Frisco Railroad Run Marathon

The short:

I won overall female in the Frisco Marathon but it was rough! Warm marathons and I don't get along, but I registered before I knew what the weather would be like because I had a discount code. I thought if I took it fairly easy I could handle the weather, but I was wrong. I led the female field for the entire race but ran the final 8 miles expecting to be caught at any time because I was slowing - but turns out others were dying even more than me and I won by about 8 minutes in 3:25:36. Really the whole thing was kind of out of a running nightmare: downed trees on the trail that you had to go over or under, water that you needed desperately but was hard to access, and conditions you aren't prepared for (at least I didn't forget my shoes!). I'm proud of myself for finishing but I am never doing a warm marathon in April again!

Also important to note: the race organizers are amazing, and it's clearly not their fault that Mother Nature didn't smile on us this year. They put a ton of work into this and they are all volunteers!

Results are here.

My Strava activity is here.

My time was the 5th fastest ever run on this course, which I was disappointed about but at least with the win I kept my 100% ranking on UltraSignup!

The long:

I wasn't sure if I was going to run a spring marathon this year, but couldn't stay away and decided a low-key one sounded perfect. The Frisco Railroad Run is put on by my local running club, starts about 30 minutes from my house, and holds a special place in my heart even though the course feels uphill both ways and the dirt isn't well-maintained. It was the site of my first 50k in 2021. I also paced Jon in the marathon there in 2011 and raced the 8k at the event in 2015, so I knew what I was getting myself into.

What I did not know is that we would get storms and wind in the days leading up to the race. The race runs on dirt for 22+ miles, with the first and last 2 miles on a paved path (the course is just straight out then straight back). The trail isn't technical in the sense of large rocks, roots, and tons of elevation, but it isn't well-maintained and some of it is kind of like two single track trails running side-by-side. Add the storms and we had several tree obstacles on the course, along with crazy humidity! The race organizers tried to clear the largest trees off enough so that people could pass, and it would have been much worse without all of their hard work, but they simply didn't have the manpower to clear most of the debris off that many miles of trail 12 hours before the race.

We had my least favorite race weather: warm, windy, and humid. It was about 68* at the start and 76* at the finish, with a dew point of 65* and 20 mph south winds. My original goals for the race were to win and to break the course record (3:17:58), and I was hoping I wouldn't have to run all out to accomplish them, but the worse the weather and trail conditions became, the more unsure I was if I could even manage 26.2 miles that day. I have never run a hot spring marathon before (I've done several hot ones in September-October after training through the Midwest summer), but I've done several shorter races that were warm in the spring that weren't great - in hindsight I should have realized that I was doomed, but sometimes I still choose a bit of blissful ignorance.

I think if I was racing a marathon on a good course and in good conditions right now I'd run around 7:00 pace. I decided to aim for 7:30 pace, which would have put me in at 3:16, good for the course record and what I though was a conservative adjustment for the temperate/humidity. This course is pretty hard to negative split on because there is a lot more decline going out and incline coming back, plus this year we had a tailwind going out and headwind coming back. It is much harder for me to negative split anything when it's warm, so I figured it was unlikely I'd be able to pick it up in the second half but I'm also not dumb enough to try to bank time - so I thought if I ran an even split it would be really good.

I started off right at 7:30 and it felt so easy. I was gliding along holding myself back, and even decided that I'd run to 20 at 7:30 then do a progression from there to keep myself from speeding up. Oh, the optimism of the beginning miles of a marathon! Often I don't feel like that when I'm racing a marathon; I feel like I am riding the line the whole way and marathon pace is not easy. During the early miles I was certainly hoping this one would feel more like a long training run.

Happiness sometime before mile 2

My only real problem, aside from going over and under a few downed trees, was that I had to pee badly as early as mile 3. I made myself wait until 12, and I was really quick (maybe 15 seconds) and still ran 7:41 for that mile. The beauty of running a small race on a tree lined trail!

I had to stop & hold onto the branch that's
sticking up to get over this one

Although this isn't me, it's just what I looked like here

All was generally good and I made it to the halfway turn around in 1:38:5x. I saw the 2nd and 3rd females were about 1:30 and 2:00 behind me, which made me a little nervous because I did not think I'd have much fight in me during the final miles of a marathon in warm weather. Miles 12-13 are pretty downhill and miles 14-15 go back up it. I expected miles 12-13 to be a little quicker and miles 14-15 to be a little slower, which is what happened if you take out my quick stop to pee. But then miles 16-17 back on flatter ground stayed slower and I could tell I didn't have 10 more good miles in me. I knew the possibility of the course record was slipping away, and my goal became to hold on for the win.

