I signed up for Mountains 2 Beach because I was running (no pun intended) off of a post-race high from IM California 140.6 and wanted to get back to marathoning (and marathoning without swimming and biking beforehand). I asked my fellow Sasquatch runners about their spring plans (because races are more fun with people you know), and quite a few of them had signed up for this one. My friend Lavar coaches runners virtually and has a marathon PR of 2:43, so I hired him to write a 15-week training plan for me. In life, accountability and learning from those who are better than you are key. With the exception of a couple of workouts (which I’ve attributed to low iron and very tired legs), everything went well. I also dropped my half-marathon PR that was from 2013, so that was a huge confidence booster. Still, you never know what’ll happen on race day, and so I set three goals (A goal: break 3 hours; B goal: beat previous PR of 3:01:41; C goal: get sub-3:05 and BQ). With that, I went into race weekend thinking that I had done all the training I could do and whatever happens happens.
We got an Airbnb to house our crew of 10 (5 marathoners, 2 half-marathoners, 1 5Ker, and 2 spectators). Most of the crew had arrived on Thursday, but we flew down to Ventura on Friday afternoon. Dinner consisted of pizza and fries, and then we stopped for ice cream.
We all trekked down to the (very small) expo on Saturday to pick up race materials, and then to Vons so that I could pick up some oatmeal cups for race morning. And while we were there, I discovered Pure Leaf extra sweet tea (hello, liquid sugar for carb loading!) and Rise cold brew (the Airbnb only had a Keurig, and most coffee is better than the K-cups). From there, we drove up to Ojai so we could do a shakeout run along the course (2 miles for me) and get lunch (chicken pad thai).
Once we got back, we relaxed until dinner. I used some of that time to pin my bib to my singlet and get (mostly) everything ready for race day. Dinner was pasta with chicken sausage and a bit of salad. After dinner, I got my oatmeal ready (overnight oats style for the win!) and was in bed by 9pm.
Race Day:
The race started at 6, so I set an alarm for 3am. However, I woke up at 1:45 and laid in bed until 2:45 when I finally heard a bit of commotion downstairs. It was so interesting to see everyone with their headphones on just trying to mentally get ready by tuning everyone else out. I had one can of Rise cold brew and two travel cups of instant oats (one apple cinnamon and one maple brown sugar).
The race offers shuttles, but none of us coordinated our shuttle selections, and one of our support crew ended up driving all five of us to the start. I took a bottle of Nuun in the car with me and finished it by the time we parked (around 5-5:15am).
After everyone used the portapotties, we all proceeded with our warmups. The rest of the crew did a short jog and I stuck behind and did some dynamic stretches.
All five of us were in the same corral (they split everyone up into three corrals based on estimated finish time), so we lined up together. At this point, I went from being mildly nervous to extremely nervous. After the gun went off, Mark took off while, Alex, Warren, Leon, and I stuck together.
The first 6-7 miles take runners around Ojai and are the hilliest miles of the course (roughly 200-250 ft of gain), so I expected these to be slower than target pace. You can imagine my shock when I saw that the mile 1 split was 6:44 (8 seconds faster than goal). I wondered if I had gone out too fast and this race was going to unravel. But I just kept focusing on sticking with the pack. At the 5k mark, we turned around and headed back towards downtown Ojai - the pack was still together and still hitting splits between 6:40-6:49.
Thirty minutes into the race, I took my first gel, and then just kept trucking along with the pack. At some point, Alex mentioned that their plan was to hit a 6:45 average for the first 20 miles and then it would be a duel in the last 10k. I responded by saying that if I hit 6:45 for the first 20 miles, I’d be elated.
Around the 10k mark, we saw our shuttle drivers. I personally appreciated seeing them, and I was quite happy and surprised that our pack of four was still together. And that we We started climbing a hill and I started singing “Running Up That Hill”. (Maybe it was runner delirium or euphoria, but I was uttering most anything that came to mind.)
