A Tale of Two Marathons: How I PR’d by 12 Minutes (with a BQ!)

Now that I have run two (2) whole marathons, I am a qualified marathon expert. Or at least, somewhat knowledgeable. Okay, I am still an idiot who doesn’t know anything. But now that I have run two marathons, I can at least compare them. Unfortunately, I can’t tell you how to run an Olympic qualifying marathon. Also, if you’re looking to run an Olympic qualifying marathon, you are very much on the wrong blog.

In this post, I’m going to take a close look at the two 26.2-mile races I’ve run in my very short life as a marathon runner: the 2018 TCS NYC Marathon and the 2019 Novo Nordisk New Jersey Marathon. I’m kind of a numbers nerd, and I thought this could be a fun way of comparing the two training cycles and races – examining what I did better, what I could still do better, and how luck and life circumstances played a role. Let’s have some fun! Or maybe it’ll just be me who has fun!

NJ Marathon Training: Week 16

And here we are.

I started training for the New Jersey Marathon back in, hmm, let me just scroll through my training log… 1987. Or maybe it just feels that long ago? Actually, my first day of training was January 7, 2019. Which, holy crap, is actually a long time ago. Not even two weeks after Christmas. Remember Christmas?

NJ Marathon Training: Week 15

Well, better late than never writing my week 15 training post. I am currently sitting at the end of week 16 so let’s get this one done and done. It’s been a busy week. I can’t believe I’m saying this, but I think I am ready to be done with marathon training. Luckily, as of this Sunday, I will be.

Here is what I did in the penultimate week in my 16-week training plan for the New Jersey Marathon!

NJ Marathon Training: Week 14

The Great Taper has begun! Week 14 is the third-to-last (antepenultimate, FYI) week in my 16-week training program for the New Jersey Marathon. It is also my first week of tapering, which basically means I’m taking it down a notch. I still logged 48.38 miles this week, down about 9 miles from the week before. I probably could have notched it down a bit further, but too late now!

Thoughts on My First Marathon: What I Got Right & What I Did Not

I started writing this post last December and then never finished it. As I’m winding down my second marathon training cycle (the NJ Marathon is in less than two weeks!) I decided to revisit it with some fresh perspective.

I wrote a full recap about the TCS NYC Marathon I ran last November. This post will be less of a recap and more of a look back at what I got right and wrong – both in the weeks and hours before the race, as well as during. I no longer feel any regret about the race but, as always, I want to learn from my experiences so I can get better instead of worse, which I think is always the idea?

NJ Marathon Training: Week 13

Lucky week 13 of training for the New Jersey Marathon was my highest mileage week, ever: 57.51 miles! And, luckily, nothing went terribly wrong. No soreness. No catastrophes. No icy rainstorms, no numb fingers. The week ended with my longest training run of the cycle, which went… not exactly as planned. But not horrible, either.

This would be the last week of training before the Great Taper, which, as of this writing, I have just begun. Crazy that I’m here already. I feel like the race was so far away for so long. Now I have less than three weeks to go. I can almost taste the Jersey Shore salt water taffy now…

NJ Marathon Training: Week 12

I am officially 75% of my way through my training for the New Jersey Marathon!

It’s starting to feel very… real. I’m visualizing the race more and more. I’ve read over the Athlete Guide. I’ve double-checked that I pre-paid for the bus ride down from NYC. I’ll be picking up my bib the morning of the race. I’ll make sure to bring a clear, drawstring bag to check. I’ve been experimenting with fuel. Should I buy new racing shoes? Not sure. The Saucony Kinvaras I wore for the NYC Marathon only have 195 miles on them. They feel good and are probably fine. But I kind of want new shoes? Hmm.

Week 12 was great and one of my highest mileage weeks ever. I seem to have recovered from the weird foot thing I had early in week 11. I ran six days this week, which included one speed workout on Harlem Hill, one marathon pace tempo run in which I discovered something about myself, and one long run that began in Central Park and ended at an Indian restaurant in Queens.