Official Time: 3:24:34
The Start
Sunday morning I woke up at 4:30 am, getting only about 5 hrs of sleep. Race nerves & loud hotel neighbors kept me up, but I banked extra hours the week leading up to this so I wasn’t too worried. We arrived on campus around 5:50 am. Matt dropped me off and I walked toward the starting area. So far, everything was going smoothly! After a few bathroom stops, light stretching, and meeting up with Alisa (@alisakasprzak) I finally headed into the starting corral with just a few minutes to spare. At this point, all of the nerves from earlier in the week had started to subside. I felt fairly calm, and mostly just anxious to start this thing already.

Miles 1-11
I stuck with my plan and started conservative at 8:15 pace and dropped a little bit each mile. By miles 4-6 the plan was to settle into race pace at 7:50-8:00. At first that felt forced, but within a few miles I got into a rhythm and the miles started ticking away. Matt and Annaliese were waiting for me in Wildwood at mile 11. I was all smiles at this point. Everything felt effortless. I was now holding steady in the 7:40s.
Miles 12-20
I switched to autopilot mode as the course went into the section with few spectators. I went through the half around 1:43, a minute and a half faster than planned. Some self doubt started to creep in and I wondered how I’d maintain this pace and not hit “the wall”. I did my best to push the negative thoughts aside. I kept repeating my mantras: “you can do hard things,” “you’re prepared for this,” and “there will be easy miles and hard miles – just take each one as it comes.” Miles 16-20 I seemed to pick up the pace again. I was passing people left and right. At this point I was hitting a few 7:30s, and even went 7:27 at mile 19. I remember thinking “You shouldn’t feel this good this far into the race. Take advantage. This is your day.” I was on the ultimate runner’s high at this point. You couldn’t take the smile off my face.
Miles 21-25

The Finish
Coming onto campus was surreal. Passing Savage Arena and the track where I had spent so much time in college, I got extremely emotional. And when I made it into the stadium I saw Matt had managed to make it to the finish to cheer me on. I crossed the line and was so overcome with happiness. For crushing my time goal, yes. But also because I had finally proven to myself that I can do this again. That I can be fast. And I know beyond a doubt that I’m just getting started.



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