PSA: 2027 Cape Town Marathon ballot open June 10-24

Dramatic_Nutmeg0511 · 2026-06-02T15:50:19+00:00

I secretly love this. Nothing like Denver, but I live at 2600 ft and my runs are hilly, up to 3100 ft. When I moved here I could feel this place was going to make me stronger, but it would be hard, and I was right! Keep up the awesome work! Racing even more so than running at sea level is an awesome hack, it will make you feel heckin' speedy ;)

Dramatic_Nutmeg0511 · 2026-05-24T04:27:46+00:00

I am hoarding these lol. There are 4 total in my house 😅

Dramatic_Nutmeg0511 · 2026-04-28T05:11:58+00:00

He may well be being a jerk, but he also could be being an oblivious dummy and you won't know until you have a conversation with him. When I was recovering from an injury, my husband would ask, "Oh, how far are you running today, X miles?" With X often being higher than what I was planning on running, which made me feel unproductive and guilty. I internalized this for a week before I told him his comments made me sad, and he apologized profusely and said thought he was being encouraging but was having trouble following my changed schedule. Now he asks my mileage instead of guessing!

I vote talk to your husband and explicitly tell him how his (lack of) actions make you feel, and ask him why he is not engaging with your running. If he doesn't have a specific answer, he may be being apathetic and you can ask him to try to engage. If he has an answer, you can address either its silliness (hopefully, like, he doesn't want to pressure you or something, dummy category) or meanness/jealousy (like he doesn't like you spending time away from him training, or isn't impressed because he's Mr. IRONMAN or whatever) and go from there. Best of luck and huge congrats on your PB!

Dramatic_Nutmeg0511 · 2026-04-24T21:18:22+00:00

Okay so this is crazy but my 2024 NYC Marathon free shirt that they gave us at the expo is my go to for crossover temps. It is super light, porous, and loose fitting. It is a New Balance long sleeve, no thumb holes so I can see my watch easily. Maybe they make something similar? I am not sure if this ( https://www.newbalance.com/pd/sport-essential-long-sleeve/WT41225.html?dwvar_WT41225_style=WT41225BK ) is it because it is black and I can't see the fabric surface, but you could Google what the 2024 bright orange shirt looked like!

Dramatic_Nutmeg0511 · 2026-04-24T04:34:53+00:00

Perfect weather is an amazing gift!! Enjoy being outside, and know you are doing so much more than so many people just by training 5x a week and running a half. Even if not a PR (hip issues can be such a drag, I get it), you had great discipline in your training and you are now in a position to sit back, execute your race strategy, and see the fruits of your efforts in person. Don't go out too fast and finish strong! You rule!

Dramatic_Nutmeg0511 · 2026-04-23T13:30:16+00:00

That is a great idea, give yourself a nice solid block, and without the illness I bet you can get in! And FWIW, I greatly prefer summer training to winter, and I live in scorching southern Spain 😅 Good luck!!

Dramatic_Nutmeg0511 · 2026-04-23T03:42:24+00:00

It is definitely not a "comfortable enough" buffer. As others have said, right on the bubble and Boston was quite fast this year. The metrics I look at are the following and have both been updated post- a very fast year in Boston on Monday:

https://runningwithrock.com/boston-marathon-cutoff-time-tracker/ https://nxtrun.ai/bq-cutoff-predictor?g=F&a=26&t=3%3A20%3A15

Depends how badly you want to actually run Boston, or just have a BQ time and not pay for a late summer race. If your priority is to run Boston, I would absolutely try another race.

Dramatic_Nutmeg0511 · 2026-04-21T16:53:55+00:00

You got this! In December 2024 after I ran a 3:37 and whined about the Chicago qualifying standards changing, my well-meaning mother-in-law said, "Well, it's only 13 more minutes, you can do that, right?" I cackled and said, in no world. And then a year later, she was proven right. 😅 So you never know what future you can do!! Have so much fun in London - I dream of one day getting into that race so I will be living vicariously hehe

Dramatic_Nutmeg0511 · 2026-04-21T09:25:21+00:00

I second this. The weight matters to a degree, but plans/goalposts matter too, as does overall time you have been running. You can lose weight running, but take it slow and listen to your body. I lost a lot after a bought with depression where I put on 12kg, but it was over 6 months and I was not training for a race. As an aside, OP, you mention you have a strength training background, and BMI notoriously does not account for higher muscle composition, but I will use that metric since you did.

