Redlands 10 K Race, Marathon Clinic, & Endurance!

Weekly Mileage: 60 (Last week 80 miles)

Tough moments don’t last, but tough people do.

Endurance. What does it feel like? Maybe I can better show you by describing a run last week...

With the relentless wind blowing at my tall, thin body, I gathered up all my strength and pushed against it. The rolling hills seemed more difficult with the wind. I felt as though I was giving 100% effort but my watch disagreed. I stopped after mile 2 “I have so much more to go, how will I do this?” I thought. “The plan is to run 10 miles at sub-6 min pace,” I thought “And nothing is going to stop me.” No longer than 30 seconds later, I was back at it. I fought the wind with everything I had and vocalized my exertion like a woman giving labor. Once I reached the turn around point where the trail was blocked, I dried up my tears as workers stopped what they were doing and watched. I ran back with the wind pushing me from behind and ran back faster than goal pace. I completed the run with an average of 6:03 per mile pace, which was 5:58 per mile grade-adjusted pace. It was the hardest training run fighting against the strong wind. Challenges make you stronger. And this I believe is true.

Run Through Redlands 10 K Race

Run Through Redlands 10 K Race - 1st overall female in 35:25, pace 5:42 per mile!

Big improvement... 1 min 30 sec faster than last year's Run Through Redlands (which was my previous PR)! Also, broke the course record for women by 3 minutes. Weather was 41 degrees at the start, but it felt nice once I began running. For the first four miles, I ran right behind a young man. There was a big uphill from mile 2.5 to mile 3.5, followed by a nice long downhill. I ran slower going up and let my legs fly going downhill. I passed the young man going downhill and stayed in second overall place.

Toward the end of the race, Josh and Michael, two good running friends who have been there to support me with training advice and race strategy since the 2016 San Francisco Marathon (where they also came to see me race), were there to cheer me on today! At the final stretch, Josh stepped in and ran beside me and cheered "Go Joanna!", then I passed Michael whose voice seemed to reach as high as the clouds. Their high energy and excitement seemed to flow through me and give me a boost to the finish. I looked at the time board, blinked, then looked again closer. "35:25, Wow, I was flying! That's a new PR!" I thought as I crossed the finish line. I would attribute the improvement in performance to switching to eating a healthy, clean diet at Freshii and doing workouts that target my goal marathon pace with slower recovery runs after those workouts. I got a nice relaxing free massage afterwards and bumped into lots of friends. Feeling more confident and excited for the LA Marathon in 2 weeks!

Los Angeles Marathon Clinic

Left to Right: Darrin Little (Freshii manager/owner),

Me, Ed Ettinghausen ("The Jester" World Record holder of

the most 100 mile races in 1 year - 40), Natalie Larson 

(World Record holder of the fastest known time along

the 1,200 mile California Coastal Trail - 44 days)

Los Angeles Marathon Clinic - talk with local runners sharing advice & tips for the LA Marathon, hosted at Freshii. 

Great talk with runners about nutrition/hydration, key workouts, mental tactics, and my Freshii story. Felt great to share my own running story and lessons learned through the years to help others achieve their goals in running! I'll be speaking again next week. See flyer below!

Short clip of the LA Marathon Clinic last Saturday