A Happy Pace

I know, I know, Boston is old news by now. But it’s been a crazy chaotic few weeks between my racing, Matt’s racing (I’m writing this from the shore while he’s swimming at Ironman Texas!), the kids’ sports, & the twins’ antics… and I paid MarathonFoto good money for these pictures, gosh dang it. 😂

So they’re going to live on my IG page, and maybe someday I’ll write a proper race recap. 🙃 I think the pictures speak for themselves, though! Sopping wet because it was so hot, and lots of smiling despite the suffering — because it’s never a bad day when you get to run the Boston Marathon. 💙💛💙💛

That “Left on Boylston” feeling!!! ✨🦄✨

Shot for the moon (big course PR) and landed in the stars (6-minute BQ). No regrets! Never a bad day when you BQ in Boston. 💙💛

To every person who cheered, yelled my name, high-fived, handed me ice, or volunteered — THANK YOU! From the bottom of my heart. There was one time specifically when a man was holding out one cold wet paper towel, and I had my arm reached out for it but then the guy in front of me reached out & grabbed it at the last second, which happens & is fine!! But next thing I knew, a tenth of a mile later, this man was *sprinting* along the barricade to hand me another one. 🥹 It was so heart-warming and a perfect example of what makes this race so special: the people of Boston.

Brief recap: I was hot from the start and was cramping by 10K (😳). So there was a lot of aid station triage — I’ve never hurt like that in a race for so long in my life. I’m really proud that I mentally hung in there when it was very obvious very early that it was not going to be “my day.” Still beat my bib by almost 3000, despite running almost 15 minutes slower than my qualifier. (That right there is the sign of the heat!)

The search for that magical unicorn day in Boston continues. But for now, we celebrate!!! 🦄 Big congrats to everyone who raced today!

“So it’s gonna be a PR, or it’s gonna go down in flames…” 🎵 Lucky Boston Marathon number… 6? Pretty sure that’s how it goes. 😂

It’s not lost on me how lucky I am to be here and to get to run this race at all, let alone again. The biggest thanks in advance to every volunteer and spectator who helps make Boston so special!!! It is so appreciated. No matter the time on the clock, I’m going to love every minute of today. 💙💛

I came to Boston faster and more ready to race than I’ve been in a long, long time. That also brings with it a lot of (admittedly unnecessary & entirely self-imposed) pressure, because goodness knows the marathon owes you nothing — especially this one. This training cycle had a rocky start but finished really strong… but was it too little, too late? And will the heat kill dreams for winter dwellers? (There have definitely been hotter Bostons, but we’re already in a tank and shorts in the bus line…) 🤷🏼‍♀️ There’s only one way to find out, and that’s to lay it all out there! I’m going for a big course PR today despite it all.

If I strike out, I’m going to strike out swinging!!!

Bib #11989 if you’d like to track! (Insert much-welcomed Taylor Swift reference *here*) Time to go chase a unicorn. 🦄

I’m gonna party like it’s (1)1989! 🎉 💙💛🎉

Actually, I’m going to race hard and probably suffer a lot. 🤣 But goodness knows I can’t turn down some little kid high-fives or getting pumped up by Boston College! And hey, if it’s not my day, at least I know that no matter the pace, the Boston Marathon IS one big party!!!

That said, I have alllll the butterflies for Monday already. My mental game is usually pretty solid but I’m a total head case over this one. I think it’s because my was so off/depleted all winter that I’d already written off the probability of racing this one well… but 1.5 months of supplementing those deficiencies (Vit D & ferritin) has me feeling so much more human lately. So I feel like it’s good enough to go for it? But I don’t necessarily trust it. Which is dumb because I’ve hit all the numbers I’d want to hit in long runs and hard workouts. But my also brain still doesn’t quite compute the whole “training at 7000 feet” thing either, so I’m just kind of like… 🤷🏼‍♀️ Guess we’ll see?? Told you I’m a head case. 😂

