2024 REVEL Mt. Charleston Marathon

I ran the REVEL Mt. Charleston Marathon on April 6, 2024. This was my 29th full marathon, in my 16th U.S. State. My official finish time was 3:44:34, an 8:34 pace. It was extremely painful. Also, this was my first real altitude run (7633 ft. elevation at the start) and the altitude made some things very difficult. I really didn’t expect it to be as difficult as it was, for either my muscles or for my lungs. It was a struggle to get enough oxygen. There were lots of complications when I tried to do anything. Shredding layers of clothing, for example, put me over the edge every time because of the additional effort that took.

The muscular pain began at mile 7. It really intensified around mile 10, by mile 16 I felt like I was dying because my legs hurt so bad. A runner encouraged me at that point, and it truly did help my mental state so much, although the pain never went away. In the second half of the marathon, after the pain had me reeling, everything was bothering me. There was this one person who was doing intervals and kept passing me and then I would pass her. Normally it would have been great, but she had a very loud foot strike, and it was just getting on my nerves. As this went on over and over again, and I was in the pain bubble, it was very difficult not to associate her with the pain. I know better, but it was overload for me.

I got some GoPro footage of the race, although less than I would’ve liked because it was all so much to deal with. In the beginning my dexterity was really bad, between being very cold and having on so many layers of clothes. Later I was just in too much pain and was more concerned with managing that than doing much else.

When I tried to turn on my Shokz OpenRun (bone conduction headphones), which I had never run with before (rule #1, nothing new on race day, was broken here), I couldn’t figure out how to get the power on and had a mild panic attack. I had waited until the last minute to power them on. Thankfully, I found someone to help me.

The start of the race was icy and there was snow everywhere. I was very worried about my footing initially. The first couple miles were particularly icy. I never felt a slip beneath me though, not even a little. They were cautioning us to be careful, so I was. Mile 1 was slower than it would’ve been because I didn’t want to fall. It was in the low 20s and windy. I bought a big wool overcoat at Goodwill, something nobody would ever run in, and ditched it at the start. I also bought a fluffy jacket to wear underneath that, which I ended up ditching around mile 3. I had planned to wear it to mile 5, but I didn’t need it. My heart rate was really high from the elevation, and that warmed me. The sun also came up and that made me more warm. Later I removed the second pair of gloves (those were throwaway gloves), then the ear warmer headband, then the buffs (I wore 2), my hat, my arm warmers, and finally my primary pair of gloves, all at various stages during the race. I ended up losing one of my buffs somewhere. Thankfully that was the only accidental loss. Removing clothing was difficult while going fast, but I hate being cold, so I wore a lot of stuff. I also had hand warmers in my bra and in my gloves, which I ditched (always at an aid station, where there were trash cans.) I checked a pair of underwear, pants, a long sleeve shirt, and a mylar blanket in my gear check bag for the finish. I’m glad I did that. Once the race was over, I got cold very quickly. During the race it was full sun, which was helpful at the start, but I didn’t love it towards the end. I prefer overcast. It still wasn’t overwhelmingly hot, but the Sun was bothersome, and just a bit too warm; it would have been better without it.

I felt my muscles threatening to cramp several times during the race, and I was really not able to bother with getting my BASE Electrolyte Salt out of my handheld. I had forgotten to bring the sublingual Hylands for before the race. I felt like I had too much going on with the pain, the GoPro, and the shedding of clothing. I just breathed through the cramps and thankfully, that worked to keep them at bay.

After the race I met up with my friend Jacque, from the Atlanta Track Club. She completely crushed her goals and is truly an inspiration. It was nice to have someone to hang out with afterwards. I met a couple of her friends and we stayed and talked for a while before getting on the bus to head back to the strip.

I set an “official time” personal record by 2:21, and I now have a 10:26 buffer on my Boston Marathon qualifying time for 2025! Apparently, my marathon distance time was still better at Marine Corps in 2017 (thanks, Strava, for pointing that out, so now I still have to beat that) but my official time wasn’t as good as MCM because of the amount by which I exceeded true marathon distance at that race (26.6), whereas this one I got closer to accuracy with 26.32. Every little bit matters.

I achieved my goal, which was sub 3:45. I abandoned my stretch goal when I felt like I was dying from the pain during mile 16; I renegotiated with myself to do whatever I could to at least hit my primary goal. It was questionable, because I was in a lot of pain for a very long time. I’m so thankful I was able to make it happen.

I’m calling it a win. But not enough of a win that I don’t think I can beat it sometime.

Sorry that I didn’t get to this sooner. I have now pre-dated the post to reflect the accurate timeline. I published it normally, when I first wrote it (much after the fact), but fixed the date to fit the timeline later.

