A couple of months later, Stacie asked if I would sign up to do it again so we could capitalize on the early registration fee. Not thinking through my decision, I said YES!
While I had been training pretty well for the first two months, the month leading up to the race I did not keep up with the recommended regiment. Due to an excessive amount of traveling (and sheer laziness) and a crazy month of scarf orders, I did only one long run in the month of October. That slip in training came back to bite me around mile 10 on the race.
Around mile 10 my knee started cramping up (as did most of my other leg muscles). That was on top of my already sucking wind! I didn't actually walk, but I slowed to a near walking pace for just about the remainder of the race.
I finished in 1:57 which is exactly an average 9 minute mile pace.
Here are TWO lessons I learned from doing this race:
-PREPARATION IS THE KEY TO SUCCESS
-SUCCESS IS RELATIVE
The first lesson is self explanatory. If I had wanted to run a 1:50 race, I needed to train for it, not just hope it would happen.
Secondly, while I still ran under a 2 hour race, this was the first race I had ever run where I didn't improve on my previous time. To me, that was why I run these races, to improve each time. That is how I defined success. But, Phil's boss actually pointed out that my ROI wasn't all that bad. I didn't train overly well, so only running 2 minutes slower than last year without much preparation is kind of a win. When he put it that way, I realized that success is relative.
Anyhow, it was so fun to get to run with Stacie again. That girl is an animal and she is doing another race this weekend! GOOD LUCK STACIE!!!
With that said, I will NOT be signing up for anymore races in the near future. I need a mental break from training.
If you are interested in seeing some pictures from the race, you can click this link:
Bib Number 6580
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