Running Down the Dream: Tobacco Road Marathon: The Back Half

At 13.1, I felt fantastic and ready to ride my endorphins for more. Somewhere around this time we caught and settled in with a man named Gabe. He thought Lauren and I were training partners since we were talking so much; we enjoyed telling him that we'd just met 13 miles ago! Shortly after mile 14 we passed back by the road that we'd gotten on the trail from, and continued south on the trail for a second out and back.

The race didn't have any steep hills, but there were some long inclines and declines, and as we made our way south from crossing the road that we'd later run back to the finish on, I could tell we were on a very long decline. It felt amazing going down, but I was well-aware that we were going to come back up it towards the end of the race. As we approached the second 180* turn around a bit after mile 19, we saw the first place woman headed back. Based on the lead she'd had on us at the first turn around, I expected we still had quite a ways to go, but it turned out that we'd actually cut into her lead and she had about 4 minutes on us at that point. 4 minutes is far more than I expected I could make up in 7 miles, but I think subconsciously I began pushing a little more at that point.

Lauren and I were side by side for most of the race, but at some points between miles 15-19 she was a step ahead of me. Around mile 20 that switched and I found myself a step ahead of her. I wasn't really pulling into the lead, but I could tell I was starting to pull her along a bit. I checked our cumulative time at mile 20, and it was 2:09:52ish, and my math skills were still intact enough to tell her we pretty much needed a 40 minute final 10k to go under 2:50, and I know well that it takes 6:26 pace to break 40 in the 10k. I wasn't monitoring my splits but I wanted to be aware of our average because I sure didn't want to take Lauren through the finish in 2:50:01!

Around mile 21 we began what was a gradual but unrelenting climb back to the road at mile 23.7. At that point, I gapped Lauren and Gabe, but I turned back and encouraged them. I chased down another man and encouraged him to come with me. In the past I have specifically avoided courses that had climbs in the final few miles, and I certainly would not have selected this 130 ft climb when looking for PR marathon courses, but I felt surprisingly strong on it. I kept saying "50k strength" to myself as I conquered the climb and made it back on the road.

I was fatigued but confident that I could finish strong. I pushed the final 2.5 miles on the road, and ended up with the fastest final mile I've ever run in a marathon with a 6:07 (previous best final mile was 6:12 at Grandma's 2018). It was sure nice to have the finishing strength of a well-paced marathon! Though I haven't blown up extremely in a marathon since 2015, I slowed at the end of all of my OTQ attempts (i.e., running 6:30-6:45 for the final 3-4 miles when I needed 6:10-6:15 pace), so I really appreciated this finish. I ran a negative split with a second half of 1:23:59 (and final 10k of 38:59ish despite the climbing), for an official time of 2:48:51, and I just felt so good doing it!

Celebrating when the announcer called
me as 2nd overall female

After finishing I turned around to cheer Lauren in at 2:49:04, and Gabe wasn't far behind, although he ran a low-2:48 (he'd started at 6:00 a.m. while we started at 5:58). We soon found out that the female winner ran 2:45:33, so we gained more on her towards the end. I expected her to be in the 2:30s (her first half was 1:18) so I was surprised, and while I think I could have run a little faster to compete, I definitely could not have run over 3 minutes faster on that course. I was the first American female, if that counts for anything, hah.