Getting there

Tough conditions in Hampton Beach, NH won't stop us...In fact, we'll excel in spite of it.

From right to left - Joe, Bill, Amy




Superb weekend in New England...

But first, it would be remiss of me not to thank CPTC and most importantly my coach Tony Ruiz who have solely been responsible for the re-construction and rehabilitation of me back into the injury free running world.I am still not running at full capacity - meaning there is more in the tank and more that can be squeezed from the sponge - but I have made enormous strides as a runner, especially from a tactical standpoint.Surely I wonder why the heck I can't get myself back to, at the very least, my old form of throwing down sub-1:30 half marathons but I truly do have faith in the new process I am taking to improve and know I will not only get there but I will surpass it.Patience is a virtue (grrrrr).I have thrown down some monster track workouts over the last month and half.Interestingly my improvement has manifested itself on the track as opposed to the roads.My Thursday night CPTC road workouts have been the thorn in my side...I am just not executing as efficiently as I want to or as well as I do on the track.We have a big test coming up on Thursday in the form of an 8 mile tempo broken into two 4-mile segments that I am eager to execute once I recover from today's half up in NH.

I had three goals going into New Hampshire today in preparation for the "dance" (NYC Marathon) in 4 weeks:

1. EXECUTE the race plan the right way2. Finish with dignity...Finish with dignity....FINISH.WITH.DIGNITY.3. Spend some quality time and get a good run in with my father in preparation for the marathon which we will be running together.

Before I continue I have to brag about my father....After crossing the line, I grabbed a water.It was cold, windy and rainy.I was thinking to myself, "What am I going to do to stay warm to wait for my father to finish"?He told me he was expecting to run a 1:40.I had just finished in 1:31:35 so I figured I had about 10 minutes to wait.As I was sipping the water, I looked into the finish shoot and yelled out "HOLY SHIT" as I saw his black singlet and gait coming in right behind me.AWESOME!I dropped my water and ran to the edge of the finish line - my father was racing in...He finished in 1:33:56, just about two minutes after me.The man is 63 years old and that is just a phenomenal time for a dude that age.I can't even describe how amazing that is.Wow.He crushed it!Damn.I was impressed.

His buddy, Bill (pictured above) equally impressed me as he ripped out a 3:18 marathon in crappy weather conditions and in a small town marathon with very little support along the course.Again, damn.Awesome job Bill.I could not have imagined doing the marathon up there.Wowzers.



Number pick up - Smuttynose Half Marathon - Hampton Beach 2013



Coach Tony told me my assignment today was to read my body and reserves.I was not to dip too far into the reserves too early in the race.An aerobic event like a half marathon is not won in the first five miles he says.Lastly he told me to finish with dignity.Most people think that simply crossing the finish line means finishing with dignity.Anyone who has ever raced a half marathon knows the difference between finishing with dignity and holding on for dear life.Most times I am holding on for dear life.It is not a fun feeling.Not fun.At all.Schlepping in those last 3 miles SUCKS.It's a death march really.And I have done it many, many times.Enough is enough.

Tony's plan for me was to run the first 5 at 7:00 pace, then either keep it there or go to 6:50 if I had it in the tank but ONLY if I had it in the tank.He said to put the hammer down if I could for the last 5K but that I didn't have to. When I talk about executing a race plan, this is the kind of strategy I am referring to.

Before I tell you about my execution, let me tell you about waking up and seeing that the wind was going to be 10-15mph with a 30% chance of rain.Rain is fine - I have been told there is more oxygen in the air when it rains.H2O...More oxygen molecules floating around.Who knows.But I believe it...why the heck not?Anyway, try running into a 15mph headwind along the ocean for the first 3 miles and change of the race.At mile 2 I seriously considered just stopping in place and crying.But I didn't.I had a plan to execute.The cool thing about my plan was that I could break it up into three manageable parts, which is always a good way to attack a large project.The half marathon is not my favorite distance.I really don't like it much at all to be honest.So three parts in the form of 5 miles, 5 miles and 5K is much nicer for the mind to process.

First 5 miles - average pace - 6:57.

Right on schedule.Woohoo.Ok, here we go.Next segment. I was thinking the funniest things at this point - I was like "it's the half semester...wait no...it's like the end of the semester...wait no, that doesn't make sense....It's the...who cares...enough of this math...I need to focus"Ha.That seriously went through my mind.

