Cherry Blossom 10-Miler
Today was an interesting day for a race. I feel like I'm moving from one thing to another with very little time for reflection and/or sleep. This is perhaps due to the fact that I am now at the tail end of a very successful racing season and I'm just plain tired. It was miserable - but you don't choose your weather conditions, you train to adjust as the need arises. Instead of raining on Friday and Saturday, as forecast, it rained today. I was awake at 4:00 AM, after less than 5 hours of sleep, and it was pouring. My optimism for a dry race was replaced with a reflexive instinct to prepare for the conditions which were before me. What does this mean? This means packing a change of clothes instead of just using the set that I'd wear before, making a decision to either a) wear something warm, get soaked and deal with the wet clothes, or b) suck it up and wear only my racing clothes and be cold. I chose to suck it up and be cold. This also means packing a whole bunch of other things, not wearing chacos to the race and packing lots of extra socks for the car ride home. I quickly decided that a shower was not necessary; it would only be a waste of resources. Remembered to put the kettle on for hot cocoa afterwards and reviewed my racing ensemble again. Do I wear my bootie shorts and singlet or my spandex and singlet?
Okay.. enough about pre-race thought processes.
We arrived with plenty of time to pick up our numbers, check our bags and use the facilities. I made the mistake of entering my actual slow 10-mile time and was seeded in a corral way towards the back. I realized that if I kept my coat on, which really wasn't a problem, then my bib wasn't visible and I could go into whichever corral I wanted. Woohoo! Now I didn't really care about my time for this race, seeing as I knew I would set a PR if I ran just a 10-minute mile. No pressure - feeling cold but good. Started out with a conservative 9:07:99 first mile, not bad. Just about Mile 2 I'm finally warming up, and that's saying something considering it's over 50 degrees and I'm usually dying by now. I ditched my coat at the water stop and kick it up a notch with the following two miles at an 8:40 pace. I'm starting to get a bit overheated and it's flat as hell out on Haynes Point, I started dragging and my pace drops to about 9:20 but still not bad. I institute my strategy of picking a point in the distance and running towards it. This seems to help. I run my next mile at a 9:15 and then the mile 8-9 in 8:40. My emphasis on pumping my arms and focusing on a point in the distance seems to be helping, a lot!
About this time I realize that I'm coming in for a huge PR - at Mile 9 I've got a time of 1:22:00 and I can't help but wonder if I should push myself to see if I can bring it home in less than 1:30:00 - if there is one thing that everyone should know it's this, 'NEVER challenge a red-haired girl!' especially if said girl is a perfectionist.
What I really enjoyed about this course were the signs at the end indicating the amount of meters left until the end. 1200M... 800M... I fought to restrain myself, knowing that if I kicked too soon I would run out of energy. When I hit the 400M mark I knew that I still had about 2:15 left to go and if there is one thing I know about my body it is this - I can't sustain a sprint for that long. Pace it, Pace it, Pace it....coming up around the Washington Monument now...okay.. GO! I sprinted into the finish, passing at least 25 people on my way in. Completing this race in 1:29:22! Now that's what we're talking about.
Okay.. enough about pre-race thought processes.
We arrived with plenty of time to pick up our numbers, check our bags and use the facilities. I made the mistake of entering my actual slow 10-mile time and was seeded in a corral way towards the back. I realized that if I kept my coat on, which really wasn't a problem, then my bib wasn't visible and I could go into whichever corral I wanted. Woohoo! Now I didn't really care about my time for this race, seeing as I knew I would set a PR if I ran just a 10-minute mile. No pressure - feeling cold but good. Started out with a conservative 9:07:99 first mile, not bad. Just about Mile 2 I'm finally warming up, and that's saying something considering it's over 50 degrees and I'm usually dying by now. I ditched my coat at the water stop and kick it up a notch with the following two miles at an 8:40 pace. I'm starting to get a bit overheated and it's flat as hell out on Haynes Point, I started dragging and my pace drops to about 9:20 but still not bad. I institute my strategy of picking a point in the distance and running towards it. This seems to help. I run my next mile at a 9:15 and then the mile 8-9 in 8:40. My emphasis on pumping my arms and focusing on a point in the distance seems to be helping, a lot!
About this time I realize that I'm coming in for a huge PR - at Mile 9 I've got a time of 1:22:00 and I can't help but wonder if I should push myself to see if I can bring it home in less than 1:30:00 - if there is one thing that everyone should know it's this, 'NEVER challenge a red-haired girl!' especially if said girl is a perfectionist.
What I really enjoyed about this course were the signs at the end indicating the amount of meters left until the end. 1200M... 800M... I fought to restrain myself, knowing that if I kicked too soon I would run out of energy. When I hit the 400M mark I knew that I still had about 2:15 left to go and if there is one thing I know about my body it is this - I can't sustain a sprint for that long. Pace it, Pace it, Pace it....coming up around the Washington Monument now...okay.. GO! I sprinted into the finish, passing at least 25 people on my way in. Completing this race in 1:29:22! Now that's what we're talking about.
Comments
Post a Comment