Running to My Wedding Day!

Liz C

My mom ran a marathon in her 50s. My brother ran two marathons. My sister-in-law ran two marathons. Countless friends have run marathons. Not me. Instead, I slept late and took some gym classes. 

This changed in September 2012 when I had to walk the end of the Tunnel to Towers 5K. That’s right – At 29 years old and in good shape, I was unable to run 3.1 miles. Unacceptable. Pathetic. As such, I began to run when I felt like it, but realized I should sign up for a 10K to give me incentive to run. What better 10K to sign up for than the women’s-only Oakley Mini 10K? 

After spotty training, I ran this without stopping or walking, which encouraged me to sign up for more 10Ks and the Philly Half Marathon, which I ran without any type of training schedule. My training consisted of running as much as I felt like at any given time, which really wasn’t much. A marathon was on my bucket list. Something I would do in the future. The distant future. I mean, why run one now when I’m young and don’t have any responsibilities outside of work? I should definitely wait until I’m older, married with kids, running a household, etc. etc.

Then, one day, my friend Jen C told me about the NY Flyers. She encouraged me to join the Flyers and its Marathon Training Program (MTP). I told her that I didn’t want to run a marathon and have an “embarrassing” time. She assured me that I’ll be fine and could totally do it. Carpe diem! I’m going to train for a marathon! I told my friends and family, who were supportive and cautiously optimistic.

From Day 1 of Summer MTP 2015, I felt like I was part of something. The MTP Flyers motivated me, encouraged me and made me laugh. I couldn’t believe I was running in 90+ degree weather and actually enjoying myself. 

Race Decorations Now Brighten Up My Office Space

I ran the Philly Marathon in 2014 in 4:09:46, which beat my 4:30 goal by 20:14. Better than that, I had a negative split by running the 2nd half of the marathon faster than the first half of the race (2:06:17 v. 2:03:29), did not hit “the wall,” and flew past at least 75 people during the last mile. In fact, my last mile was my fastest mile. When I crossed the finish line, I kissed the ground and could not wait to sign up for Winter MTP. I was hooked.

Philly Marathon 2014

Now, a lot of runners fear winter marathon training, but I love it. If you dress right, you’re fine. It’s not humid, the park isn’t crowded, and you’re not busy like in the summer. Or, maybe I just love Winter MTP because it blew me away. I improved so much during Winter MTP that I truly shocked myself – and Coach Brian. I loved seeing his reaction to my improvement and found his encouragement truly motivating. Not to sound cheesy, but I felt on top of the world when I ran a 5K at 24:06 and Brian adjusted my VDOT. As an aside, I got engaged just a few hours after running my 5K PR!

Boston Half 2015

I signed up for the New Jersey Marathon and put pressure on myself to beat a 4:00 time. My VDOT indicated that I could run a marathon in 3:58. I’m happy to report that I ran the marathon in 3:56:09, which meant I PR’d by 13:37. But, I’m even happier to be able to say that I ran an 8:00 minute negative split (2:02:20 v. 1:54:09), never hit the wall, and ran my last (and fastest) mile in under 8:00. Also, I ran the second half of the marathon faster than my fastest half marathon, which was 1:58:05 at the October 2014 Boston half six months earlier. I owe it all to MTP and Coach Brian!

Approaching the NJ Marathon 2015 Finish Line

Next up: New York City Marathon 2015. The kicker? It is 6 days before my wedding day! 

-Liz C.