Anyway, lovely first day in Boston yesterday!! We came a day earlier than normal, which was really nice because now I can spend today sitting in recovering boots and finishing my taxes 🙈😂. It also meant the Newbury shops weren’t totally sold out yet and the expo wasn’t packed! So we went on a little shopping run (literally), grabbed our bibs, explored the expo, and had dinner at the Fairmont — a tradition with these friends since 2017. 🦄

I also got to hug my athlete/friend who just flew in from Australia! I have five athletes racing again this year and am SO excited for all of them!!! 🤗

So happy to be in Boston!!! Who else is here? Anyone’s first?? 🎉

It’s time to head to Boston to chase unicorn #6!!! 🦄 And in a *perfect* custom kit for the 6th time, too. 🤗 Swipe for the back — I’m obsessed! They nailed it this year, as usual.

My favorite Boston Marathon will forever be the year I took my littles with me. 🥰💙💛 One of these days and I will run it together and bring them back! In the meantime, I’m super excited to spend the weekend with my Boston girls!!! We had pre-race dinner together back in 2017 and the rest is history. So grateful we get to keep doing this thing.

The party starts tomorrow!!! 🎉

Boston Marathon training week 11 of 12 = ☑️! 30 miles total thanks to skipping another run in favor of rest (yay taper!). Last workouts & double-digit run done… hay is in the barn and all those cliches. I’ve officially done all there is to do! Now it’s time to just keep the legs fresh, rest up, and pack for the party!!! 🎉💙💛

I’m super grateful I got my bloodwork done when I did because I’ve had 1.5 months to get things moving in the right direction. And while they’re still not optimal, I’m feeling SO much better systemically than when I called the doctor 2 months ago. Dare I say there is finally some pep in my step these past couple weeks?! Of course just in time for taper 🤦🏼‍♀️ but better late than never! I had a really solid 10-miler last week where I was like, “Okay, THERE are my legs.”

And then, naturally, in true mother runner fashion, I had a kid home from school sick to round out the week. 😬 So when I was feeling a little rundown on Saturday, I pulled the plug on my scheduled run that day! Better safe than sorry, and still crossing all my appendages that I don’t end up with that bug. 🙏 It’s about time I showed up to Boston ready to *race.*

The countdown is officially on.

7 days!!!!! 🦄

Boston Marathon weekly training roundup… half a week late because life. 😂 But week 10 of 12 = ☑️ with 40 total miles, including the last long hill workout & hard progressive 16-miler. It was supposed to be a little more mileage, but I took a bonus unplanned rest day and don’t feel bad about it!

My kids had spring break, we took a 20+ hour RT road trip (which I drove alone with the littles one way because Matt had to fly back earlier for work), the twins *did not sleep* on said trip and only wanted mommy in the middle of the night, I had a quick 24-hour plane trip, it was a holiday that requires a lot of work, etc. So I was exhausted and when it came time to set an early alarm for my only window to run on Friday, I was like… yeah, no.

My general rule during taper is to error on the side of rest! The question was which would serve me more — running some easy miles or getting some extra sleep. And the answer that day was an easy one! All this to say, listen to your body and give yourself some leeway in your training. It’s not the end of the world to skip a run every now and then, and can even work out for the best!

Have you taken an unplanned rest day lately?

Happy Easter from the Davises!!! We love this day and all that it means.

(And for a dose of reality, please know that our twin toddlers were looking absolutely feral approximately 30 seconds into church. 🙃😂)

And just like that, Boston Marathon training peak week (aka week 9 of 12) is complete!!! 🙌💙💛 I honestly can’t believe we’re already here. I mean, Easter is this weekend… how?!

My calendar weekly total was 65 miles, and I’ll take it! Due to the weather pushing my 22-mile long run up a couple days, though, my rolling 7-day total (Sat-Fri) hit 75 miles for the first time ever — so it’s nice to know that I’m capable of that for the future.

I’ve felt rather ambivalent toward this whole training cycle but hung in there with the hope that things would come around. And now that the countdown is on, I’m feeling excited and glad that I put in the work!!! It wasn’t quite as much volume or intensity as I would have wanted in an ideal world, but it was the best I could have done this round. That’s all we can do sometimes!

