Best Damn Race: Pre Race Day!

18 weeks of training is over and I finished my 4th marathon, The Best Damn Race, Cape Coral.

I brought my computer to the hotel on Saturday hoping to get a post about goals but that did not happen.  Here is what they were:

A: sub 4:50

B: Sub 5

C: PR  (Sub 5:42:20) Disney Marathon, 2013 (I did Goofy) <- this goal was a given..Unless something very, very strange occurred

For 2 years I had one goal in mind when it came to the marathon and that was to go sub 5.  The New York city marathon left me mentally and physically exhausted and I said it would be a long time before I would do another marathon and when I do decide to do one, I would know I have a sub 5 in me.

Many moons ago I signed myself and Behn up for the BDR Marathon during their special pricing.  I was able to secure my entry for $1.00 and Behn’s for $40.00 so if something came up I wouldn’t be upset.  Behn and I would run this together and I would get my sub 5!

My Training:

I worked with Coach Steve this time around after many recommendation from friends and I think he gave me a great plan.  This was the first time I used a high mileage (for me) plan.  Only once before this year had I ever hit 100 miles in a month.  That was over summer vacation training for the NY Marathon.  Living about 15 minutes from work gave me the luxury to have more time to train.  It gave me the ability to train before and after work.  I was so lucky to have met Kristen as she would wake up at 4 am with me and run “our loop”.  She didn’t have to be ready for work till 8 and I had to be home by 6 to be out of the door at 6:30.  We would do our track practice around our development Thursday mornings because it can be scary out there.  I ran almost every run each week.  For some of you that is obvious, but if you ever followed my past training plans I am notorious for missing some because of work, traffic, etc.  My long runs were done with my Brandon running group or with a few girlfriends and Behn.  We had lots of fun, chatted, and got through the hot summer months together.  Sometimes runs were cut short or not as fast as they were supposed to be, but I think I had my best training season ever.  I went into this race confident.  Maybe too confident?

The Day Before the Race:

Behn and I made our way down to Cape Coral Saturday morning.  Once we arrived we made a quick pit stop at Publux for a bathroom and lunch then made our way to the expo.  The expo opened at 12 and we got there around 12:15 and couldn’t quite find where to pick up the packets and at that point, the crazy was about to take over until we saw some nice people walking with green bags and we knew were to go.  We picked up our bag of goodies, said “Hello” to Nick, the CEO, and Patrick, the Race director and made our way to the hotel.  We stuffed our face then went on out 2 mile shake out run.  The run was not fun!  At one point I stopped and thought I was going to pass out, puke, or something.  I was dizzy and almost had to sit down.  I wasn’t too nervous about Sunday just yet.  The rest of saturday we just laid in bed, watched TV, ate the other half of our Publix subs, hydrated and we were in bed before 9.  Our alarm was set for 5:10 and it was race day!

*Pictures will be updated once my computer wants to work :)