Monday, May 26, 2014

Race Report: Soldier Field 10 Mile (run #64)

Struggling to make sense of this race. I guess the moral of the story is that you can't fake the miles/time needed for adequate training...but you can still finish.

I'd only dropped my run/walks fully at the beginning of this month. Instead of ramping up adequately I did one 7-mile run and one 9-mile (which ended up being a run/walk for the last 3 miles.) I kept pushing out of my head "if I only had a few more weeks for a stronger base." You got this! You'll pull it out and do it.

How much: 10

How long: 2:16:04 (pace 13:36)

Where: Soldier Field/south end of lakefront

When: 7am/58 degrees

May miles: 49.41

Total 2014 miles: 227.63

Night before:
BB wished me well the night before and told me he'd be there at the finish line...he lives abt 2 hours south.

Slept not-so-great, and dreamt I was at the starting corral and realizing I'd forgotten my bib. Eye roll. Why do I still get nervous about races?

Morning of:
So I arrive and get me free parking place in my quietly kept super secret place I park for downtown races. I called BB and he's on his way. (Yay!) talking to him is calming my nerves, so I guess I'll sit here and talk a bit more before I head over to the corrals. Some jerk
pulled up beside me thinking I'm about to pull out of my space...no , idiot, now leave me alone I'm talking to....BB!!!!!! He totally fooled me and left at 3-something in the morning to see me off on my race!!!! I am still smiling about that.

Race time:
So finally we're off. Slow down slow down slow down. We're under McCormick place already. I have no idea how fast I'm going. It feels too fast. Slow down!!!! Slow down. I can't see. Has anyone ever fallen and cracked their skull? This seems so dangerous, especially for clumsy-prone people. Slow down!!! I just wanna get outta here, but slow down!!! Mile 1: 10:44. Oh hell. Why'd you start off so fast?

Tired.

Approaching 1st aid station, my approach was to walk through each one.

I didn't think a whole lot, just felt tired. Approaching Hyde Park and the turnaround I thought two things: I'm going to implement a run/walk, I'm tired and my knee is hurting. And then I started to berate myself when I recalled running past "that spot over there" in the 2012 Chicago half marathon at about the 11-mile mark when I knew I had a real shot at smashing my PR. Sigh. Today was not gonna be a PR day.

Switched the playlist to classical music, needed to calm down.

5 miles at 1:04:34. If you speed up you can still meet your 12:00 pace goal. But I knew I didn't have it in me. Is that bad? Have I not the heart of a champion if I can't dig in and find the will to speed up? (Don't answer...I am not letting this race define me.)

I ran/walked the rest of the race. At 9 miles I was just pissed. Entering into Soldier Field I ran as fast as I could (which at that point might have been an 11:30 pace...if that.) I finished. I passed a few slow people in front of me in some weird effort to salvage my feelings a little bit.

2:16:04 (pace 13:37) Numbers don't lie. I've got work to do.

And that was that.

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And so now i will replace rushed training back with thoughtful, premeditated marathon training. It's almost June so yeah...marathon training is now officially here.

The next time I run 10 miles I will legitimately run 10 straight miles.

Next up, 3 midweek runs and my first long run of marathon training (which won't be all that long.)





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