March Scorecard

March had five weekends, and I ran five races.  Four were marathons and the other was a six hour race.  I started the month with disappointing results, but finished with two strong races.

On March 1, I ran the Little Rock Marathon.  Weather was cold and rainy.  For the first 19 miles, I was on pace to break 3:30.  Then I turned into a cold wind and got hypothermic, struggling through the late miles to finish in 3:36:17.

On March 7, I did the Stroll in Central Park in Cumming, GA.  This was a six hour race, and I went in with a goal of running something in the upper 30s.  It was another cold day, so I had to dress in layers.  After two hours, I was on pace for 40 miles. Then my pace slowed as I had to stop a few times to shed excess layers and take bathroom breaks.  Finally, a painful big toe slowed me down in the last two hours, and I ended the race with 35.02 miles.  It was good training, but for a six hour race, that was disappointing.

On March 14, I ran the Rock N Roll DC Marathon.  This was another cold wet race.  After an entire week of not sleeping well, I knew going in that just I wasn’t feeling it.  Struggling to stay warm didn’t help, and I finished in 3:45:40.

On March 22, I ran the Georgia Marathon in Atlanta.  It wasn’t cold, but it rained for the whole race.  This is a hilly course, and I had doubts about whether I could maintain my pace.  I kept it together in the second half and finished in 3:28:05.  It was my first Boston qualifier of the month.

On March 28, I ran the Wicked Marathon in Wamego, KS.  I finally broke the weather jinx.  I felt good and ran my fastest marathon so far this year, finishing in 3:23:30 and winning the Kansas Grand Master Championship.  It was also the first time this year that I qualified for Boston on consecutive weekends.

Halfway through the month, I was feeling pretty discouraged, but I ended the month on a good note.

It’s hard to get into a good training rhythm when you’re racing every weekend.  I haven’t had much speed work this year, but I’ve been running hills, and it seems to be paying off.  I’ve also continued to develop my mileage base.  I ran 278.8 miles in March.  That’s up from 254 miles in February.  It’s also the most miles I’ve ever run in March.

I don’t have a race this weekend, so I can put more emphasis on training.  My next two races are big ones, and I want to be ready for them.