NJ Marathon: A Tough Race…But a New PR!

Hey, guys! It’s going to take me a couple of days to write the full recap of yesterday’s New Jersey Marathon (mainly because I’m suffering from my usual bout of post-marathon exhaustion right now, haha), but I did want to drop in and announce that Todd and I successfully completed my 5th/his 4th marathon yesterday!20150426_135118

I’ll share all the gory details in my recap, but for now, I will say that it didn’t exactly go as well as I had hoped. Even though I went in feeling 100% ready and trained and fully confident that we were going to CRUSH this race, I ended up struggling big time…and I’m still reflecting on what exactly went wrong.

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But the good news? I went into this race wanting nothing more than to finally achieve a sub-five marathon. And despite some extended walk breaks towards the end (and a panic attack or two), we DID meet our goal!

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Though we trained to keep our pace to about a 10:30 — which is exactly what we did up until the halfway point — the fact that I struggled so much in the second half of the race killed our overall pace a little bit. (Even when I meet a goal, I still somehow let myself obsess over how I could have done better…because I’m ridiculous like that).

Thank god Todd was there because let’s just say I let myself go to a dark place several times during the race…and I don’t know what I would have done without his encouragement and support along the way. He did AWESOME yesterday, especially given some of the issues he has struggled with in previous marathons…and I am ridiculously proud of him!

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That feeling when you FINALLY see the finish line…!

Still, I’m excited that I shaved about 20 minutes from my New York City Marathon finish time, and Todd beat his Philadelphia Marathon PR by nearly 10 minutes. So no matter how I felt on the course yesterday, I have to go ahead and put this one in the “win” column. :) 278430_193465367_Medium

There were some aspects of this race that I found pretty disappointing, and I hate that I had such a hard time even when I went in feeling so READY, but just like every marathon experience, I definitely learned a lot yesterday. And I know from experience that no matter how well trained you are, ANYTHING can happen in those 26.2 miles!

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I’ll be back with more details (and photos, of course, haha) this week! Thanks to everyone for your support, encouragement, and advice in the weeks leading up to this race. We both really appreciate it! :)

Have you ever struggled during a race that you felt SO ready to run?

Comments

  1. yay! Congrats on the new PR-as you know I have been trying go sub-5 and something always goes wrong. and my big struggle was the LA marathon in March where I was so ready but the weather did not cooperate at all

    • Jennifer says:

      Thanks so much, Juliana! Don’t I know it! I feel like the same thing keeps happening to me. No matter how well trained/prepared I am, something ALWAYS seems to go wrong on race day. But you WILL get your sub-five!! :)

  2. Congrats on the new PR Jennifer. It is sometimes hard to be happy about a race, even it was a new PR. Christine had an awful race at the Richmond Marathon and was disappointed in it for a long time. Hopefully you can look back, realize what things to correct for your next race and celebrate what you did accomplish, a sub 5 hour marathon. Nice job!

    • Jennifer says:

      Thanks so much, Pam! Yep, I know exactly what you mean. It can be so frustrating to pour so many months of training into a race and then not have things go as smoothly as you hoped. I know that no matter what, I DID achieve a pretty awesome goal this weekend, and like you said, all I can do is learn from my mistakes and apply what I learned to my next race. Thanks again!! :)

  3. Congrats on the PR! I know its hard to right now, but try to focus on the positive: you PRed and got your sub-5. That in itself is worth celebrating!

  4. Congrats on the PR and the Sub-5! How amazing to shave all so much time from NYC :) Looking forward to the recap.

    • Jennifer says:

      Thanks, Jenny! I figured that no matter what happened I would HAVE to shave at least a little bit of time from my NYCM finish…seeing as how my performance that day was pretty much a disaster, lol. Plus, this course was a heck of a lot flatter, that’s for sure!! :)

  5. Huge congrats on achieving your goal!! I dream of a sub 5 hour marathon haha

  6. Yay! Congratulations on the new PR and the sub 5 hour marathon! That’s awesome! Don’t worry about the other stuff, for right now just bask in the glow of a marathon time that starts with a 4! :)

  7. Congrats on your sub-5!! That is so exciting, and I’m happy you were able to hit your goal, and Todd was able to shave time off his as well! I look forward to the deets later on this week – enjoy your rest! =)

  8. Yay, congrats for running a sub 5. That is HUGE! I’m so proud of you two. You guys are a dynamic duo. Always so cute!

  9. Diana Trybulski says:

    Jennifer, I know that it’s hard not to be hard on yourself, but try not to be so hard on yourself! And congrats on finishing sub 5 – that’s so fantastic!

    I don’t have any wisdom to share, sorry – I am not much of a self-doubter race-day – though I do stress beforehand when I’ haven’t prepared well.

    For me, race day is all about getting it done!. My motto is ” freaking out is NOT allowed.” As a former stress eater, I swore years ago that if anything stresses me out, I’m not going to do it anymore – either I have to find a way to cope productively, OR I need to stop doing that activity. It works for me. It’s a rule that I’ve made for myself, in all areas of life.

    • Jennifer says:

      Thanks so much, Diana! I wish I could be more like you on race day!

      I think I need to follow your advice. You are SO right. If I can kick my former eating habits (for me, I was the DEFINITION of an emotional eater!), then there’s no reason I can’t apply the same strategies/logic to my running. Thanks for the perspective! :)

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  1. [...] weeks (okay, months). Not only have I let life, work, etc. get in the way of blogging, but after struggling through the New Jersey Marathon in April and pretty much falling apart during the particularly disastrous Wildwood Half Marathon in May, I [...]

  2. [...] ONE goal. Sure, I have my hopes set on performing better than last year, and yes, I’d like to beat my New Jersey Marathon time and set a new PR. Who [...]

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