From Struggling to Soaring: Ariana Allen's 4:40 to Sub-3 Marathon Revolution

DFW Running Talk: Ariana Allen
===

Chris Detzel: [00:00:00] All right. Thank you for joining us for another DFW Running Talk. I'm Chris Detzel, and today we have Ariana Allen. Arianna, how are you?

Ariana Allen: Good, how are you?

Chris Detzel: I'm good. I was so excited to get you on the podcast. I didn't know you, but I saw you on Instagram and then I kinda looked at some of the things that you accomplished and I was like, I gotta get her on.

So that's exciting. I'm glad you came on.

Ariana Allen: Yeah. Thanks for having me. I'm so excited to do this.

Chris Detzel: Yeah. And are you a nurse? Is that what you do for a living or,

Ariana Allen: yes. I've been a nurse for, gosh, almost 11 years. It'll be 11 in July.

Chris Detzel: It's awesome. My wife is a certified nurse. She's been doing it for, I don't know, 25, 30 years, and she actually works from home now, and so she does more appeals type stuff.

I don't know if you know what that, I'm sure kinda know what that is. She's been doing that for a long time now

great. So there's that.

I don't know if that's, but today I, you've accomplished a lot of things and we're gonna get to all of those really fun, cool things. But before we do get started let's learn a little bit about you.

How did you're, [00:01:00] you've run marathons, haves and all these things. We'll get into that here in a second, but I wanna know a little bit about you, Ariana, just about your kind journey. Just let's start from ground up. Like why'd you start running a win?

Ariana Allen: Yeah. So that's a great question. My

Chris Detzel: thanks.

Ariana Allen: So actually this started for me when I was in like elementary, middle school.

My dad was a really big runner had started doing, I'm from the DC area, so he ran the Marine Corps marathon twice and we got to go out and watch him and I just thought that was so cool. So that spring I think it was, I was in like. Fifth grade I signed up for track and then I transitioned into middle school track and then high school, cross country.

And at the time that I signed up for track, my dad was actually also going back to school to study law. So he was working full-time and doing night school. So I really didn't get to see a whole lot of him except for in the morning when he would go run, he would take me out as well. So that was like our time to hang out together.

So I loved it and I really took to it. And I loved cross country [00:02:00] probably more than I loved Trek. Just 'cause I liked the longer distances and getting to be out on like trails and stuff like that. And then I went to college and, studied nursing and didn't really have a lot of college athletes in the nursing program.

So I had an opportunity to try out for the cross country team and decided that. I probably wouldn't be able to balance both of those things.

Chris Detzel: Tough one.

Ariana Allen: It is, but, and looking back on it, I don't know if I super regret my decision because I think ultimately I was in a new state and I was doing a lot of other things, but after college I knew I wanted to get back into running and having an opportunity to run the Marine Corps with my dad presented itself.

And I was like, okay

Chris Detzel: but before were you at least running in college? Just trying to stay in shape or how did that work?

Ariana Allen: Yeah there were a couple people in my sorority that we would go out, in the morning, on the weekend maybe and run the loop. Yeah. Just to run, run and yap.

But it was fun, but that's the

Chris Detzel: best. That's, running with the community. Look, if you've listened to this podcast at all, people know that I'm a big community kind of person and I think, running with the community [00:03:00] is key to, in a lot of aspects. And just like you got with some sorority people, and ran with them, that's just let's just stay in shape a little bit,

Ariana Allen: yeah. It's so easy to do because you can literally run anywhere.

Chris Detzel: Exactly.

Ariana Allen: Yeah.

Chris Detzel: All so you decided to run a marathon with your dad, but what did that look like before? Did he help you train for that or give you a plan or, what'd you do to train for that?

Ariana Allen: Yeah so let's see. The first Marine Corps I did with him, 'cause I did two with him ultimately, but that first one, he was training back in DC and I was still living in Texas. So I was I called him and I was like, Hey, what should I do? What do you recommend? And he has a group he runs with in Maryland and he's hey, these are what our long runs look like, and you should be probably doing this and then taper off.

And I had a general idea, but I. I wouldn't say it was really structured. I just put together, okay, I can run 16 miles maybe on this weekend and I'll do 20 on this weekend. And actually that first Marine Corps I didn't even have a GPS watch. I literally mapped him up on, mapped [00:04:00] my run and I was like, okay, I think this on the Trinity Trail, if you're familiar with the trail, it's I think if I make it here that's about 10 miles out and then I'll just turn around and come back and that'll be 20.

Chris Detzel: Wow. Okay.

Ariana Allen: Yeah, it's pretty rough

Chris Detzel: that I remember when I used to use Nike used to have a watch and so that was the only watch and it was Nike Run app or something like that. I think it's still around. Barely.

Yeah.

But they're the ones with the first watch from what I remember. So it's been, it's gone.

It's come a long way is all I'm

Ariana Allen: saying. Yes. Very long way. And of course now it's I don't even know how I did that without a watch.

Chris Detzel: Exactly. I know I have my watch on now, so I don't know. Yeah,

Ariana Allen: exactly. I have mine too.

Chris Detzel: So you run that marathon without, you train, but sounds like it wasn't structured or, was there a time where, you just started to become a little bit more structured, more interested in the marathon?

What happened there?

Ariana Allen: Yeah, so that first marathon, it was actually a pretty rough experience 'cause first marathons I think are [00:05:00] always gonna be hard. And then, like you pointed out too, I really didn't have a lot of structure. I didn't know what I was doing. And actually around mile 17, 'cause my dad had been injured leading up to the race mile seventeen's, like he had some really bad sciatic pain and he's I don't think I'm gonna be able to finish this.

He bows out and I'm like, okay, I'm already here. It's only, my mind. I was like, it's only like what, eight, nine more miles. I'll just go ahead and tough it out. Yeah. And so I finished it and I was just like, that was really hard. I wonder if I like ran more, if it could be a little easier.

Chris Detzel: What, what did, how did you do on the marathon?

Ariana Allen: I ran it about a four 40. Okay, alright. Yeah. So I was excited about it just to have finished a marathon. I had no real metric for what was good and and I hate to say that, but I had no real metric of what's considered a fast marathon, what's.

Good. So I was just stoked that I did it and had a beer out. I'm

Chris Detzel: pretty excited to hear the rest of the story because I know exactly what you've run now. And a four 40 is, look, it's your first marathon. It's, it is what it is, but so can't wait. So here we [00:06:00] go. Let's keep going.

So you ran that first one and you were thinking maybe I should run more or whatever. What, what happened from there?

Ariana Allen: So actually it gets a little worse before it gets better

Chris Detzel: happens.

Ariana Allen: So that same weekend I ran my first marathon. My now husband proposes to me. So we started wedding planning, all the things.

What's

Chris Detzel: funny, as you said it got worse, and then you tell us the story of your husband, what's going on?

Ariana Allen: No, the running part gets worse, I would say. Yes. Okay, I hear you. Life got better.

Chris Detzel: Got it.

Ariana Allen: But the running

Chris Detzel: didn't,

Ariana Allen: the running did not, no, for sure. Yeah. So he proposes to me and I was so excited and we got married literally the very beginning of October.

I had not been running really at all. Anyone who's planned a wedding, it, it's it can be really time consuming. In weird ways. And we traveled because we went back to DC to do all of this. And so it just running didn't really happen. Yeah. A lot of time and effort. Yes. And then after I got married literally the next week my dad's Hey, I'm [00:07:00] doing the Marine Corps again.

Do you wanna do it with me? And I'm like, shoot, I haven't trained at all. But I was like, yeah, sure, why not?

Chris Detzel: Al decisions. Alright. So you do the Marine Corps, then you get married, but that was about a year-ish. 'cause So within them year timeframe, you didn't run another marathon, but the Marine Corps comes up again, is that right?

The next year. Okay, got it. Just making sure I'm following.

