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September 11, 2004
Well, Now I Have a Starting Point
Yesterday I had a plan for my entire day. My race was supposed to start at 7:00. I planned to eat my regular breakfast at work, then eat an early lunch, come home and eat a snack around 3:00 and then leave for the race around 5:00. My plan was working until at 10:30 I was told that they needed someone to take the kids to the gym at 11:00. That someone was going to be me. Well, me and two other staff members. It is so pathetic. The kids at my school are so bad. Really. They've all been expelled from public schools. Anyhow, there were 3 adults and 8 kids. I didn't get back from the gym until 1:00. Obviously, I did not get to eat my early lunch. I decided to eat lunch when I got back to school and forget about the snack. I would much rather run a race a little bit hungry than end up laying on the ground because my irritable gut flared up. I did come home and take a nap which was huge help, I tend to be very tired the first few weeks of school because I'm just not used to waking up so early.
I got to the race and registered. Then I put on my trainers and warmed up the course. I could have told you as soon as I started to run that the race was not going to be very pretty. My legs felt SO tight. I just did not feel like myself. I'm pretty sure my lack of stretching on Thursday afternoon was affecting me. I've done this race for the past two years, so I know the course. I warmed up the course, came back to my car, put on my racing top, number, racing socks, and flats. Then I finished my stretching and made my last port-a-pot stop. Now I'm just waiting. They had the kids races right on schedule, so I'm ready. Nervous. I keep telling myself to stay calm and then reminding myself why I try to run a race once a month. Seven comes and goes and we don't start. I'm starting to get crabby. The race did not start until about 7:20. OK, I would have been done by now if we started on time. Did I mention that I'm getting grumpy?
So we go off. The course is two laps. I know that some people are going to start off way too fast, like in every race. For about the first mile I was the fifth woman. Since this race brings in all of the local studs, I figured I was OK. I passed one woman and was in fourth. Someone called a split of 5:50 for the first mile, but I don't know if they were right or not. This race runs through a neighborhood and the daughter of the woman whose race this is in memory of says "ready, set, go" and I don't think that the guy really knew when we started. I notice that I'm starting to get closer to two of the women in front of me. We finished the first lap and I wasn't feeling all that great. I'm starting to notice how terribly humid it still is, even though the weather guy said it was drying out. I will admit that it was not as bad as Wednesday or Thursday, but it was still awfully sticky. Around the two mile mark I got passed by a woman. I'm back in fifth, but one of the women who was in front of me is really starting to come back. I keep telling myself not to give up. I definitely do not feel good at this point. I keep thinking only five more minutes, only four more minutes, etc. I manage to kick it in, I can't see the clock since it was getting really dark, and I forgot to stop my watch. I was thinking too much about running hard through the finish line.
When I checked the results on line they had me in 18:30. I'm not all that happy with that. I get really depressed when my races don't really represent what kind of shape I'm in. I really thought that I would be able to run around 18:10. I warmed down on the course, so I ended up with 9 miles for the evening.
By the time the awards came around, I was really grumpy. I was hungry, but all of the food I wanted was gone because I did a longer warm down. I just wanted to get my award and go home. I ended up winning $125.00. The thing that was really depressing was that the time I ran last year was the winning time this year. Also, the two women who were second and third are women I beat on a regular basis.
I got home around 9:30, had a light dinner and then went to bed to get up to run this morning.
Some things I learned from this experience:
1. I know that I always like to race some before bigger races. Since this race had money in it, I should have run something where I had to put a number on beforehand. The butterflies in my stomach were driving me nuts.
2. If I want to run a PR, I should be doing at least one track workout per week. Right now I've been doing strength based speed work. I did feel stronger at the end of the race, but my pacing felt off.
3. In all, considering that I ran fewer days in the month of July than I did not (I only ran 9 days to try to recover from nagging problems) and most of my spring training was based on longer intervals for a half-marathon I have to be pleased. After all, I did walk away with some money that I didn't have when I woke up in the morning.
To top everything off, I was changing out of my soaked top at my car after I warmed down before I went to the awards. I was in the process of putting on a tank top with it half on and my racing top half off and my car alarm starts to go off. Nobody would have noticed me changing and half naked in the dark parking lot until my horn starts going off and my headlights are flashing off and on.
Posted by Blondie at September 11, 2004 11:56 AM
Comments
Congrats on a good race!
Posted by: Meghan at September 11, 2004 10:23 PM