Runnin' of the Green race report.

Time and again I have heard people say that marathon training made them lose their speed. I've heard it, read it, and started to worry about it. I have an aggressive time goal in mind for the New Jersey marathon and if I lose my speed, there's no way I'll be able to reach it.

So, for the Runnin' of the Green 4-mile race this weekend, I really wanted to finish in 30 minutes, which would be 7:30 miles. I felt confident I could do it and, if I did, I could believe that I still had enough speed in my legs to go after that 3:45 marathon.

I wanted the confidence boost. I wanted to shake out the worry that these longer, slower runs were making me slower.

The day was perfect -- warm but not too hot. I met up with a bunch of my friends, chatted a bit and then ran a quick 1.5-mile warm-up. Just before the start of the race, Amanda was able to get a quick picture of a few of a few Strong Running Mamas:

That's me, Suzy, Tami, Melissa and Amanda.

Then we were off! I told myself to run steady and shoot for even miles, if possible. It's almost inevitable that I run a wee bit fast in the beginning but I more-or-less held back on Saturday. I went through the first mile in 7:13. I slowed it down but, honestly, I was feeling so good it was tough to do. I went through the second mile in 7:19. I figured I could try to hold on to that pace as best I could, figuring I'd probably start to slow since I was ahead of my pace. Instead, I went through the third mile in 7:12. As expected, I slowed a bit in the last mile, covering it in 7:21

My official time was 29:05. And, although I did slow a bit in that last mile, it really wasn't a dramatic drop-off, like I sometimes experience in races.

I finished feeling extremely pleased. My time was 55 seconds faster than my goal! And a BIG 2+ minute PR! Best of all, I felt terrific the whole race (well, with the exception of the last little bit where I was really pushing the pace to finish strong). In fact, as I was running, I kept wondering when I was going to fall apart. Was it possible to be running as fast as I was and have it feel so good?

I guess it was. And, believe me, this race did wonders to boost my marathon confidence. With two months to go I feel like I'm in a very good place. Marathon training has not run the speed out of my legs. It's still there! And I'm going to need every bit of it on May 6th. I know that.

My Runnin' of the Green 4-mile race stats:


Overall time: 29:05 (7:16 pace!) (that's my chip time -- gun time was 29:09, 7:17 pace)
Overall place: 157 out of 663
Overall female place: 36 out of 348
Age group place (40-49): 8 out of 107

After the race, I booked it home to make it to a birthday party. Then, later in the afternoon I went out for 4+ miles -- just an easy recovery run to shake out my legs.

I hope you all had a great weekend!

~ Felice

PS: My Larabar giveaway ends tonight!