Bozeman Marathon
4:01:10
State #40
I haven’t written a race write up over the last few years. Somehow that part has slipped away from me. And then I have documented parts but not in detail. I even feel like I’ve gotten rusty on my write ups. And because it really is part of it all- Pandemic rants are inevitable.
There is so much that went into this marathon… then add Family travel and a pandemic. I trained, we booked travel but I honestly didn’t know if I was going to start this marathon until I was at the start.
This isn’t atypical in the pandemic life and with runners. There were about 300 people signed up for this marathon, but less than 200 finished and I am really guessing it was less than 200 showed up to the start.
I have found my stride with working full time, momming full time and adding in marathon training. I love the parts that Sophia runs with me, I love my alone time getting lost in music and I love the times I use it to catch up with friends and family chatting while I run. But then add the stomach flu or colds or whatever else- finding time to covid test, have Sophia home while we wait for results and just always wonder- what is the best thing- not just for me, but for my family and for my community- that I should be doing right now.
I’m not an activist by any means, but I believe in contributing to my community by just following the science to do the right thing. And honestly I’m finding that’s the biggest thing we need and have too little of. We can’t just expect our health care system to carry the brunt, we can’t just think if we aren’t bad enough to disrupt our lives that we can go on perhaps ignorantly spreading. We need to just take a beat and trust the science and health care workers and be inconvenienced a bit.
I ran 26.2 miles last year. I’m finding ways to continue with my passion and make it happen. But when we were vaccinated and Sophia was not, I was trying to find ways that we could expand from the last year – but still be safe and not forget the pandemic is not over. And this trip and race definitely had so much thought on making sure we keep safe for ourselves and people around us. We definitely loosened our usual risk tolerance for the trip and the struggle was there in my mind- am I sacrificing my daughter’s health for my pleasure. But end of the day she had great gains and benefits and the risk was for her- to explore, see her family, and just grow.
Training was great though I noticed as the miles grew, I was getting more tired and the runs would get slower. Having training just gave the running I was doing- more meaning. All runs until mile 20 and 22 were pretty great. It was hot and humid- runs were early to middle of day than super early to early. I told myself this makes me stronger for the race (and I do think this mindset helped- the humidity definitely ended up being worse than the altitude my body wasn’t used to).
The 20 miler was weak- just after some food poisoning I wasn’t fully hydrated. And the 22 was stressful as less than 12 hours before we learned Sophia was a close contact at school and my mom was with us at the time we learned. I spent a chunk of that run chatting with my dad trying to figure out the next week. And then I just lost my steam, had taken a half day and had to get back to work- so – I cut it down to 20 miles. The good news was- it was faster than the first 20 miler.
Then the race…I’m choosing to just copy and paste an email to my co-worker here as it’s a good summary without recreating the writing wheel.
It ended up being about 850 ft. of climbing and 1100 going down. The most climbing was miles 6-12 and honestly I started to wonder around mile 12 if my legs would be able to last in any respectable pace because my quads were already shot. I knew it was more down than up in the second half but with shot quads…you just wonder. But then like we got to the top of a relatively larger climb and it was such a beautiful descent – I got my miles back under 9minutes for a bit – feeling really easy.
It is interesting to see my heartrate compared to the elevation. It actually was going pretty good when I was climbing then I think it got worn out and went up on the down.
So- when I started - I was in line for the porta potty and they were getting ready to start- I was one of the last in line- so they started the race and I still didn’t have my bag dropped. AND my race bib ripped off when I was moving fast in the porta potty- so I had to kind of get that taken care of. I also had my hair down because it was so cold I was trying to be as warm as possible. So- I was like one of the last to cross the start (I wasn’t too worried since it’s chip timing).
The great thing on this is then I had SPACE and I could have my own pace- not falling into anyone else’s footsteps. Not to mention a wonderful thing in a pandemic. And it felt good to have road kill (people you pass) …with then the whole race only counting like 2 or 3 people who passed me the entire race. Lol.
My hair was also down until around mile 16 I finally got it pulled back.
Also my watch didn’t start right at first- but I knew every mile marker I was at about the .3 miles behind. Like every single one…
Then the finish- it’s the kicker. I was tracking for a 4 hour/sub 4. And I also wanted to finish strong for Sophia.
So… I was not pushing it in a way where I would get a cramp and then be hobbling by her (this would probably also make her cry).
BUT then- I get to mile 26….then Mile 13 (of the half) so you know you should have .1 left…AND THEN I turned the corner just as I hit the 13 mile…..and the finish WAS NOT .1 away. It was per my watch… 0.3 away… and even on the map- the finish line was shown a lot closer.
I was so angry but thought maybe I could still get sub 4- since my watch started late I just wasn’t 100% sure. So I totally snubbed my daughter running by her ha-ha (and it’s on video- I mean I blew her kisses but didn’t stop to hug her or anything I just kept going ha-ha)
I ended up 4:01:10 which is okay but I’m just so annoyed.
Races usually are always off some and I was impressed it was like perfect all the way through…and when you are pacing yourself…like I at least am like- okay bare minimum to hit my goal…and for it to be the last section that is off- it is SO.ANNOYING!
But overall it was wonderful- I just can’t focus on that part as it’s just a fraction of what the whole experience brought to my heart.
The pictures of my daughter waiting for me to finish are priceless. …one day I will have her cross the finish with me. This just was not the race. I have 10 more states to go for that anyway.
This race was all heart. And the last song I added to my playlist was ‘count your blessings’ - I definitely had time to reflect and do that on the run- I have many. I’m 40 running my 40th state with my health and family. Even if the end threw me off on my time - it was a very blessed run!
