Okay, so maybe we all can’t run a 3:10 marathon. I’m 99.999% sure I never will, in this life or even my next one.
But 26-year-old Mollie Zapata, a dear friend and my “running inspiration,” did just that at DC’s Rock ‘n’ Roll Marathon, finishing 8th overall among women and second in her age group. And get this: it was her first marathon. Ever. And due to injury she was only really able to train for seven weeks. That’s right, seven weeks. With no speed work (well tempo runs but no track speed work).
Read on to find out how she did it, the benefit of running groups, how to find one that’s right for you, why it pays to have running parents, and where you can find her fantastic blog about books, baking, and running.
Thanks so much to Mollie for sharing your story!
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Before you decided to run the marathon, what was your running background?
I started running in Junior High track, and then continued to run (not particularly seriously or well) through high school cross country and track. I didn’t want to do “distance” in track and instead ran the 800m and the 300 hurdles. (At the time I was much more focused on downhill ski racing, which I did pretty seriously until college.)
Going into college, as I wasn’t going to be skiing as seriously anymore (though I did club ski team all 4 years), I decided that I wanted focus more on running. I walked onto the cross country team and ran XC, indoor, and outdoor track all four years with a few seasons off due to study abroad and injuries. Boston University is Division 1, so it was really competitive and I wasn’t particularly good, but it was overall a great experience. By my senior year I was the team captain, had some reasonably respectable XC races, and then did pretty well at the 3K indoor and steeplechase outdoor. Though throughout I was definitely mid-pack at best.
How have your parents influenced your running?
Both my parents are runners. My dad has run something like 25 marathons, 13 under 2:30 (his PR is 2:19). He coached an adult running team in San Francisco before I was born and when I was really young, and then high school track and cross country for years. My mom was a very good track and marathon runner and ran in the 1980 Olympic Marathon Trials (her marathon PR is 2:46). So I’ve grown up around runners – as a child, all my parents’ friends were runners, and I spent many weekends at track meets, cross country races, and marathons, and a lot of time at various tracks and trails, hanging out while they ran. I was always encouraged but definitely never forced to run. It’s really just an example that was set for me – getting in that daily run has always been a part of their lives, so it only seemed natural to me to do the same.
Since you moved to DC you’ve won more than a few races, no? Brag a little!
I have! This past fall I entered the Backyard Burn 10 Mile Trail Race Series. I ran the first three (of 5 races) and won them all (top female finisher)! I wasn’t able to make the final two races in the series (travel and injury), so I ended up getting second place for the series. And then the Rock ‘N’ Roll USA Marathon on March 16 – I placed 8th overall and second in my age group.
You’re part of a track/running group, right? How does it work? Who runs it?
I moved to DC right after college and immediately looked for a team to join, since I love doing workouts and running with people. Through some random googling I found Capital Area Runners (CAR), coached by George Buckheit. CAR is more serious than your casual running meet-up, in that we have a coach and multiple organized interval workouts, tempo runs, and long runs every week. But the “seriousness” definitely doesn’t apply to speed – people on the team run any distance from the mile to ultra races, and at any range of paces. Coach George is so accommodating to anyone’s plan/schedule/goals – this sounds cheesy but he really is there to help and support his athletes to accomplish whatever they want.
Would you recommend a running/track group for the average runner–or is it only for speedy folks like you? What are the benefits, and how would you recommend people find one that’s right for them?
I always recommend people join running groups! Running with other people is fun, and joining a running group is a great way to make friends. Running can be really isolating – you go out by yourself every day and often that’s nice, but sometimes it’s just lonely and hard. Personally, I have a really really really hard time getting out of bed to run before work unless I’m meeting someone. And workouts or tempo runs? Forget it, I need company for that. There’s also some sort of magical group mentality that makes everyone run better when you’re running together. Plus, a group of runners is a collection of running wisdom (get 10 runners together and odds are someone has done the race/recovered from the injury/explored the trail you’re wondering about).
I say just try a bunch of groups and see which one you like the best. I know there are a lot of once-or-twice-a-week casual runs at various running stores and parks around DC (check running store websites or meetup.com). Timing and location are key, but then also think about how the pace of the group compares to how you want to run. If you have specific goals, I recommend a group with a coach (come out and run with CAR!).
You’re a versatile runner–road and cross country, kicking butt at both 5K’s and the marathon. That’s unusual, isn’t it? What distance/terrain do you prefer most?
I don’t know how unusual it is…I think many people fixate on a “favorite” distance, but I like the mental and physical variation of doing a mix of distance and paces. Thanks to high school and college racing, I’ve done A LOT of 5Ks, and due to post-college injuries I’ve actually done very few longer races (just those three 10-milers in the fall and the marathon). I’ve somehow never done a 10K, and I think that would be a really good distance for me because I prefer to keep my weekly mileage relative low, and I’m not super-super-fast but I can maintain a decent pace over a longer distance. And I’ve always loved trail running – there will definitely be more trail races in my future.