Here is the race video I made to put on my Facebook profile and on my YouTube Channel. Go ahead and follow my FB and please Like, Subscribe, and Comment on my YouTube. I’d love to hear from you!!!

After getting cleaned up, I spent an hour in the sauna at my hotel, The Westin Las Vegas Hotel and Spa. The heat, and the stretching I did in there, felt amazing. I’m sure it helped a lot with my recovery.

The next day started with a free yoga class. That was painful and difficult, but very helpful. Then I walked around the Las Vegas Strip and then had a really nice dinner with the 5 team members from my company who were in Vegas for LeadsCon. The food at Bavette’s Steakhouse and Bar was delicious and the atmosphere was wonderful. It was great to see everyone. I didn’t get any photos, unfortunately, except for this one before I headed out. Wearing heels the day after a downhill marathon may have been a bit masochistic, but it was a nice restaurant and I wanted to look good!

I enjoyed my time in Vegas. Although this race was really painful, I am so glad I did it. I will do another REVEL race sometime, I’m sure. Now I know what to expect, somewhat. I will do more leg days at the gym next time beforehand!

2024 Little Rock Marathon

On March 3, 2024, I completed full Marathon #28 and U.S. State #15 at Little Rock Marathon. I encountered a couple Atlanta friends at the airport when I was headed over there. It was cool seeing them and it also worked out nicely since I had a ride to the hotel. (I didn’t rent a car since I was staying within walking distance of the start line.)

The Residence Inn was a reasonable rate for a full studio with kitchen and it was very near the start and finish.

I forgot to bring my SpiBelt race bib toggles with me, and I had a mild panic when I realized this, because I didn’t want to wear a shirt, just a sports bra, for the race, since it was going to be hot. I ended up solving the problem by using hair ties in the same manner. It worked! Now I know.

My pre-race meal was some grilled Red Snapper with veggies, black beans, and rice, and some fried pickles, at The Flying Fish. It was delicious.

They put on a great race in Little Rock; I’ve got to hand it to the race director. He made an excellent call in moving the start time to 6am from 8am this year, a decision that was made during race week when the weather predicted unseasonably hot and humid weather. There was great communication about this change, everyone is very friendly, they offered real post-race food and good drinks, and it was nice to be able to hang out inside before and after, real bathrooms, cool medal, fun theme. They do it right!

The theme was dinosaurs this year. That was a fun theme! I enjoyed it. Who doesn’t love dinosaurs?

We also got very lucky in that it was overcast. It was still humid and about 5-10 degrees hotter than I would have liked, but it ended up being fine. I’m glad I went with just the sports bra and hydration vest and didn’t also wear a tank top. That would’ve been too much. By the first mile I was already so thankful I opted for less clothing.

It’s a hilly marathon; that’s for sure! Lots of hills but there is one that goes up for 3 miles, between miles 14-17. That was tough! It also finishes with some hills that are pretty tough, but by then I was able to get the finish excitement to push me, and I was trying really hard to get sub 4, so that helped me with the hills at the end as well.

I made a friend who is also running a marathon in all 50 states. He was actually on my same flight over and then we kept running into each other so ended up talking after the race and decided to remain in contact, so that’s cool. I love that part of this journey, meeting fellow 50 states runners all over the country is fun! I also made another friend after the race, a fellow member of the 50 States Marathon Club and Marathon Maniacs who had done over 200 marathons. I need to look him up on the maniac website so we can also keep in touch!

Also, the medal is amazing! It weighs like 5 lbs or something. It’s huge and really cool!

After I finished the race, a reporter interviewed me and it ended up in the paper. Never mind that the reporter referred to Peachtree Road Race runners as “marathoners” (which I obviously didn’t say), but they interviewed me after the race and it’s in the paper. Here is the link (I’m not sure how long it will work but here it is): https://www.arkansasonline.com/news/2024/mar/04/little-rock-marathon-finish-lines/ and here is the screenshot I took of the bit about me.

I made a race video to put on my Facebook profile and on my YouTube Channel.
Here is the video:

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2024 Mesa Marathon

I ran my 27th full marathon in my 14th U.S. State on February 10, 2024 at the Mesa Marathon in Mesa, Arizona. My official finish time was 3:47:20, an 8:40 pace. It was 25 seconds slower than my marathon personal record, which I had achieved in 2017 at the Marine Corps Marathon.

The start of the race was weird. It started late. I never heard the national anthem. I didn’t even hear a countdown or a horn or gun to begin. People started moving and it was like “oh, we’re going now?”

I really enjoyed myself for about the first 10 miles, but then the rain picked back up. I got cold, my feet were soggy, and my legs tightened up. The crowd thinned out. I started to lose my focus mentally as I began to worry, and I fell out of the game emotionally. Fast people were passing me, and, without the crowd support, this was pulling me further and further out of my confidence zone, which I really needed to get myself through it. I stopped filming to conserve what energy I could. I turned the camera back on at the end.

