off due to injury and life. Around mile 4 I caught up to Erin, and we chatted for a bit.  I remember saying it was going to be a PR day and wished her well on the half.

I got to the 8K mark in 40:39 (avg pace: 8:08) and started to lose it. I knew I was on pace for a 3:30 ish finish. I quickly talked myself down off the ledge and said to myself "don't blow it, you still have over 20 miles to run!" The course was nice albeit hillier than I expected. We ran through residential streets and paved paths through the woods- there really werent many portions which seemed flat. I kept cruising and hit the half in 1:45:11 (avg pace 8:02) Again, I started to lose it and get emotional and I had to tell myself to "not blow it."
My darkest miles of the race seemed to be around 13-15 where I started to get bored and felt tired. I was listening to music the entire time, but would skip my "power songs" because I was saving them for a moment like this. Once I listened to "Cant Hold Us" my mood perked up and I was focused on closing this race up. I started singing along to my music at this point. I was getting warm, but decided I wouldn't start dumping water on my head until after mile 20 because if I had done it earlier it would have been damaging psychologically to me, as in "im hot."

I chatted with a guy around mile 18 who said I was doing awesome as I caught up to him. He had just run a marathon a few weeks prior and then started to lament how HOT it was out. I was full of NOPE on this and started to speed up because I did not need any negative talk going in my head. We said good luck to each other and I zoomed off.
I hit mile 20 in 2:40:20 (Avg 8:01) and once again started to lose it because I knew I was getting closer to achieving the goal of qualifying for Boston with an ample cushion to be able to register for 2017. I got myself together and kept running. I listened to more of my power songs on repeat and started dumping water on my head past 21 at every aid station. Since I was feeling so good, I decided to wait on the surge until mile 23/24. I couldn't screw this up now.
I started picking up the pace and picking off more runners and felt super human. I was worried about how anything after mile 19 would feel because that was the furthest I had ran (once) during this cycle. Cumulative fatigue was paying off big time as I cruised up and down hills and was feeling nearly fresh as a daisy at mile 22+ of a marathon. At 23 I started to pick it up more because I knew there was no way I could screw this up, I had 24 minutes to go until I achieved my goal.
Typical. I even waited a few seconds...
I saw L around the 26 marker and started yelling at him "I F*CKING DID IT!" I was full of ugly cry and emotion at this point. As I zoomed towards the finish I saw Pete  and yelled something about going to Boston next year. I crossed the finish and was overcome with emotion. I finally did it. I qualified for the Boston marathon on my 4th attempt since 2012 with a near 7 minute PR!

3:28:34 (avg 7:58/mile)
9 of 43, AG
14 of 262, WOMEN
105 of 686, OA


I saw Pete and Erin immediately after and took some pics/chatted with them. Pete ran a 4 minute PR which was amazing!
I was just in shock over this whole race. It went nearly *perfect* and I felt great the entire time. It is amazing when things FINALLY click and come together. Pure bliss.
My last 10k of the race I averaged 7:47 a mile. Insane. My last half mile of the race was at 6:36 pace. I was flyyyyyyying.

We went to Union brewing for some post race refreshment and met up with Jenny and Manny and friends. Later on we went to Upland for more beer and foods.
I am still in shock that I finally got my BQ with a big enough cushion to register for 2017!
Still shocked at the negative split race I ran. It's always been my goal in a marathon to negative split, but I could never do it, until now. First half: 1:45:11, Second half: 1:43:23 CRAZY. My training paid off and I'll probably do something similar in the future.
On the way back we saw the wind farm.
And the Jesus/Hell is real sign.
And we stopped at 18th Street Brewery for lunch in Hammond. We saw Drew, the owner/brewer and sent our Mikkeller love to their new Mikkeller bar in San Diego. I had a few beers and an amazing Cuban sandwich. Check them out!
Since we had a few hours to kill before getting CB, I finally completed my coworker's BQ celebration he created for me "BQ to DQ." (or other crazy sundae type thing). I went to Stan's and got a donut milkshake, but after 3 sips I started to feel sick from the sugar. Made it through 3/4 of it before I was done for the night.
I got some unicorn glasses I saw at Anthropologie 6 weeks ago. I couldnt let myself buy them until I qualified.
And now Im taking it easy because IM training starts next week... I'll probably amend training until I know I'm 100%. 4 days out, I have very minimal muscle soreness and feel great, but know it takes some time to recover from these hard efforts.

The race was well organized and had ample aid stations- seemed like every 1.5-2 miles. I'd consider it  again in the future after I run Boston...

Housekeeping:
Gu at mile 5, 9, 15, 21
Salt pill at mile: 5,9, 15
25oz of OSMO is all I drank until mile 22- then some water.

Im still over the moon crazy happy about how this race went. Thank you for all the encouragement over the past 14 weeks.

--Xaarlin