Medtronic Twin Cities Marathon #RunMSP

  1        2        3        4       5        6         7       8         9       10     11     12      13  
5:48,    5:48,  5:38 , 5:35,  5:41, 5:38,    5:44,  5:45,    5:55,  5:46,  5:53,  5:56,  6:00,

    14   15    16      17    18     19    20     21    22     23    24    25      26    26.2
 6:06, 5:57, 6:08, 6:08, 6:11, 6:14, 6:16, 6:29, 6:46, 6:46, 6:28, 6:32, 6:21, 1:20   Time = 2:38.57

Have you ever walked into a play that you thought was going to be a comedy and been surprised to find out that it is actually a tragedy? Well, that is what I discovered when I got to about 16 miles into the Twin Cities Marathon. I made the rookie mistake of letting someone else dictate my race – I was reading lines from a tragedy in the middle of my own comedy.

When I set off from the starting line I had one goal in mind, the win. The start went out fast which surprised me and instead of sticking to my own pace I began to rationalize. My mind turned over as quickly as my legs – “I’m as fit as these girls, if I want to win I have to run with them.” “I know this pace is faster than I wanted to average, but they are probably trying to gain some cushion time right now where the course is a little easier”. “I feel good, this pace doesn’t feel crazy, I’m going to do fine”.

I was in the top three, stalking the leaders. As the leaders continued to push the pace, I eventually decided that I could let them go a little bit, keep them in sight but allow them to play themselves out and I would pick them up later. But that didn’t happen, the early damage was done and the rest of the race was a lonely fight to the finish line.

People have asked “When did you feel it?” And my response is, there was never one moment where I said to myself “oh crap”, just a slow deterioration of my pace and with it the accumulation of a few more women in front of me. I was able to hold on to finish in the top 10 and get an Olympic Trials A qualifying time, but that was about it. Mostly I felt foolish….I said to myself over and over again before the race, “I’m going to run my own race” and yet I didn’t execute that plan. I didn’t trust in myself enough.

Lance Elliot (who did trust his own abilities and ran a brilliant race), who I spent a lot of time training with in the past months ended up passing me just before mile 24, just in time for the “smile cam” to snap a picture of us in the mere seconds that we were on the course side by side that day. And instead of smiling as the huge sign next to the camera suggested, I just wanted to give that sign a swift kick. If only I could have picked my legs up more than the few inches needed to clear the pavement for my next step forward.

Oh, and the cherry on top of the cake. I was the only lucky woman that weekend to get drug tested on both Saturday and Sunday! I got to spend a lot of quality time exposing myself to the nice people from USADA. I say this in half jest, because it’s great to have USADA there helping to ensure that the sport that I love is clean. But at the same time, no matter how many times you do it, it is never a comfortable thing to have to drop your shorts with a pair of foreign eyes watching on.

Well now it is over and it’s back to the grindstone for 6 weeks, until the US Championships on Nov 17th in Alexandria, VA. This will be a 12K race which will serve as the “culminating event of USATF’s USA Running Circuit and USATF’s flagship road race, featuring $100,000 in prize money, the race offers an opportunity for everyone to test their limits and enjoy a scenic run through historic Alexandria” (USATF.org).  I am currently in 6th place on the leader board, with the 12k counting as triple points towards the road racing circuit. Can I catch the women in front of me and jump into one of the top three spots? Stay tuned. Make sure to watch the race on Sunday Nov. 17th, or even better yet come out and run!

"Meghan Peyton Preps for Twin Cities" -- Running Times Interview

Meghan Peyton Preps for Twin Cities

After winning the U.S. 20K championships in September, the hometown favorite makes her second attempt at the marathon distance.

By

Sarah Barker

Published

October 1, 2013

Meghan Peyton, 27, is in the crazy-making taper before Sunday’s Medtronic Twin Cities Marathon. The kind of crazy-making in which she does five miles a day. In two workouts. Adding to the stress level, Peyton finds herself on a short list of favorites in a hometown event, the U.S. marathon championships, over a distance she has never completed.

When she was still Meghan Armstrong, she won three consecutive Oregon state high school titles at 1500m and 3,000m, molding her self-image as a mid-distance runner. Once set, the mid-d persona is very durable. But after the NCAA 1500m final eluded her several times, she was more receptive when, in her senior track season at University of Iowa, coach Layne Anderson suggested the 10,000. Her first go at the distance was at Stanford, which turned out much better than she expected and she ran 33:28. She did the 5K-10K double at the 2008 Big Ten championships, winning the 10K, and finished out her college career with sixth place at the 10,000 meters at nationals.

Upon graduation in 2008, she and soon-to-be husband, Cole Peyton, hit the road, checking out training groups and seeing the country, eventually parking the car in Minneapolis with Team USA Minnesota. With the group, she plays the role of the level-headed, quiet, jack-of-all-trades, running roads, track and cross country. Peyton has a 1500m PB of 4:17.4, a half-marathon best of 1:13:43 and a posting at every distance in between. In September, she won the U.S. 20K championships in New Haven, Conn., in 1:09:57. The only event missing from her resume is the marathon, which she will fill in shortly.

When not running alongside Minnesota’s lakes and rivers, she is the Cross Country Fellow at Augsburg College (which is like assistant coach), a client services coordinator at Banfield Pet Hospital and proud Saucony athlete ambassador. She spoke to Running Times before her marathon debut.

Running Times: Your first attempt at the marathon was January 2012, the Olympic trials. Why the big jump in distance?