My goal had been 3:45, which would have given me a 10-minute buffer on the qualifying standard (3:55) for what my age group (F 50-54) will be at the 2025 Boston Marathon. I have a 7:40 buffer with this time, which is still most likely adequate to secure my entry. Only once in recent history was a greater buffer needed, and that was in 2021 when they had reduced the field size by 10,000 participants due to the pandemic. So, in all probability, I will be able to celebrate my 50th Birthday at the Boston Marathon. My birthday is the week prior, and I really want to have a huge 50th birthday celebration with 30,000 runners on the streets of Boston. This is meant to be. It will almost make it ok that I missed out on my other BQ (because it got cancelled in 2020) if I can celebrate my 50th with my first run of the Boston Marathon.

This is my GoPro footage from the first half race and the finish.

Please like and subscribe to My YouTube Channel at https://www.youtube.com/@pinarosana! Are you also a member of the 50 States Marathon Club, Marathon Maniacs, or the Atlanta Track Club? Do you run? Are thinking about running marathons? Maybe you stumbled upon this post some other way and just want to say hello? I’d love to hear from you; leave a comment.

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2023 Jacksonville Marathon

It was 20 degrees too hot at the start. I felt it immediately and it was a struggle the entire time.

By the finish, it was 30 degrees too hot. But I’m quite pleased about the sub-4 time I achieved!!! I’m finally starting to get my performance back to where I used to be!

I saw some Atlanta friends there as well.

A good friend let me stay at his place, which was greatly appreciated. We grabbed some dinner, went to the beach a couple of times, and finished Good Omens 2 on Netflix (don’t even get me started about that, oh boy am I shaking my hands at the screen right now and they had better make a season 3.)

Florida is too hot, too humid, too flat, and too boring. If there was no ocean and there were no caves there, the state would be useless. But I’m pretty happy about how my Florida marathon went, despite the yucky heat!!!!!

I wasn’t able to record much of the race because I was trying to maintain economy of movement, but I think I got enough of it to capture the essence of the course and make a good memory of the experience.

Check out my other videos and subscribe to my YouTube channel at https://www.youtube.com/@pinarosana. Thanks!!!

2023 Indianapolis Monumental Marathon

I had a monumentally good race at the 2023 Indianapolis Monumental Marathon!

This was a fairly last minute decision, which I’m glad I decided to make. I’ve been wanting to do this one for a while and this was definitely the year to do it (as opposed to last year, for example, which was not so blessed by very nice weather.) The sun came out some after mile 20; that’s the only thing that could’ve been better. I definitely felt the difference and it slowed me down considerably. But it was otherwise lovely out. Breezy and overcast in the 50s. Ideal, except for the last 50 minutes or so. Very good course profile as well, and it was also quite picturesque with the fall foliage. Just enough hills to prevent cramping but not too many and not too steep.

This is still 18:47 from my personal best, but it is my fastest time in the past 4 years and also my 5th fastest time ever. Marathon #25, U.S. State #12. Recorded time 4:04:08, 9:20 pace (my actual distance was only over by 0.14 so I got pretty close to optimal tangents.)

This is my GoPro footage of the 2023 Indianapolis Monumental Marathon, my 25th full marathon and my 12th U.S. State.

I set the video to a song that I really like a lot, but that probably not a lot of people know. It’s called “I Found You”, by Culture Kultur, a synth band originally from Spain. https://www.culturekultur.com

I don’t get any royalties or anything, so if you like the song please buy it from wherever you buy your music and support the band. (Facebook has muted the song in certain countries, where they don’t have music rights.) This video is on my YouTube channel; please like and subscribe! https://www.youtube.com/@pinarosana

Also featured in the video more than once is Casey Nicodemus, a friend who runs in Atlanta with me as part of the Atlanta Track Club. He is also working on running a marathon in all 50 States.

Appearing a couple times in the video as well is “Dave”, who I ran with periodically during the second half. We helped motivate each other. Course buddies are awesome! Marathoners are a team in spirit.

(post is dated the day after the marathon for timeline purposes, but I really didn’t actually publish it until a couple weeks after)

Maine Marathon 2023

I went to Portland, Maine from 2023-09-29 to 2023-10-02. I stayed with my Sister and her family and ran the Maine Marathon on October 1. It was my 24th full marathon and my 11th U.S. State. I really enjoyed my extended weekend “Runcation” in Maine, particularly so because I got to be with family and because I got to race with a friend.

My friend Ietta, whom I can credit with convincing me to join the 50 States Marathon Club, went up to Maine for the marathon as well. We ran together for the first half. Shortly after that I dropped back and let her get ahead, as the heat and hills were getting to me and I wanted to conserve energy, but I caught her at the end and we finished 4 seconds apart.

