Hey hey, we are deep into 2025 already, and we haven’t started 2025 race report thread!!! Better late than never, so let’s go! Drop your race reports with some photos to inspire others!
For serious INSPIRATION, check out our Ambassador Kimber’s IMAZ story just few months ago: Race Results 2024 - #78 by jockefc23
Who’s first?
Way worse photos than this from this race, but I did the Liverpool Half Marathon on Sunday just gone.
I’ve been middle distance triathlon training as usual since January but felt good heading into this. I’d have absolutely loved to have final gone under 1:30 but for a few reasons I need to be happy with 1:30:38…
Another opportunity in 10 days when I’m doing Prague Half Marathon on Saturday and then Berlin Half Marathon on the Sunday… God knows how to attack that but we shall see!!
Wooooohoooo! 1:30:38 is AMAZING! next time you’ll crack it 
@jockefc23 you smashed that one! Must have been the sauna. Good luck with Prague and Berlin. 
Awesome job! Good luck in your next two! Sounds challenging!
Boston Marathon! - April 21st, 2025
I had a great experience running the Boston Marathon earlier this week. I followed the same plan in Athletica that I used when training for the Calgary Marathon last May which was my qualifying race. I used Athletica’s mid-volume marathon plan and manually added some swim and bike workouts from my library each week to maintain fitness in those disciplines since I have a 70.3 at the end of June planned. My training went really well and I was able knock off most workouts each day. Arrived in Boston with my husband and 2 kids on the Wednesday prior to the race. Was able to explore the City and catch a ballgame at Fenway Park which was really cool. Race day was like no other race I have experienced. My day started at about 5 am, even though my race start wasn’t until 10:50 am. During that time I had to navigate the transit system to downtown Boston, porta potty lineup, wait in line to hop on the bus that took us to the start (hour bus ride), another porta potty line up, de-layer, then off to get into my correct corral, with one last porta potty stop along the way. By the time I got into my corral I had about a minute to spare!
The race started out with a slow jog as there were so many people, but eventually the pace picked up and we were running 10 km downhill (with some ups). The middle section was rolling, then the Newton hills included 4 hills over a span of 10km and then the last final 10 km mostly downhill into Boston. The spectactors were insane - there was never a section of the race where there weren’t people cheering us on. The aid stations were tricky to navigate with thousands of mini cups on the ground. The downhill sections on the course were definitely tough and my legs were feeling it by the end. Once again, I think Athletica prepared my really well for the race - I felt strong throughout going off of feel and only faded for the last couple of k’s. I’m really happy with my finishing time of 3:35:19 - although I didn’t get my sub 3:30 goal - I’ll keep trying and perhaps will target a ‘flatter’ race for that one!
Ran 3:55 at Mountains 2 Beach Marathon two weeks ago. Another 32 minutes lopped off the old PR. The photography seems to have missed me completely, so nothing to share there lol.
On to base building before my CIM block starts!
Congrats @cmaloney ! You are an inspiration! Was fun tracking you !
@ohlylo congrats to you as well! Wow 32 mins off marathon is amazing! Well done!
Every year, the Wings for Life Run is the perfect opportunity for me to spend some quality time running with friends.
Some years ago, we decided to extend the Virtual Run into a Half Marathon. That means we do our thing and run, and we do not stop after the Catcher Car overtook us 
Well this year, my plan was to run the Half Marathon again, a little faster than the previous years but the main goal was to get out of bed the next day without being completely crashed for days. Walking stairs can hurt, but it should be manageable to get up and down some floors per day
AND I DID IT - I got out of bed today and it felt great, it feels like having a easy run for recovery tomorrow will not be an issue at all - actually looking forward to it
Thanks Athletica for this!
I started training first with the Garmin Coach in January, and flipped over to Athletica sometime in February. Even though there were and still are some hickups, the plan worked.
The Athletica plan felt manageable and giving me insights on the what and why was super useful.