Keeping my foot on the gas a bit this week and then looking forward to tapering hard. Just 20 days ‘till the party starts in Hopkinton! 🦄🎉

Story time/PSA to get bloodwork done if you feel off! This winter was rough for me and didn’t have to be.

My twins are finally sleeping well most nights, so I’ve been getting more sleep than I have in YEARS (🙌!) — and yet was totally exhausted all the time. I tried to compensate with obscene amounts of caffeine but was still dragging. My energy got so low that even an easy 4-miler sounded tiring. I had to talk myself into almost every single run.

Meanwhile, I absolutely did not feel like myself internally. It felt really off, like some sad zombie that I couldn’t quite shake. I chalked it up to seasonal affective disorder, which is definitely a thing for me but had never been this bad.

It was disconcerting, though. Maybe I had just been running on adrenaline for so long and it was gone now, I reasoned. Time to pay the piper, I guessed? 🤷🏼‍♀️ I told Matt that I felt like a broken toy with dead batteries.

I finally went to the doctor for a different issue in early February and mentioned my fatigue issues. She ordered labs.

Hi, what a freaking easy explanation and fix.

My Vitamin D was in the *single digits* — a “severe deficiency” in the bottom

Boston Marathon training week 6 of 12 ☑️! And a throwback Boston photo because the promise of *those* moments is what’s keeping me trudging through this never-ending winter. ✨ (Also because I didn’t bother taking a photo this week. 😂)

I seem to be stuck at the 50 miles per week mark, but at least there were some good miles in there! Specifically: 1) More hill repeats that will hopefully make the Newton hills feel like nbd. And 2) A progressive 20-mile long run in miserable winds with paces that I thought I couldn’t hit — but I tried anyway and ended up nailing them.

Halfway through this training cycle and so far, so good (or good enough, anyway)!

Boston Marathon training week 5 of 12 is in the books! Another 50-mile week, with half of those miles alongside in princess costumes at Disney World. 👑 It’s just the kind of light-hearted fun running that can breathe life into the winter training doldrums (said as I look out my window at our current snow storm…).

This week had quite the curveball on the life side, but objectively still went well on the running side. It looked like this:
M: 7 miles
T: 6.5 miles
W: 5.5 miles
Th: a rather stressful “rest day”
F: early flight to FL 😴, 5K shakeout run
Sa: 8 total miles with Rapunzel 10K @ 6:51 average pace
Su: 20 total miles with Tiana Half Marathon @ 7:23 average pace

Walking miles around the parks adds another level of “tired” with every RunDisney race. But I took a rest day yesterday and my legs are feeling ready to rock and roll again this week! Hoping to keep building the mileage a bit as we head into the peak weeks. Trying to keep my eye on the prize! 🦄

Boston Marathon training week 5 of 12 is in the books! Another 50-mile week, with half of those miles alongside in princess costumes at Disney World. 👑 It’s just the kind of light-hearted fun running that can breathe life into the winter training doldrums (said as I look out my window at our current snow storm…).

This week had quite the curveball on the life side, but objectively still went well on the running side. It looked like this:
M: 7 miles
T: 6.5 miles
W: 5.5 miles
Th: a rather stressful “rest day”
F: early flight to FL 😴, 5K shakeout run
Sa: 8 total miles with Rapunzel 10K @ 6:51 average pace
Su: 20 total miles with Tiana Half Marathon @ 7:23 average pace

I took a rest day yesterday and my legs are feeling ready to rock and roll again this week! Hoping to keep building the mileage a bit as we head into the peak weeks. Trying to keep my eye on the prize! 🦄

“I’m a damsel, I’m in distress, I can handle this.” -A sign quoting Meg from Hercules at about mile 2.5 that about sums up my past 24 hours. 🙌 I decided to get my 🛳️ together after yesterday’s hot mess of a 10K, and I’m happy to report that I did! 😂

and I made 13 character stops mid-race and ran our goal range 6:55-7:15 pace consistently in between. And while I was *clawing* for a 7:02 final mile in the 10K yesterday? We ran a 6:56 final mile in the half marathon today and it felt strong. Like…! THIS is why you can’t let one “off” race derail you.