Ariana Allen: Yeah, so literally I had two weeks after we got back from our honeymoon and I was like, sure, I'll go run it with you. Like I'm sure I can muster something together and no. So yeah, it was, that's

Chris Detzel: a bad idea,

Ariana Allen: terrible idea. That one was, I think around five 15.

It was pretty much a walk run for me and we just took it really casually. But that was, it's really the only

Chris Detzel: way you could take that one I would think. Yeah. So smart. It

Ariana Allen: would've been rough. Yeah, it was pretty rough oh, sure. Very.

Chris Detzel: Alright, so you're not a serious marathoner yet. You've done two, so that's good, but No but obviously you've got some, you became pretty serious.

Ariana Allen: Yeah, so I would say that was when I [00:08:00] was like, okay, you know what I wanna train for one. I wanna actually try. I wanna train for a marathon and feel like I have a better idea of what I'm doing. And there's all these training plans on the internet, right? So that in a way it was good and bad.

I think sometimes, obviously now working with the coach, it's like they can be pretty generic. They don't always fit life. I decided, you know what, I'm gonna register for Houston because it's closer. I'm not gonna have to take a flight back to dc. I can drive to Houston from DFW. That's not Astronom. It's a great race.

Yeah. So I was like, sure let me give that a shot. And at that point too, like I'd started, at that point I'd started my Instagram account thinking, let me connect with other runners. I wanna find more people that are running in DFW. And I knew some people that were active and wanting to qualify for Boston.

And then I was like, I wonder what that would look like. What could I do to qualify? What are the times? And so that kind of became my focus as I wanted to do that. And of course I'd heard about it loosely growing up, especially in the Northeast. It's a big race and then it's, seven hours up the [00:09:00] road.

So that became something that I wanted to do. And I was like, Houston, let's go to Houston and give it a shot.

Chris Detzel: It's go to Houston near third and see if you can qualify for Boston.

Ariana Allen: Yeah. So it was a pretty big jump. Looking back on it, I feel like I probably skipped a few steps there.

Chris Detzel: So how'd it go?

What? What happened?

Ariana Allen: So I used, I can't remember the training plan. I think it was probably, I know that McMillan puts out a few Yeah.

Chris Detzel: Yeah, there's several,

Ariana Allen: yeah, so many that you can choose from. And so I ran more, I was probably doing about like 40 miles a week. Again, looking back, big jump. I don't know that I recommend that.

I think I got very lucky that I didn't get super injured initially.

Chris Detzel: Yeah.

Ariana Allen: But I ran a 3 29 in Houston, so I was damn stoked. And

Chris Detzel: That's great. Yeah. That's a huge jump from, 4 45, 15 to now 3 29. That's great.

Ariana Allen: Congrats. It was a little thank you. It was a little surreal, honestly, was very surprised.

I didn't, the time back then was 3 35 'cause [00:10:00] they've escalated things since then. And that kind of just fueled my fire. 'cause I was like, to me fast people qualify for Boston. And so I. Then I was like, I want to try to do more. And

Chris Detzel: That's a really good time by the way at 3 29.

So for whoever, just whoever's listening, three 20 nine's great. But she's got more in her, so that's good. By the way, I was looking at your Instagram the other day and I saw this meal prep thing of chicken and some, I was so hungry afterwards. Good job on that. And I think that's probably key to now how you're running and fueling and all those things.

We'll talk about that later probably. So you run this 3 29, you qualify for Boston?

Yeah.

Anything in between, like kind of any lessons learned, any thoughts around, how you might train for it and that kind of stuff?

Ariana Allen: You mean leading up to Houston? Yeah.

Chris Detzel: Yeah. Yeah, let's, we can go back to Houston.

I was thinking after Houston, but we can go back to Houston and how you train. You did 40 miles a week-ish, and actually it was probably way more than you were doing before, so

Ariana Allen: a lot more.

Chris Detzel: Yeah,

Ariana Allen: it definitely I [00:11:00] think the running more helped. I, looking back on it, my training wasn't great.

It's such a like trial and error process, but I also wasn't working with a coach and I probably should have been, I was thinking in my mind like, oh, I'm not serious enough for a coach. I don't know that makes sense. But going back to the meal prep thing, that was a huge thing for me leading up to Houston.

'cause at the time too, I was, still working as a nurse and I was working in the hospital three 12 hour shifts. And so first little bit, I wasn't doing a lot of meal prep, I wasn't doing a lot of planning. And my hospital has McDonald's downstairs and

Chris Detzel: it's easy. Yeah, it's

Ariana Allen: easy. Or sometimes, oh, I don't have time to eat, so I guess I'm just gonna skip that.

Not by choice, not for any like weird reasons. It was just, it's busy and then you're busy. Yeah.

Chris Detzel: Working 12 hour shifts, you're always on. It's rare that you're not on, I'm sure it's especially working at a hospital.

Ariana Allen: Yeah. And then you're just like, you look up, it's five o'clock and it's okay, nevermind.

Chris Detzel: Exactly. So no, I get that. Oh you, so during, for the Houston kind of training, [00:12:00] you did about 40 miles a week. Did you meal prep for at all? Was that, did you start thinking about that or not yet?

Ariana Allen: Yeah, so I had started meal prepping probably like halfway through. 'cause I just realized, especially with amping up my running volume by as much as I did, like I was getting hungry and I'm like, I don't

Chris Detzel: have

Ariana Allen: anything to eat.

I didn't bring anything with me or I was going to McDonald's and who doesn't love chicken nuggets? But after a while it's like I need to have stuff prepared and then it saves you money too. Yep. There's always that. You need the

Chris Detzel: protein, you need the carbs, you need all the right things, especially as you ramp up your miles.

That makes sense. Alright, so you finish Houston. You qualify for Boston.

Yes.

What'd you do in between anything different? Did you get a coach then, or not yet? Or what was your thinking and No. Okay.

Ariana Allen: No, so I definitely, after that, I think, I got bit by the bug and I was thinking, okay, you know what, I'm just gonna really ramp this up and see how much I can do.

Okay. And went the opposite direction. It was a lot of taking five steps forward, three back or [00:13:00] whatever. And so I really, my next race after Houston was I actually did the Marine Corps again, so I wanted to train for that and try to go back and do my hometown race and why not?

And I really overtrained for it initially. I went really aggressive. I got this book, I still have it. It's called Beginner's Guide to Marathoning. And looking back, it has some great stuff in it, but I had picked up this plan that was, I think it peaked at around like 70 miles a week, which is.

Huge jump from like 40. And so I was like, sure, let's give this a shot. I wanna see if I can, really improve my running. And so I struggled with the energy, like I just was so tired during that whole block. And I had really started training very early. 'cause I thought if I train for longer that'll be better.

Oh yeah. I had a lot of really bad misconceptions I think about marathon training. And so I ended up with plantar fascitis and had really hurt my knee. And so went into the race with [00:14:00] very similar to my previous two, where I hadn't been able to really hit the mileage that I had thought. I think my longest run was like 17 miles 'cause I was so hurt all the time.

Yeah, so Makes

Chris Detzel: sense.

Ariana Allen: Didn't go very well.

Chris Detzel: Then, so what'd you do after that?

Ariana Allen: So after that I was Boston and I, at that point I think I was pretty burned out. So my first Boston also was not very good.

Chris Detzel: How many Bostons have you done?

Ariana Allen: I've done four. Okay. Or have I done four? I've done three. Three. So yeah, it wasn't, it was, again, trial and error.

I was so excited to be in Boston though. So I think part of me was just like, okay, you know what? Like I wanna have fun, but I wanna see what I can do. And, Boston, but if your wife's done 12 of these, you'd know it's the first 5K is completely downhill. And I think like for newer runners to Boston, it can be like, at least for me, I didn't really I went into it with this assumption of it's gonna be really hard.

Which I think is absolutely true, but I didn't expect the first 5K to feel as [00:15:00] easy as it did. And so I think I went out pretty hard looking back, I was ripping like these seven minute miles, which was not what I was trained for. And then I paid for it and it got pretty warm towards the end of that race too.