Even though I spend a rest day with my kids in the mountains and came back with sore muscles (running downhill with kids is fun, but was not the best idea ) I managed dealing with it on Sunday - race day. I opted in for my “PLAN A PACE” with a friend of mine and was running in a comfortable heart rate in Z3
Nutrition during the run worked and after we got overtaken by the Virtual Catcher Car, I gave it a last push and wanted to see what is still in the batteries
Honestly, I could have pushed even harder, but I decided on going for a sustainable testing of my limits 
Anyhow these are the results, and for the WFL Run, as well as the Half-Marathon distance this is a new PR/PB
Now it is time for the challenge - thanks Athletica for this.
Really nice work, and what a cool way to go about it with the virtual extension! Glad you could walk the next day. Goals = √
Hey guys,
I’ve totally forgotten to tell you about my so far only race in 2025. The American Birkiebeiner 53K classic Cross Country Ski Race. This is the largest Nordic ski race in North America, with 11.5K skiers over Wednesday to Saturday Birkie week.
As a Nordic girl, it is as close to home as I can get in the USA. And believe me, it is saying a lot coming from a Finn/Norwegian.
Living in Texas, I didn’t get much ski time under my belt before the race. I mostly roller skied in a paved park trails (flat) few weeks before the event, dodging alligators along the way.
I had a lovely ski trip to Revelstoke to ski with @Prof and @cmaloney
And mostly followed my running marathon plan as I prepped for this race. Originally I was supposed to run a regular marathon a week after this race, but more on that later.
Back to Birkie: I was starting at wave 4 since I didn’t have recent seeding time. Most of the way there is two tracks for classic skiers. 53K at Birkie includes shorter, continuous hills, and you reach the highest point around 14K. But the climbing doesn’t end there. It is pretty much hills all the way to the lake just couple of K before the International Bridge and Main Street Finish. The hills are short, but they just keep on coming. Total elevation roughly 1400m My plan was to start conservatively.
My wave starts and that plan was already forgotten. I noticed there wasn’t many ahead of me from my wave, and I started passing wave three, then two, and even wave one towards the end. I knew I was doing pretty good. It wasn’t as packed and difficult to pass people on the classic trails as it is on skate (the two tracks are separate in the beginning and then come together after half way point or so), so it gets really congested at times. You’ve got to be careful on the hills so you don’t fall and break your poles, or let someone else break your poles. Luckily, I was born to do this and I know where to take my lines on downhills, keep working over the crest of the hill and push into the down hills for free speed. I felt like I was flying. I was smiling ear to ear. I miss this. 
Having done Athletica’s 30/30 weekly since December 2023 , before that regularly, but definitely not as religiously and hard. Thanks to our group rides, these weekly sessions prepared me well for the hills. I was able to keep a good rhythm, and recover quickly on the following short downhills.
My glide wax was amazing, haven’t lost the touch since I last skied regularly 2008 (when I still lived in Norway). However, my grip wax was done by half way mark, but I didn’t want to stop and reapply, thinking “I feel good, I’ve got strong upper body, I got this”. See those last five hills at the end? I should have stopped and reapply - cause I wasn’t exactly running up those hills anymore. Lesson learned. I definitely lost more on those than it had taken me to reapply.
I brought with me a couple of chocolate bars but didn’t feel like eating those. Had some oranges at aid stations. I may or may not have stopped for a beer along the route by numerous “aid stations” that the locals set up. That little boost may or may not helped me over the lake with very slippery skis and barely functioning arms.
I crossed the line, first woman in my wave, and 5th in my age group. I missed wave 1 placement for next year by little over 1minute. GRR! Definitely should have reapplied the grip wax. Next year I start with Wave 2. Will be fun! AG podium next year?
I was really happy about my race. Pretty stoked about how well my body remembers to ski - even after 17 years of not much skiing at all. I guess it is a bit like biking
BUT - it became evident that my feet weren’t used to the plantar flexion action for 4 hours, and I ended up getting bit of inflammation on my first metatarsal joint and reduced running for most of March. It’s end of May now and am slowly getting my running legs back.
Note to myself: Even though you think you can still throw yourself into things, doesn’t mean that you can survive without consequences.
