Sunday, May 9, 2010

May 9, 2010 - near perfect marathon!

I just got back from a last-minute trip to Fredericton, New Brunswick, where i ran my 3rd marathon in 20 days, in a time of 4.36.33. This run was literally near perfect. I ran quarter splits of 69, 69, 69.5, and 69 minutes! I just missed a negative split by 25 seconds, as the hill at the end was unexpected and slowed me down. Overall, a very strong run at exactly the pace i had hoped i could run. The energy levels were not great, as the long travel day the night before from Newfoundland, combined with a rough night of sleep, left me sluggish at the start, but i gained strength as i went on, and probably ran the strongest second half, and definitely the strongest final quarter i have ever run.

Now sure, running a 4.36.33 doesn't compare to the 3.16.59 i ran 2 years ago, but looking at the circumstances of having hormone and sex change, combined with the extra body weight, and the fact that this was 3 marathons in 20 days, i can't help but feel amazed at how well the run went. this really has me fired up and i am really looking forward to getting right back out there next weekend and the weekend after that to make it 5 marathons in 34 days, almost equivalent to the 5 in 30 days i did last year.

i think i am finally starting to get marathon ready. strangely enough, these three runs represent 3 of the only 4 LSD runs i have had since september. so i really entered Boston untrained. what i really need to do is keep up the momentum. these next two will likely be treated as training runs, with hopes to shave off a few minutes more (i'd love to run a 4.29 next week on the flat Mississauga course). then i will have to do whatever it takes to get into better shape so i can take a serious crack at a 3.45.59 late in the summer.

Jenn

3 comments:

nwtrunner said...

Great job Jennifer and those 4 splits are just awesome! That's a lot of racing - much more than I've been doing!

Jennifer McCreath said...

thanks. i was simply amazed at how strong i was in the 2nd half. a great confidence booster!

Boris T said...

Great job Jen!