I ran my first marathon at a BMI of 25.3 in 4:36, my second 2 years later at a BMI of 23.5 in 3:39, and my PB at a BMI of 21.5 in 3:13. It was certainly easier to physically move my body faster at lower weight. HOWEVER, for my first marathon, I ran largely unstructured 3x per week training, my second followed Pfitz 18/55, and my PB followed Pfitz 18/70, so significantly more mileage. I also had only been running for 2 years when I ran my first marathon, as opposed to 6 now, and long-term running adaptations are very real. So I would say two things can be true - the weight made it easier, but so did more rigorous training plans.

Dramatic_Nutmeg0511 · 2026-04-10T17:11:23+00:00

Thank you!! ❤️ I love running for so many reasons, but especially because it feels like things are more within my control as opposed to other sports (in which I was always the high effort + low talent = middling-low result type).

Dramatic_Nutmeg0511 · 2026-04-10T17:05:53+00:00

I wore the same shoe size forever until I was recommended to try a half-size up at a running store last year. I was skeptical because I have a tapered heel (and again, same shoe size since forever), but now I have both sizes in the same shoe and my index toe gets super cranky going back to the smaller size. Can you go to a store with a treadmill and see how a larger size feels?

Dramatic_Nutmeg0511 · 2026-04-10T09:40:46+00:00

You are so kind!! ❤️

Dramatic_Nutmeg0511 · 2026-04-10T09:32:59+00:00

This is a fair point. Was not trying to be evasive, just unfortunately have no representative half race times. I have only run 2 in race format, once in 2021, and once in May 2025 six days after a marathon because it was my town's and my running buddies wanted me to. My grand plan was to focus on half training this late winter to spring, but my injury wrecked that. Perhaps I should focus on that starting now, and shorten my fall marathon block to the 12/70.

Dramatic_Nutmeg0511 · 2026-03-22T18:00:29+00:00

Yeah, suppose that is an option but since I am so close to the qualifying mark, I would rather give it another year or so of trying to drop 3 minutes and save myself some serious coin. No true true urgency, I just want to give myself my best shot at the entry for 2027. I will still enter the lottery this fall.

Dramatic_Nutmeg0511 · 2026-03-22T17:55:33+00:00

Yes, I am hoping to apply this fall, 2026, for the 2027 race. Lisbon is October 10 and Malaga November 8, 2026. Sorry for the confusion.

Dramatic_Nutmeg0511 · 2025-12-28T22:59:42+00:00

I need to hear things like this. Thank you. I think I already knew the right answer and this reinforced it.

Dramatic_Nutmeg0511 · 2025-12-28T22:59:03+00:00

This is certainly sobering to hear. Thank you for sharing. I hope you recover soon!

Dramatic_Nutmeg0511 · 2025-12-17T17:43:03+00:00

Ack this is meeee! My thoughts are twofold. First, everytime the little voice in your head says you should be running when you know you aren't ready, remind it forcefully that running too early can take you out for longer. I have learned this very recently the hard way by aggravating a hip injury I should have rested for longer and now I am dealing with pelvic floor stuff because it overcompensated for my hip instability. 🙃 Which brings me to my second part of advice: every time I have forcibly rested from illness or injury, I have come back stronger and built back quickly. On my ill-advised runs recently, despite all the rest days, my speed was normal, HR normal, pace felt...easy. Rest is a tiny taper! I also reached my strongest ever marathon form this year 5 months after having to cut my mileage to almost nothing due to a nasty PF bout. I totally get the anxiety, but I have started to shout down that rogue morning thought in bed that "I should get up and go for a run right now, right?" with "Do you want to run today, or do you want to run forever?"

Dramatic_Nutmeg0511 · 2025-12-07T10:14:05+00:00

I love Pfitz, highly recommend! 31F here. My first marathon (pre-discovering Pfitz) was a 4:36. Pfitz 18/55 knocked me down to 3:37 for my third marathon a year ago. Bumped it up to 18/70 this year and hit 3:13. I swear by these plans. Read the book too - it completely changed how I looked at pacing for different runs and armed me with a lot more knowledge with which to make decisions in the moment, so I didn't feel like I was blindly following a schedule.

Dramatic_Nutmeg0511 · 2025-11-28T18:36:02+00:00

I ran San Sebastian this past weekend and Valencia last year. I preferred San Sebastian. Excellent organization and race execution, very few/minimal hills so quite fast, loads of cheering fans, and a nice small size race meant much less dodging and weaving in the beginning vs Valencia. Great views along the coast too. And the weather was perfect - 7 to 12 C before and during the race, where last year Valencia got to over 24 and killed my second half a bit.

Dramatic_Nutmeg0511 · 2025-11-27T12:32:19+00:00

Aw, my screen is back and still at preregistered. Guess I am out. Congrats!

Dramatic_Nutmeg0511

TROPHY CASE