Route 66 Virtual Marathon Relay

I've written about our long race history with the Route 66 Marathon, Half, and Relay in the past. Read that post here. It all started with Jeremy running his first marathon at the race's inaugural event in 2006. I ran my first marathon at the Route 66 in 2008. We love the event and have run it almost every year. This year was supposed to be the 15th anniversary of the race and they had big plans to make it even more special. When they had to switch to a virtual event, they decided to call it the 14 and 1/2 race so they can do all the special 15th anniversary stuff at the next in-person event (hopefully fall of 2021). Jeremy decided he wanted to run the full marathon even though it was virtual. Ty saw the race sweatshirts and really wanted to be on the relay so the rest of us (Ty, me, my mom, my dad, and Thomas) signed up for the virtual relay. We figured since it was virtual we could split the relay up however we wanted as long as we covered a total of 26.2 miles so mom, dad, and Ty all planned to run a 5k. There were 17 miles left for me and Thomas to split and we decided he'd do 6 and I'd run 11 with a mile warm up and a 10 mile tempo. Then the week of the race Thomas got really sick so we decided we'd use his 5 mile tempo from before he got sick and I'd cover 12 miles with a mile warm up, 10 mile tempo, and a mile cool down. Jeremy planned to start his marathon around 11am on Saturday morning so mom and dad drove up that morning to arrive in time for his start and we ran our relay after he finished.

Mom, Jeremy, and Dad after Jeremy finished his marathon.

It was so much fun driving around cheering for Jeremy. He planned his route as an out and back starting south on Riverside from the 41st Street parking area and then another out and back starting north and going over to the west side of the river. That meant we could drive down Riverside and park in different parking lots with trail access along the way, seeing him about every 1-2 miles for the most part. Many of the parking areas also had playgrounds so the kids got to play for a while before heading to the next spectating spot (but not very long since we were seeing him about every 2 miles!) When we stopped at one playground around the 4 mile mark I misjudged how far it was to the next park and let the kids play a little too long. So we missed him on the way out at the playground at 96th Street but caught him when he went back by. While waiting for him to come through at around the 13 mile mark I set up a pickup order at Panera for myself and the kids for lunch. We went from there to Panera and picked up our lunch, missing him at the next spot but catching him again around 4 miles later! He had an awesome race and finished in 3:44:09.

I wore my running clothes under some sweats so when Jeremy finished at 41st and Riverside I took off from there and ran home while my mom drove my car back to the house for me. With spectating Jeremy's race I ate lunch late around 1:30 and started running around 3:30 so I wasn't sure how my stomach would feel since I'm used to running either first thing in the morning without eating or in the evening, about 5 hours after lunch. My first mile was a warm up and I was glad for that so I could see how my stomach would do and it felt a bit off but ended up being fine. I was a little antsy to get going because I drank some Nuun with caffeine a little bit before starting so I was excited to start running faster. I ran my warm up mile in 8:03 which is faster than I'd normally run a warm up in but I was excited and it was still technically part of the race so I let myself go a bit faster. It felt great dropping to tempo pace and I ran the first 4 miles of it in 7:16, 7:15, 7:13, and 7:17. Toward the end of mile 5 I started up the hill at 71st Street. I knew it would slow me down significantly but I had really wanted to run home so I went ahead and ran that part of the trail. I told myself not to push up the hill since I would still have quite a few miles to go once I got up it. I hit mile 5 in 7:35 about halfway up the hill. Then made it up the top of the hill and past it with mile 6 in 7:38. I didn't let myself get discouraged because I had known that hill would slow me down. I felt fine going up it but it took quite a while to get my legs back after I leveled back out.

Ready to start my relay leg. I tried to make 2020 with my fingers, but like 2020 I screwed it up!

Mile 7 was 7:22 and I figured I'd get back down to 7:15ish pace which I had planned to shoot for during my tempo once my legs came back around. They never really did though. I felt okay and felt like I'd dropped my pace back down but I just couldn't get back to where I was. Mile 8 was 7:23 and I couldn't pull anything more out for mile 9 in 7:37. I had a couple choices on ways to get home and ended up going home a way that would mean I would finish uphill the last mile of my tempo. I don't know why I didn't just run a mile out and back on the trails so I could go the shorter way home that didn't involve a hill, but for some reason I thought my legs would be able to handle it. They could not and I struggle bused it up that hill like nothing else and hit mile 10 of my tempo right as I reached the top in 7:59! Oh my goodness! I averaged 7:27 pace for the 10 mile tempo which wasn't terrible but definitely wasn't close to the 7:15 pace I expected to be able to manage. I knew the hills would knock me off pace but I had expected to come back from them better than I had. My mile cool down was 8:51 for a total of 12 miles in 1:31:36, an average of 7:38 pace. 

Ty and my mom were done running when I got back. They decided to run together while I was gone so they could finish before it got dark. Dad took off on his leg of the relay when I returned. Thomas ran his 5 miles in 37:51. Ty and mom finished in 38:02 and 38:04. They finished together but Ty stopped his watch at 3.11 while mom stopped hers at 3.12. Dad finished in 27:24 and I finished in 1:31:36 so our overall finishing time was 3:52:57. When we went to enter our results we saw they had specific distances each relay member was supposed to run so we may not be able to use our relay legs for the results. We will see what happens. 

I've been having a tough time with speedwork and tempos all fall season. I don't know for sure what is going on with me. I was in amazing shape in the spring before coming down with the flu. It took me a long time to bounce back from that but when I finally felt back to normal, I hadn't lost much speed and was still running tempos in 6:50 pace and speedwork in normal splits for me. Then the week before and the week of my July 4th virtual half-marathon, I started having weird dizzy spells where I'd fall getting out of bed and feel all weird walking and even more so while running. I tanked that half and decided to just do all easy running with no speedwork or tempos as I trained for the Virtual Boston Marathon as I wasn't interested in actually racing a virtual marathon. I'm hoping that between no speedwork for 3 months and then running the hilliest marathon I've ever run for my Virtual Boston in September, it's just taking a while to get back to myself speed-wise. I may also not have given myself enough down town after the marathon. Since I ran it at training pace and not race pace, I didn't think I'd really need much recovery time. Looking back I ran a couple 5ks after running my PR marathon but I didn't start back to speedwork until 8 weeks after the marathon. I was back to speedwork 3 weeks after Virtual Boston. That may just have not been enough down time for me. Part of me worries I had Covid along with the flu or something else that has caused damage and is screwing up my running, but I did have that good patch of running in May and June that leads me to believe I'm just not bouncing back from the marathon and lack of speedwork as quickly as I'd hoped I would. Whatever the case I can still run and whether I get back to myself or not, I'm thankful to get out there every day and enjoy my runs regardless of the paces!