Race Review: Maine Marathon

Sunday I finished my third marathon - the Maine Marathon in Portland, ME! I was pretty nervous for this race (more nervous than I can ever remember being for any race) because my training this summer really didn't go to plan. The heat was really killing me in the migraine department, I was super exhausted from my demanding work schedule, transition to a new job, and moving to a new place, and my motivation was completely shot. Not to mention I hadn't raced any significantly long distance in almost a year (my last race was the Dean Dash 5K in April, and before that was the Wolf Hollow Half in November 2014, so it had been a while!) so in my mind, this was going to be a tough one.

The morning of the race was nice and chilly (a balmy 40 degrees) and my parents and I had the unfortunate task of waking up at 4AM to make the trek up to Portland. I'm so happy they decided to come along with me and volunteer for the race - it's rough when you're up that early by yourself! We arrived at the University of Southern Maine campus (my dad's alma mater!) around 6:20AM and met up with my friend Cassie and her friend Lauren, who were both running the half. I even got to see an former lacrosse teammate of mine - Erika (whose wedding Brett & I attended a few years ago) - before the race which was great! Cassie was kind enough to pick up my bib and swag bag the night before the race so I didn't have to worry about it on race day! Once we all pinned our bibs onto our clothes we headed over to the start.

The race itself kicked off with a bagpipe troupe and the National Anthem and at 7:45 on the dot, the horn for the start blared and all 4,000 marathoners, half-marathoners, and marathon relayers were off! The course was gorgeous and took us through Portland, Falmouth, and Yarmouth, with beautiful views of the coast nearly the entire way. There were water stops every 1.5 miles (any long-distance runner will tell you this is amazing), bands and spectators nearly the entire way, and because it was an out-and-back route, I was around other runners the whole time! I guess the third time is a charm because after a not-so-awesome first marathon and a very small second marathon, this race impressed me to no end. All of the volunteers were great, everyone running the race was super friendly, and I had a great time the whole way through.

Surprisingly, I felt great for virtually the entire race. I was nervous about how my legs and feet would feel because my training had been fairly painful throughout the entire summer. Once I upped my mileage I realized that it was my sneakers that needed an upgrade, so I bought myself a pair of Brooks Launch 2s which have been so amazing! I largely attribute these sneakers for the fact I felt so great throughout this race. It wasn't until about mile 23 that my legs really started to feel it (mostly my right quad/IT band) and I started taking a few walking breaks - though I only had to take 3 breaks in comparison to the NH Marathon where I started to take walking breaks starting at mile 18.

Once I hit mile 25, I felt great. Not so great physically, but mentally. I could feel the finish line approaching and my parents - who volunteered to help out with medals & space blankets - were waiting to cheer me on as I approached the finish line. It was so great to receive my medal from my mom and my space blanket from my dad and to get giant hugs from both of them - now definitely one of my absolute favorite moments in my racing career. :)

I ended up DESTROYING my marathon PR by 26:22. How, I have no idea. When I was around mile 10 or so I noticed that I was on track to PR but I didn't want to jinx myself, but I continued to stay on track to PR and in the later miles this was a huge motivator to keep running. By how much I would PR I wasn't entirely sure, but I kept this in the back of my mind for more than half of the race, and once I saw the time as I crossed the finish line I knew I had smashed it. This is extremely motivating to keep running marathons. Knowing that I can come across the finish line closer to 5 hours than  6 hours gets me so pumped up. I hope that next time I can run a sub-5 hour marathon and keep improving on my time from then on out!

Overall, the Maine Marathon was awesome. I'm so happy that I chose this race as my third marathon. I feel so motivated to continue to pursue my marathon goals and train for the next 26.2 on my list. More details on that to follow! ;)

The Whole Famn Damily

The past two weekends have essentially been family-palooza for Brett and I! It's always awesome to spend time with the family for both of us because when the school year kicks off we both basically drop off the face of the Earth until the holidays (sad, but true). Though these last two weekend consisted of a butt-load of driving (~3hrs both ways to NH and ~6hrs both ways to ME), the people we were spending time with made it all worth it in the end.