My sister picked me up from the airport. I hung out for a while on her cool patio hammock chair and did a little work on my laptop that afternoon. That night we went to dinner, first for oysters at Eventide and then for Arancini and naturally-leavened Pizza Napoletana at Cuanto Basta.

Welcome to Portland airport. Here is a statue that looks like a vagina 🤷‍♀️

The next day she let me use one of their cars to go to the Expo and pick up my bib. I met another member of the 50 States Marathon Club, Zein, while I was there, and we connected on Instagram. That afternoon I went to Portland Headlight – Fort Williams Park to see a lighthouse and the Bite Into Maine food truck to eat a lobster roll and a pumpkin whoopie pie with my sis and my youngest nephew, and then got my gear all ready for the race in the morning.

I went out for a drive through the nearby Evergreen Cemetery and made this video there.

Evergreen Cemetery in Portland, Maine is the largest cemetery in the state.

Then I came back home and settled in to watch a bit of the fun family Halloween movie, Casper, before I called it a night and headed to bed around 9:30 p.m

I met Ietta at the start. During mile 23, My sister, her husband, and 2 of my nephews were there holding signs and cheering for me. They told me that they would be there around mile 18 and when I didn’t find them there, I figured something had come up with family stuff or maybe with my nephew’s soccer game, and they couldn’t make it. It was such a cool surprise to find them after I had resolved to not seeing them. I’ve never had a cheering section with my name on signs before. This was really cool! I was so thankful for their support. They gave me a much needed boost during mile 23!!!

I have no idea how I got my phone to do this to the background. I can’t get back into whatever that editing thing was.

I’m finally making progress back towards my real capability. Still a long way to go to get where I was, but this is my best marathon time in the past 4 years and I’m very happy about that. I thought I’d never get out of that rut!!! I enjoyed this race very much!

After the race, I went home and showered and rested a bit, then headed over to Old Port while my sis and family went on a road trip to pick apples and blueberries. I didn’t feel like an hour each way driving, but she brought me back some apples and a blueberry donut. Old Port was charming. I stopped at a waterfront restaurant and got a crab cake and a clam cake for later. The clam cake got eaten before I made it to the car. They were fried, but they were really good. I forgot to take photos of clam cake and the crab cake but I did get a photo of the beautiful view from the patio at the restaurant. I had the crab cake for breakfast in the morning, because my sister and I went for tacos that night at Bird & Co. It was so good.

I didn’t take many photos of them, but I have to say that my sister’s house was on point with the Halloween decorations. She makes me proud! There is a little clip of some of them, along with my of my experience that weekend including the race footage, in the Runcation video I made. I will embed it here but you can also check it out on my YouTube channel. Please like and subscribe on YouTube and leave a comment to say hello if you are so inclined. I love to hear from people!

This is the whole “Runcation” edit. It is 8:45. Grab a cup of coffee and enjoy!

For those of you with shorter attention spans, who just want to see some of the race footage, I made a way-trimmed down version of only that as well.

Maine Marathon (short edit) 2:15

Stay tuned for more Marathon Runcation adventures!

(this post was written the night of 2023-10-17, but I am dating it 2023-10-02 for timeline purposes)

2023 Sioux Falls Marathon Runcation

On August 27, 2023, I ran the Sioux Falls Marathon. It was my 23rd full marathon and my 10th U.S. State.

I am now eligible to become a Standard Member of the 50 States Marathon Club, so I decided to join. I have done numerous marathons in the same state several times, but I’m going to try to spread the marathon love across the U.S.A. now and try to see our beautiful country in the process. I don’t know if I will manage to get all the states or not, but I think I will have a lot of fun trying!

I usually only go for a day or two when I travel for marathons, but I try to see a couple of things while I am there. Sioux Falls, although it is the largest city in South Dakota, was a small town by my standards. As such, it’s not somewhere I would ever live, but it is charming, and I did very much enjoy my brief visit.

I flew in Friday night. On Saturday morning I went to the Expo to pick up my bib and t-shirt, then headed out for a little sightseeing. I walked around downtown, went into Zandbroz Variety, a quirky and cool store, ate at Pho Thai Sioux Falls, then ventured off to Garretson and visited Devil’s Gulch, Split Rock Park, and Palisades State Park.

The marathon course was serene, and mostly flat, with some rolling hills. It was hot and full sun for all but the first hour. After my experience at the Area 13.1 Alien Half Marathon last weekend, when I very nearly needed Medical after the race from heat exhaustion, I was extremely cautious in the heat. Heat and full sun affect me so much. I managed to avoid the same fate this weekend by dialing it back.

