Kiawah Marathon 2019
Another marathon is in the books! Kiawah Island Marathon certainly holds a special place in my heart as it is the place where I qualified for Boston for the first time. Not only that, but it is absolutely beautiful and I enjoyed the weekend with my family. The island is generally a quiet place with wildlife and magnificent scenery. So, after a full morning of running around the island and walking around the beach, it was a perfect time to snuggle up and watch a Christmas movie.
So let’s get back to the race discussion! We were very fortunate that the rain stopped in time! It was in the 50s, which is generally tank top and shorts weather. However, the wind was pretty intense and I got really cold. That is okay though, I’ll take that over the heat. Anyhow, it was hard to tell that I was sweating, but when I finished, my face was absolutely covered in salt. Thankfully, I continued to replace fluids and electrolytes along the course.
Around mile 20, I began to struggle. Even though I tried to push my pace, the slower paces felt very hard. It definitely felt harder than the marathon I just ran in Grand Rapids just eight weeks ago, despite the fact the fact that Kiawah is even more flat than GR. For the first time, I didn’t set a personal record at a marathon. It was my seventh, and each time before has been better than the last. Admittedly, I am a tiny bit disappointed. But really, just a tiny bit! I am so thankful that I had the opportunity to run yesterday, and it is also the first time I have ever run two marathons back-to-back. It was an awesome weekend!
My thoughts as to why Kiawah felt more difficult than GR:
1. I barely slept at all the night before. I probably got around 3 hours of sleep, at the most. Generally, this is a really big problem for me when running half and full marathons. Maybe I’ll do a post on this another time.
2. Several of my training runs felt hard between GR and Kiawah. This makes me wonder if my body just needed more recovery time after GR.
3. The wind. But, really there is always some kind of element that makes it challenging.
So, I’m not saying I’ll never do another back-to-back marathon. However, I think it is wise to consider how that may change my ability to hit a goal pace. My goal is to hit a 3:15, and I’ll try again next time! Big goals should be hard, so the fact that it is taking more than once to hit it just means that I’m challenging myself enough!
After I finished, some really kind half-marathoners helped get my kids in the runner’s shoot (shhhh probably against the rules) for a picture. It was SO cool to have them in this picture! All-in-all, I am thankful to be feeling pretty well and I hope everyone else who ran yesterday is feeling great to have another marathon or half-marathon under their belts. Now, it is time to rest and enjoy a little off season with easy running with friends, a little more cross-training, and strengthening muscles that will make me a better runner when marathon training starts again!