Houston, we had a problem (third edition)

The short-ish:

I wish I had a different title for this one - "OTQ in HOU: My dream came true!" seems pretty catchy to me.  Instead, on January 19, the fifth time I lined up chasing the 2:45:00 Olympic Trials qualifying standard, on the last possible day to qualify for the 2020 Trials, the outcome was not what I'd dreamed of.  No one can say that I went down without a fight, though!

Expo

I left Missouri Thursday night healthy, developed a sore throat on the road on Friday, started feeling weak on Saturday morning, and began wheezing Saturday afternoon.  Since we were already in Houston, I tried to be positive ("I'll wake up feeling great tomorrow!"), live in denial ("I'm fine"), rationalize ("I ran a 1:23 half in 80 degrees when sick before so I still have a chance"), and tried every illness remedy I could think of:  zinc, vitamin C, hot tea, a hot acetaminophen respiratory treatment mix, elderberry, Emergen-Z, lots of water, and rest.

I decided I would start with the 2:45 pace group and if I fell off I'd drop out to avoid getting more sick.  I knew it was a very long shot that I'd be able to PR while sick, but with it being the last possible chance to qualify I knew I'd rather go out at goal pace and die off versus running a more conservative and even pace and coming in between 2:46-3:00.  "PR or ER", right?!  After the race an urgent care nurse practitioner confirmed I had bronchitis, although thankfully I did not land in the ER.

I fell off the OTQ pack around mile 10, and decided to run to the half timing mat so my family would get an update and know I was off pace and would be dropping.  Shortly before the half my friend Laura passed me, and after I told her I was going to drop she connected me with her husband (who was conveniently around mile 12) to drive me back, but I couldn't bring myself to step off the course and told them I appreciated them greatly but was going to keep going.

At the half I decided I'd go to maybe 15-16, depending on when I saw a medical tent.  Then I saw Ashley, another friend I'd met through this pursuit, ahead.  I worked on reeling her in, and we then ran together until almost mile 20, chatting the entire time.  We both knew our big dream goal was gone, but we enjoyed our ability to relax and run.  When she stopped at a porta-potty, we were almost to 20 so I figured I might as well just finish the thing.  I never looked at my watch during the race, but at that point I felt like I was running over 8:00 pace but after some internal debate decided "who cares" about messing up my sub-3:00 streak.  I was going to finish if it took me 3:45.

It wasn't until the race clock at mile 24 that I realized I was actually going to be under 3:00, as long as I ran the final couple of miles in 7:30ish or faster.  I tried to pick it up to make sure, running with others striving for a sub-3:00 and hearing the crowds yell "You've got the sub-3:00!" as we passed.  I finished in 2:58:45 gun time (results here).

I have far too many words for the short version, but literally and metaphorically, the story does not end here.  However, unlike the other four times I've tried, this time there is no "try again" since the qualifying window is closed for 2020, which is a bitter pill to swallow.  I trust that God has a better plan for me, but I've also accepted that there are many things we won't understand on this side of Heaven, and why he took my brother so early is one of them, and that has become intertwined with my recent marathon journey (although it does make the OTQ feel very trivial).

Read my post about the last-minute OTQ chasers here.
See the pre-race mention of the 2:45 pace group in the Fast Women Newsletter here.
Read the Runners World article about the 2:45 pace group here.
Read my longer race recap part 1 here, and part 2 here.

Final kick