After excelling at the 5K and 10 mile distances, what made you decide to run a marathon?
It was kind of on a whim. I was running well in the fall, uninjured and feeling good. I’ve always known I would run a marathon eventually, so when my running friend suggested we do Rock ‘N’ Roll I said ok!
How did you determine your goal time for the marathon?
I kind of had a goal time, but really it was pretty arbitrary. I wanted to do as well as possible on whatever training I was able to fit in. In the lead-up to the race, people kept asking me what kind of shape I was in (i.e. “Do you feel like you can run a 3:30? A 3:15?), but having never done anything even close to a marathon, how was I to know? They’re just numbers that, without experience, do not correlate to a feeling!
How many months did you train, and how did you create your training program?
Well I registered for the marathon in November (4 months out), then immediately got injured. While I was injured, I did yoga and some pool running. There was major skepticism all around about this race actually happening for me, considering that I didn’t run at all until mid-January (2 months out). Then Coach George wrote me a 7-week training plan, based on relatively low mileage, cross training, and tempos but no track workouts.
Before I started my coach’s 7-week training plan, I was doing a mix of aqua jogging and running.
So here’ s how my January training looked mileage-wise:
5.5 miles (+5 hours in the pool)
17 miles (+3 hours in the pool)
42 miles
46 miles (+1 hour in the pool)
I’m not saying that increasing this quickly is the SMARTEST thing ever…but it worked for me. And I will note that I kept up with about 1 hour a week in the pool through my marathon training.
How many miles were you running a week at your peak? During your recovery weeks?
My highest mileage week was 52. Since I only trained for 7 weeks, here’s how it went: 46, 47, 40, 52, 42, 37, 11 (plus the marathon of course!).
Describe for us how you varied your paces of your runs throughout the week and why it matters.
Twice a week I did tempo workouts, meaning that I ran at faster-than-race-pace for short periods of time in the middle of my runs. For example: in the middle of a 8-mile run, I would do two 2-mile intervals. Very simply, speed-work like this trains your body to handle a faster pace, and process oxygen and recover more efficiently.
What was your pace on your long training runs versus your goal pace for the marathon?
I did my long runs as progression runs – i.e. start slow, finish fast. The goal was to divide the distance into thirds and run the first third at 1:30 over race pace, the second at 45 seconds over race pace, then the last third at race pace. Clearly I overdid it, starting at just over 8-minute pace, and ending around 6:45 pace. Overall my average long run pace was about 7:20ish, which is almost exactly what I ran for the marathon.
Did you do any cross-training?
Yes! I did pool running (aka aquajogging) about once a week, and I did yoga a few times. I also have my own little strength/abs routine that I do a few times a week to supplement my running.
You’ve struggled with some injuries. How have you dealt with them, and how would you recommend others handle such setbacks (if the responses aren’t the same to those two questions!)?
Oh jeez, injuries are the worst. These are my words of wisdom: if something hurts, take time off immediately. And I mean complete time off – do not cross train! – I promise you will not get out of shape in a few days or even a week. Runners always try to run through pain, and I can say from experience, that NEVER works.
If it’s not better after a week, look into whatever treatment options you have. Athletic Trainers should be your first stop, and ask them about what you should be doing cross-training-wise. Also, when in doubt, foam roll! And I have personally had a lot of success seeing a chiropractor, since my injuries are all hip-related.
You qualified for Boston your first time ever running a marathon, which makes many, many people want to kill you. AND you have a history with that city, being a Boston University grad and all. Are you going to run it?
Haha maybe! Marathon Monday is one of my favorite holidays, but the Boston Marathon is notoriously iffy weather-wise and also quite expensive to enter. But you never know, anything could happen! Running through BU would be pretty exciting…
Tell me about your race nutrition/hydration strategy. Were you able to practice this during long training runs?
I am ten thousand kinds of terrible at race nutrition/hydration. Until this whole marathon thing, I’d never eaten or drank anything while running, so it was all new to me. On my long runs, I did eat gus and drink water, but I always stopped to do so – i.e. fatal flaw on my part, because it turns out consuming anything while running is very difficult for me.
For the marathon, my plan was to eat a gu at mile 8, then sports beans at 11, 16, and possibly around 20, and drink frequently along the way. What actually happened was gu at 8, sports beans at 11 and 17, and then that was it. Miles 17-20 were pretty rough for me, and it seriously took me 2 miles to get 100 calories of sports beans down. I did have sips of water along the way, but definitely not enough to drink. I was INCREDIBLY dehydrated after the race.
