“At TriSports.com, we believe in supporting athletes, clubs and races that have made a commitment to actively improve the sport of triathlon. We are a global company and we feel it is our responsibility to support the ‘local’ triathlon communities that support us. We sponsor over 60 events around the world and donate to several charities, including the Challenged Athletes Foundation. Our goal is not to simply sell the products people need in order to compete in the sport, but to actually help the sport grow. By supporting the clubs, teams, individuals, races and charities, we are able to see the fruit of our efforts in this goal.”
CLICK ON THE TRISPORTS LOGO BELOW TO GO TO THEIR WEBSITE. USE THE COUPON CODE PJANSEN IN THE PROMO FIELD TO RECEIVE 15% OFF EVERY DAY! For more info on the team, click on the SPONSORSHIP TRISPORTS logo.

Thursday, November 10, 2011

The Finale: Marine Corp Marathon, Oct. 30, 2011

With the tri season ending on Oct. 2nd, Chris and I had one more big event on the docket: the Marine Corp Marathon in Washington, D.C. on Oct. 30th.  It had been several years since Chris & I had done a marathon, but with IMLP 2012 waiting in the wings, we decided that it was time to see what we had in the legs!  There's really no training plan for combining marathon training with half-ironman training, so we sort-of pieced our workouts together and hoped for the best!

Driving down to D.C. the day before was interesting with a rare October snow storm hitting the area!  Ok, with all the rain we had to deal with at the end of summer and early fall, this was seriously not funny!  Fortunately for us it all cleared out overnight leaving us with a very chilly race day morning with temps in the 30's!  Layers were the order of the day.  Chris & I were prepared to line up in corral 2, however our friend Ted convinced us to join him in the front corral.  Indeed we were, as my chip time was 10 seconds off the clock time! 

Overall, this race was fabulous.  The Marines served as volunteers for the race and were themselves a profound presence.  Crowd support was also top notch and except for this lonely highway portion of the race at around mile 21, there were plenty of energetic people encouraging us along the way.  Being "Miss Consistent," my race splits were laughably even.  I ran with the 3:15 pace group for a few miles in the middle, but had to slowly watch them disappear around mile 17.  Chris ran with blistering speed (actually incurring two really nasty blisters!) at sub 7's for the first 30k.  We got to see each other once on the course at an out-and-back section, so were happy to note that we were both on track to PR.

Ted and I met up between mile 25 and 26 and pushed each other to the finish.  The last .2 is literally up a steep hill, so my stride turned into a bow-legged, groaning shuffle!  What a great feeling to be completely DONE and have a Marine award you with a finisher's medal!  I couldn't have asked for a better end to an amazing, emotional racing season with both Chris and I accomplishing so much and earning two hard-fought PR's!  Chris: 3:10:00; Polly: 3:19:55
The post-race massage and celebratiory beers were a great reward on an amazing day.  Thanks to Chris, HCM Foundation, friends & family and my dad's inspiration for this unforgettable 2011 season.
Posted by at

1 comment:

  1. DeanneNovember 10, 2011 at 10:50 AM

    You both are so inspirational! What a long, tough schedule you had this season, and for a great cause. You were simply amazing in your performances. Congrats! :)

    ReplyDelete

Subscribe to: Post Comments (Atom)