But I was, honestly my mindset was, I'm happy to be here, I'm blessed to be in Boston. 'cause I was just so excited, honestly, to have, yeah. Achieved that goal that I wasn't super focused on the time, but after that is when I was like, I need to start working with the coach. 'cause I don't feel like I'm gonna be able to sustain this in the long run.

So that's where I feel like a lot of things started to change. Yeah,

Chris Detzel: I wanna hear that. So talk more about that, like you decided I'm gonna go with the coach and what year? Do you remember what year that was or?

Ariana Allen: Yeah, it was 20, I think. My first Boston was in 2019, so it was like right after. Right before Covid.

Right before Covid, yeah. Before, it's weird that we think of time that way now too.

Chris Detzel: I've done a lot of these podcasts and that's what, how people think. Oh, I started running during [00:16:00] 2020, and I'm like, oh wow, you're a new runner. Yeah, because covid, yeah. And I'm like, yeah,

Ariana Allen: a lot of people. It's weird. It was like five years ago too,

Chris Detzel: yeah. It doesn't seem that long ago, but it is a long time ago. Anyways. So 2019 you did it and you decided, Hey, I'm gonna do a CO or get a coach. Yeah. How'd you find that coach? How did you find the coach?

Ariana Allen: Funny story. So we were both, we had worked on the Cowtown Marathon. They had an ambassador program and I actually met him through that. And I also, we had stayed in touch 'cause his wife ended up being our realtor. Like we got very intermingled very quickly. So he does a lot of triathlons and he has a group in kind of the DFW North DFW area called run related.

And I knew a lot of his athletes just through running. And I was like, Hey, would you coach me? I just, I don't feel like I know what I'm doing. I approached him 'cause I knew a lot of that

Chris Detzel: happens a lot. From my, from what I hear, a lot of these coaches. They know somebody and introduce 'em to that person, and then they're like, Hey, look, I need to be coached.

So that makes sense.

Ariana Allen: Yeah, for sure. And [00:17:00] especially like a lot of other runners that I knew were working with him, so I'm like, okay, I, what's his

Chris Detzel: name? Just for everybody to know.

Ariana Allen: It's Tim Hawley.

Chris Detzel: Okay.

Ariana Allen: So cool. And he works. Yeah. So it was very like helpful because initially what he did is he was like let me see what you've been doing, like what's your other marathon prep looked like?

And so I was a little embarrassed 'cause I'm like

Chris Detzel: it's okay.

Ariana Allen: It's okay, hold on. Asterisk. I don't know what I'm doing, but this is what I was doing. And immediately he's okay, you're running all of your training too fast. Classic mistake I think for a lot of people.

Chris Detzel: But you've been doing it for a while Too fast.

Ariana Allen: Yeah. Yeah.

Chris Detzel: So you weren't work running with a community group at all or anything? It was just by yourself Mostly.

Ariana Allen: I was by myself a lot of the time. I did, social running is in Fort Worth, so I did some running on the weekends with them. Okay. When we moved up to North Fort Worth, it was a little more difficult and especially with my schedule.

So I was solo for a lot of it, and especially during the week, I was by myself a lot. Yeah, that

Chris Detzel: makes sense.

Ariana Allen: Yeah, it wasn't, honestly, what was hard [00:18:00] is getting up to work, especially if I have to be at work around like the 30 mark. It's who wants to come run with me at four? So not a

Chris Detzel: lot of people.

Ariana Allen: Yeah.

Chris Detzel: There's, as you embed yourself in that community more and more I find that there's some people that are just as focused as you. You know what I mean? Yeah. That's just as I've di dived in more and talked to these people people are getting up at four, three o'clock, I don't know.

And I'm like, no, I'll get up pretty early,

yeah.

Five, my wife and I get at 5, 5 15, and then on Tuesday and Wednesdays we'll run with the co-op here in Dallas. We'll leave here at 5 45, run with them and then be home by seven.

Ariana Allen: Oh, fun.

Chris Detzel: But the point is that there's people that as you do this long enough, eventually that will do it.

But that's pretty early.

Ariana Allen: Yeah. Yeah. And there were times on the weekends for sure, do some long runs and we, run related, they would do some longer runs on the weekends as well. So it just and I would do some long runs with my coach too, which was helpful because I had a lot of difficulty slowing myself down, which [00:19:00] sounds people hear that, they're like, oh really?

'cause, but I think a lot of people deal with that because, you're a lot of people so Yeah, you're and you, and plus the numbers mean something to you as a runner. So when you see like slower times, you're like. You wanna go faster,

Chris Detzel: love this guy and listen to the podcast.

'cause he, I'm gonna have him run a second time eventually. But his name's Jose Lopez and he was a college athlete. He ran really fast, and, now he runs all, pretty much all of his runs besides, he'll do races throughout the month, five Ks, 10 Ks and eventually he'll do marathons and stuff, but really slow.

Nine or 10 minute miles. Literally he'll do a 20 miler for 10 minute miles, or I'll go run with him on Sundays. We'll do 10 miles at 10 minute pace, nine 30 at the most. But that's just how he runs. And now he'll do some races throughout the month that kind of gets some speed and he goes, and then he'll go out and run, a three hour marathon.

Or he'll run under six minute 10 k, a mile. So the point is, slowing down [00:20:00] sometimes can help. He goes, I'm now, he's 40 now. He goes, I'm 40 now and I'm in it for the longevity. And not to kill myself, that's his philosophy and his thing. He's been doing it for a really long time, because of, his college, he even did it in high school and all these other things.

And it's funny because I'll talk to some folks that you know around, we run around the lake or whatever, and they're like,

Yeah.

I don't know how Jose does that. He's gotta be like, running some speed work. I was like, no, he doesn't, like you can see his Strava and stuff.

He doesn't do any speed work hardily, besides, like I said, maybe he's running a five or 10 k or half marathon throughout the, during the month. But, that's his speed work and that's it.

Yeah, that's a

good point. And I'm not saying you shouldn't do speed work. I'm not saying that, but what I'm saying is that, he does run a lot, so he'll run 60 or 70 miles a week or.

Yeah, a week. Oh, generally 60. So he does, he's under the philosophy around running a lot of miles, is key. And I've heard this too, from other elite runners that have been on the podcast and you've even said it before, you [00:21:00] probably did a little too much, but one time. The more running you can do certainly will help you in a lot of ways.

Anyways, get this Coach I go off on a tangent, sorry, but I think it's important. No,

Ariana Allen: but that's all good info too. 'cause it's true. I think I was not a believer of that process initially. It's if I'm, you talk about running like nine 30 to 10 minutes, which is what I had started doing, and I'm like, man, if I'm doing all of this running at this pace, like how am I gonna do.

A marathon,

Chris Detzel: the long stuff that you have to, yeah,

Ariana Allen: it, so that was a different mentality for me. So we started targeting Houston again and I was, he, it was, the beginning of 2020, so right before everything blew up, but he's let's shoot for Houston in 2020 and see if we can at least let's just start with qualifying for Boston again.

'cause at that point I hadn't requalified, I'd run some slower times just 'cause I was not doing the right things. So got back up to around like 40 to 45 miles per week, which was probably, where I needed to be. 'cause it was a little bit more than I've been doing, but not by much. And a lot of it was a lot [00:22:00] slower than what I had been doing.

Chris Detzel: You probably felt a lot better too.

Ariana Allen: I did imagine that I had a lot more energy. I didn't feel like I was, totally gassed after every workout, which was great. So I was doing just like one speed work session a week and then sometimes the long run would have some speed stuff in it. But yeah, so a little bit more structured.

And I was running I think five days a week at that point. And yeah. And then got to Houston and it was super cold. Which, the weather, I was there, by

Chris Detzel: the way for that one.

Ariana Allen: Oh, my wife

Chris Detzel: ran, she won the marathon. She, yeah, she might've run the marathon and I was supposed to run the half, I think I had, I dunno if it's covid or not, but I was really sick and I'd get out that's when we didn't know really about Covid, but we people started getting covid.

