After the high mileage last week, I was actually ready for a taper and pretty much took it easy this week (except for PR'ing my mile time at 90% effort during repeats on Thursday!). I felt a little fatigued throughout the week and slept nearly 10 hours last night...which never happens on Race Day Eve! I hoped that would be sufficient to restore my energy and make for a good race today. I think it worked.
Rain was in the forecast (again...hopefully this means I'll get all my rainy races out of the way before MCM), and it started sprinkling as we approached the start line. I had done a decent little warmup and failed to notice that my Garmin went to sleep while I was waiting for the start, so my first few steps consisted of frantically trying to wake it up and press start! There was also something goofy with it losing satellites in the first quarter mile, which made me wary of the average pace data it gave me throughout the race. Turns out, that was okay.
Unlike my past couple of races, where I've had a plan for how fast to run each mile, today my only plan was: Run smart. Run fast. Run happy!!! Thinking about the Rainbow of Running, I wanted to keep it in the green zone for the first 3 miles, then maybe bump it up to yellow, and perhaps go orange for the last 3. I more or less succeeded, though I stayed yellow until about mile 8.
I got off to a slow start, frustrated about the snafu with my watch and the slower runners in front of me, but as is usually the case, things thinned out after a while, and I found my groove. It was a gray day, and I was focused on running point to point as best I could (good thing, because the course ended up being 9.4+), so I missed out on some of the beauty of White Rock Lake. No worries. My next two races are there, too. :) Even though I had music in one ear, I was listening to my body more than anything, and it felt good to know I have grown into more of an "associative" runner than a dissociative one.
I walked through each aid station, and this was one of the best things about today--the data I got from it, not the aid stations themselves (though the ice cold towels were great!). Because I wasn't worried about following a pre-programmed race plan, I hit the lap button each time I passed through one, giving me valuable data about how long these walk breaks take. This is vital to devising my race day strategy for MCM, where the current plan is to walk through the aid stations every 2 miles. I'm hoping that each break can be done in 30 seconds or less, maintaining at least a 20:00 pace, and today's data (averaging 21-second breaks @ 18:01) suggests that's very doable...provided that racing with 10 times as many people doesn't slow me down TOO much. If all goes well, running 9-minute miles between the 12 aid stations will get me a sub-4. :)
Today's race wasn't particularly eventful. I ran pretty smart, fairly fast (for me), and quite happy the whole way. I picked it up at mile 8, running 8:18 pace from that point on (faster than my last 5K and nearly a min/mile faster than my 9:13 average for the race). As is my goal, I finished breathless and felt good. I was off my target of 1:24:12 (equivalent of a 4:15 marathon 15 weeks before MCM), but I hadn't really committed to that because I've had so many problems trying to hold 9-minute miles with my heart rate soaring in 80-degree heat and figured the rain/humidity would only exacerbate that. Using the Jack Daniels (not that Jack Daniels) run calculator--less conservative than McMillan but with a feature to factor in the heat--today's result, adjusted for the long course, would give me a 4:06:23, suggesting I'm still very much on target for my marathon goal...especially given that I still have 15 weeks to train.
After the race, I picked up my medal and shirt, then found my friend Pam, who won her age group in the 5K. We'd ridden to the race together, and on the way home, I had the strange sense that I needed to keep running. Sundays are usually long run days, and 15K isn't a long run for me. While it was great to feel so fantastic after a race (especially after my last race experience), it also told me that I hadn't pushed quite hard enough. Likewise, while I was content with today's result, I wasn't particularly elated about it either. This taught me a valuable lesson: The sense of accomplishment from achieving a goal is directly proportional to the clarity of and commitment to that goal. 50% clarity and/or 50% commitment = 50% satisfaction. The upside of not fully committing to a clear goal today was that I didn't set myself up for disappointment like last time. But I also robbed myself of a little joy by not feeling like I had really achieved something. Because of what it taught me, I'm okay with that today. And I do have a very clear goal for my next race: I want to run the Hottest Half in less than 2 hours, Lord willing and the creek (and my heart rate) don't rise. :)
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