I finished with a time of 4:29:31, and 26.64 miles. It felt like eternity. The voices in my head were not my friend after a couple of things went mildly wrong during mile five. Something started making me cough. Thank goodness that eventually went away, but not for a couple of miles. I had a gel explode in my hands during mile six. Ugh. So gross. When I was trying to get the gel off my hands, I ended up with some of it on my chin, where it remained for the duration of the race (so I had to edit myself out of a lot of the video footage I took, because I looked ridiculous). Then, the Volta died. It had begun to feel heavy as well, as I was trying to hold it way above my head, which was not great running form and not sustainable.

For the record, the GoPro Volta does not last 4 hours like it says it does. I threw away the box or I might return it. I removed the camera from it, pulled the battery out and reset the GoPro during mile seven. By the time I was done with all that it was mile eight, hot and sunny, and I was not in the best part of the course. That’s when the voices began to work against me. All the inner complaining I fought with diligence to silence but it sure did persist. It made for a long day. The mind is the toughest battle in an endurance game.

I’m 100% a city girl. People are nice here but there just aren’t enough of them and everything is so spread out. It felt like such a long marathon, and it was a little over the distance but that’s not why it felt that way. While much of it was pretty, it just felt like a long solo run in a very spread out and lonely place to me, and a lot of that is my own fault, I’m sure. It could have been more enjoyable if it were overcast and cool, and if those few dumb things didn’t go wrong, but anyway, it’s done. Whew!

I’m still glad that I came here. I saw some cool stuff and the race experience I had wasn’t _that_ bad, after all. I’m ok and everything. I got it in under 4:30, thankfully. I’m in this life to have experiences, and I have had some while visiting here that I am glad to have had.

But yeah, no small towns for me, other than to visit, and the heat and the Sun are miserable. Give me 50 degrees and overcast, please!

It’s no wonder that “a small-town girl, livin’ in a lonely world, took the midnight train going anywhere.” I totally would.

I made a couple of videos, which I have posted to my YouTube Channel. I made one of the whole “Runcation” experience (about 12 minutes, and yes it is a little cheesy but I think it’s fun), and another of just the marathon (5 minutes 30 seconds), for those just wanting to check out the race. I edited out my suffering, so that others could enjoy the course preview. Be sure to like and subscribe, as I’m going to try to keep doing these marathon runcation videos, and I hope to make some diving videos eventually as well.

Thanks for reading and checking out my videos! I love my internet family!!! 🖤

(I dated this post to the day after the marathon, for timeline purposes, but I really wrote it on 2023-09-06, after finally finishing and publishing my 2 videos.)

I’m going to go ahead and embed both videos here, for people who don’t feel like clicking on a YouTube link.

The Runcation (12 minutes): In this video I check out a cool store downtown and see some sculptures on the Sculpture Walk, eat some Pho, visit several gorgeous state parks, and, of course, run a marathon.

This is just my GoPro footage from running the 2023 Sioux Falls Marathon. I noticed that there really wasn’t a full course preview online that I could find, so I hope you find this useful. It’s a comprehensive look at the full marathon course. (5 1/2 minutes)

San Francisco Marathon 2023

The above video is 15 minutes long. There is a shorter video embedded at the end of this blog post. Both are on my YouTube channel. There isn’t much on my channel yet, but that will change now that I’m doing this sort of thing.

I made the decision (and registered) to run this marathon the day that I finished the Pittsburgh Marathon. This is often what I do, while the post-marathon high is still strong, before the pain sets in, to give myself something to keep striving towards. In this scenario it was an extremely wise decision, given everything that has been going on for me emotionally. Running is my stabilizer. This race was going to be extremely challenging, and I knew it, and it was also a long journey across the country twice in a brief period to make it happen, but it was worth it. I really needed this. It was a beautiful course, the weather was lovely, and I got to see some great friends while I was there. I already loved San Francisco, from my previous visit there in 2002, but now I love it more.

The San Francisco Marathon was full marathon number 22 for me. It was also the most hilly and most beautiful marathon I have run (so far). I recently got a GoPro and I brought it with me. I had only used it once previously, and not on a run, so I was nervous about trying to do this but I’m glad I did. I went into this race with a lot of “new”, which is certainly ill-advised, but marathons are not new to me. I wasn’t expecting any sort of a fast race time given the hills and the fact that I haven’t done proper mileage training, so I figured I could get away with some things I normally wouldn’t do.

