Summer Road Race Recap

Normally I sign up for a few races per year, maybe a marathon or two, and stick to daily training. This summer, though, I went all in on more races than I ever have before - and my feelings are honestly pretty mixed. I am incredibly proud of what I did, but I’m not sure if I ever want to do it again! Either way, I walked away from these past few months winning every single one of the four races I entered, with the fifth race (mercifully, in some ways) canceled, and two more on the horizon. Here’s what happened…

1) The first race kicked off the summer, and was the final one before I started working with Adam Otstot, a local running coach. It was the Freedom Run Memorial Day 8K in Yorktown. For some reason I struggled that morning - maybe because the humidity had just hit, maybe because I was still a little burnt out mentally from running Boston. Still, though, I won the race for the women and set a new course record - it’s pretty hilly out there! Here’s an article about that run.

2) I didn’t race in the middle of the summer - hello humidity! - so the next one was the Elizabeth River Run 10K in Norfolk at the beginning of September. To be honest, I thought about doing this race and ultimately decided against it…until I ran into the race director a few days before, and he talked me into signing up. I’m SO glad I did! While I tanked the pace on the last few miles, the first 4 were some of the fastest I ran, and the competition was great. Right around 3 miles in, I passed a runner who has beaten me every single time we’ve raced, and I only looked back once to confirm she wasn’t going to catch me. She didn’t, and I finished first and got to break an actual tape for the first time in my life while setting a 10K PR. I was so proud of myself, and I got a very nice award afterwards, too!

3) The next weekend, I traveled to Jacksonville, North Carolina, to race the Marine Corps Half Marathon - and that, unfortunately, turned out to be the worst race of my life. It was pouring rain at the start, which would not have been a huge factor if I had chosen different shoes, but the ones I ended up wearing rubbed me so hard I was bleeding just a few miles into the race. Add to that the fact that I was alone from miles 4-13 in rainy, windy, flooded conditions, and the fact that those same shoes were hurting me so badly I almost pulled out to prevent injury (I ended up walking twice instead), and overall it ended up being a pretty terrible day. The silver lining is that I still won the race by about 5 minutes, and if you had told me a year prior that I would run the time I did (1:26) I would have been thrilled…let alone on a day where I walked twice! If I had to have a bad race day, this was probably the one to choose…

4) I couldn’t wallow too much, because I had another race the next weekend, the Chas Foundation 5K. I raced it a year ago, won, and set the course record. I had no idea what I could do, but at the very least I hoped to set a PR and break the course record again. Not only did I do that, I broke 18 minutes in a 5K for the first time ever! I raced by myself the whole time and didn’t check my watch once, so I had no clue what time I would find at the end. What a pleasant surprise to see 17:59 on my watch! I won the race again, and while Willow cared far more about the donuts they provided than my race, it was still fun to have her at the finish line.

Four races, four wins, and four very different days - I guess that summarizes the ups and downs of running pretty well! I was supposed to race the Crawlin’ Crab Half Marathon two weeks after the 5K, but Hurricane Ian led to its cancellation. I honestly was not too disappointed. I was tired of racing and tired of tapering (running lower mileage to stay ‘fresh’ for the race). At the end of September, all I wanted was to jump back into big mileage to prep for my next marathon. I’m finally there, and I’m both exhausted and happy to have made it!

I only have two more races planned for the year: Silver Strand Half Marathon in November to see where my fitness is, and the ultimate event where I hope to set a big PR: California International Marathon, which I ran last year (read that race recap here). I can’t wait to see what happens, good, bad, or ugly, and see how far I’ve come since I raced it in 2021!