Most people don't negative split marathons (even though it is the best way to run one, it is difficult to execute), and of the minority who do few of them can do it in warm weather. Especially not in April when all of your long runs have been in the cold! So, I just hoped that those behind me were feeling about like I was and did what I could with what I had. The 20 mph headwind wasn't as bad as I expected because most of the trail is tree-lined, but when there were stretches without trees it made things even harder.

By mile 20 I was really feeling done, but reflected back on the Easter Sun Run 10k when I felt terrible for most of the race yet managed to hold my place in the women's field. I kept counting down distance to the next aid station because each time I got water I felt better for awhile. There was one at about mile 21 and then the last one at about 24. In the end it didn't matter, but I lost time at each aid station because they were not handing you the cups but you had to stop and pick them up off the table - which also meant finding them on the table. At one I had to ask for cups and they tried to give me a half gallon of water to "refill your bottle" (I was not carrying a bottle, though in hindsight I really should have been!). If I'd have missed the record by a minute or less I'd have been really annoyed about this because I think I lost 5 seconds at each of the 9 aid stations since I couldn't run through. I HAD to have water though, so there was no choice. When I ran the 50k I had my crew handing me bottles so I didn't realize this was how it worked - but if I ever run this marathon again I'm going to need a crew again!

"Can you hand me a cup? A cup of water?"
+ Sally telling them I wanted a cup. I found
cups hidden behind those orange containers.

Each time I heard my watch beep another mile I also thought "thank God!". Even though I was dramatically slowing, I passed a good number of men in the final 10k, which helped keep me going. I started telling myself "surely you feel better than you did at this point on the course when you ran the 50k", which may or may not be accurate - I think it was just different types of bad. Heat rough hits me differently and I am very fortunate the weather was good the year I ran the 50k!

I knew the landmarks I was passing as I got closer and closer to the finish. I was so ready to be done, and so happy I hadn't gotten passed yet. I thought I had a little fight in me if a woman were to come up on me, but I'm glad I didn't have to dig to try to find that. I didn't kick at all. My finish was very anti-climatic, and I grabbed a bottle of water and my medal, then walked straight to my car and took my shoes off.

Everyone I knew who raced had a rough day. My friend Casey won the half in 1:30, and based on the 7 days a week I run with (or behind!) her, I know that she is in 1:21-1:22 shape. The man who won the marathon is kind of adjacent to my running group and he's been cranking out long chunks of 5:55s to 6:10s in training plus lots of mileage, so I hypothesized he was in at least 2:42 shape, and he ran 3:03. The woman who was 90 seconds behind me at the turnaround ran 3:33:33, which seems like a very satisfying time but also indicates she was slowing down way more than I was, and that is saying something! How to win a warm marathon: die a little less than everyone else.

Another factor was that I did lose 3 weeks training to the flu, and then wasn't quite back to normal until not long before this race. My long run build was 16-16-20-23 because of that. I don't think I was that poorly trained since I did weeks of mileage and long runs in prior to the flu, but it probably didn't help. I only did one training run on gravel, but that was the same way I approached the three 50ks I've done on gravel so it seems to be a non-issue. I have also had a flare up of vertigo, and had been struggling with that for about 10 days prior to the race. I don't think that hurt me in the race, as I didn't experience any dizziness then and it's mostly an issue when I lay down or engage in certain movements, but not being able to lay down flat doesn't help my sleep.

Casey & a guy we don't know looking like
something straight out of Runners World

The main lesson I learned is: it doesn't matter if you have a discount code that you must sign up in advance to use; never sign up for Frisco until the day before the event when the forecast is reasonable! Or, just do the 8k, lol!

But praise God for another marathon finish! As hard as this race was for me, it was much better than a DNF or DNS. I have now run 45 marathons (not counting my 4 ultras), and enough of them have gone well that I want to keep doing them, even though it seems like I am only adding them to the wrong side of the tally lately! 

If you needed more proof this day was
something out of a running nightmare