A couple of months ago, I made a point of putting all of the Mag7 races on my calendar. Not because I planned to do a lot of them, but I thought it might be fun if I wanted to run a few on a whim. Today turned out to be such a day.
The plan when I turned in last night was to go for a nice early run with the folks from the running group. I'd picked out my clothes, set the alarm, and even had plans for breakfast with them afterwards. Yet when 6:00 am rolled around and my alarm went off, my brain said "no way!" and shut the alarm off without any hesitation. Back to sleep it was, waking just long enough to send my friends a quick text that I wasn't coming. Slacker, right?
After enjoying a lovely, leisurely morning with the family I started to mull over my running agenda. Run on my own or hit up that afternoon 10k that was on the calendar? So tempting, but I haven't run a 10k in ages, my training this fall has been weak, and I wasn't registered. Yet the sun was shining, it was a gorgeous fall day, and the urge to go run a race was there. Now that I'm back on my thyroid meds (all the tests were normal, by the way), just feeling normal feels amazing. You know how good you feel after you've had the flu, that first day of feeling human again? Yeah, that's how I feel now.
I looked over the web site, printed out the registration and the Mag7 voucher coupon and continued to debate it. I invited hubby to come along, but he didn't think it sounded the least bit fun and said he'd rather not. The day was beckoning, I just couldn't pass it up. He laughed and told me to just go, he knew I wanted to!
I hadn't made it a mile from the house when I realized that I'd forgotten my Garmin and wasn't wearing my watch either. I briefly considered going back for it, but decided against it. Today wasn't a goal race, maybe it'd be fun to race without a timepiece. Today's as good a day as any to give it a try, let's see what happens.
Once I got to Springville, it took just a couple of minutes to get my registration turned in and the volunteers gave me my race shirt and bib. It looked like it was going to be a pretty small crowd, which surprised me considering how amazingly beautiful the day was turning out to be. I chatted for a bit with the other runners, whining to Steph about how frustrated I've gotten with what I see as my failure to improve over the past two years. All of my race PR's occurred in fall 2008/spring 2009 but since then, it feels like I'm losing ground. Oh, well, after some conversation it was time for me to do a little bit of a warm-up and then head to the start line.
The course for the race was an out-and-back. I had checked out the elevation profile before I'd left home so I knew roughly what to expect. The outbound portion would be almost a steady uphill grade, but that meant the race would have my favorite kind of finish: downhill! I think I can fight my way through anything when I know that there's a downhill on the other side. That's a big part of my love for the Flying Pig, in fact: that long downhill finish into downtown Cincy.
Since I had no time piece and hadn't been training for the distance, I was really stumped over how to pace for this race. For the first mile, I started myself at the back of the pack, let the runners settle into their places and then tried to stay with the folks around me. After the first mile, I decided to change up my strategy a bit and started reeling in the runners ahead of me one by one. Nothing too impressive, just a steady push. I did take 2 short walk breaks on the steeper uphills, but then pressed on again at a slightly faster pace each time.
My 10k PR (1:00:15) was run in November 2008 at the Cincinnati Thanksgiving Day Race. That also was just 4 weeks after my half marathon PR (2:11:26) at the Indianapolis Monumental. That 1:00:00 barrier has taunted me ever since and I've not come any closer since that 2008 race. In spite of not being in PR condition, I decided that a little mind game was in order today. From about the 2-mile mark through the rest of the race, when I'd feel my legs starting to falter, I'd tell myself that I was running a 1:01:00 pace and if I wanted to get in under an hour, I needed to pick it up. I had this mental image of the race clock ticking away and that I needed to go just a little faster to chip away at that 1:01:00 finish.
The toughest part of the race for me was from about the 2.5 mile point to the turnaround. I was anxious to get that uphill portion over with but it just seemed neverending! The good thing is that I still was holding my own and not being passed by other runners, but we were spaced out far enough that I was barely making progress on the runner ahead of me.
Finally hit the 3.1 mile point, grabbed a quick drink of water, then took off again to head back to the finish. Still telling myself that my pace wasn't fast enough, need to push harder, not going to get in under an hour...hurry, hurry, hurry. It was strange having no idea what my pace was and having to gauge things totally off of perceived effort. My legs were tired, really truly tired and I was only halfway there! I was so glad that I didn't have long uphill stretches to fight through anymore, my legs were ready for this race to be over. Push harder, don't give up, picturing what the clock at the finish will read. Will it be 1:10:15 or maybe 59:59? Absolutely no idea so better push harder!
I don't know if I missed the mile markers as I was coming in or if they weren't there. I saw the signs for the outbound mile markers so I had a good idea where I was, I knew the finish was getting close when I recognized the houses I'd passed on my warm-up. I started watching for the 6 mile marker, I did remember that I'd seen that on my warm-up. Once I passed it, I tried to dig deep to get a good kick to finish. I found that there wasn't much left, I was really, truly, and completely spent. As I came up to the finish, it was bittersweet to see the clock ticking up from 1:00:10. I finished in 1:00:20, only 5 seconds off of that PR that I thought was still out of reach.
That's given me a lot to think about. 1) How much have I sabotaged my training by not believing in myself? 2) How do I improve my mental game? 3) Is it time to ditch the Garmin and just run? 4) I think this may be one of my best-run races ever. Part of me wishes that I had worn the Garmin so that I could review it but I know that had I been wearing it, I probably wouldn't have run it as well as I did.
Very happy with today's race. :)
