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August 11, 2006

Moonlight Margarita 5K

Last night the Town Lake Trail Foundation put on its Moonlight Margarita 5K - an evening affair with a fiesta afterward. It was a great fundraising idea, combining a race and a party afterward for a somewhat hefty fee that can easily be justified by the fact it will be used to benefit the Town Lake Trail, which is, to me, the heart of this city. Aside from my family and friends, it's the heart of my life here (sorry, work!) In the middle of my high-mileage summer a friend asked me if I lived down there.

Andy bugs the crap outta me before a race. I think he thinks it's funny to bug me. (Well, to be honest, many many things bug the crap outta me right before a race.) He's always so chatty and wants to be funny and I just want to revel in hating the minutes before a race. I want to be pissy before a race. I usually feel anxious enough to feel a little nauseous. It's funny how my nervousness changes once the gun goes off - weirdly enough, I feel such a sense of relief that we're on our way that that's when I usually get chatty, much to the annoyance of most people around me.

In the years before MG came along I felt I'd kinda lost some of my short-race mojo; that I had been more fearless - less afraid of pain - when I had first started running, and that marathon training had softened me up a little since marathons involve a much different type of pain than shorter races do. Last night when the gun went off I saw two women I knew and one I didn't take off from me like I was standing still. And I didn't go after them, and I thought that I hadn't gotten the mojo back. But after I caught two of them and found myself ahead of them just after the half, I realized I was running beyond my comfort level and was still trying to push. I think. My thoughts were all kinda fuzzy. I didn't even respond when people said things to me, which is not very characteristic. I couldn't walk straight at the finish line. My ears were ringing and I couldn't talk very well. Yay mojo!

The course was flat and fast, although not quite as flat and fast as my p.r. and only sub-20 on the bike path next to the Schuylkill River in Philly, and people were able to set p.r.'s despite the August heat and humidity. I clocked a 20:21 for a 6:31 pace and 3rd overall female. I'm definitely happy with that, and I'll be interested to see what happens from here. With that race I can say with some certainty that it took me about 6 months to get back to where I was pre-baby, without any specific training plan and with only sporadic workouts. But ... it's a place that historically I haven't really been able to move beyond. Nearly seven years ago I ran my first race in this low 20-minute range, and the farthest I've moved beyond that is 19:57. And I have run and trained my ass off in those intervening years!

I think I've decided, though, that this year is going to be a low-mileage year. I'm going to resort to the schedule of my pre-"serious" training days, when I would run only three days a week with two workouts and one long run and no "junk." We'll see if the body can handle it. I still have the love for running, but our work schedules leave me with options for running that I don't really care for, like waking MG up early in the morning or running with her after work. The girl needs her sleep in the mornings, and I enjoy too much the two hours I have with her between work and her bedtime to spend it pushing her in the jogger without really interacting with her. That may change, but for now I've decided to only count on three runs a week. If I can swing more than that well whoop de doo!

Posted by jenandmats at August 11, 2006 9:40 PM

Comments

HI!! GREAT RACE!! Glad you've got the mojo :)

Posted by: Audrey at August 12, 2006 2:34 PM

Second everything you wrote. MG, Life in general, and your mojo will love you for it. Getting rid of junk, including junk training, is half the challenge. A most constructive post, to be grateful for. Thank-you. All the best to you and your family, corrado. PS. Or maybe it was the margaritas? ;-)

Posted by: at August 12, 2006 4:04 PM

Congratulations on a good race (and confirming that you still have your short-race mojo) and good luck with your training plan! I think you could run a 5k PR off of not much mileage but a decent amount of quality. Part of it is just going to be racing more 5ks, and in one of them, it'll all click.

Posted by: Alison at August 13, 2006 5:42 PM

Gracias, y'all.

Corrado, re: the margaritas. I forgot to mention in the post that I won my age group and for that I got a big, hand-painted ceramic margarita glass to drink my post-race margaritas in! They were even better out of that glass ...

Posted by: jenandmats at August 13, 2006 9:06 PM

Congrats! It's so excited to hear how fast you are running and still fitting it into your life with MG and work and Andy and everything else that you do. Very encouraging! Yeah for short race mojo - I agree that it's a very different thing from long race mojo! :) Good luck!

Posted by: Beth at August 14, 2006 1:04 PM