I Finally Ran My Sub-3 Hour Marathon at CIM (California International Marathon) – Race Recap 2021

8 YEARS

For 8 years I’ve been trying to run a sub-3 hour marathon. Eight years filled with injuries, pregnancies, postpartum time, and a lot of hard work. Sure, I wondered if it was actually possible–especially after four failed attempts, but I was also willing to take the risk because I knew if it did happen, it was be that much sweeter and one of the highlights of my running career. And boy is it sweet!!

I first blogged about my goal in May 2015 when I was 6 months postpartum with Cullen. At the time my marathon PR was 3:17, which meant cutting essentially 18 minutes off my time and running 40 seconds per mile faster! That’s taking my pace from a 7:31 minutes/mile pace to a 6:51 minutes/mile average pace. If that doesn’t blow your mind, it sure blew mine!

But I never EVER gave up on my goal. Call me stubborn, call me crazy, call me whatever, but I was going to fight tooth and nail to achieve it. Two babies didn’t stop me, a 10-month long injury didn’t stop me (on top of several other shorter-duration injuries that put hiccups in my training), four failed attempts, getting older and into my upper 30s, and a slough of other reasons I could have found but none of them stopped me. Sure I had my doubts, but there was always a fire inside me that kept me wanting to try!

I initially signed up for the 2020 California International Marathon (CIM) shortly after the pandemic started when we were all naive and thought Covid would be over by the fall. But as with everything, it got canceled, so this fall was my opportunity to finally run it.

My training into CIM went quite well. It took my body a bit to rebound after my marathon in August, but once it recovered, I was back to running 80, 90, and even a 100 mile week. I was feeling so good and so fit and paces that I hadn’t run since I was my fittest (at 18 months postpartum with Cullen) were finally coming back.

I did have a couple hiccups during the last four weeks of training. Half way through my 100 mile week, we got dumped on with 18 inches of snow in 24 hours. I ended up doing a lot of treadmill runs, but I wasn’t going to let that stop me, so I forged ahead. Two weeks out from the marathon though, I tweaked my lower calf/Achilles and had to take a few days off in order to heal it. I was not in a good head space place during that time, and I was not sure how this would affect my performance–or if I was going to race at all now! Luckily I was able to get back on my training plan the last week of my taper and have very minimal feeling of it during the race.

The first half of race week was chaotic trying to get everything ready for our trip: I was working on athlete plans for the next two weeks, I had extra appointments to go to, Bjorn and Cullen came down with colds, I had to pack and get food ready for my carb-load, and then there were Christmas cards to send and presents to buy too. But in the end, when we departed from our house at 5:30 a.m. on Thursday morning, my house was clean, all the laundry was done, and I was ready to go! We didn’t get into Sacramento until 8p.m. that evening, but I was so glad I still had two full days to rest and get ready to race.

Friday morning I went for a 5 mile easy run, then came back to the hotel to shower and get ready for the day. That afternoon I took an hour nap with Bjorn, and then went to the expo, pick up my bib, and sit on a panel with The Rambling Runner for his podcast where I talked about my hopeful sub-3 attempt. (You can listen to that here.) That evening we walked to a restaurant for dinner, so all-in-all it was a very low-key, relaxing day, which was exactly what I wanted.

Saturday I did an easy 2.5 mile run around the Capital and saw so many other runners out there. The week going into the marathon, I started all of my runs at the time the marathon would start (6am AKST/7am PST), so my body was used to running at that time (and mostly my bathroom schedule was lined up correctly). After my run, I went and met some of the sub-3 ladies from the Lift Run Perform group who had trained together. I wanted to meet them the day before the race because I was thinking I would be running with them. (In hindsight I never ran with any of them, but it was still fun to meet them in person.) The rest of the day was very low-key: I took another nap, ate a lot of carbs, and then walked to a different hotel I would be staying at by myself, so I could go to bed early (8pm) and not wake anyone else up when I got up (3:30am).

Going into the race, I was feeling very confident–my training had been going really well and I knew the course was going to be so much easier than my previous marathon that had 900 feet of elevation gain. However, there is so much that has to go right in order for me to reach this big goal. I was going to do everything in my power to help the stars align, but I also said my prayers and positive mantras before falling asleep that night. I honestly slept terribly that night. (Does anyone actually sleep okay the night before a marathon?) I think I woke up every hour, but I know that’s to be expected.