We continued running along at our 6:40-6:45 pace, and I sucked down my next gel at the 1 hour mark (somewhere between miles 8 and 9). We logged 6:30 for mile 9, leading Alex to say that we needed to slow it down for a bit (since we were about 3 seconds per mile faster than his target pace). I fully supported this, because we still had over half the race to go. We slowed it down for that mile, but then picked it back up for the next couple.
Eventually, we hit a crowd of people and the gel aid station. I snagged a chocolate Clif Shot from them because it was within reach and I needed a gel for later on. We also hit the halfway mark in 1:27:38 (6:41/mi).
At the 1:30 mark, I opted for a gel with about 30mg of caffeine. Around mile 15, we hit a hill (seriously, wasn’t this course supposed to be downhill). Warren drifted back from the pack, Alex drifted back to motivate him, and Leon decided to keep trying to maintain our pace. In that moment, I decided to run my own race. I scaled back to a 6:50-6:59 pace and was playing mental math against my A, B, and C goals. I also stuck with my plan of gels every 30 minutes, and took my Maurten gel with 100mg of caffeine at the 2 hour mark (close to mile 18).
I hit mile 20 in about 2:15 (and with an average pace of 6:45, shockingly), and realized that I could hit sub-3 if I ran 7:20ish miles for the rest of the race. This was the first point that sub-3 actually seemed like a reality. Funny enough, someone fired off a confetti gun at that moment.
Either adrenaline or the caffeine from my gel (or both) must’ve kicked in, because my pace dropped down to 6:42 for mile 21 and 6:33 for mile 22. At the 2:30 mark (between miles 22 and 23), I took that chocolate Clif shot I grabbed and was seriously grossed out by it. Shortly after, I caught up to Leon and passed him.
With 5K left to go, we entered Ventura (where the race ends) and made our way to Main Street. This was cool because we went there for dinner on Friday (so it was like, “Hey, I know this place!) but awful because they had us going uphill. (This ended up being my slowest mile of the race.) Alex caught up with me on Main Street and passed me. At this point, it seemed too early for a surge and I was more focused on my mental math and running my race. It’s also worth noting that with each mile, my A goal seemed more and more within reach.
In the last mile, I started seeing our crew of spectators and runners who did the half-marathon and 5K, which was energizing. Also, I thought I saw the finish line, so I surged. I saw Alex cross the finish line, and I crossed the finish line while he was still in the chute.
I knew I had broken the elusive barrier and I was floored. Additionally, I was glad to be able to celebrate with a teammate in the finish chute and have our crew on the other side of the barricades. I also realized how badly everything hurt. With some help, I went to the results tent and got my time - 2:57:55 (6:47/mi). First sub-3 and a BQ by seven minutes.
What went right:
Above all, I think the training went right. Having someone more knowledgeable write a personalized plan was definitely worth the investment. As was having someone who checks in regularly (both via text and call).
Setting all of the big things out (clothing, shoes, socks, gels) the night before took a lot of stress off of me on race morning. I can’t believe it took me 16 times to figure that out.
I stuck to my fueling plan and I think that helped a lot. Thank you, Garmin watch, for the feeding alarms!
What could be improved:
I took my Nuun in the car because I completely forgot it until right before we left the house. I’m glad I was able to hydrate in the car, but this is something that could’ve been done in advance.
I only brought four gels because I thought that my shorts only had room for four. However, they could hold at least one more and had I brought one more, I wouldn’t have had to grab a nasty chocolate one.
Lastly, I started my kick with about 0.25 mi to go, and maybe I should have started increasing the speed with 0.5 mi to go.
Key Takeaways:
Coaching was well worth the investment. I could write a whole separate post about my experience with this, but I’ll just say that if you have a race in mind and a race goal, get a plan that’s specifically tailored to you. A nice bonus is you get a cheerleader who will remind you that you’re doing awesome when you feel anything but.
On the note of goals, they may be big and scary, but big and scary doesn’t mean impossible. And if they ever start to feel that way, call your squad to have them remind you that they’re possible and to believe in yourself.
