Prairie Fire & Bass Pro Marathon Thoughts 1 Year Later

Facebook has been reminding me recently that on October 9, 2016, I ran and PRed at the Prairie Fire Marathon.  It was the first time I broke the 3:00 barrier.  I ran the Bass Pro Marathon 4 weeks after that and managed my second sub-3:00.  I figured by the time I finished and proofread this post it would likely be the Bass Pro 1 year anniversary, so I decided to tackle reflections back on both races with this post.  (Note:  Bass Pro 2017 is coming up on Sunday, so I was correct!  I will be running the half this year).

First rewind to summer 2015.  I had a marathon PR of 3:03:47 (set in 2010), and had strung together nearly a year of uninterrupted running.  This was big for me, because I'd had many injuries before that time.  I was working on improving my half marathon PR, and decided that I wanted to try to break 3:00 in the marathon, because, really, who is content to let their marathon PR stay at 3:03?!  I fully believed it when I told my husband that once I broke 3:00 I would retire from marathoning.  I think I'd forgotten exactly how much I loved marathons and marathon training, since in at that time in 2015 I hadn't run once since 2011 (and not one competitively since my 3:03 in 2010).

Through a random chain of events that I'm thankful for, I ended up working with my current coach for my 2015 marathon build.  I told him that I wanted to break 3:00 and that I wanted to peak at 50 miles a week; God bless him for not laughing in my face at that oxymoron request!  I ended that cycle with a 3:01 marathon in Dallas in December 2015, a PR that sure left me wanting more (and who is content to let their marathon PR stay at 3:01?!).  I then tried to train myself for the Phoenix marathon in February 2016, and low and behold I injured myself and missed the race.  After that, it was back to my coach for another sub-3:00 attempt at Prairie Fire in October 2016.  I still truly believed that I would be satisfied if I hit 2:59:59 and wouldn't feel the need to keep chasing marathon PRs, but I was also already registered for Bass Pro in November 2016 and Phoenix in February 2017 when I toed the line at Prairie Fire, so it was certainly not to be my last marathon!

Going into Prairie Fire, I felt very unsure of myself, mainly because I'd tried to break 3:00 and failed at Dallas.  Before Dallas, I'd felt sure that I was going to hit my goal time, but before Prairie Fire I did not feel confident and was probably the most nervous I'd been before any marathon.  Although neither my taper nor the race went off without a hitch, I broke 3:00 for the first time with a 2:58:53.  I was elated with the blessings of the day and with hitting this major goal, but I also had a very unexpected thought:  "I can do better."

Post-marathon emotion at Prairie Fire

I'd decided to run Bass Pro 2016 as a B race, mainly because it's my local marathon and I love it, but also because I like to get two marathons out of one training cycle.  It was 4 weeks after Prairie Fire, and I didn't intend to go for another sub-3:00 at it until my coach told me he thought I could try it.  So, I went for it and succeeded, actually running a bit faster pace and a stronger negative split than I had at Prairie Fire.  However, the difference wasn't reflected in my official finishing time of 2:59:04, because I took a wrong turn during the race and ran about 1:30 extra.  While I was extremely hard on myself about this error, it ended up again boiling down to the thought, "I can do better."  I would have run a 2:57 at Bass Pro without the wrong turn, so it was clear to me that I could hit at least a 2:57, and probably a 2:53-2:55 on a course without a million turns (Bass Pro is not a fast course).

In addition to the links above, I wrote even more about Prairie Fire here, here, and here, and about Bass Pro here.

I now find it pretty humorous that I actually said and believed that I'd be through with my marathon time goal pursuits once I broke 3:00!  At that time, I really thought that was my maximum potential, but once I did it I knew I had faster ones in me.  I am floored by what God has done with my running in the span of a year.  Last year, 6:51.9 pace for 26.2 miles was my major goal; this year, my 18-22 mile easy paced long runs have consistently been 6:49-6:52, and I've generally finished them feeling like I could continue for several more miles.  The amount of thankfulness I need to have for this is never lost on me; each time I cannot believe that I could go on to run a sub-3:00 in training on my hilly training routes (although I admittedly also tell myself, "well, that had better be easy since you're trying to run 15 minutes under 3:00!".  I feel so blessed to have made these gains, but I still think, "I can do better."

I will always treasure the experiences I had at these two races, and they were very important steps towards my 2:49:20 performance (and current PR) in Phoenix.  I love remembering all of the training miles I shared with friends, and I am so thankful for my family supporting me during my training endeavors and during the races themselves.  I think God uses those times during races to bring us closer to him; something about pushing through the long races and training runs simply makes me feel more alive and more faithful.  Something about it makes me better, even if I still think, "I can do better."  Perhaps He makes me think that so that He can make me better, in non-running ways too.

I think the take-away is that we should all challenge our limits and not accept that a big accomplishment is our max, even if at one point that accomplishment was a far-reaching dream.  Maybe it is our max, but why not try to shoot higher?  What's the saying -- if you shoot for the stars and fail, you may still land on the moon.

Maybe I can't do better; maybe my PR will always be 2:49.  But I think that not trying to improve it would be a greater failure than trying and not succeeding.  No matter what happens, I am never going to wonder what would have happened if I'd tried, because I am going to try and try again until I either hit that 2:45:00 or the qualifying window closes.

I am thankful, but not satisfied; I can do better.  I felt that way after Prairie Fire, I felt that way after Bass Pro, and honestly no matter how CIM goes I suspect that I will feel that way.  That may make me annoying, but it also keeps me hungry and striving, and isn't that what our passions are all about?

"Run in such a way as to get the prize." - 1 Corinthians 9:24