The last time I updated this blog (just under a year ago - oops!), I let you all know I was gearing up for my first 70.3 half ironman race. Well, do I have quite the updates for you since then! 2023 was a wild and wonderful year of sport for me, testing my limits and pushing me into new activities and event I never could have imagined before.

Spring Recap

Back in February 2023 I wrote that I had just started really training for a triathlon. I didn’t mention the race I was doing at the time, and didn’t give away many other details either. I was nervous about the race, and worried by body wouldn’t cooperate. Well, I’m happy to inform, I survived the race, and while it was definitely hard, I really, truly enjoyed it.

In May 2023, I competed in the Lake Anna 70.3, hosted by the wonderful folks at Kinetic Multisport. I was SO nervous about this race. I don’t think I’m a particularly strong biker (something most triathletes are good at), I didn’t really have much of an opportunity to train in open water, and on top of all of that, it was a relatively small race, meaning the competition field would be small and the likelihood of me coming in very far towards the back of the pack was very real (though there is nothing wrong with that at all!).

To remind my body what it feels like to compete in triathlon, I also did a super mini sprint triathlon in Northern Virginia in late March- the Tune up Tri by Tri It Now multisport. I had a BLAST in this race, which jumbles up the race order to account for cold weather and a pool swim. We ran 1.5 miles (wow I haven’t sprinted like that in a while), biked 4 miles, and pool swam 250 meters. As a very honest endurance athlete who has always struggled sprinting anything, this race was so hard for me. I came away STOKED though, placing first in my age group. My confidence was duly boosted as a result.

I was then really settling into the rhythm of training, and increasing my load steadily. I intentionally was not pushing my body to hard or too far - for fear of injuring myself. I had a nagging fear I was undertraining, but in my opinion its always best to undertrain than overtrain. In late April, I did a 24-hour trail relay race (Ragnar Trail Richmond) with a group of folks and my husband. I had signed up for that race before I commited to the 70.3 and really couldn’t back out. It wasn’t great timing because my triathlon was two weeks later. But, YOLO.

Race day came, and my husband and I headed down to Lake Anna the night before. We checked my into the race, and I really started getting nervous. The weather wasn’t looking great (overcast with rain all day) and the hills were starting to freak me out. I was stressing about transition, stressing about my wetsuit, stressing about the bike ride. I had bike previewed the course in April, and really struggled with the hills. I knew if I could finish the bike ride, I would be able to finish the race though - even if I had to power walk the run.

The morning came, I got there super early, and set up everything. I headed to the swim start, put on my wetsuit, and nervously anticipated the wave start. As the race went off, I really started to mentally freak out - and by the time I was up to jump in, I think I had completely started to question my decisions. But, I hopped in the water, and off I went.

The swim - it was hard. I had only done one open water swim in training, and I had besides that, I had never swam in a wetsuit. I felt awkward. I felt restricted. But I knew I was a strong swimmer, and knew I was fully capable of getting the distance done. I had no concept of my pace, and had a hard time sighting. I had moments on the swim out where I just kept thinking ‘let this be over’ while simultaneously knowing I wasn’t even halfway done the swim. But as I rounded the last turn and was now looking back at shore, I could feel a wave of relief spread over me. I got to shore, ran along the beach, and went up into transition.

I had a really hard time getting my wetsuit off, and that started to freak me out. I eventually got it off, put on my bike gear, and walked over to the bike mount area. This bike start was HARD because it was uphill. How cruel of the organizers. It was a long slow climb out of the park, about 3 miles if I remember correctly. Then rolling country hills for the whole race. I was so stressed about not accidentally drafting off of someone that when the race photographers came around, I thought they were course marshalls yelling at me and disqualifying me. That was at mile 5ish. It jumbled my head, stressed me out, and set a bad tone for me. After two loops of the bike course though, I eventually turned into the state park, dismounted, and entered back into transition.

I knew I was towards the back of the pack because folks were already finishing in some cases, lots of folks were on lap two of the three loop run course, and there were not that many folks starting off the run with me. But I knew I could finish at this point. The weather was starting to get warm, and the run course was again super super hilly. I struggled - and had to walk a bunch of the hills. But I got it done, and generally tried to keep a smile on my face.