When my alarm went off at 3:30am, I got up, took a shower, and got ready for the race. I left my hotel room at 4:30am to walk to catch the bus that would take me to the start. It was about an hour ride to the start where I was in my own thoughts as my phone was back in the hotel room because there was no checked baggage at the start. As soon as I got off the bus, I immediately went to the bathroom. I meandered around the start identifying where my corral was, finding water (because I left my water bottle in the port-a-potty and there was no way I was going to remember exactly which port-a-potty I had used in the sea of hundreds of them), and looking for the other sub-3 ladies. I sat down for a bit to rest for a few minutes but then decided that I should start warming up with 30 minutes until the start.

I did a short jog, a few drills, and ending with a few striders but honestly not much of a warm-up. With about 10 minutes to go, I got in my corral and waited for the start. The gun went off, and it took me about 30 seconds to cross the start line, which I took note of as I knew the clocks on the course would reflect the gun time and not my chip time. I started right by the 3 hour pace group, but they were off the line quickly and left me in the dust! I went through mile one right at 6:53 (just one second slower than the pace needed), so I knew I was doing it right. However, there went my idea of running with the pace group. Ha!

Mile 1 – 6:53
Mile 2 – 6:46
Mile 3 – 6:43
Mile 4 – 6:49
Mile 5 – 7:17 (bathroom break)

I took my first energy gel around mile 4/5 (don’t remember exactly), but I decided to try and front-load my nutrition since it is easier to take in nutrition earlier in the race rather than later on. I took a Gu Roctane (cherry lime flavored) as my first energy gel and chased it with some water at the next aid station.

Within the first mile, I felt the urge to go to the bathroom and shortly after that I started leaking pee, which I have talked about as something I struggle with after having Bjorn. I went back and forth on whether I should stop and go to the bathroom for a few miles. I really didn’t want to stop because it would be time I would have to make up, but I hated the feeling of having to go. I have only stopped in one other marathon (Grandma’s 2012) to use the bathroom when I had more caffeine that morning than I was used to. I came up on some port-a-potties shortly after mile 5, and I didn’t really even make a conscious decision to use the bathroom but instead my body just started running towards them. I quickly peed and hopped right back on the course. In hindsight it was totally worth the time to stop in order to feel a million times better afterwards. I knew I would have some time to make up (about 30 seconds, I figure), but I knew it wouldn’t be smart to immediately speed up to a 6:40 pace, so instead I kept it right around 6:45 pace during the next few miles.

Mile 6 – 6:45
Mile 7 – 6:46
Mile 8 – 6:47

I hit mile 7 and thought, “Wow, we’re at mile 7 already?!” I am so used to running by myself in races in Anchorage, so the time goes by a lot slower. I appreciated listening to the chatter of the other runners and had a couple people say ‘hi’ to me, which I so appreciated!

Overall, I was feeling good and checking my watch periodically to make sure I was staying below 6:50 pace. At mile 8 I had the thought that I was already starting to hurt a little, but then I remembered how much I usually hurt in a marathon and decided I wasn’t hurting that much. Ha!

I took another energy gel at mile 9 (Maurten – non caffeinated), and then focused on getting to the halfway mark. I forgot my watch had the total time lapsed on my watch, so I was just waiting until the half way mark to see if I was on track to break 3 hours. After just a few miles, I saw the arch marking the halfway point and crossed just a few seconds over 1:30–1:30:08 to be exact. Perfect!

Mile 9 – 6:50
Mile 10 – 6:46
Mile 11 – 6:51
Mile 12 – 6:51
Mile 13 – 6:49

Next I was focused on looking for my parents at what I thought was mile 14, but when mile 14 came and went, I remembered they were going to be at mile 15. They told me they were going to be on my left hand side of the road, but I didn’t see many people on that side of the road, so I was scanning both sides of the roads for them. Luckily I saw my mom and aunt jumping up and down indicating my dad was standing there with my water bottle and energy gel. We had a seamless handoff, and I sipped on the water + Skratch in my bottle for the next mile or so. I had also taped a 5th gel to my water bottle. (I carried 3 in my top, a fourth in my arm sleeve, which I tossed after taking the gel, and then had this 5th one taped to my bottle. I knew there were aid stations with energy gels as well if I dropped one or needed another for some reason.) I took my 3rd gel a Huma energy gel with a little bit of caffeine at this point.

Mile 14 – 6:45
Mile 15 – 6:48
Mile 16 – 6:46
Mile 17 – 6:46
Mile 18 – 6:39
Mile 19 – 6:45

I have to admit the miles in this race flew by! Like I said, I am not used to running with so many other people, which was so nice and helpful in so many ways! I honestly don’t remember much between mile 15 – 20. I remember a few people shouting for me from the sides. I ran into someone who I met at a half marathon this past summer in Anchorage, and we ran together for about a mile. But other than that, I was just focused on my effort and keeping my pace right around 6:45.

