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January 7, 2006
Races are good for me…
Or at least that's what I'm learning. As I mentioned yesterday, I got convinced by my old DC clubmates to do this ten mile race this morning since many of them were doing it. It's a known fact that I don't race much, mostly because I worry about the race for a week in advance (or more) and make everyone around me miserable. But after I had fun at the Thanksgiving race back in November, I realized that maybe I was worrying too much sometimes. I wasn't thinking too much about today's race in advance and I was planning on doing it as a tempo long run anyway. What I didn't like was getting up early today—the race didn't start until 9 but I wanted to get a good warmup in and it took a good half hour to get there. I haven't gotten as much sleep as I wanted to this week and I have a few hours of driving ahead of me tomorrow (DC to New York) and Monday (New York to Boston.)
Despite getting a little turned around on the way to the race, I made it there with enough time to warm up and everything. I thought running 70 minutes would be a good goal for today (the course is out and back on a narrow, winding and rather hilly bike path, with a half mile hill up to the turnaround) but I also hoped to be competitive with one or two old club teammates. But I mostly wanted to get in a good workout and not feel like I was dying the whole time. It turned out that I ran my goal time almost exactly. I was a little fast on the first mile and on the downhill half mile, but otherwise pretty steady. I felt good in the middle miles and was only really hurting the last mile and a half, which included two or three steep—but mercifully short—climbs. The woman I ran with at track on Wed. ran just under 1:08. I'd like to hope that I have a faster ten mile time in me, but with me it's still a learning process since my races are few and far between. I ended up really racing with this woman over the last five miles (she totally sat on my butt going up the hill and then we worked together after that) and it helped to have someone there—I was on my own for the first 4.5 miles—hardly anyone was in sight and I didn't have anyone to pace with. The woman and I stayed together until the finish—she kicked more than I did and was about 1 or 2 seconds ahead. I didn't really care at that point!
So I'm glad I did the race, although with the longer cool down I didn't get home until almost noon. We hung out with Matt's sister for most of the afternoon and had lunch with (another) pregnant friend and her husband. Then we watched part of the Redskins game with Matt's cousin and her boyfriend. Now we're about to go meet another couple for dinner at our old favorite sushi joint—I can't wait for sushi!
Posted by becky at January 7, 2006 6:52 PM
Comments
Congratulations on the race - that sounds great! What a good workout, and it's so much more fun than doing it by yourself.
Hmmm, you're driving to Boston on Monday. That must mean you're coming HOME!!!! You may not be that excited to return, but I'M excited about your return! Yay!!!
Posted by: Alison at January 7, 2006 9:40 PM
Great race! It is soo much easier to do a workout in a race . I'm going to be doing the same thing next weekend, but a lot slower!
Posted by: Caitlin at January 7, 2006 9:54 PM
Great job in the race Becky!!!
Posted by: Barb at January 9, 2006 11:39 AM