A little Background about myself.
In 2015, I saw a sign about a 5K to" Run 4 Rachel" and thought , that would be something good to do for someone. Little did I know you need to register to run. When race day came, I checked online and it said registration closed. I was like, what? After Missing that race, I decided to look at nearby races on the calendar. I found Austin half marathon and signed up with about 8 weeks to train.
I found a random training plan and did my best. I ran hard everyday thinking that's too the way to do it. On race day, I was just hoping to finish. I finished in 1 hr 56 mins and the last mine was my fastest. That finish got me thinking I can do more.
That lend me to signing up for my first.
To make this long story short, I did the first Marathon, Austin marathon in 2016 and finished with a time of 3 hrs and 44 mins, Trained Harder, Using Hanson's Marathon method, Did the second in 3 hrs 23 mins in the same year. 21 Minutes PR.
I started believing I can Run Boston Qualifying time ( 3.15.00)
Did my 3rd as a training run because it was super hot for the Austin marathon and finished in 3 hrs 48 mins. That was in Feb 2017.
I decided I needed to take it to the next level. I started a More tough Hanson's Marathon method plan getting my Miles up to 80Mpw peak! I had a July Race in Seattle and Finally at Jack and Jill downhill Marathon I ran that Boston Qualifying time. ( 3.11.48). That was good for a 11 mins PR and Boston Qualifying buffer of 3 mins 11 secs.
That buffer ended up being Not enough to actually run Boston 2018 by 12 secs! Ouch!!
I decided to do a short Houston marathon cycle to get at least a 5 mins buffer. The training cycle had so many speed bumps. My knee didn't feel healthy during training. Came race day, I ran a time of 3.17.12.
Not the time I wanted but given the way the cycle had been going, I finally had a" bad"race!
Now, I will have to reboot again and go get that BQ minus 5. I am dreaming of a sub 3 in the future. Hopefully, i get that in the next 2 years!