...I'm thinking during the second mile (or maybe it's the third mile, I'm not really sure) "man I'm not running well at all, my time is going to be poo". That was about it for the negative talk. I was around some sort of putt putt course and just continued to stick with it. I wasn't sure what my overall time was going to be, but I was damn sure that I was going to stick with what got me there. I was going to fight through the pain.
Overall it was still another disappointment. To be honest. The time wasn't what I wanted. Making excuses could come up. But really this was something that I was not expecting. I am realistic. I am aware of where I was. I am sure that this is the beginning of the year. But it's another race where the effort does not equal the overall result. And that's the frustrating thing.
...I picked up Matt from his apartment and then we drove over to Alexandria to get ready for the race. Oh it was cold! Not cold, but windy cold. The wind that hits you and gets in your bones. It was that cold. We did our warm up on the course. It was an out and back course. The wind was going to be in our face for the first half of the race. We ran up a bridge that was a minor hill. It wasn't that bad. It had a long gradual downhill, which mean that there was a long gradual incline on the way back. I went into the race, not going with the singlet again, and instead a long sleeve dry-fit shirt.
It was cold waiting for the race to start. Once we got going, the overall lead group was there and was slow. I was right in the group. I was feeling good. The group started to spread out. I ended up being strung out from the group. I hit the first mile in 5:35 and there really wasn't a group around me. There was a guy in front of me. And then the first place woman and another guy behind me. My goal for mile two was to close the gap and get with the guy in front of me.
The second mile was in the wind. It was a boring stretch of the course. Flat. The guy in front of me gapped me by a lot. That was the frustrating thing. I couldn't get over that. I was putting in the effort and I couldn't do a thing about it. I just don't have that gear. It's incredibly frustrating. The second mile was also slow 5:56
The third mile was also slow. It was 6:06. I just started to laugh when I was look at my watch and see the split time. I knew I wasn't going that slow based on effort. Right at the turn around the wind really picked up and I laughed again. On the turn around I could tell the first place woman was right on me and moving. Once I got on the turn around there was no more wind, but no feeling that the wind was pushing me.
On the fourth mile the first place woman caught up to me. Usually in races this would happen to me, and I just let the person go by me. But that's not going to happen this year. I am going to embrace the pain, and I'm going to suck it up. We ran together for the mile. People that passed us on the other side cheered her on, I trolled by telling them thanks. Knowing that the cheers were not for me. The fourth mile was a 5:35. I could feel that I was back in the groove. I ended up putting in a surge and dropped the first place woman.
The fifth and sixth mile were the same for time and not really anything important happened. I didn't close the gap and didn't let anyone get close to me. I ended up running a 5:29 for each mile. I finished the race in tenth place and ran a 35:22. A disappointment because I wanted to run under 35. The wind was a factor, but I really wanted to get under that number. It was a frustrating race overall. Not really where I wanted to go.
I looked at the positives. In that I ran 5:50 pace for nearly six miles in the last race that I did. I ran 5:41 pace for ten kilometers. That was good. I am getting stronger. I've ran for a solid month in a row. My mileage is picking up and I can finally do quality workouts that build on my strength, instead of acquiring strength. Here's to the next race.
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