For me, it’s not actually about paces or finish times for these mid-training tune-up races — it’s about how I feel during said races and how well I execute. The “I know I could have done better” feeling isn’t fun, so luckily for me, I had the chance for a do-over the next day! I told myself to freaking get it together and rally, and then did what I could to make that happen: Actually fueled and hydrated well (the day before + race morning + during), slept as much as possible for a 2:30am alarm Disney race (5.5 hours, which is incidentally more than I had the two prior nights combined), and most importantly, got my head back in the game.

It’s amazing the magic that can come from some BFF time (& rollercoaster-induced serotonin boosts, ha). Kindal and I are both dealing with some harsh military life reminders that we don’t have full control over our lives… and the hardest (heartbreaking) part for me as a mom is not having the power to make big decisions that are best for my kids. Getting to talk through all of that in person with a best friend that *gets it* is the most helpful thing for moving forward through it. (Huge thanks to all of you military wives who have commiserated the past few days!) We’re both feeling much more like we “can handle this” after this weekend together.

Oh, right, and the race was really fun! It was a half minute faster than last year’s (in which we only stopped for 5 characters) — and the strongest we’ve ever closed the final 5K of a Disney World half marathon together. 🎉 50 miles for the week: ☑️!

“This is the story of how I died.” -Flynn Rider and, also, me. 😂🤷🏼‍♀️ It was a rough one for me this morning at the Princess 10K! Started out strong and then fell apart. Shout out to for hanging with my suffering self despite being capable of running much faster.

While it’s a perfectly fine time, this was a half minute slower than the same race last year. My threshold speed is where I’m lacking right now, so add any extras and that weakness is just absolutely exposed. But one race/workout/week doesn’t define our fitness so I’m not going to stress about it!

Since our bodies don’t exist in a bubble, we have to take a look at the full picture and not just the stats when it comes to running performance. It’s been an emotionally depleting few days for me and to act like that stress & missed sleep doesn’t also have a physical effect would be silly. Racing on non-tapered marathon build legs is hard, then add in a super muggy morning for my cold-adapted self, and it’s not surprising that I died off mid-race and puked at the finish. 🤷🏼‍♀️ So while I wish I could have run faster, I also get it and am still proud of the effort when I wasn’t feeling it!

Let’s be real — it’s never a bad day when you get to run around Disney with your best friend!!! And specifically, my best military wife friend. This weekend with Kindal is exactly what I need right now and I’m happy to be here, getting my rear end handed to me and all. 😂💜

Boston Marathon Training, Week 3 of 12: Wrapped up a 40-mile week at the Mesa Half Marathon. 🎉 Once again, I wish I was running higher mileage at this point. But once again, it was hard enough to squeeze that much in!

was gone for more than half the week, which obviously complicates things. And if it weren’t a solo-parenting treadmill show already, the week started with 10 fresh inches of snow and ended with another 6-inch storm. And then I got rain instead of sunshine on my

Mesa Half Marathon ☑️! I approached today’s race the same way I did last year — fast 10K in 42:28, walk break, then sub-BQ pace to the end — and it worked great.

It’s really hard to get a sustained threshold workout living at 7200 feet altitude, so for me, there’s a lot of value in getting that stimulus and benchmark check-in with myself. (Mesa is also *supposed@ with a healthy dose of sunshine and vitamin D, but it rained on us the whole time instead!) Aunt Flo showed up today which is always bad news for me, and I woke up feeling crappy with really bad miss-school-today cramps etc. But I still went faster than last year at a lower aerobic effort (1:35 with 156 HR vs 1:36 last year @ 168 HR), so we’ll call it a win!

1.5 miles before the race and 5.32 after for 20 total on the day. 🤗 Such a fun quick getaway with friends!!