Anyways, I was there for that one. Keep going.

Ariana Allen: Yeah, it was looking back on it, it's, it was so crazy 'cause I was like, man, two months later everything just completely changed, but. Yeah, so I ran, I ran a three 19 that year, so it was, I was,

Chris Detzel: stuff [00:23:00] works.

Ariana Allen: So stoked. Yeah. And yeah, exactly. I was just, I did not think that I could, go under three 20.

In my mind. I was just, okay we'll try this approach, but I don't think I had fully bought into it until, he gave me my race plan going into Houston of okay, target this for around, one through, 15, then try to do this. And I literally just plugged it in and followed it to a t and it worked.

Typical aches and pains, it's still gonna hurt. But I, yeah,

Chris Detzel: you ran faster than you ever have before.

Ariana Allen: Exactly. For a

Chris Detzel: marathon, of course you're gonna hurt.

Ariana Allen: Yeah. And it's 26.2 miles, so

Chris Detzel: never easy doing a marathon. Like

Ariana Allen: never easy. I think

Chris Detzel: that what happens is that we've been doing this for so long, whether it's half marathons, whatever and we just poo p it a little bit and say, Hey, that's just another marathon, I wanna try to get better and better what you've already done.

And what a lot of us have done is. Pretty awesome, and so I think we have to kinda look at that. There's a not, there's a very select few of people and it's hard to see it because we're around it all day every day. That have done this, and [00:24:00] have accomplished what you're gonna tell us that you've accomplished already.

Three 19 is great, and pretty awesome. I think we have to keep that in mind. Yeah.

Greed. I don't see anything wrong with it, but I think you also have to put it in perspective to say, done some good stuff. Can you do better? Sure. You're gonna do better, but, let's just not, say, oh, it's just another marathon. It's pretty awesome.

Ariana Allen: Yeah. Yeah.

Finishing is huge.

Chris Detzel: Yeah. Yeah. Finishing is good, but so three 19 and, you probably said, wow, this works pretty crazy by a lot. You prd by 11 minutes, nine, 10, yeah. Whatever, and

Ariana Allen: so I was thrilled, then, and so in the mix of all these things too, I feel like I should add that I was running some half marathons as well.

And so I had mentioned that I wanted to run the cow town half as well which kind of a quick turnaround from Houston, but I was like, you think it's doable? He's yeah, sure, let's take a crack at it. And I think at that point [00:25:00] I was in like the one range. And so I was like, do you think I can go under 90 minutes?

He's he is I don't know, like we could give it a shot. Might be able to do that. So that same year I turned around and I ran Cow Town, and I think I ran like a 1 29 58. It was just under 90. I know. And

Chris Detzel: like I've run that thing like. 10 times and the half, I find it one of the hardest halves within Dallas because of the hills,

Ariana Allen: yes.

Chris Detzel: So 1 29 is pretty awesome.

Ariana Allen: I was, again, I was just thrilled I was on this high. I think, like we already talked about I was not a big believer of this process initially, of running slow. I'm like, okay, yeah, sure, whatever, we'll try this, but I don't think it's gonna work. 'cause I was just very I don't know, wary of it.

And then when it worked for Houston, I'm like, Hey, let's try this. And that was March 1st, 2020. And then everything of course stopped and my life got super busy with work. 'cause I was still in the hospital at that point. And so there was a pretty good marathon break, I think, until Boston of 21 was [00:26:00] the next one that I did, which was that, I think that was the one that they did in October.

Chris Detzel: Was it virtual or no?

Ariana Allen: No. So I did, 'cause let's see, I qualified again in Houston, and so I registered for the 2021. I. Boston. And so that was the one that they moved to October and then got it

Chris Detzel: late. Got it. Yes. Yeah,

Ariana Allen: it was a weird, it was a weird time. So that was the next one that I did.

So it was almost like a year and a half.

Chris Detzel: Okay. Wow. Okay. So did you just train and, look, we're all kind. Did you keep burn out at all? Like 'cause of covid itself or, what happened kinda during that time? A year and a half. That's a long time. Yeah,

Ariana Allen: because there's no

Chris Detzel: races going

Ariana Allen: on. No races.

And I was, I would say I was pretty focused on work. I was doing some running, it was very casual. Yeah. My like, mental headspace was not great. I think I did one virtual marathon. It was. The Marine Corps. I did a virtual Marine Corps on of course. But yeah, it was brutal. It was very I was working between 60 and 70 hours a week,

Chris Detzel: man.

Yeah, you [00:27:00] probably just, they couldn't get enough of having more nurses,

Ariana Allen: yeah. And I was blessed to have a job. I know a lot of people that were laid off and but yeah, I was pretty tired. You

Chris Detzel: weren't gonna lack a job.

Ariana Allen: No. For what you do, for sure.

Chris Detzel: That's positive,

Ariana Allen: yeah. I, Hey, that's all you can do is look at the positives, right? Yeah. But yeah, I was pretty busy, so I wasn't doing a lot of running. I was in like the 30 to 35 mile a week range. I was pretty just, and some weeks it just didn't happen.

Chris Detzel: Yeah.

Ariana Allen: It was helpful. My coach is a nurse practitioner also, so we commiserated on a lot of things and we would meet and go run sometimes just casually because it's I just need a break.

Yeah. That's

Chris Detzel: great.

Ariana Allen: Yeah, it was nice just to have somebody and then, talking back and forth about stuff that was going on in our kind of respective workplace because, at that time it was so difficult to explain like outside of the healthcare world Hey, are you seeing this?

'cause this is really crazy. And so it was, but you have

Chris Detzel: some fun stories or not so fun stories.

Ariana Allen: Yeah, both. It was weird. It was a really wild time. And then, just it going into work every day and the rules were always changing. You didn't know always. Yeah, [00:28:00] and I'm sure I

Chris Detzel: remember my dad was in the hospital and, every day some new rule and I'm like, that wasn't yesterday, it is today. Yeah. I'm like, okay know. But yeah, you can, I can imagine that what you're going through is all these changes all the time, just. Nobody really knew what to do. That's

Ariana Allen: obvious.

Chris Detzel: Yeah.

Ariana Allen: It was wild. And then I remember gosh, this was I think like maybe three months before I ran.

No, let's see, this was still 2020. 'cause I had texted my coach and I was like, Hey, like I got a covid exposure. Like we had at that point, we didn't have, we weren't required to wear PPE or whatever. They told us that we couldn't. And so I had an exposure to a patient that had it. And I'd had the patient for four days in a row and I'm like, I'm pretty sure I'm gonna get it.

And I'm like, should I keep running? What do I do? Like I don't know what I should be doing. And he's I guess just. We don't really know. So just keep going. It's how you feel

Chris Detzel: and if something happens, we'll see.

Ariana Allen: So it was a lot of that. 'cause I was just constantly, I'm like, I don't, and then I was [00:29:00] running, like I said, but it was very sporadic, very off and on until when they decided that Boston 21 was gonna be in person.

I was like so excited to be able to do that again. 'cause I think a lot of us, it was so in the air of are we ever gonna have regular race again? Races

Chris Detzel: again?

Ariana Allen: Yeah.

Chris Detzel: I remember. Cool. So what'd you do, like for training? Did you get your coach back and say, Hey I'm going back to Boston, or did you just do this yourself?

Ariana Allen: No, I was, yeah, I kept working with him and so I, I told him I wanna do this and I wanna just, run it. At the time I was still working a lot, so I actually worked a 72 hour week leading up to Boston. So I flew out I think on that Saturday evening. And then of course it was on a, I wanna say it was on a Monday, still in October.

I don't really remember if it was Monday or Sunday, but it was literally a turn and burn. I flew in the night before, got my packet the next morning and then ran the next day. So I just was like, I just wanna do this and just be there. So I ran, I still ran pretty well. I ran [00:30:00] like a three. 24 if so. Okay.