I wasn’t sure what I would do with the GoPro and I didn’t want to be stuck holding it if I didn’t feel like it, so I brought a couple options for stowing it and I didn’t use either of them. I bought a new Spibelt double pocket pro (my normal one is just single pocket), thinking I could put the GoPro in the other pocket and have my phone in the first pocket. I also wore my Nathan Hydration Vest because I could stow the camera in one of the water bottle pockets. (I have the VaporHowe 2, which I think may no longer be available, because I don’t see it on the website.) I had thankfully been training in my hydration vest because it has been hot and I’ve been doing long, unsupported, solo runs. The larger, double pocket, Spibelt is almost too big for my waist, even at its tightest adjustment, but it was ok. I didn’t use the other pocket at all. The hydration vest was fine and I was glad to have it since it made accessing my gels easier than getting them out of the handheld hydration pocket, and it freed me from having to concern myself about where the next water stop might be. I did refill my handheld once from a pitcher, but I might have gotten by without doing so. I stopped about 3 or 4 times for electrolytes in a paper cup. Normally, with my handheld hydration, I switch hands every mile. This was a bit more challenging with the GoPro in the other hand, since I had to then switch both items, but I still tried to do it as often as I thought of it. I was nervous about dropping something, but it worked out.

I did not have an easy time trying to edit the GoPro footage. Even though I only took short clips, it still ended up being about 70 minutes of footage from the trip, 45 minutes or so from the marathon. I’m completely unfamiliar with video editing software and I don’t consider myself a creative person in the slightest, so this was a huge challenge. I didn’t do too much with it other than trimming the clips down to a more reasonable length and choosing a soundtrack. It’s a bit bouncy, unfortunately, so that’s a bummer. Surely there is a way to fix some of that in post, but I don’t know how to do it and I’m not likely to learn how before I put this project to rest. I am sure I will try documenting my marathons again, now that I have it as an option, so hopefully I will improve some with practice.

My friend Ken Pontac picked me up from the airport and we spent the day together. We went to the expo to pick up my race bib, took a walk by the Golden Gate Bridge, went to the YouthSpeaks National Semi-Finals Poetry Slam, and had some sushi at Kippu in Japantown.

This made the whole trip for me! We have been internet friends for something like 18 years. We met on MySpace and just kept in touch, exchanging letters a time or two, phone calls here and there, and chatting back and forth. In person, my friend was every bit as cool if not more so. Finally getting to meet in “real life” was such a great surprise after I had just casually mentioned that I would be in town for a couple of days to run. I never expected to have that opportunity; it was everything I could have hoped for and more. I’m excited to see the project he is working on once it is released. It’s quite different from his previous work and I don’t think I am allowed to talk about it, but it sounds amazing!

I stayed at the Hyatt Regency Embarcadero, on the 16th floor. My room had an amazing view of the city and of the Bay Bridge. I could have stared out that window for hours.

I got my gear laid out, as I always do. Here is “flat Pina” for the San Francisco marathon. It was a lot of stuff, more than I normally bring. I didn’t use some of it. Better to have it and not need it than to need it and not have it. I brought a little extra stuff because of the extra storage space I gained to accommodate the possible stowing of the GoPro. I also wasn’t sure how much extra fuel I would need with all those hills!

On race morning I had a brief panic because I thought somehow my watch wasn’t charged. I was reading the 96% as 16% and I noticed it with only 30 minutes to charge it. Thankfully, I was just not seeing clearly, but that gave my nerves a jump start at 4:30 in the morning. The race began at 5:20, earlier than any race start I had previously experienced.

The marathon went better than expected. I had watched the course video a couple times to prepare myself for the hills. Those were not better than expected; they were every bit as difficult as I had anticipated. Thankfully, the course was so beautiful that it almost made up for it… almost! The weather was nice. It could have been a little cooler, as I wasn’t cold at the start or ever, and that usually means that it could go down a few degrees for optimal performance. By the end it was a bit too warm and sunny, but thankfully only for the last eight miles or so, and thankfully I was well prepared with my Stream2Sea sunscreen. The energy gel provided on course, Chargel, was fantastic. I used two of those on the course when they were handed to me, saving some of mine so I could try them instead. It is a bit too big a gel pouch to carry and pack and bring a couple along for the whole race, but, since they handed it to me, it was perfect. The race was very well organized and operated like a well-oiled machine, with runner valves directing the runners across slightly varied but distance-equivalent routes to keep the city of San Francisco in smooth operation during the race. I had never seen anything like that; it was all perfectly arranged and coordinated with volunteers in leather bike vests adorned with Sober patches moving a banner across intersections. I couldn’t capture the runner valves in action on video. It took me a while to figure out what was going on with them since it only came into play in the latter parts of the race, when I already had marathon-brain and was getting weary. Trust me when I say that it was very impressive how perfectly orchestrated this all was. There wasn’t huge crowd support, but there was enough to keep me interested and the beauty of the course made up for the rest. My finish time wasn’t great, but I managed to keep the average pace under 10:30, even with my walk breaks up those treacherous hills. I’m happy with that. I was afraid my time, and the pain, would be much worse. I really enjoyed myself and I have some cool memories that document my experience, which is what I went there to do. Marathon 22, in US State number 9 for me, is a wrap. I’m calling it a success!