🌟 Calling all Disney lovers!!! 🌟 It’s currently snowing at home, so I’m especially excited to be heading back to Disney World for the RunDisney Princess Half Marathon in a couple weeks! And even better? The price is right because Undercover Tourist has their best sale on park tickets happening right now — for both Disney World AND Disneyland!!! 🙌

As any Disney goer knows, ticket savings are hard to come by, so this is a big deal! (Literally.) From now until Tuesday, February 13th @ 11:59 PST, you can save up to $100 *per ticket* for both adults and kids, for any trip from now until Dec. 31, 2024. (Just think of all the Dole Whips and Churros you can buy with that extra cash in your pocket! 😋) Undercover Tourist is a well-known, well-loved agency, and all tickets are covered by their 365-day refund guarantee — so there’s zero risk if plans change.

It’s not just for runners — this is the park ticket sale you want to capitalize on for family vacations, too! There’s seriously nothing like those magical Disney memories, at any age. Visit www.undercovertourist.com to check it out! 🎉

(The fine print: Some exclusions apply; see tickets for details when purchasing.)

Week 1 of 12 for Boston Marathon training is officially in the books!

It’s wild to me that it’s coming up so soon again, and if we’re being honest, I’m kicking myself for taking such a long off-season. I mean, our family life needed it so it is what it is… but man, building back is hard for everyone, every time! And combining that “getting my rear end handed to me” feeling with *winter* isn’t my favorite. It’s the hard that makes it all so great, though, right?

Anyway, I spent four weeks building back my base @ 40 mpw. Then this past week, I hit 50 miles/week for the first time since last March! That was a bit of an accident, due to my morning-of registration for a snowshoe 10K last Saturday. 😂 My legs are definitely feeling the mileage!!! This week will be a bit lower since I’ll be hanging on for dear life with an extra-extra crazy schedule for my big kids (games & big meets & 15 team volunteer hours for parents, etc 😳).

Cue the Hunger Games salute for all of us trying to get it all done! May the odds be ever in our favor.

Last Disneyland post, I promise! And for Disney lovers, the best. 💙

You can’t even call dining at Club 33 a “bucket list” item because there’s just no realistic path to making it happen. It’s one of the most exclusive five-star restaurants in the world, with an incredibly expensive membership and a many-years-long waitlist that even celebrities can’t skip. The only way to go inside is to be a member or have a member make a reservation for you. Let’s just say that we were very, very lucky!!!

IYKYK… But if you *don’t* know: Club 33 was a dream of Walt’s, and he and his wife Lillian shopped for the antiques inside together. It is also home to many Disney-specific items that are now antiques themselves, like a marble table from Mary Poppins and Lillian’s harpsichord. There is a dress code and there are strict rules while inside, including no video. The cast members who work in Club 33 are the best of the best, and our waiter has been there for three decades! And the food? I mean, it IS a five-star restaurant, after all. It was delicious.

We spent most of an afternoon inside and it was a total Disney dream come true! Definitely the highlight of our Disneyland Half Marathon weekend. ✨

Medal Monday… on a Wednesday! It’s fine, we also do “Taco Tuesday on a Wednesday” in our house (and call it that, too 😂).

Story time: I was *not* thrilled when Matt got his assignment to move back to Edwards AFB in 2018 (we’d previously lived there from 2009-2012). Don’t get me wrong — I’m a California girl who wants to live in SoCal forever, but Edwards is a remote base in the middle of the Mojave desert and is just a hard freaking place to live logistically. So of course after accepting the impending hard parts, my brain had to switch to the good things about being stationed there… And I was like, “At least we can do all the Disneyland races!” Aaaand then about one month later, they announced that there would be no more Disneyland races. 🤦🏼‍♀️

Needless to say, it was a no-brainer to be there when was finally able to bring back the Disneyland Half this year! 🎉 We ran the 10K and the half marathon, and went all out with our themed costumes and cheesy Disney matching outfits all weekend. It was the kind of magical Disney girls’ weekend that dreams are made of!!! ✨

Oh, and the medals were cool, too.

“You’ve got a friend in me!” Slinky Dog and the cast of Toy Story reported for duty this morning at the Disneyland Half Marathon! The best times with the best running friends. 💙 More to come!!!

