Photograph by Jennifer Schulten
In a lot of ways, the story of Hartford 2022 begins way back in August 2013. I was training for my first full marathon and I ended up with an Achilles issue. As I’ve told the story many times, I showed up in the Maestro’s physical therapy clinic with my training plan in one hand and two small children dangling off the other. Rose would have been five and Aidan was nine. The Maestro put SpongeBob SquarePants for them, which they objected to. Then he got on with the business of healing my Achilles, but more importantly, helping me understand that even though risk can lead to injury, injury can lead to recovery. The injury is not the end of the story. That’s such an important lesson and here I am nine years later, still learning it. The Maestro started running himself earlier this year and I have the enormous honor of acting as his coach. Watching him cross the finish line of his first full marathon was by far the best moment of my day! I’m happy about how my own race went, but I am OVER THE MOON about his!
My training leading up to Hartford went well. Coach Maverick and I are settling into a groove. I am currently training by effort, which makes a lot of sense because pace is so hard to predict during recovery. Effort is probably the best metric anyway, but it takes a big leap of faith to rely on it exclusively. Since the Surftown Half, we’ve extended tempo segments, my pace has dropped, and I haven’t once looked at my watch during a workout. The weekend before the race, I ran 16 miles with some half marathon effort segments and the Tuesday before the race, I had 20 consecutive minutes of tempo. Most days have been a happy surprise when I looked at pace after the run.
I write these race reports partly for everyone’s amusement, but also for my own record keeping. I never published the Hartford 2016 race report because it’s too damn dark. I was really struggling and in that report I note that it was the Maestro who made me confront my mental demons. Tough Guy Trainer helped me figure out how to seize the day and run well even in the middle of a lot of doubt. These two have been on my team, by my side, and in my head since 2013 and I am beyond grateful for their continued support. Hartford 2017 was a different story entirely. I had recovered from the PF. I had started working with Coach Mick. He convinced me to run the race without looking at my watch. I worried “What if I go out too fast? Or too slow?” He said “What if not looking at your watch allows you to find just the right pace?” Wise words from a wise friend. Hartford 2017 was the beginning of a glorious comeback.
Fast forward to Hartford 2022. Coach Maverick also suggested I run by feel. I knew this was the only sensible choice. I would absolutely be running slower paces workouts if I had been looking at my watch because I would have been scared of blowing up. Racing by effort is scarier because the stakes feel higher but Coach Maverick helped me remember that there are no stakes here. I have everything to win and nothing to lose right now. He even convinced me to change my watch face to remove pace entirely. No temptation to peek.
On the Friday before the race I had planned to meet the Maestro at the expo for bib pick up and lunch. He ended up having car trouble so I picked up our bibs by myself. Full service coaching! [I was crossing my fingers *really* hard that he figured out transport to the race, but he did, no problem.] I went to Goodwill for throw away clothes. I even talked to Coach Mick while driving around. We are still good friends. I don’t think I would have been brave enough to drop the watch this time around if I hadn’t already done it once so huge thank you to Coach Mick!
The other pre-race day activity was going to the lab for blood work. I’m a regular at this point. I was up in the night a bit checking for results, but they arrived on race morning. No red exclamation point! The red exclamation point marks abnormal test results. It has been there all ten times we have checked calcium and parathyroid hormone levels since surgery. At first, I thought there was some kind of error, but no. Calcium and parathyroid hormone IN RANGE!! Both of them! For the first time since surgery! That is seriously the best news EVER on race morning. Truly incredible. I woke up Mervus to show him, but then let him get back to sleep.
Downstairs, I made my oatmeal (opting for a compromise of ¾ cup dry this time) and coffee. There was a bit of texting back and forth between me and the Maestro, with images of our race kits, last minute nutrition tips, all-around getting amped.
I got to the race very early and secured some seriously Rockstar parking. For free! I was so early that I did a Headspace meditation to get in the right frame of mind. I had the Maestro’s bib and some gloves and some Gu for him so we agreed to meet in front of the Bushnell Theater. I jogged around a bit and ended up at the theater on time to hand off the Maestro’s stuff and hop in for the Manchester Running Company team picture. Then the Maestro and I did some strides, made a last minute port-a-potty stop, and headed to the start.
The Maestro and I were running different paces – his first marathon, my zillionth half marathon – but the course is the same for the first mile and we decided to stick together. So incredibly exciting! It went by too quickly, though we were running pretty slowly. Then I made the turn and he went straight and I thought, I’ll see you in about four hours!