As I came into the finish, I was just so relieved. I had tears in my eyes, relishing this accomplishment. It’s been a long time since I’ve felt that same level of accomplishment. And I finished in 6 hours 20 minutes, well under the 8 hours I told my husband. As such - he wasn’t at the finish line but was still working on his grad school paper at a local coffee shop (oops!). I didn’t have my phone or anything, so I hobbled around for a little bit to shake off the exhaustion, then went to the food tent and sat with food and drink to wait. He eventually showed up, and was so very proud of me. While we were sitting there, the awards ceremony started. I thought about leaving but decided it would be fun to listen in. I’m glad I did.

As they got to the 30-34 year old age group, I paused in disbelief when I heard the name Katie Morgan called for third place. In fact, I thought I misheard. I waited for them to call it again. Yup - that was my name, but for sure they had made a mistake, right? Turns out, the didn’t. I age group placed in my first race! Now, there were only 6 of us in my age group, but holy moly what a feeling!

Somehow found my way into third place for my age group in my very first 70.3!

After my very first 70.3 at Lake Anna, Virginia.

Summer Recap

My summer recap is a lot easier. I didn’t do a whole lot! I rested, recovered, and relished in not training for anything. I didn’t really have any fall plans at all, and was just taking my days slowly. We went to Italy for two weeks, did a long weekend at Deep Creek Lake, and a week in the Outer Banks with family. I paddleboarded. I ran a little. I hiked a little. And was just having fun.

Then, I got a text from a running friend. “Hey Katie - are you interested in running the NYC Marathon with me in November'“

Fall Recap

I got this text in early August from my friend Nafij, who runs with Achilles International and has vision loss. I’d run with him a few times before - just weekend long runs and such. He let me know one of his guides for the NYC Marathon was injured, and he might need a backup guide incase she couldn’t get better in time.

Wow. I thought this was such a cool opportunity but also, wow, I was not in marathon shape and now only had about 2.5 months to train. Queue panic!

I told him I’d ramp up my running for the rest of August, and we’d reconvene in early September to see if 1) I was in shape enough to do it and 2) his guide was still injured. Turns out both came true, and thats how my journey to NYC came together.

Racing the Parks Half Marathon in Montgomery County, Maryland as a tune-up for the NYC Marathon.

I never really had my eyes on a world major marathon. In fact, it’s been quite some time since I’ve had my eyes on a road marathon, full stop. But this was so exciting. Nafij and I were running together every weekend, logging miles, catching up, surving in the DC heat together. I ran the Parks Half Marathon in September as a test run as well, to see how my legs were feeling and get a sense for what ‘race pace’ would feel like if we ran what Nafij was aiming for at New York. I logged a 1:57ish, faster than most of my halfs recently. It was hot and humid that day and there were moments I didn’t feel great, but it was fun to race and gave me some confidence.

In later September, we went on a long run around the U.S. Capitol to get in some hill repeats and on one of our repeats, I had a funny feeling in my foot, on the top where the laces were. I tried to shake it out, but it wasn’t really loosening up. I had us stop a few times to loosen my shoe and slowed our pace down a little to shake it out. I got home that day, iced and rested, and hoped for the best.

Unfortunately, things didn’t really get much better, so I panic called my PCP and asked her to put in an emergency order for me to see a podiatrist. My PCP is lovely, and also a triathlete, so knows that if I’m reaching out with an injury worry, its probably pretty serious. She get me in to a local doctor 1.5 weeks later (now early October). The news wasn’t great, but wasn’t devastating either.

The podiatrist said I had tendonitis on the top of my foot. He suspected a combo of overuse plus tying my shoes too tight. The prognosis - no running except weekly long runs for endurance purposes, until the race. Great, I thought. This is going to be just awful.

I did a solo 12 miles that next weekend to test things out, and had a good time with it. So I texted Nafij and let him know I was good to do our next few long runs together through race day. I had a work trip one of those weeks (2 weeks before the race) and then the taper week we decided not to do a long run together just because our schedules were overlapping busy. After my work trip, a truly concerning development happened though, that stressed me out so much through race day.

I woke up in the middle of the night the night I returned from my trip, in excruciating pain. Tears flowing down my cheeks, level of pain. Unable to walk, level of pain. Thought I might vomit, level of pain.

