Sarah's Columbus Marathon Race Recap

2:58:24. Six years in the making. Three babies. Finally back under the three-hour mark.

After running LA in the spring, I knew I was ready to take on another fall marathon. Six weeks after LA, I ran the Indy Mini and surprised myself with a much faster time than I thought I was in shape for. After that, it wasn’t just about running another fall marathon. It was about seeing what I could really do, and whether I could challenge my pre-kid PR and finally get back under three hours.

So the summer was all about speed. I ran paces I hadn’t hit in a long time, raced 5Ks, and ran more mile races than I ever thought I’d do again. I ran my fastest 5K since 2019 and my fastest mile since high school.

I knew I was in shape to do something special at Columbus, but the marathon is a beast, and you never know what race day will bring. I won’t pretend I wasn’t a nervous wreck beforehand. I put way too much pressure on myself (sorry to my husband, who had to live with taper Sarah). But right before the race, my PT said something that really stuck with me. Before every race in college, his coach would tell the team, “Go out there and surprise yourself.” So I set the goal to just see what I could do.

Normally I love the carb load and have zero trouble with it. This time was completely different. I struggled the entire time.

The week before the race, I was dealing with some GI issues (thanks to a bug I picked up from the kiddos). Add the extra stress I was putting on myself, and every carb felt like a battle. My appetite just wasn’t there.

This was also the first carb load in a long time that I did entirely at home. I’m sure most people like eating from the comfort of home with the foods they’re used to, but I’ve found I actually enjoy carb loading more on the road. There’s more variety, and I get to eat takeout pizza and sandwiches. At home it felt boring and monotonous. Plus, I was cooking balanced meals for three kiddos and a husband while eating pretty plain carbs myself, and trying to explain to toddlers why Mommy doesn’t have to eat all her veggies was a “fun” conversation.

The goal of a carb load is to fully top off your glycogen stores before race day. After nailing my carb load for LA and feeling incredible during that race, I’ve learned the carb load isn’t optional. It truly makes a huge difference.

Using our Carb Load Calculator, my goal was 400–425g of carbs per day for three days.

Day 1 – 425g

Pre-run s’mores Pop-Tart, post-run Cinnamon Toast Crunch, apple juice, large Gatorade, grilled cheese with pretzels and applesauce, 2 servings of animal crackers, Jimmy John’s Beach Club, more apple juice, peach gummy candy

Day 2 – 420g

Two large slices of avocado toast with a Nurri protein shake, 2 large handfuls of dried cranberries, quesadilla with pretzels and applesauce, 2 large Gatorades, 2 large slices of pizza, apple juice, Cinnamon Toast Crunch

Day 3 – 450g

Pre-run s’mores Pop-Tart, post-run cinnamon sugar bagel bake, apple juice, large Gatorade, animal crackers, grilled cheese on sourdough with pretzels, Tailwind, more animal crackers, 2 large slices of Detroit-style pizza, more peach gummy candy

This time I leaned heavily on liquid carbs. My usual go-to solid carbs just didn’t sound as good, and that’s okay! I still nailed the carbs. That’s the beauty of the carb load: there are a million ways to do it, and as long as the carbs happen, it doesn’t matter how you get there.

Race morning was pretty reasonable start since it was a local race and we stayed with friends closer to starting line. I was up at 4:45 to get ready for the 7:30 start.

While getting ready, I ate my usual s’mores Pop-Tart (now my go-to pre-race flavor) and sipped on some Tailwind. We headed to the race around 5:45 so we could get settled, and I snacked on fruit snacks on the way.

Throughout this training block, I kept working on dialing in my fueling. Before LA, I’d made several changes, adding the higher-carb, higher-sodium Victus gels alongside RNWY. This cycle, I also added SiS Beta Fuel to my rotation, and I’ve really come to love it. I’m an extremely salty sweater, and these gels have made getting in enough sodium so much easier.

I was very blessed to be in the elite field at Columbus, which came with a lot of perks. The biggest one was getting four bottles on the course. To be honest, I forgot about this perk until two weeks before the race, so note to self: if I get bottles again, practice with them!

Besides not having to carry my handheld, the best part about the bottles was letting my kids decorate them. When the race got hard, seeing their drawings, princess stickers, and all that glitter as I went through the miles was the biggest lift.

For the bottles, I used small plastic kids’ juice bottles with sport tops that I found at Kroger. I made a “handle” out of a pipe cleaner and duct-taped it on so they were easier to grab. The first two bottles each had one scoop of RNWY, and I split a packet of Tailwind between the last two. That let me spread my gels out more on the back half and rely on liquid carbs. Unfortunately I missed my first bottle of RNWY, but since it was more of an added benefit vs something I depended on, it wasn’t a big deal.

Since it was a cooler day, I knew I wouldn’t need as much fluid, so I went a little higher-carb in those last two bottles. My stomach was still a little off going into race day, and I was worried I wouldn’t be able to get my last gel down.

All things considered, I think fueling went okay, but I still have adjustments to make. After a summer of training in the heat with a high sweat rate, I needed all the salt. On race day, though, the weather was perfect: 38 degrees at the start and high 40s by the finish. I didn’t need as much fluid, and I think my sodium-to-fluid ratio ended up a bit off.

I threw up three times in the last mile. (Apologies to anyone who saw me puking at 6:00 pace. I was not stopping to waste time, haha!) Since having kids, I tend to throw up at the end when I hit my limit. So I think some of it was effort, some was the lingering GI bug, and some was the fluid-to-sodium ratio. This off season I’m going to keep working on figuring out this piece of the puzzle.

Even as a dietitian, I’m still fine-tuning my own plan. We’re getting closer to nailing it, but there’s still room to grow.

For this race I went with my tried-and-true ASICS Metaspeed Edge. Since wearing them for the first time in LA, I’ve raced in them all summer, from the mile all the way up to the half. I got a fresh pair for Columbus, and they were just as comfy and poppy as the first time. They felt great the entire race.

I also wore the Brooks Chaser 5″ shorts and the Brooks Luxe Pocket Bra, which together gave me tons of pockets. Simple and easy this time around.

After the race, I caught up with Meghann at the finish line, grabbed my gear from the elite tent, and headed out. We had my husband’s soccer game and Trunk or Treat with the kids, so there was no time to waste!

It’s always a little hard to eat after a marathon, but two things always sound good right away: chocolate milk and something salty. I grabbed the post-race snacks and had chocolate milk, potato chips, and a granola bar to hold me over until I could get my usual celebratory burger and fries when I got home.

This marathon was so much more than a race. It was months and years of training. Most of the last six years, I was either pregnant or postpartum. I’d watch friends get fit, come back from postpartum, and run incredible times, and I was so happy for them. But that wasn’t my experience.

It took the 18 months since having my son for me to finally feel like myself again. There was a lot of frustration, a lot of feeling like I’d never race the way I wanted to again, and a lot of steps forward followed by even more steps back. This race felt like all that patience finally paid off.

I’m not the runner I was before kids, and honestly I won’t be. Columbus was a celebration of every early morning, every hard workout, and every step back that I kept pushing through. And I’m not done. I want to keep working hard, keep showing up, and keep chasing fast times. Most of all, I want my kids to grow up watching their mom do hard things and seeing what she’s capable of. So if you’re in a season of waiting, or a season where it feels like you aren’t making progress, keep showing up, enjoy the process, and see if you can surprise yourself.