As the miles went on, my watch stopped matching up with the mile markers and started beeping before the mile markers, which means I wasn’t running the tangents well and would need to have even more time in the bank in order to cross the line before 3 hours.

Around mile 19 I took in my 4th gel–a cold brew Gu Roctane flavored energy gel, which seemed to really help at this point in the race!

Around mile 20, I did a mental check-in and realized I felt better than I did at my marathon in August. And it was at this point in the race when I was pretty confident this would be my day!

Mile 20 – 6:46
Mile 21 – 6:46

At mile 21, a friend had told me that was the time to turn the jets on, and that’s exactly what I did. I honestly can’t believe how fast some of these splits were at the end of a marathon!

I felt the downward slope of the course these last few miles and really made it hurt! I definitely started feeling it in my quads from the downhill, but I reminded how much stronger they were after my strength training sessions with my trainer these past few months, which made me so thankful how strong she had gotten me. (This was definitely one thing that helped my jump in fitness these last three months.)

I think I took my 5th a final gel (Ucan) around mile 23. I may not have really needed it at that point, but I also knew it wouldn’t hurt. And if anything, it seemed to help!

I started reeling people in and felt so strong and finally came up on the sub-3 pace group at mile 24.5, and I immediately got tears in my eyes because I was even more certain I was going to do it. I passed them at mile 25 and kept putting the gas on as I ran past the ‘one mile to go marker.’ I glanced at my watch and knew I had it in the bag.

Mile 22 – 6:28
Mile 23 – 6:39
Mile 24 – 6:30
Mile 25 – 6:10
Mile 26 – 6:24

As soon as I turned the corner and saw that clock at the finish, I felt a sigh of relief that I was indeed going to run a sub-3 hour marathon. I sprinted down the last little stretch watching the clock to make sure it was the numbers I had dreamed about and imagined seeing on so many different workouts. I never hold my hands above my head when I cross the finish line (not even when I’ve won my marathons), but I felt the urge to do it this time! I immediately ran into the arms of some other sub-3 women, and they gave me the biggest hug because one in particular knew how long I’d been working at this goal. It was the best hug ever, and I immediately burst into tears knowing the journey it took to get here.

I quickly found my family and gave Craig a big hug and burst into tears again because he’s been my number one support these entire 8 years. We took a bunch of pictures, and I soaked it all in.

Here are my official stats/splits from the race. After 12 marathons, I finally did it right and had negative splits. This has NEVER happened before. I attribute that to taking in 5 gels this time (versus the 3 or 4 I’ve done in the past) and starting out at a conservative pace.

The interesting and fun thing is looking at my watch stats. Any marathoner knows that you will almost inevitably run more than 26.2 miles. As much as I try to run the tangents, it is very difficult to run exactly 26.2 miles. It is just a long distance and a lot more time to inevitably add some extra mileage, which results in extra time as well.

I usually hover right around running an extra two-tenths of a mile, and for CIM I was right there with an extra quarter of a mile. This easily added at least 90-100 seconds to my time, which is huge when the seconds matter in a big goal like this. My watch had me covering that 26.45 distance at a pace of 6:44 minutes/mile. If I had run that 6:44 pace over 26.2 miles, that would have put me at a 2:56:32 finish time. And remember that bathroom break that cost me about 30 seconds?! Well, just for kicks, let’s say it was a 26 second bathroom break, so I took off one second per mile for that stop. That then puts me at an average pace of 6:43 minutes/mile and a finishing time of 2:56:06 (once again if I was able to run exactly 26.2 miles). Say what?! And I definitely had 7 seconds left in me, which practically makes me a 2:55 marathoner. MIND BLOWN!

So much fun the crunch these numbers and play around with possibilities. My half marathon PR is a 1:24:22, which is a 2:56:14 marathon equivalent, so I know this is not an unattainable goal. We’ll see what the future holds, but this is pretty exciting to think about!

I have so much more to share about this training cycle and what I did differently, which will come out as soon as I can find the time to write everything out. I also plan to do an entire blog post on everything I ate the three days before the marathon as I did a true carb-load this time. The only other time I carb loaded was for Grandma’s Marathon in 2016, but I’m not even sure I did it right that time. I had a very specific approach this time and a total number of grams of carbohydates to take in this time around, so I want to share what I did with that because I think that aided in my performance.

Stay tuned for more blog posts to come soon! But now I’m off to ride this high as long as I can!