My next 5 were actually among the toughest of the race mentally.I teetered the line of "this is too fast" and "this is not fast enough" quite a bit.At mile 7 I started passing a few people.That put some wind in my sails.One guy that I passed I gave some encouragement to "Hey buddy, stay strong.You running the half or the full?The half?Go get it."And then I passed on by.There was this guy in a blue tank top that I traded places with several times during the course of this segment.

Second 5 miles - average pace 6:55!

YES!Ok, it wasn't the 6:50's I'd have wanted but it was faster than my first 5 and I was doing ok.As I turned the corner onto the main drag along the ocean heading back home, I got a third wind for my third segment.I picked up my pace significantly - I ran mile 11 at a 6:44 pace.Whoa!I felt strong.This NEVER happens to me in races.Or shall I say it rarely happens.I blew the blue tank top dude out of the water never to be seen again.And then I started gaining on a few of the women who led me most of the way.It actually sucks when you are a rabbit for someone and then you get passed at the end.They do alot of the work.But as I have experienced, nice encouragement goes a long way.I thanked all three women I passed."You guys have been awesome...come on...keep strong with me...you have gotten me to this point...thank you"One of them caught me about 400m from the finish and I was giving a 6:40 effort and really breathing hard.I didn't have it in me to kick anymore at that point.I was passed by a few guys in the last half mile.I passed one last guy before the finish.I was actually surprised I didn't pass more people.I guess it was because I ran a relatively even race??Not sure, but I wanted to pick off more people than I did.Ready for this?

Last 5K - 6:47 pace!!!!!!!(ok, I had the tailwind coming back in, but still...come in I get some credit right??)

Successful execution complete.BOOM!

My official finish time was 1:31:35 which is 2 minutes slower than last year's performance but last year's race I went out at lightning speed and just hung on for dear life for about 7 miles.It was awful.I will get back there.I think being injured last year really gave my training a hit...a bigger hit than I could have ever imagined despite how fit I stayed.Still don't know how I ran a 3:20 Boston on little to no training?Adrenalin and rested legs I guess.No other explanation.

My dad told me to go to the table to see if I won an age group award.He had come in 2nd in his age group so he was very excited about that.Not to mention that his age graded performance was well over 80% which is amazing.I told him there was no way I won an award.Not with that slow time.Last year I won 3rd AG and I was 2 minutes faster.I decided I'd go and check to see what the winning time was for the 35-39 year olds.The woman at the table started reading..."Sure, it was One thirty one"...I was like "WAIT, WHAT?"She said "yes, Amy Ka vil...something won it."I looked at my father and then back at the lady."Oh, holy crap.That's me.I won."As she was getting my prize of a t-shirt and cool Smuttynose glass, I said to her "are you sure??please check one more time?" My father asked what the second place person did in my age group.She was FIVE minutes slower than me.Holy cow.Haha.Ok, I'll take it.Very non-competitive field in my age this year coupled with tough conditions I guess.But I did it...I placed 1st out of 461 in my age division.That's cool.I was the 14th place overall woman finisher (last year I was 8th) and 89th overall out of about 3800 people.If competing at a high level wasn't such a big deal for me, I may actually be able to look at that and be ok with myself.But I'm not, of course ;-)It was a small town race.If I was in NYC, I would have been blown away...kind of.

I would like to thank everyone for their support.My CPTC teammates have been nothing short of amazing.Truly amazing.They make me feel so good about myself and my running.It's such a cool feeling to all be under the system, to cheer on one another's accomplishments and to completely understand botching shit up.I love this team.And all my other family and friends who cheered me on too.You guys are all awesome."It takes a village to support a runner :-)"



Selfie of me on the flight to Boston...No better way to travel from NYC to Boston...

31 lovely minutes and BAM, you're there!



NYC MARATHON - 27 MORE DAYS....THE AMAZING THING IS THAT I STILL ISN'T THAT IT IS SO CLOSE BUT RATHER HOW MUCH LONGER I HAVE TO IMPROVE - I HAVE A GOOD 2-3 WEEKS OF TRAINING AND IMPROVEMENT AHEAD OF ME...LOOKING FORWARD TO EVERY MINUTE OF IT.PEDAL TO THE MEDAL...FULL THROTTLE AHEAD.22 MILER NEXT WEEKEND WITH THE LAST 8 MILES AT RACE PACE FOLLOWED THAT WEEK BY YASSO 800'S.BOOM!



"With ordinary talent and extraordinary perseverance, all things are attainable."
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