Yeah. Yeah. And I was just, I was just excited to be back in person and, things with work were still crazy, so I just, I didn't really have a target in mind.

Chris Detzel: Sounds pretty good though. 3 24, considering you haven't run a race in a year and a half and you're working 70, 80 hours a week.

Ariana Allen: Yeah. Looking back on it, I'm like, how did I do that? I was also in my twenties still, so I don't know.

Chris Detzel: Helps.

Ariana Allen: Definitely. Age

Chris Detzel: is a big factor, I'm sure.

So it's been a long time since I've worked 80 hours.

Ariana Allen: Yeah. You know what I've never done that again, and I don't, I, I will not do that again. It was pretty bad.

Chris Detzel: Yeah.

Ariana Allen: Not fun. Do you still do

Chris Detzel: the same stuff or are you doing something different?

Ariana Allen: Yeah, I'm still doing nursing, like in the hospital. Same unit actually too.

Chris Detzel: Wow. Okay, so you run Boston now it's all clean, COVID is going away ish, you know what happened then?

Ariana Allen: Yeah. I actually made the decision that year they had Boston again in [00:31:00] April, or they had it in April of 22. And that was gonna be the 50th anniversary of women being able to run.

And I was like, that's gotta go. I know. I was like, I gotta go. I'm a woman so I should be there.

Chris Detzel: Exactly. And you qualified. So Yeah, and I

Ariana Allen: qualified. So we went back to Boston and ran a three 18. So small little pr I was happy that

Chris Detzel: in Boston, so That's pretty awesome.

Ariana Allen: Yeah. Got a PR there. Hard course.

Yeah. I feel like it's very, people always talk about how the Newton Hills and all the things, it's, it is a really challenging course to just pace yourself on too.

Chris Detzel: It's pretty fast in the beginning from my understanding, so just trying to figure that piece out. My wife's done it 12 times and she might've had, she's done pretty well most of the time, really only three good races for her, there.

And then some really bad races there too. And yeah,

Ariana Allen: I can relate to that. It's just Boston.

Chris Detzel: Yeah, it just happens.

Ariana Allen: Yeah. And the weather in New England is so unpredictable in April, you just dunno, you never know. [00:32:00]

Chris Detzel: It could be super cold. Does Linden want it? And it could be super hot.

Ariana Allen: Yeah. Just no clue.

Chris Detzel: So you did a three 20 or three 18, which was pretty awesome.

Ariana Allen: Yeah. Now

Chris Detzel: you're back at it though. Yes. You're back at trying to figure out how to. PR or Yeah. Do all these prs. What, what's going on now? What's the, after the Boston 2022?

Ariana Allen: Yeah, so that's when I think we started talking about goal-wise.

'cause I think, again, like we talked about, it was recovering from all the like covid stuff. And then, okay like where do you wanna go with this? Like, how, let's try, and his suggestion was, let's shoot for under for sub three 15. So that was where I thought, saw myself natural progression going.

I'd gotten into the, it's realistic. Yeah, realistic. So I think like too, knowing my history with biting off more than I could chew, we kept things reasonable initially. And I had gotten into the New York Marathon for 22. So knowing that one also is a pretty tough course.

There's lots of bridges and hills and. So a lot of people on

Chris Detzel: that one. [00:33:00]

Ariana Allen: A lot of people. And 2022 was a really hot year.

Chris Detzel: Uhhuh.

Ariana Allen: Anyone that's done New York or did New York in 22 we're all traumatized. It was like 75 degrees at the start. Oh. The warmest day in New York history in November and you're standing at the start line sweating buckets and I'm like, this is not gonna go well.

Chris Detzel: Bad attitude. Come on.

Ariana Allen: I know.

Chris Detzel: Bad attitude going in.

Ariana Allen: I think, you know what,

Chris Detzel: I'm just joking. It's pretty realistic. 75 degrees, it's gotta tamper your expectations a little bit,

Ariana Allen: yeah. And okay, so I was thinking like, I think I was like, okay, you know what? I think I can still, I talked to my coach the night before.

He's look, just really try to manage yourself in the beginning. 'cause, PR is still possible. We've done, trained more than I had before. I started running closer to like 50 ish miles a week. So I still felt like I was fit. The day just was not, it was not the best day to be given for pr.

Yeah. So I think that one, I was like around 3 [00:34:00] 35, which still was not. Bad, all things considered.

Chris Detzel: That makes sense to me. I wouldn't be that disappointed considering it's 75 degrees out at the start in water. Yeah. Makes sense. Okay. Get but you get it done, it's great experience.

I was there when my wife did New York and I ran the five, I always did the five Ks, and so it's, we love New York anytime we can go, we will. And running that marathon for her was great. 5K was great for me, so yeah,

Ariana Allen: it's a really fun race too, lots of crowd support and it's just, you can't really beat the environment.

Yeah, it just was hot.

Chris Detzel: It was just hot. All right, get New York and get through that. What's next?

Ariana Allen: Next was Chicago, and I was excited to do that one because it was gonna be flat. So

Chris Detzel: yeah, a lot of times good weather too. Sometimes not, but.

Ariana Allen: Yeah, but most of the time it seems like it's pretty good. And so I was like, okay, like I, I wanna try to get, that's when I was I'd run some halves in between then, and I was hitting around like 1 25, 1 26, and that's when I had asked my coach if he thought going under three hours would [00:35:00] be realistic.

And he definitely thought I could do it

Chris Detzel: from a three 18.

Ariana Allen: I, yeah, honestly. Okay. I was, at that point. I was running like 1 25, 1 26 really fast

Chris Detzel: halves. Got it.

Ariana Allen: Yeah. And so I was thinking is that somewhere where you could see me going? And he did, he said yes, but he's let's target under three ten first.

Let's see how close we can get to the three of

Chris Detzel: I like that. I like it. Coach. Yeah.

Ariana Allen: He's a lot more reasonable than I am, I think probably most,

Chris Detzel: But I think that you probably have the right mindset though. I like that.

Ariana Allen: Yeah.

Chris Detzel: But he's your coach, say what's realistic, but keep going.

I'm, I think I saw your Chicago time. So anyways,

Ariana Allen: yeah. So I was exci, he's let's just see how close three of something. Did a lot of training and of course training and if everyone that you've probably talked to will tell you the same thing, training in Texas during the summer is brutal.

Chris Detzel: Yeah, I know.

Ariana Allen: We had a pretty brutal summer that year, and but I felt like I was doing pretty well in trading. He was happy with the workouts and so went into Chicago, he's okay. He's I don't know if we're [00:36:00] quite at sub three, but I think you could get pretty close to 3 0 5. Going into Chicago, like we had perfect weather.

It was like 50 degrees, 48 degrees or so at the start. What a gift. And I lined up and I lined up like right between the three hour 3 0 5 pacer. It, I was ready to go and I was pretty confident in my training and I hit right at 3 0 6, so it was like 3 0 6 and change. I was really happy with that.

I, when I could

Chris Detzel: you not be anything, from, that's great. That's a huge PR and yeah. The potential like that you have is. Starting to be tapped into, it sounds like it's completely untapped even at three 19 or three 18 is you get way better times to go,

Ariana Allen: yeah. Thanks love that. I was like, I think too, I didn't think initially that I could be capable of that because it just seemed like such a fast time and I'm like I didn't, I'm not some of these elite girls that I know that are running these phenomenal times. But he was like, no [00:37:00] I feel I'm starting to feel that way.

It's starting to, I start to be proud of myself, but I was so

Chris Detzel: what's funny is you should be proud, but it's a lot of times, like I, I've been running for a long time and it's funny because you'll see these folks, men, women, whatever that have, you can tell they have a ton of potential.

So I'll give you an example. There's this one woman we were running, half marathons and we were training and she was in the one 40 group and I knew that she was easily under a one 30, but one is, you have to train. It's, that's the key at the end of the day to get there.