Meghan Peyton: Dennis (Barker, coach of Team USA Minnesota) kept asking me when I was going to get over my obsession with the mile, and I kept saying, “Every race begins with a mile.” Which is to say, never. But he was persistent in mentioning the marathon, working it into conversations. It was intimidating but I’d done a number of halfs and they had gone OK.

RT: How did the Olympic trials marathon go?

MP: I felt really good for the first 15 miles. I had a blister, but that was in the back of my mind. The pack I was in kept surging and slowing down, from 5:30s to 5:50s, and since this was the trials, I was focused on racing rather than hitting splits. So every time they surged, I went with them. At the 19-mile aid station, I took a Roctane gel, which I had not experimented with before and almost immediately my head felt like a balloon floating up above my body. What does that have, three times the caffeine of one cup of coffee? Plus my blood sugar was low at that point. At 22, the Roctane wore off and I started to crash. Just before 24 miles, you had to do a 180-degree turn around a pylon, my blister hurt and my hip flexors—I thought I’d trip over the chip mat. I could not lift my legs. People started to pass me. My spirit was broken. I looked over and saw the aid station at 24 miles. I know, 24 miles! But at that point, two more miles was an eternity. Even having slowed down, I was on pace for a 2:36, top-twenty finish. I stepped off the course and burst into tears. Lot of excuses but it came down to me giving up on myself. It’s the only race I’ve ever dropped out of, and I swore it would never happen again. Cole, everyone had gone on to the finish line. He said later, if he’d been there, he wouldn’t have let me quit.

RT: Then what?

MP: I was so disappointed in myself, I took four days off and started training again. Hard. I did five or six 10Ks in the spring, focusing on the 10K at the trials. I took some time off at the end of the summer, then ran the 5K championships in Providence, 30 seconds slower than the previous year. Then the 20K championships, three minutes slower than 2011. People tried to convince me it was in my head but after that, I knew it wasn’t in my head. I couldn’t move. I went to the doctor and as I was telling her what I’d been doing, she just shook her head. “Have you heard of overtraining?” she asked me. I had low iron and B12, which was a first for me. I eat meat, leafy greens. I’m not a picky eater. Anyway, she gave me a B12 shot and told me to double my iron supplement, and I felt better, not 100%, but better the rest of 2012.

RT: How did the Twin Cities Marathon come about?

MP: I was looking for redemption at the marathon. It’s a U.S. championship, it’s where I live. It was an obvious choice.

RT: What’s different about your training?

MP: Higher mileage and races every weekend as workouts. The low iron thing is behind me, so higher mileage hasn’t been a problem. No one else in the group is running the marathon, so instead of doing these long hard workouts by myself, we planned a lot of races, all 15K or longer. I can practice eating and drinking protocol, run harder than I would by myself and get used to surging. Or not when other people do. I lined up U.S. championships and then filled in with other races so I was racing every weekend.

RT: Tell me about your peak training.

MP: The week leading up to Bobby Crim (Aug. 24), I hit 132 miles. My previous highest mileage week was 107. I frontloaded the week so my legs wouldn’t betoo trashed, so Sunday was 21 miles, Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday were 18 in the morning and seven in the afternoon. Thursday was 15. My teammate, Heather Kampf, came to Flint with me because there was a road mile on Friday night. The race director said I should enter the mile, too, because the field was weak and prize money went five deep. I ran the mile, got fifth and $250, and the six miles total I’d planned for Friday. Saturday I ran the 10 mile (in 56:41) with a 3-mile warmup and cool down.

RT: During the week, just mileage?

MP: Yes, two-a-days. On Wednesdays, I usually did something fast, like 6 x 800 or 12 x 400.

RT: Some were surprised by your win at the 20K Championship. Were you?

MP: I was, not because I didn’t think I had the talent, but because I didn’t expect it that day. I’d done around 95 miles that week, it was absolutely thick with humidity. My previous best finish at that race was seventh and last year I was 18th, so no, I didn’t have a lot of confidence. At first, I was elated to be in the lead pack and then, when I was by myself in the lead, I was confused but thought, “Just keep pushing. I think you can win this but you’d better get away from them now.” The last two or three miles is this long straight road and I didn’t want to turn around to see who was back there, but I thought, “They’re going to hunt you down.” I was running scared. I’d worked so hard and didn’t want to lose it at the end, so I ran as hard as I could. I was sort of stunned when I crossed the line.

RT: While Competitor Group has cancelled their elite athlete program, I understand other smaller organizations are stepping up. Tell me about that.

MP: (laughs) Well, yes, to the tune of $93. My first weekend race/workout back at the beginning of August was the Grand View Firehouse 15K in a small town in northern Wisconsin. As we were warming up, the announcer was challenging all the women, wondering if any of us had the guts to chase the 21-year-old course record. It looked attainable, but I was told the course was very hilly. After battling with last year’s (male) winner and hometown favorite, and running the last couple miles on a state highway that was open to traffic, I heard the announcer saying, “Meghan, you are my hero!” I won overall and broke the course record by almost six minutes. I cooled down running the course in reverse, cheering those still finishing, and nearly every woman asked, “Did you get it?” At the award ceremony, they presented me with a plaque and $93 they had collected from spectators in a Bud Light pitcher. Of all the awards I’ve earned, this was one of the very best. I felt like I had inspired someone, the announcer anyway, and elite athletes do have value to the running community. I was really touched by the gesture.

RT: What’s the plan for Twin Cities Marathon?

MP: I’ll focus on hitting splits for the first 15 or so. I’m aiming for low 2:30s. I’d like to place high in the (U.S.) championship. Going for the W would be awesome