Kimi's Olympic Trials Marathon was definitely an experience. If you haven't heard by now, she ran 2:52:45 in some brutal marathon temperatures with very little shade on the entire course. Her race was broadcast live on NBC which is pretty cool. You can even see Kimi for the first couple miles of the race (we watched it on DVR when we got home).
I raced the LA marathon the day after her trials marathon. 2 weeks prior to the race, I strained my quadriceps muscles and thought I might not be able to do the marathon at all. Fortunately I was able to get a lot of treatment from a pretty great physical therapist (Kimi) and did a lot of self treatment as well. I did a 10 mile run on the Monday prior to the marathon just to see how my leg would handle it. Then on Wednesday after arriving in LA, I did a short 2 mile tempo run to see if I could handle the faster pace. Much to my surprise this went pretty well also.
I still was concerned entering the race so I decided to forego my original goal and just feel out the race and have some fun. I started much more conservative than I normally would and came through the half in about 1:21. Then I decided to pick it up since I was feeling just fine. The next 7 miles were pretty solid with paces right at or slightly under 6 min pace. Then we hit a stretch of uphill and heat which made it tough to maintain the faster pace. I was able to get the pace back down for the final 6 miles and actually finished with my fastest last mile of a marathon yet. It was about a 5:40-5:45 mile. It's hard to be certain since my Garmin doesn't always beep directly on the markers.
Since the marathon, I have been in the process of refocusing my training to get ready for what I hope will be my best training cycle yet. Headed to the 40th annual Grandma's Marathon in June!
By the way, I'm also nearing the end of my 3rd week at my new office location! It's been great here so far!