But two is mindset. If you're training all day every day with a one 40 group, your mind is, I just wanna hit a one 40. You know what I mean? Or if I get lucky at 1, 1 39 or something like that, and it's a big mindset and I think sometimes we get in our own minds thinking we can only do this one thing.

Your goal at the end of the day, it was you hit it on the head. In my opinion. You said three under three, you wanna hit under three hours. But he's let's do it at [00:38:00] three 10. 'cause the realistic is Hey, three 18 to three 10 is still. Like ridiculous, like good, but you still kinda met in the middle it sounds, and you hit 3 0 6.

And you're starting to hit that stride. You're one of those people that probably, I don't know. Look, you were doing the training the whole entire time, which some, sometimes you weren't. You might have had a better mindset going in, but it sounds like Chicago was really awesome and I love that starting to hit your stride and we still haven't got to your best yet.

So I'm looking forward to that.

Ariana Allen: Yeah. Man, I was really happy with 3 0 6 and I was like, okay. He's yeah, I think if we alter some things, I think you're definitely, we can get under three. So yeah,

Chris Detzel: now he's yep, let's do it. I love it. Let's do it's

Ariana Allen: we'll send it. So then at the start of the year, so a girl that I know through Fort Worth, you probably know Kaitlyn Keane, super fast runner, she's Olympic trial qualifier, all the things.

I've run with her a couple times on the Trinity Trail and she ran in college, worked with a dietician that she's local, she runs Nutri Works. So she was like, Hey, they're looking for sponsored athletes. She'd [00:39:00] posted this thing on Instagram about it and so I applied being like, that would be really cool.

'cause I don't know a lot about intro race, nutrition. I think sometimes people are like, oh, but you're a nurse. It's yeah, but I don't know anything about fueling and nutrition. You take one nutrition class, so definitely not an expert if I

Chris Detzel: think you're a nurse so you know everything about right.

I body,

Ariana Allen: I don't know anything.

Chris Detzel: Exactly.

Ariana Allen: I started working with Eve in January.

Chris Detzel: My wife's worked with Eve for a long time.

Ariana Allen: No way. I love Eve. She's amazing. She's awesome.

Chris Detzel: Yeah. Yeah. That's pretty cool. About that? She does. I should get on the podcast.

Ariana Allen: Yeah, no, she'd be awesome. She's, she completely like revolutionized how I thought of things.

'cause I thought that I was eating pretty well and there were some things that she's yeah, this is a good meal. But other things that she's we need to incorporate like better macros. And it made such a huge difference in terms of my energy and just, especially with increasing training volume.

The biggest difference for me was the intra race fueling, because I think that was [00:40:00] something that I really struggled with because I just didn't really know how often I should be fueling. There's so many different opinions out there of what gels to use, how often should you take it? And I was using genu can already, and the Martin's calf gel caffeinated gel.

So she worked with stuff I was already using. It was like, okay, you need to eat more. That's great.

Chris Detzel: Yeah you probably have to take eight of those things during a race right of marathon,

Ariana Allen: close to it. And then I was supplementing also with, I have a like drink that I was using that had some carbs in it too, and electrolytes.

'cause the gen can, doesn't have salt. So just all these little things and taking salt tablets that I like had never used. But I started using them in training and it made a huge difference just even in my training runs. I was so surprised. And it's not just being able to like, oh, I started working with her and I ran faster.

It was like, it really made a difference of how I was feeling during and after the workouts

Chris Detzel: transform your body a little bit. And do you [00:41:00] feel like it, you look a little bit different and everything else and.

Ariana Allen: Yeah, obvious in a

Chris Detzel: better way.

Ariana Allen: So yeah, that was something actually that she watched the first like few months that we tried this.

'cause she's a lot of people, they start eating the appropriate like macros and they lose a little bit of weight, so we don't want you to lose weight. So that was something we were pretty careful about. But yeah, no, I felt like it transformed like a lot of just, even just with cross training, like being able to gain muscle quicker and everything was just easier.

I don't wanna say, I don't wanna say easier, but it was a little bit just,

Chris Detzel: I think diet is the key. Training obviously is a big part of it, but if you don't have a great diet, you're never gonna hit your potential.

Ariana Allen: For sure. And so we laid out, I had a race, like a race plan for the year already that I, we had talked about Jersey City 'cause flat fast course, this was the second year they were running it.

So I was like, Hey, I think I'm gonna target this in April and plus in New York it should hopefully be, cooler. So I told her that was my plan. She gave me. We ran the Austin half Marathon in February is a tuneup slash to [00:42:00] test out for, that's this year. It was in 2024.

Okay.

Chris Detzel: Last year. 20 last year. Got it. Alright, let's just make sure I'm on my dates

Ariana Allen: right. Me too.

Chris Detzel: You've done a lot

Ariana Allen: yeah, Austin was like a tuneup of she's okay, we're gonna try Austin with, this is what you need to eat beforehand. This is the carb blow. Or we didn't quite carb load for that, but she's night before, this is what you need to eat.

This is how much fluid you can have, like down to 90 fluid ounces for the day. Everything was so fine tuned. And the nutrition during the race, which obviously like it's a lot different for a half than a full, but that race went really well with her plan that she laid out for me. So we were like, okay, we're gonna replicate it for Jersey City, except we're just gonna make the intro race nutrition fit more of the marathon.

And so Jersey City was really like the first time that I'm like, okay, I'm gonna try and get under that three hour mark. The plan was to go out at six 50. That didn't quite happen. I was a little faster than that. That's how you give faster

Chris Detzel: times, or [00:43:00] Honestly,

Ariana Allen: it was, I had this was my first time starting in like a seated elite type of corral.

Which you felt

Chris Detzel: Like a status. So you had to go out like the elites,

Ariana Allen: you know what, like in retrospect it was very cool, but I think in some ways it made me I was in my head a little bit and so when everybody else is out guns blazing, which some of those people went on to run like two forties and whatever.

Exactly. Yeah. And so I'm like, okay, I'm gonna, just, I told myself it was gonna run my race and then that first mile was my fastest smile at like 6 35. Okay. Way. Little fast. Yeah. But it still went well. I ran a 3 0 2. Wow. Yeah. I was so excited. It was like 3 0 2 and a little bit of change, but, the nutrition worked out really well for me. I had to

Chris Detzel: give you confidence. I'm sure you're a little disappointed to hit under three, that's still really hard to do.

Ariana Allen: Yeah. Yeah. And still it was still like a four. You're that

Chris Detzel: close. You're very close.

Ariana Allen: Yes, very close. [00:44:00] So then after Jersey City, I had Berlin, which Berlin was like, I had gotten in and I'm ticking off world majors as I'm going.

I think everybody to a degree does that a little bit, but a lot of people

Chris Detzel: do.

Ariana Allen: Yeah. Fun. And, both. Both my coach and Eve are like, Hey, just FYI, when you're traveling abroad, it is gonna be a little bit different. And so yeah, that, and that race was fun, but, and I went into it thinking like I, and coach was like, Hey your workouts, you could still hit under three, but it just, I think, but it's probably in it's fast.

Chris Detzel: Potentially very fast. I'm sure that's in your head too,

Ariana Allen: right?

Chris Detzel: Oh, forget about the travel. I don't care about that.

Ariana Allen: Yes,

Chris Detzel: I'm going in it, you're a little competitive, so

Ariana Allen: Yeah. I'm a lot competitive. I, yeah, you know what? It was a really, and here's the thing, we got perfect weather too, so I felt like really good lining up, but I also was a little wary 'cause I hadn't been feeling super great like the last couple days.

Anytime you take a 14 hour flight, it's just gonna be what it's gonna be. So Yeah, I was, you're gonna be tired. Very tired. Little bit of a [00:45:00] time change.

Chris Detzel: Yeah. Seven hours, eight depends, but yeah.

Ariana Allen: Yeah. Something crazy like that. So yeah, and I ran, I think it was like a three, it was like 3, 3 12, 3 13 or something in that range.

Chris Detzel: Super slow.

