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Sunday, January 27, 2008

3M Half Marathon. Ouch.

Well, I have to start this off with saying that Amanda Lovato motivated me to put up a quick post on todays race. She must have had one up within 3 hours after finishing...impressive. So here it goes, right after my breakfast and ice bath.

I was expecting a lot out of myself, I have to say...I started realizing this when on Thursday, I had a mediocre Tempo run and Saturday, a downright crappy 'easy' run. I think it threw my confidence for a small loop, because I felt a bit out of sorts on Saturday. The past 2 months have been devoted to my marathon goal and things have been going great, actually beyond my expectations..thus, of course, I had high expectations for today...I was hoping to run a 1:16...or faster.

I woke up bright and early (I heard Des say once that you know when you 'bounce' out of bed it will be a good day...I think the opposite holds true for me...I usually see 4:00-something and I think 'WHY DO I DO THIS?'..and proceed to have a good race anyway)...going on, I was up and atom at about 4:30, before my alarm. Had some toast with jam and coffee and a then Brad (James), Cindy and Pat came by and we all piled in the car. Derick was sitting this one out and spectating/coaching. We arrived around 6:00, and I waited 20 minutes or so to do my 15-20 min warmup jog. Felt good but I don't get too worked up over warmup jogs, they are what they are...on to the race.

I saw a few friends @ the start including Desiree, Chris-Badass-Kimbrough, Wish, Pat (still making me laugh), Amanda, and a few others...but I was pretty nervous. I have learned that I tend to perform best when not terribly nervous @ the start line, crap. The gun sounded and we were off. I felt strong but man, the elite women took off like they were being chased! Yikes, I didn't hold a candle to them however I went through my first mile in 5:50. Being that it is supposedly 'the slowest mile', I thought 'OK this is good, settle in.' When I saw that the second mile was about 6:00, uh...that had me a little worried.

And so it goes, I proceeded to keep running, while this course is predominantly downhill there are a few short 'ups' to keep you honest. I just could not find a smooth and quick gear today. I came through 6-miles at about 35:05, which is not bad but I was somewhat struggling to hold this. To be honest, it sucks at this point in a race...a few more miles went by and I really contemplated quitting. And then I'd tell myself, "I do NOT quit races. That is the easy way out and you don't learn a thing. Keep pushing, stay with it and don't give up. Only 'x' more time, you can do anything for 'x' minutes." I think I told myself to go for a 1:17+, and when I saw that slip away, I told myself go for a PR (1:18.30)...I saw the finish line and dropped what little bomb I had left, and that slipped away. Then I just got pissed. :) I pushed in to a 1:18.46, I believe...not too far off my best but it was far off what I had hoped.

So I cross and I am angry, tired and discouraged...but I decided to walk away from the finish line and mope in private. I found a place to sit for 10 minutes or so, got all the negative self-talk out of the way and then went to see my friends. I had to start to see the bigger picture. I am training for a marathon, in which I want to hold 6:22 pace (I think). I felt like I could have held that today, but I sure as hell could not hold my 'goal' of 5:45 pace. That is OK, I have not been training my body for that. Additionally this race comes at the end of 3 pretty hard weeks, including the 3 longest runs I have ever done..not to throw out excuses, not at all but considering all of these factors, perhaps my body is simply tired and ready to start resting. It was a great effort, an excellent training day and now I will use the information from today (pacing strategy, nutrition, etc) to prepare for the marathon in 3 weeks. When it's done, put it behind you! The bigger picture...I am lucky to be out doing this, I am extremely lucky to have so many amazing people around me supporting me and the time on the clock does not define who I am. We all know these facts, but sometimes we just need a little reminder.

2 comments:

Amy Marsh said...

Hey Kelly,

Today is over with...done with...and you can't go back. Just keep moving forward and focus on the BIG goal! You're running very strong right now so keep it up.
-acm

Anonymous said...

You kicked butt missy. You may not have done what you wanted to, but you did so great! SOOO MUCH faster than I could ever dream of doing :) Keep up the great work chica!