Ready to read my entire recap?

Well, you are gonna have to wait a few days 😉

As much as I would have loved to be that prepared, I had a lot of cherished moments after the race with friends, so I barely manageed to get an Instagram post up, let alone write a recap.

Yet, here I sit at 1am (PST), wide awake (why does that always happen after a race?!), so you can have a little update until I travel back home tomorrow, and have some time to write out my thoughts.

I haven’t really had time to entirely process how I feel about the marathon, but as many of you have reminded me, a PR is still a PR, and I still knocked almost a minute off my original time….I think maybe I was just hoping to keep my 4 minute PR streak going, and technically a PR was my C goal.

I can now tell you that the A goal was a sub 2:34, and the B goal was a sub 2:35, but Steve and I have agreed the A goal was never really on the cards with the course, we just weren’t prepared for the rolling hills.

I will also tell you that you were there with me.

Along the way, any time I heard someone yell “go Muir!” or even just a “wooooo”, I imagined it was one of you, one of the people who has loved and supported me along this journey, and that really provided me some comfort, so to each and every one of you who has cheered me on either in your head or through your messages, thanks for helping me to believe in myself 🙂

This PR is partly yours too!

Before I dive off into a race recap, I am just going to say that it was a great experience, and I really felt like you guys were out there with me. I will show you more about what I did with my bottles, and the mental side of things later this week, as I think I had a lot of tips this time that will help you.

Just a few more stats, and then of course, I will share the post race eats with you 😉

2:36:39 for 5th place in the California International Marathon.

I was 15 seconds off 4th, by my roommate for the weekend; Sam Bluske. She BLEW by me with about 800m to go, and not only did it totally catch me off guard, but I just had no response. She ran so well (we had talked about it that morning and her A goal was 2:38!) and totally earned it!!

I did run a positive split, as my first 10k was my fastest, but my slowest mile of the day was 6:05 (averaged out to 5:59 per mile), so at least I stayed within a good range, that shows us that it wasn’t a “out too fast” issue, but just my quads were shot from the ups and downs in the first 15 miles. Actually, Steve and I think I could have maybe even gone out a little faster the first half, but at the time, we didn’t know how I was going to react, and I wasn’t willing to take that risk.

It makes me laugh to think about the amount of people who have said to me about either eating cakes or sweets after my race, makes me think that the two words that most people associate with me are sugar and running.

Not that I am gonna complain, and not that I didn’t do you proud 😉

First, I had a cranberry bliss bar from Starbucks, to keep me going while we waited to be seated at a restaurant called the Waffle Experience, where I had this

Then we went to Ricks Dessert Diner, and I chose a peanut butter chocolate cake (I also got a yellow cake to go, which I am contemplating eating now actually…..UPDATE….am eating now at 2:04am), and Steve also ordered me cake batter ice cream to go with it.

But guys, I have something to admit……I think I officially reached my sugar limit for the first time, I have to admit, the last few bites of cake were a struggle, and I had a few mouthfuls of ice cream I just couldn’t manage.

Now THAT was the shocker of the day!

So I am going to tie up this post now….or I will start going off, and I am not quite ready yet.

I will tell you more about my bottles later this week, and about the people who helped me get here, but for now, I would just like to thank my wonderful sponsors for allowing me to continue to chase my dreams as a runner,

That’s you Saucony, EnduroPacks, Inside Tracker, Sizzlefish,  Body Health, Nuttzo, Kentucky Kombucha,  UCAN, Prescript Assist and Go Raw (be sure to check out my Team Ice Cream page for more about what they are and coupon codes if you want to try any of them).

THANK YOU from the bottom of my heart to everyone who has taken the time to send me a message over the last 3-4 months, it truly means so much.

Now, let me go finish my cake and not move for 2 weeks!