7 Little Green Men from Toy Story running the 10K! 💚

3 aliens stayed together for 4 miles. 🤗

2 aliens finished 2nd & 3rd AG and 8th & 9th overall female! 🎉

1 alien had to pull the other one along (ahem, Kindal kicked Ashley’s trash 😂). 👯‍♀️

10 magical kilometers in 43:15 — not a bad start to the year! 👌

13.1 more miles to go tomorrow! 🏰

7 Little Green Men from Toy Story running the 10K! 💚

3 aliens stayed together for 4 miles. 🤗

2 aliens finished 2nd & 3rd AG and 8th & 9th overall female! 🎉

1 alien had to pull the other one along (ahem, Kindal kicked Ashley’s trash 😂). 👯‍♀️

10 magical kilometers in 43:15 — not a bad start to the year! 👌

13.1 more miles to go tomorrow! 🏰

Wrapping up my favorite finish lines of 2023! Looking back, it was such an amazing year of racing that it was hard to narrow down to just nine.

🌺 I had a lifelong dream come true by setting an Ironman PR *in Kona* — with , our kids, and some of my favorite people cheering me on.
👯‍♀️ and I fulfilled our 7-year dream of BQing in Boston together.
🌊 My brother flew to Mountains 2 Beach with me on a whim, where I ran a 3:14 marathon (just 2 minutes off my lifetime pre-twins PR).
🎉 And I dressed up in costume for a half dozen races, which is really telling about the balance of fun in my running throughout the year!

What made racing the most fun and most memorable, though, was the people I shared it with. I’m so grateful for so many special moments with athletes I coach 💛, friends who race with me and friends who cheer me on, and family who supports me. I’m the luckiest.

My 2024 racing season begins today, so cheers to another memorable year!!!

Happy New Year!!! Rejoining IG a little late post-holidays 😂 but better late than never! Dropping some memories here, and excited to make more in 2024! ✨

Merry Christmas!!! I hope you had the best holiday with people you love. 🎄❤️

We had the sweetest white Christmas with just our own little family here in Colorado. Our kids are at the *best* ages and this season was pure magic. ✨ So many little moments that I want to hang onto forever. 🥹🥰

We even managed to mail out half of our Christmas cards in the nick of time, before running out of stamps. 50/50 chance the rest make it out by New Year’s. 😂

(📷: Big thanks to for the beautiful family photos!!!)

Back to reality (i.e. freezing temps & snow vs 78* beach days) and back to regular training-ish this week!

I’m a little too good at the off-season, if you know what I mean. 😂 Honestly, my family is at a stage where getting training in is REALLY hard, so it’s good to take my foot off the gas to catch up on life stuff for a bit. Goodness knows my home organization and sleep schedule needed it!!! My plan post-Kona was a low-key four weeks while I tackled life’s to do list, and then starting to pick things up the past two weeks…

But then of course the twins were both sick for all of week 5, so that was rough. And then I’d wanted to log alllll the miles in California, but the babies took turns waking up every half hour starting at 3am every day (and therefore ate into my “before everyone wakes up and we do family stuff all day/night” running window). Such is life! If I had been “in training,” I would have sacrificed more sleep to force more miles — but I wasn’t so I didn’t. Balance and all that. ☺️ I did still go on plenty of runs (just less miles than I’d originally wanted), and it was so good for the soul! I’m a California sunshine girl and it just makes me really happy getting to run some of my favorite routes.

Here’s what my post-Kona weekly run volume looked like. For context, I’m normally at 40mpw during triathlon training and above that for marathon training.
Week 1: 0 miles
Week 2: 13 miles
Week 3: 22 miles
Week 4: 8 miles***
Week 5: 24 miles
Week 6: 22 miles

Anyway, just sharing that it’s normal and okay to flip the switch for a little bit. Recovery from a big race is 100% necessary both physically and mentally, and some extra chill time afterward doesn’t hurt, either. (Even if it wasn’t *all* planned that way.)

Ready and excited to get back in the normal swing of things! 🤗

(***But I should really do a post about that 8-mile week 4. 😂)