“There once was a girl who really loved skiing. It was me.”
Next year, I will prepare better with Athletica’s Cross-Country Ski Training Plan. Who is with me?
MJ
Great race report and happy to have you visit in Revelstoke and to give me some ski tips and to show me how Cross Country skiing is really done! I would love to break it up this winter with a cross country ski plan block - will be fun!
70.3 Mallorca - 4:36:00 - 16th age group/ 85th overall
So it’s already more than a week and finally I have a time to write race report of 70.3 Mallorca
The preparation was kind of a rollercoaster - some weeks were great, some were terrible (such as life). The last 5-6 weeks before were pretty decent during the week days but during weekend I felt horrible and almost couldn’t finish the bike → might be the weather, might be that 2x a week I was doing heat prep which probably undercut me during Saturday’s bike as I was doing heat prep on Friday.
About heat prep: I wanted to try this for a first time because I was always struggling greatly in heat. My idea was to follow Core app with Core temp sensor. I was able to achieve 65% acclimatization in like 6 weeks. Those sessions are not hard on the legs but on the heart rate and your mind - damn, they are challenging Basically I was doing it on stationary bike, wearing a lot of clothes, everything closed, no fan and sweating a lot → always at like 30-35min in I was able to get HSI above 3 where the heat acclimatization starts. Then it was from 30 to 45mins of challenging struggle on watts that I could produce normally with 1 leg 
But I think it’s really working for me as I did not have as much of a heat blow up as my friends doing Mallorca.
To the competition
Swim - 27:00
Swim suit allowed, water not to hot, not to cold. The first 500m on the side of the group as I was mostly overtaking. After 500m found legs that I followed to the end - I felt we are swimming fast but pretty comfortable. So far my best swim in 70.3 - 27:00 - but I think it was like 100m short. Anyway Mallorca is one of the biggest 70.3 event in the world so transition zones are just huge and long (like running with a bike 500m and to get bike like 500m).
Bike - 2:31:58 - 255NP
Well the bike here has a one huge uphill, then a really technical downhill and the rest is pretty flat. Up until uphill I was aiming for like 240-250W which I achieved. Then after like 10km there is a slight uphill and the main part is from 21km to 29km → so 8km long which I’ve done in 310W. After that there are few more bumps on which I was still in 290-320W range.
After the uphill the downhill went fine for me - I was able to overtake few folks there, noone overtook me. But after uphill there is a flat section where the group of like 15people forged. I was trying to break from it by doing some upfront 300W changes in most aero position I can make but it was pointless. I’ve decided to not overdo myself and just obey the 12m rule to the T2 - no one was dropped, no one was able to break so you can imagine that fighting here were pointless.
Run - 1:29:40
I want to run something like 1:28 but it was the hottest day during my stay in Mallorca and day before it was heavily raining. I was running from like 10:35 to 12:05 and the water on the street in this heat was just creating a small sauna effect I’ve handled it pretty well but I was slowing down. There were 3 loops. First two I was running all the time, on the 3rd one I’ve decided to take my time in aid stations and walk, grab water, etc. Still run 1:29:40 which when I look at my friends which also were there was way faster than them - most of them said it was just hot. I was feeling it was hot but I was trying to keep it with Core in the proper zone to not bonk.
Summary
Overall I was thinking about 4:30-4:45 so I’m pretty happy with the result.
Congratulations 
that’s an amazing accomplishment! Well done 
This was my second Ironman Texas and my first race of the season in a new age group. I didn’t make my sub 12 goal but I am still happy with the results. I live in Colorado, and I did not do any heat training leading into the race and that was a huge issue for me! The temps were in the 90’s and the humidity was very high.
I raced with 4 others and our families were all there which made it a very special event! The highlight was seeing MJ on the run! She helped me with some good advice on dealing with the stomach cramps!
I am training for a 50K ultra in August and then IM New Zealand 2026!
Happy training everyone!
Leif
@Leif meeting you was a highlight of the day! You were so happy when I told you that you were on the lead!! Wohoo!!