Ariana Allen: I know, right? I'm such a failure.

Chris Detzel: No, that's a great time.

Ariana Allen: No, I was,

Chris Detzel: I'm sure you're fine with it,

Ariana Allen: yeah. You know what? It was like my coach was like, look, the fitness was there. It's such a gamble when you travel. Just when it, honestly, after that I came back and I was like, I don't know what I want to do.

I wanna try to break three, I don't know what I wanna, where I wanna run. Debated going back to Jersey City. And there was a girl that my husband's family all lives in, like New Braunfels, and there was a girl that I had been running with there that I actually met through Instagram and I met

Chris Detzel: you.

Ariana Allen: Yeah, it's so amazing how that works out.

Chris Detzel: It is. That's great.

Ariana Allen: And she's amazing. And she I actually had met her in person, like we talked off and on. I met her in person in Boston of 19 and her name's Kristen, she's great. And she's was I think six [00:46:00] months postpartum when she ran that race, which is just incredible.

And we ran a little bit and she's Hey, I'm gonna do the McCurdy Micro for breaking three. 'cause we had similar goals at that point. And she's I think it's gonna be really good. She had introduced me to the idea. I went and looked into it and they were gonna have intro race nutrition for us.

You could set up your own bottles and it was a small field size of 200 people. So they were. Yeah. So they were gonna like cater to everybody. And so I was like, you know what? This might be the way to try to do it. So

Chris Detzel: tell me more about this. I've heard of 'em and I've seen your posts about it on Facebook, but I don't know that I knew too much about it.

It sounds like a very exclusive kind of thing.

Ariana Allen: Yeah, so honestly I'd heard about it like, I think maybe two, two years ago they had done like a specific, to try and achieve the Olympic trial standard. And it was at the same location that they did breaking three. It was at that Rockland State Park in it's, I think in White Plains, New York.

So it's just north of New York City. Okay. Yeah. And it's a loop [00:47:00] around the lake, like at White Rock Lake. I know you've mentioned you run out there, it's similar where it's a loop you run around the lake and I think it's like a 2.9 ish mile loop. So you run laps, but it's a Yeah, really flat.

Okay. And it's pretty, it's just nine laps though, of doing the same. Yeah,

Chris Detzel: same stuff. You know where you're at all times, so that's good.

Ariana Allen: Yeah. And actually, so I was, I read a little bit, a bit about it and I was like, Ooh, this might be, I actually had thought that the lapping part would be really challenging.

I was like, I don't know how it's gonna feel running the same, nine laps, is this gonna be. Mentally stimulating enough to where I can tune out that I'm running a marathon.

Chris Detzel: Do you not tune out anyways or what do you do? I feel like I tune out after just focus in on the miles.

Just get it done.

Ariana Allen: Yeah. And I feel like too, sometimes running in these races, when you're hurting, you can feed off the crowd a little bit. And it even like at these races like Chicago, New York, Berlin, you're seeing all these sites and so Yeah. Thousands

Chris Detzel: of people and beautiful sites. That's [00:48:00] right,

Ariana Allen: exactly.

And like reading people's signs and stuff, sometimes those are pretty funny. So I was a little nervous about that, but I was like, you know what? She said that she was gonna do it and another guy that she runs with. And so I was like, okay, I'll know people there, so let's just go do it. So I registered and we started training for that.

And that was, the training was more than I'd ever done. Plus like at that point skipped over this, I went back to school. So I was in grad school and doing this. Wow. And.

Chris Detzel: This is somewhat recent too,

Ariana Allen: yeah. So that was, oh gosh, it's been almost a month since then. But yeah, so we all coordinated on like where we were gonna be staying.

My husband was coming out, so he actually volunteered with McCurdy to like, yeah. So it was, I started to get more excited about it as it got closer, obviously. And so it was interesting too, doing things that I'd never had to prep before, like bottle it, bottles for grabbing. And I'm like I've never been an elite runner where I've been able to like just pull up and grab my bottle.

[00:49:00] So I'm like, I don't know what I'm supposed to be doing, but

Chris Detzel: create the bottle and see what happens when you go past.

Ariana Allen: Yeah,

Chris Detzel: It's nine loops, so I'm sure you'll get used to it.

Ariana Allen: And they were great 'cause they did a bunch of zoom calls with everybody to, tell you like, cool what to expect, where the bottles are gonna be.

So I felt prepared in that sense. And of course like having worked with Eve, I was like, I know exactly what I'm gonna put in these. I know exactly what fuel I'm gonna be taking and when, the only thing that was a little bit different than other races I'd done was they had forewarned us that the GPS is a little bit spotty around the lake, so you have to auto lap your watch, which I was not used to doing.

And that was tricky to like, gauge like, okay, you'd see a mile marker, people would call it out and you would laugh. And so I didn't really know like how fast I was running, minus like just relying on the pacer that was there and hoping, 'cause sometimes Pacers go out a little fast or they're a little slower.

So I'm just relying they don't

Chris Detzel: always finish, especially three hours and under it's a chance. They're probably pretty good about it, [00:50:00] especially at a race like this. But yeah, still never know.

Ariana Allen: And they did tell us too, that the Pacers would probably be with us. They weren't told that they had to do more than, they didn't have to do the whole thing.

So I think our pacer was with us for 10, 11 miles.

Chris Detzel: Okay. That's it.

Ariana Allen: Yeah. Which honestly, at first when she, it was her name was Stephanie, she was great. But she really kept us on pace. And then when she dipped I was like, oh no what's gonna happen? Am I gonna mess this up? But I didn't. And it was great because, talking about community, I was with Kristen and then Michael, who's another guy from her track club down in San Antonio, and we just stuck together and just kept like on each other.

We love each other. Yeah, so you know, we helped each other out and they had water as well as like your own bottles. And so people, the sense of community in this race was really great because we were all after the same thing. And so someone grabbed a water and someone missed one, Hey, do you want some of this?

Like we were just all talking to each other. And even when things got tough, it was nice to have other people that you knew were shooting for that [00:51:00] same goal. And so you're just trying to pull each other along and help each other get to that finish line. It was cool. It was great.

Chris Detzel: So what'd you do?

Ariana Allen: I ran a 2 59 flat.

Chris Detzel: Wow. Yeah. Did your friend run that too?

Ariana Allen: Actually that's interesting. So she ran a 2 59, I think. 11. Okay. So what happened? We got a little split up. We were together, I think up through 22. I had pulled away initially 'cause I thought I had felt good at 22. I thought, okay, I think I could try to pick this up a little bit.

And then I ended up in that. At six 40 ish range. And then Michael caught up to me. I had thought Kristen was with him. I was like, Hey, where's Kristen? He's I don't know. She's, she got really sick wow. I finish, so Michael Jets off ahead of me. He finishes, I finished like a few maybe 30 seconds after him.

I could see 'em finish and I was like, oh, good, there's the clock. I could see that it was like 2 58 and change. I got time gonna make it. So I was so excited when I saw that. [00:52:00] And then when I finished tier caught me. 'cause I mean I had gave it. Everything I had, wow. Was totally wasted. And I like plopped on the ground.

And at that point, I wasn't quite sure what I had done because I had seen it 2 58 or so, like when he had crossed. And I'm thinking, okay, like I know that I'll be under three, but I'm just not sure where it's gonna fall. And I didn't care. I just, under

Chris Detzel: three, whatever,

Ariana Allen: I plopped down on the ground, I looked over and I still didn't see Kristen.

So I was all worried. I was so worried that she was not. Gonna get there. I didn't know what was going on 'cause I hadn't seen her get sick. She comes over and she plops down next to me. And at that point I didn't know what she'd done. I was like, did you do it? And she's yeah, I got right under 2 59 11.

And so then it was just like, we just plopped out in the dirt in the mud. I was just, I didn't care. I was so excited. Yeah, of

Chris Detzel: course.