I’m writing this post on Wednesday, the third day after the race, and the soreness is beginning to subside. I did an easy 2 mile shakeout run this morning, and I plan to resume my normal training tomorrow.

After the race, I got to see a friend from middle and high school who I haven’t seen since high school. I really didn’t imagine that would have worked out either, but she was going to be in the city that day for a museum exhibit so it all just fell into place. We went to a gifted school together; bonds from that sort of a place just stick. The people who were my friends then are all still my friends. It was great to see her, finally! I wish I could have spent more time there catching up; she is brilliant, and I would have loved to enjoy some of San Francisco’s fantastic cultural scene with her.

I won’t post the video from my trip and the marathon here because it will take up too much space, but here is the link to My 2023 San Francisco Marathon experience video on YouTube. I have also embedded it at the top of this post. Come along with me for 26.2 miles!

It has been fun. Thanks for sharing this experience with me!
As promised, here is the short edit of the San Francisco Marathon video I made.

Pittsburgh Marathon 2023 – full marathon number 21

I headed to Pittsburgh for a little masochistic therapy. Full marathon number 21 with very little training and an injured foot. It’s a personal record for the least number of miles I’ve ever run in preparation for a full marathon, so there’s that. It’s a beautiful weekend for some extreme pain. Do not try this at home.

I barely trained 2 months for this race. I wasn’t able to run at all after fracturing the sesamoid bone in my right foot on December 29, when I fell down the stairs at Nohoch with my double tanks on, the day after Mom died. So for the whole new year until the middle of March, I didn’t run. I tried once or twice, but it was too painful. After I had confirmed that it was truly fractured, and there was a piece of bone just floating around in my foot, I gave up completely. So, for 3 months, no running. I would have deferred my race entry if I could have, but that wasn’t an option. When I started trying to run again, all I could really do was jog-walk, so I did the best I could to at least get a few 20 mile days in before the race. It took a long time and really hurt, but I managed, thanks to my Nathan hydration vest and some self-help audiobooks.

After my birthday I got really depressed, and on April 19 I found out some devastating personal news about someone I care about. Things were just getting increasingly difficult. But I knew now that I had no choice but to do my best to embrace the suck and do this thing. So, I channeled my inner masochist and pressed on. Soon, it would be race weekend, so I might as well try and make the best of at least that. The physical pain couldn’t hurt any more than the emotional pain I was dealing with.

I had heard Pittsburgh was a cool city. I wanted to get out of town anyway. I wanted to run away from my suffering if I could.

So, Pittsburgh, I am in you. This was the view from the bus headed into downtown. I love it when cities are on the water.

I went immediately to the expo and got this cool photo, which later led to a new friendship with a runner traveling from Texas who was doing the 50 states challenge. I also had some pierogies at the expo. They were delicious.

Then I headed to my awesome hotel room at the Embassy Suites. I got the nicest hotel room I’ve ever paid for myself. It was a 2 room suite on the 19th floor. Somehow it feels fancier because I did it for me. This was the view from my windows.

Then I realized I had forgotten to pack leggings. I was pretty upset the night before when I was packing. I never forget stuff like this. I couldn’t believe it. I had nothing. I would have either had to run the race in my jeans or in my underwear, literally. I headed back to the expo, which was thankfully still going on. So much for “nothing new on race day.”

They only had one pair of black leggings that were not cotton in the place. They were Brooks compression leggings and they had the Pittsburgh skyline on one leg. They were really cool, but they were also $80 and all they had was an XS. But somehow, I managed to get into them so yay! Problem solved.

I got my gear laid out for the next day, a ritual I always perform before a full marathon, and usually also perform before smaller races. It helps with the mindset to know that the flat version of me, comprised of my gear, is ready to race, regardless of whether the rest of me feels like I am.

Here is flat Pina for the Pittsburgh Marathon 2023.

I headed out to explore, grab some dinner, chat with my new friend, and see what is in the neighborhood. Pittsburgh seemed like a hard city. I had drugs offered to me on the street. There were a lot of cat calls. It actually felt a bit more hard core than even Chicago had. People seemed tough there, in the Iron City. It added to the experience for sure. The emotional darkness I perceived around me also resonated with me at the time. When I got back to the room, I got back into my book called “Embrace the Suck” and re-read the introduction by David Goggins. It’s good for the spirit. I went to bed with his words in my mind, doing everything I could to drown out my own internal monologue, which was doing everything it could to drag me down into a dark and lonely hole. I could not let that happen.

My room was only a block from the start corral, which was awesome. I decided to go ahead and get the runners blessing before the race. I needed all the help I could get. She prayed for me and blessed me in the name of the holy trinity. I closed my eyes and prayed along. We both said Amen aloud and I was grateful for having done this.