Anyone who’s read your blog knows how important food is to you. What did you eat race week, and the days leading up to the race? Last supper? Morning of breakfast?
Food is important to me, but I’m really not obsessive about it. I didn’t do anything special the week before the race – I just ate normally. I’m a huge proponent of not changing things just because you’re racing. If it worked during training then odds are it’ll be ok for the race!
For my “last supper” some friends came over for pasta (whole wheat penne, tomato sauce, broccoli, spinach, and turkey meatballs), bread, lots of water, and my roommate got us cupcakes. Then my pre-race breakfast was a Nature Valley granola bar with some extra peanut butter and a handful or raisins (odd, I know…but this is how I eat), a half a cup of coffee, and a sample-sized Luna bar from the race expo.
Describe what was going through your mind the last .2 miles of the marathon–that seemingly endless stretch between the 26 mile marker and the finish.
I actually felt awesome in the last .2! The course goes up a hill and around the stadium, and I’d imagined that part of the race a lot beforehand (pre-race visualization is a thing that has stuck with me from my ski racing days), and anticipated feeling sooooo terrible, but really it was exciting! The uphill wasn’t that bad, and I just focused on my stride and pushing with my arms and GETTING IT DONE!
Looking back at your training and the race itself, is there anything you would have done differently?
Well ideally I wouldn’t have gotten injured in November (of course), but other than that I think I did pretty well training-wise with what I was working with. Though as I said before, next time I’ll practice eating and drinking while running! During the race itself, I think I could have pushed it more – possibly throughout but maybe just in the last 6 miles. It’s always tricky at a new distance to know what is hard enough and what is too hard – it’s a very fine line between the perfect race and collapsing before crossing the line…
What surprised you about the marathon, if anything?
How good I felt and how not terrible it was! This sounds weird to say, because of course it was HARD, but it was nowhere near as hard as I expected, both mentally and physically. I was prepared for this whole experience to be the WORST and most PAINFUL thing ever ever ever, so short of death and dismemberment, I think I would have said it wasn’t as bad as expected to anything. The hills? Not as bad as expected. My legs hurting? Not as bad as expected. Mentally? Not as bad as expected. Afterwards? Not as bad as expected.
Your blog, eatrunread.com, is amazing and inspiring! How does it help your running? By putting your workouts out there does it make you more accountable as a runner? As a baker (haha)?
Thank you!
I’m not sure actually. I try to keep my running posts interesting or amusing or educational/useful to other runners, so I mostly post workouts, running routes, and injury treatment/prevention. I do put my running log on there, but more for my own keeping track than anything else. I rarely blog about my goals or the details of my personal everyday training, just because I don’t think it’s that important. Plus I’ve had goals derailed by injury so many times that I don’t like the idea of having to report back to the interwebs that I failed to make it to yet another start line. Obviously there are exceptions though, and the one time I poured my heart out injury-wise I got the nicest responses EVER and really it helped. And after the marathon I was SO happy with how many nice comments I got on my blog and on Facebook. The best thing about blogging is that it connects me to this great community of runners out there (some I know in real life, some only online) to provide each other with support.
And as a baker, well yes! Thinking of fun and creative recipes to share with the world is always a great challenge, and I definitely look forward to posting new things! And I say this often in my own defense – despite appearances on my blog, I do not only eat cake and I’m actually a very healthy eater!
You can’t do that well and not run another marathon. What marathons are you eyeing for the future? What running goals remain?
Hmmmmm. Well I definitely won’t be doing a fall marathon this year (high mileage in August sounds like the worst thing every to me), but if running is going well then I could do a spring one. I guess you could say I have my eye on Rock ‘n’ Roll Nashville next April, since I love country music and have a friend I want to visit there. And I’d like to do Marine Corps someday. But I’m flexible and open to anything! I feel like I’ve barely started racing, so the possibilities are endless. I’d like to try out the 10K and half marathon distances. And yes, get better at the marathon. My secret-but-not-secret life goal is to beat my mom’s marathon time…though she was pretty speedy so we’ll see!
Last question: Any plans to do a triathlon? : )
Not really. Running is challenge enough for me and I imagine that in a tri, I would just be really looking forward to the running parts, and then dealing with the other things. I do enjoy biking as cross training, but I’m a terrible swimmer – we’re talking “drowning elephant” kind of terrible swimmer, haha. So I’ll stick to what I know for now!
Thanks again Mollie! I’m not sure we’ll be out there running 3:10 marathons as a result of your great tips, but I personally feel inspired. You can check out Mollie’s wonderful, informative, and entertaining blog and drop her a line at eatrunread.com