Sitting in urgent care 2 weeks before the NYC Marathon.

I suffered through the day, working from bed. Tears came and went. And eventually, my husband had enough, and took me to immediate care. The doctor did some x-rays and confirmed I didn’t have a break or fracture. He suspected it was just an extreme re-aggrevation of the tendonitis I had been dealing with. I told him I had a race in 2 weekends. That I had to run it, I didn’t have choice. I was a guide. He said I might be able to run it, if I rested fully for the next two weeks.

And so that’s what I did. For most of October then, I barely ran at all, mostly rested, and came into the NYC marathon extremely undertrained. I was nervous, but also knew I had done the long runs, and done them at a good pace to complete the race in a respectable time. I was nervous though, because Nafij wanted to run a sub-4. I just didn’t think I had that in me.

Race week was then upon us, and I took the bus up two days before the race (that’s its own story….). Nafij and I were meeting that afternoon to do packet pickup and go to the Achilles dinner in Times Square. We had fun at the expo (except they somehow ran out of ALL the mens t-shirts except the small sizes!). The Achilles dinner was fun, though I will say I was quite surprised at the venue we were at. The Hard Rock in TIme Square is not what I would call accessible - for wheelchairs or for blind athletes. There are tons of stairs. The space is dark. All the tables were or different levels, making it hard to find any of Nafij’s friends. It was a bit of a bummer.

Race morning we were meeting around 4:30 to catch the 5:00 bus from near Bryant Park. We were meeting our other guide, Kevin, that morning as well. I walked over from my hotel, and found the Achilles buses pretty quickly. I met up with Kevin, then waited for Nafij to show up. Once we were all there, we got on the bus, and settled in for the long ride to the start line.

Since we were with the Athletes with Disabilities, our bus dropped us off at a private tent area full of food, drink, shelter, and toilet. We also had a bag drop, which most runners don’t. It was honestly really nice. We were also in the first wave to start that day, after the pro-athletes and the hand cycles. We all lined up for the start, on the bottom level of the bridge, and with that, we were off.

Things went well at the beginning. We were a little behind pace at the very start because of the crowds, but that wasn’t a worry. Once we got into Brooklyn, we picked up the pace a bit, cruising right around 9:10. A little slower than Najif wanted to go, but a manageable pace nonetheless. We kept that for about 10 miles. Then I started having some heart rate issues, and my nagging left ankle flared up a bit (it’s an issue I’ve had for years). I was able to move through the ankle issue, but the heart rate was scaring me.

As we got onto the Queensboro Bridge, around mile 15, Nafij indicated he wasn’t feeling great either. I offered to slow us down to a walk to collectively catch our breaths, check-in with each other, and make sure we were all doing ok. We walked for a bit. I let them know my heart rate was still worrying me, but as we walked it was dropping, so I knew it wasn’t a major issue (if it hadn’t dropped I would have been very concerned). Nafij said his stomach was bothering him. We started jogging again at a bit of a slower pace down the bridge into Manhattan. I was feeling pretty good again, and maintaining my heartrate fine. Nafij though, really struggled the rest of the race.

The second half of our race was more of a walk/run than a run. Honestly. I loved it. It was so much fun. We talked, we jogged, we got snacks, we soaked in the experience. We all knew we were no longer going for time. We were just there to finish. Nafij was bummed out, but honestly I had so much fun.

Kevin, Nafij, and I (and a random runner in the foreground) somewhere in Manhattan

We finished around 4:45, considerably slower than my past marathons but honestly much better than I thought we were going to get. My legs were honestly wrecked (hello undertraining) but for all intents and purposes I felt ok. We finally made our way to the Achilles tent, got our bags, and Nafij’s sister brought us milkshakes (what a lovely surprise). We walked for a bit, then hopped on the subway and eventually all parted ways. So went my first Marathon major. What an experience.

What. An. Experience.

Looking ahead

As I write this blog, I’m sitting in bed, five days in to a rough head cold. It’s not COVID but it’s not great either. I should have done my first ‘long ride’ and ‘long run’ this weekend, as I gear up for another 70.3 early this coming summer. But this was week one, base building. So I’m OK resting and recovering. I look forward to whatever sport has in store for me this year, and hope to be better about updates along the way!