The time was near. I started to get excited. I started in the second wave of corral B. They had fireworks at the start. I took video, but it didn’t really come out well. We actually ended up getting to see the fireworks 3 times: when corral A started, before corral B started, and again when we looped around after a mile or so of running, we saw them before the start of whatever corral was about to begin then. That was cool.

It rained a little at the start, but that stopped after a short while. Thankfully, it stayed mostly overcast, which really helped. But still, the race was hard. I knew better than to try to race. I immediately tried to deliberately dial back my pace, despite the excitement. Regardless, my heart rate was up to 180 in the first mile. I was unconditioned. I got it down to 160 or so after a few miles, but it never stopped being difficult. I did my best to keep my spirit in the game, keep my mind on my form, and keep my strategy strong. The goal was to finish and not get injured. I knew I had a lot of pain ahead of me.

It went better than expected, given the circumstances. I think God was on my side for this one. My mental game was on point. I enjoyed myself, managed the pain, high fived all the kids who were cheering, hit all the power button signs, and finished under 4:30 at 4:29:21, a 10:17 pace, which is slower than about half the marathons I’ve done but I’m totally happy with it and could not have asked for more right now.

At mile 14 it was getting really rough and then at mile 15 there was a death metal band playing and the vocalist was out in the middle giving high fives! That was so freaking cool and it brought me back to life! Death metal!!! Yeah, Pittsburgh, you get me.

The racecourse was a great tour of the city. There were lots of bridges and it was hilly. I walked as needed.

So, Marathon 21 is a wrap and I may have already registered for Marathon 22, but I’m not telling anyone yet.

I dated this post to when I should have written it. After the race I didn’t feel like writing.
I’m really writing it on 2023-05-14 at 6:26 pm. One week after the race.

Flying Pig Marathon weekend 2022

I can see why people love this race. It is very well run, the crowd support is great, logistics are fairly easy, swag and expo were good, post race food is good, and the course is very cool looking in some places.

I don’t normally repeat marathons, but I would consider doing this one again.

I had a cool view of one of the bridges from my hotel room. I could swear I heard the WKRP song.

Now then…. To those of you who said that the hills were only in the beginning, um…. No. Lol. Sure, they were rolling hills in the second half but they were still there and I noticed every single one of them.

I knew that my current performance level is not in qualifying range, so that took a bit of anxiety away and I just ran by feel, never even checking my pace or time. That is somewhat liberating and it allowed me to enjoy myself a little, other than all the pain. Since I knew that what I really want was out of reach anyway, I could just relax and run. I still managed to keep the average pace under 10.

4:22:09, 9:54 pace

Sadly, my 2018 performance level that had qualified me for Boston seems a distant memory and 2020 ruined my opportunity, but I will still run and I will still try. Maybe something magical will happen for me again physically.

It never rained other than a few sprinkles today. It was humid and breezy and overcast until the last hour, when the Sun came out. The Sun made the last hour noticeably more unpleasant but it made for a nice relaxing time afterwards, instead of being cold as I usually am, so that was nice.

A super cool thing that happened was that my name got prime real estate on the marathon car. Front and center!!! This gave me great joy.

While I was in Cincinnati, I did a few fun things. I went to the very cool Findlay Market. It’s a farmer’s market with art, poetry, cool people, great food, and live music outside. I had some amazingly delicious BBQ pulled pork and jalapeno cornbread while I was there. Sadly, I also dropped my phone there and shattered the glass, but this was the only casualty of the weekend and I’ve since had it repaired. I also checked out the area near the University of Cincinnati, and Vine St., both pretty cool areas. Saturday night I went to the Hard Rock Casino and came out $60 ahead, thanks to Black Jack.

Sunday, after the marathon, I visited Spring Grove Cemetery. It is the third largest cemetery in the United States and has over 300,000 buried and 45 miles of paved roads, according to the groundskeeper with whom I spoke. It is 175 years old.

I drove around slowly for a couple hours, stopping occasionally and getting out to take photos. I couldn’t help wonder if this Harding grave above is a relative in any way. My mother’s side of the family traces back to President Harding, and they lived in Ohio.

Spring Grove Cemetery is a beautiful place and is also an arboretum. It is massive and even after a couple hours I don’t think I saw it all. It’s gorgeously maintained. I’m glad I made the drive over there. It was definitely worth it, it made good use of the rental car, and was a peaceful and relaxing way to spend some time after the marathon on a lovely day with perfect weather, without having to walk too much.

I enjoyed myself. Thanks, Cincinnati and #flyingpigmarathon I am pretty sure that I will be back. This is a good one!

Full Marathon number 19 is a wrap!

I’m #grateful to my body and mind for getting me though it, and to my friends who support me along the journey to 26.2 and tolerate my incessant running posts and frequent complaining.