Ariana Allen: But yeah, just it got hot towards the end. So I think she just had not felt well, but I was just so worried that it was disgusting. Did she have to

Chris Detzel: stop into the [00:53:00] bathroom or,

Ariana Allen: yes, because Dang.

Yeah. And I was like, man, that must, she still got,

Chris Detzel: she still did it though, no,

Ariana Allen: The mental fortitude too. 'cause I'm like, man, if I have to stop and use the restroom in the middle of. A race that's yeah, crazy.

Chris Detzel: You lose a lot of time. Sounds like she didn't really lose that much time.

She No. Was fast at it. So that's good.

Ariana Allen: Yeah. That helps a lot. Should I train for that next time? I don't know.

Chris Detzel: Wow, that's, that is so exciting. So you hit nine, you hit your goal.

Ariana Allen: Yeah. And

Chris Detzel: There's nothing else left.

Ariana Allen: No, that's not true. There's always more.

Chris Detzel: All right. What's next?

What do you, all right. Seriously congratulations. You've hit a, an amazing goal that, not many people in general, especially women say especially, even for a woman is very difficult. But for guys too, you're super fast doing some awesome things.

Congratulations. It's, thank you. Really cool. You should be proud. I would be,

no, I'm,

So what's next? What's the kind of thinking around that for the next year or so?

Ariana Allen: I know that's I feel like natural progression is then you just sub 2 55, [00:54:00] sub two 50, I feel like the confidence that this has given me, especially like the mental barrier of three hours, I think is so difficult. But now it's maybe I could try to just like chip away at that.

Chris Detzel: You should talk to Chantelle.

Ariana Allen: I, yeah,

Chris Detzel: you should. She has some big, lofty goals. She didn't say I'm on the podcast, so I won't say but she, she's got a coach as well and there, she just does what the coach says.

But you should get with her and she has some very lofty goals and I think, you might think about not this or that, but knowing that, you guys like, I think she hit what, 2 59 or as well, or 2 58 or something like that.

Yeah,

CIM you two are right there together. I don't know if you ever find her in races and beat her or she beat you and those kinds of things, but I'm sure there's some of that.

Ariana Allen: She's in, she's incredible. Like I, every time I've seen her, 'cause she run, Sandy is part of Run related, so that's I know her kind of through Sandy and Okay. I remember when she won the Cow Town and I was tracking her. I was just excited to see that [00:55:00] happen,

Chris Detzel: yeah. Look, there's some amazing runners out, in DFW and I've had the pleasure to be able to talk to 'em, and even you you've done some amazing things and I can't believe, keep hearing these stories that, in Dallas Fort Worth, people are hitting under three hour marathons, yeah. And it sounds like, you haven't even hit your stride yet, so that's a positive, right? You've done some cool things, but who knows? Who knows what's next.

Ariana Allen: Yeah, I'm just excited to see what happens, honestly. 'cause I didn't think I, when I initially was so tied up in my goal to qualify for Boston, I didn't think I could get here or I just mentally I wasn't thinking about it.

So it'll be cool to see just. I could think as lofty as I want, and maybe one day some of these things will happen, but for now it's like I'm really, I'm trying not to let the lofty goals that I might think of necessarily overshadow just being excited too, that it happened.

Yes. But

Chris Detzel: I think, it's, the positive is it sounds like you're still wanting to go and that's the positive, right? Like it's not, okay, I'm not done with this. I hit under three. Some people are, it's a hard goal to hit. It's, [00:56:00] you spend a lot of time and effort and you've had to change the way you eat, the way you run all these things.

You've got a coach, you've got a dietician, and if it wasn't for those two things. You probably would not even hit this potential. Who knows? Maybe, but you just got smarter along the way. And to me that's, that shows a lot of guts and grit and willingness to do whatever it takes.

And I love that. And to me it's you've only been doing this. You've been doing it for a while, but not with the dietician, not with the coach altogether, so what is Chantel even mentioned that she also got a dietician. I don't know who she uses but that helped her a ton too.

I think that's a key. Yeah. One of the keys, I think she's

Ariana Allen: also with Nutra Works, I think she works with, it's not Eve though, I wanna say it's Maria. Yeah. But yeah, there,

Chris Detzel: as well. All right. Yeah not sure what's next. Is that what you're saying? Or, from a race standpoint anyways, or,

Ariana Allen: so I know for sure I want to register for Boston in 26, so that's, I really want to go back and just see what I can do there.

I think it can be a really fast [00:57:00] course if you let it if you run it properly, which I haven't always done. And I don't know. I'm just excited. And I think I'm excited to see just, everyone talks about their seating in Boston. I feel like the different like bib colors that you get, I ever since I've seen like those red bibs and the really fast people get the red bibs, I'm like maybe a 2 59 will get me a red one.

I don't know,

Chris Detzel: maybe.

You should. That'd be fun.

Ariana Allen: Yeah.

Chris Detzel: But it sounds like you don't do and I know we've gone over, but it sounds like you don't do a ton of marathons every year, which is to me, good. I talked to this guy super fast, really awesome runner, but he was telling me his first time to do marathons.

He did six or seven in one year. I was like, it's dude, that's like the dumbest thing I think you can do because I know, yeah.

Ariana Allen: I think, I I can understand like you get bit by the bug,

Chris Detzel: yeah. Same.

Ariana Allen: But when I look at like the last year, like not calendar year, but just last rolling year, I did Jersey City, Berlin, and then McCurdy.

Yeah. Not to say a lot. Yeah. At three in the span of a rolling year, I'm like, I know. And I told my coach, [00:58:00] actually, we had this conversation a couple days ago. I was like, I think for the summer I wanna focus on like short, fast stuff maybe, and just take a little bit of a break from, running 65 miles a week awesome.

And doing that, it's a lot. It's a lot.

Chris Detzel: It's funny is, I was talking to, so I had this I dunno if you listened to it, but these six people on the podcast and these six people are all trying to hit under two hours and 40 minutes, either in Boston or London, mostly Boston. And these people are running 80 to 120 miles a week.

And I'm like, how do you do that? I don't even know what that looks like, we do two Aday, and I'm like, I don't, but you know that Jennifer Pope said, look, if I can get in the miles 80, I can make it happen. I can get, I can potentially hit the goal of whatever it is to under two 40 or something, and so look I believe Miles are the key, and I, there is something with that, obviously those guys are doing it. I'm not, but look, most people have full-time jobs. Maybe they have kids and families, whatever, it's gotta be realist. 40 miles is probably not enough, if you really [00:59:00] wanna do really well in a Boston, but it's doable, like you said, you can do it, but it's not gonna get your full potential.

So certainly the more miles, probably the better. But that's, like you said, a structured training plan. Something that, you're not always running your fastest, even during, in the long runs, diet, I think is, I feel like that has more to, that's probably 80%, 70% of, if you can get that right. Of course the training is important, you gotta do it.

But the diet is also big. That's what I heard from you, today.

Ariana Allen: Yeah. Oh yeah. It's been life changing and like you said, the miles are so important too. Getting up there over 60 miles really a week. Yeah. That made a huge difference. I was able to do 3 0 6 on about 45, 50, but I think as you saw, it's like running more, especially most of that was easy, yeah. Or well easy. I was running like, yeah, I was running probably two minutes to three minutes slower than marathon pace,

Chris Detzel: yeah. Ariana, this has been great.

Ariana Allen: Thank you.

Chris Detzel: I really appreciate this time. And it's funny is I don't usually go this far over, [01:00:00] so we had a lot to talk about. It's great.

Sorry,

Ariana Allen: I talk a lot. I'm Italian, so I'm a

Chris Detzel: yapper. I had a lot of questions, so you answered 'em all. But thank you everyone for tuning in to another DFW Running Talk. I'm Chris BetDetzel. Don't forget to write and review us. Also, we are on Substack. Make sure to look at all of that kind of stuff and Instagram, fa, Facebook, we have lots of channels that you can follow us on.

So Ariana, thank you so much for coming on. Thank you much

Ariana Allen: for having me. Appreciate it.

Chris Detzel: All right.