It was time for me to find my pace. I tried to feel it. Faster than easy. Nothing like a sprint. Something like what Coach Mick calls “sentences pace” and what Coach Maverick calls 7 on the perceived exertion scale. I know about what this should feel like, but it takes some confidence to just go for it. Too fast and you die later. Too slow and you blow your race.
In 2017, I wrote about how even without my watch, I still had a lot of chatter in my head. My mind was constantly assessing my effort level. I was talking out loud, pretending to say things to Snarky Girl. I know better now. A quiet mind is the way to go, at least in the early miles. I managed that a lot better this time around. Miles two through five passed uneventfully. I enjoy running under the overpass that says Parkville and that’s about all I remember.
For fueling, I had decided to combine taking Maurten and Tums at 40 minutes and 80 minutes into the race. It’s just too complicated to put the Tums and the gels on separate schedules. I also had a Tums at my car before going to find the Maestro. Fueling mostly went fine except at the 80 minute mark, I dropped the damn Tums! I considered just skipping it, but I knew that wasn’t smart. I took out another one and dropped that one too! At that point I just stopped and stood there at the aid station eating the Tums. A friend with my same calcium issues compared extracting the Tums from plastic wrap during a race to solving a Rubik’s cube and he’s got that right. I must have looked a little ridiculous, but who cares – I got it down and I had NO calcium tingles throughout the race! My right quad was extremely cramped at the end. I suspect some of that is because of low calcium, but that right quad is a long-time problem child so who knows. I had one more Tums when I finished the race just for good measure, making four total. Last weekend I went straight from my long run to the lab for a blood draw so I know this schedule of Tums gives me plenty of calcium. I can not WAIT until the Tums is gone from my routine entirely. Fingers crossed that that is sooner rather than later.
The race had a big arch up at the 6.2 mile mark and unfortunately I saw the clock there. It said something like 55:xx minutes. I knew I was a minute behind the clock so did that mean I was running 9 minute pace? Except what about the .2 miles, how did that factor in? Whether it was seeing the clock or just being about halfway through the race, everything felt harder after that. Just like at Surftown, this wasn’t a gradual onset. One minute everything felt pretty much okay and a minute later everything felt really difficult.
The next few miles felt slow and they were in fact the slowest miles of the race. At a few races this year, I’ve actually stopped for a minute (or longer….) to collect myself when things got hard. But at Hartford, I had committed to myself before the race to not doing that. Miles eight through ten felt pretty rough and I walked a short uphill segment, but I forced myself to keep going. No stopping for a mini-meltdown. YAY! I think this might be a significant breakthrough. When I came out of Elizabeth Park, I was able to pick it up a little. My breathing was okay. I didn’t have the same issue I did at Surftown where it felt like my chest was constricted. My legs would not go faster, but luckily I was also able to keep them from going any slower. The last two miles I was just counting and counting. I did take one little peak at the watch with just over half a mile to go and I saw 1:50:xx. That helped me kick it into gear! Final time of 1:55:54! In 2017 I ran 1:55:39. That’s pretty crazy.
I was incredibly happy to be finished. I hadn’t planned on having anyone at the finish line but the Librarian popped up! She had finished a few minutes before me in a great run! She made sure I was ok and got me some water. I hung on the fence for a moment or two and then stumbled through getting a heat sheet and my medal. I found a bench to sit on and collect myself. Somebody I had seen in the race sat down next to me. It was kind of nice to just sit next to each other quietly. Somewhere in here I texted the Incredible Mervus and Coach Maverick to let them know how it had gone. I wandered back to my car and called my mom. I was excited to let her know about the race but even more excited to let her know about the calcium results. It was so great to be able to share the good news! Then I got a shower at the YMCA and wandered over to the beer garden staged by the race.
I was only there a couple of minutes – not even long enough for a beer! – before it was time to head to the finish line to watch the Maestro come in. I got to the line with about 3:55 on the clock and the Maestro cruised in a couple of minutes later. He ran 3:58:04!!! His first marathon!! And my first time coaching a runner to the full distance! He ran a monster race, negatively splitting and staying mentally tough the whole time. The Maestro is an all-around great athlete, but he’s clearly got huge potential at the marathon if he decides to stick with the distance.
The rest of the day was for celebrating. A big gang went to Parkville Market for food and drinks. The Maestro’s family came by. It was a perfect day for racing and a lot of people had run good times. We are having a beautiful October here in Connecticut.
True confessions: The next day, I had some mental struggles. Calcium within range!!! Running without Tums!!! Those were not goals I set down on January 1st, not even close. It can be really hard to adjust to the pace of recovery when it’s a lot slower than I would prefer. Mostly I’m celebrating progress as it comes. It was certainly awesome to be back racing on the streets of Hartford.
Amazing recap and so dang proud of you 😭