Locked and Loaded

Tomorrow I’m running my 6th marathon, and 2nd Akron marathon. To say I have unfinished business with this race is a wild understatement.

The last time I ran this race was 3 years ago. It was about 90 degrees and incredibly humid. The heat advisory threw a lot of athletes off their games. I was one of them. Not to mention I had about a 2-month old daughter, lacking sleep, lacking recovery, lacking sanity, lacking training time…it was a bad experience. I think I crossed the line in 5hours20minutes. Or something like that…

Looking ahead at tomorrow’s race is much different. I’m a much more intelligent athlete. I trained pretty hard for this race. I put in a ton of miles. I didn’t have the BEST or most IDEAL taper in the world due to a minor injury, but I still feel pretty ready. Not to mention, the weather looks incredible tomorrow in Akron. At the start of the race it will be about 45 degrees, only reaching 55-60 by the end of the race. That’s great for me, because as a larger athlete, I produce more heat, and quicker than others. So if I can keep my core temperature relatively down, that will help me over the course of the race.

I’m really looking forward to this one. I trained incredibly hard and what I believe to be incredibly smart.

Triathlon is still my number 1 sport, and the sport I want to see the most improvement in as I progress and grow as an athlete. But open marathon running is an important part of that growth. I would say that despite the experience I have with running, it is probably my weakest leg of triathlon. So I really want to improve as much as I can.

My first ever marathon was May of 2018, when I ran a 4:21 in Pittsburgh. My most recent marathon was October of 2020 when I raced virtually (not fun) and set a PR of 4:08. Tomorrow my main goal is for my finishing time to begin with a new number…3. If I can do that, I would consider that a massive victory and big step in the right direction.

Wish me luck!