Photo courtesy of Brett's sister Melissa!

Two weekends ago we hiked it up to NH for Brett's Uncle Mike's wedding! The ceremony was so pretty - in the lake on a sand bar, with all of the attendees in boats surrounding them. It was a beautiful event and so perfect for the setting! After the ceremony we hung out on the boat for a little bit then headed back to the campground for a reception - complete with champagne & chocolate fondue fountains and puppies everywhere. That's my kind of wedding!

Photo courtesy of Brett's sister Melissa!

Being silly at the reception!

This past weekend we trekked up to Maine to see my extended family! I only get to see them a couple times a year, and this year it worked out that Brett could join me! This was the first time Brett was going to be meeting the majority of my extended family, so it was an exciting weekend. We left late Friday morning and spent a solid 6 hours in the car, but it was fun to hang out, talk, and listen to music as we watched the Maine scenery go by.

As soon as we hopped out of the car, my cousin Tucker - who is 9 - was ready for us to play. We walked out to the back yard and saw the beautiful image that was our view for the entire weekend:

Not too shabby, right?

We took a walk down the shore while the tide was out and saw tons of tidal wild life all over the place, including snails (I taught Tucker the trick to get snails to come out of their shells - by humming!) and tons and tons of washed up jelly fish. Tucker was immediately BFF's with Brett and they played a little bit of frisbee while we explored.

We returned to the campsite and the rest of the family arrived for the weekend. There were drinks, stories, and so many laughs shared and it was so good to see everyone - and for everyone to finally meet Brett! We enjoyed the weekend full of sunshine, sea kayaking, camp fires, good food, and good company. Oh, and not to mention the world's most breathtaking sunsets.

On our way home on Sunday, we made a few stops. First we stopped at Caterpillar Hill, which was this awesome scenic stop that overlooked a lake and the ocean. We knew we had to grab a selfie and a panoramic before heading home for good! (Panoramics were seriously my favorite setting on my phone this weekend, with time lapses coming in at a close second - check out the vlogs below to see what I mean!

And it really isn't a trip home from Maine if I don't make a stop at Pat's Pizza in Yarmouth. I don't remember when this became a tradition of my family's, but every time we drive home from Maine we have to stop at Pat's and get a personal pizza. Even though I wasn't with my parents, I wanted to continue the tradition and introduce it to Brett as well. (Success - Brett loved his pizza!)

After another 6 hours in the car we were home and the weekend was over once again. It's crazy how fast weekends go by, huh? At least they're fun! :) Of course, I vlogged throughout both of these fun and exciting weekends, so make sure you watch both vlogs below!

Brett and I took this weekend easy. We ordered take out and watched the new Netflix series Wet Hot American Summer: First Day of Camp (hilarious) Friday night, saw a show that I was asked to check out for work on Saturday (because my job is awesome and allows requires me to do things like check out shows to bring to campus), and just relaxed with some movies after my #SundayRunday 12 miler yesterday. There's nothing like a month of traveling every single weekend to make you REALLY appreciate the down time!

What did you get up to this weekend?

Souvenirs from the Weekend

My parents came to visit me yesterday for Dean's Family Day, and they brought so many goodies with them! I mean, they usually do (because they're awesome like that), but I felt like a few of these items would make for some good back story from my life, so why not put it in a blog post? Kcoolherewego.

Erika and Nick got Hitched!

Over the weekend Noble, Brett, Jeff, and I took a trip up to Maine to see my lacrosse teammate Erika get married! She's the first of the lacrosse girls to get married, so we were all very excited to be there on her special day. After cutting it as close as we possibly could (thanks to tons of traffic on 95! Grr...), we made it to her adorable backyard wedding in time to grab drinks and watch her quick little ceremony. It was so great to see her so happy, to reunite with old teammates, and to act as ridiculous as we did back in college. I missed it!