Sunday: Stretch and Strength - Relaxing rest day.
Monday: 4 mile run - This week is Tapering to get ready for the race. Ran a fast 4 in Kailua.
Tuesday: Speed work - 30 minute tempo run - Back on the treadmill for a 3 mile run at 10 minute/mile pace. Feels too easy after last week's training.
Wednesday: Rest day.
Thursday: Rest day.
Friday: 3 mile run - Ran a fast 3 miles on my usual Kailua Beach park route.
Saturday: Rest day.
Sunday: RACE DAY! Where do I begin to express all the emotions that came with this day. I started out excited. So fun to see everyone assembling for the race. There were men and women of all ages, shapes and sizes. We gathered at Kailua Intermediate School just as the first light of day was breaking. I felt ready. I had my ipod all programed with a new, up-beat playlist that I was sure would last longer than I needed to finish, vanilla GUs in my pocket, and a race outfit that would not malfunction.
With timing chips strapped to our ankles, all the runners filled the street in front of the school. At exactly 6:00 a.m., the gun went off and the herd surged ahead. Knowing my tendency to go out too fast, I tried to stay to the side and let the crowd pass on by. That's much harder than you'd think. Everyone seems to be going at a great pace, why not stay with the pack? As we wound our way through the Enchanted Lake neighborhood, the pack started to spread out and at the one mile marker, I checked my watch and found that I had done the first mile in just 10 minutes 21 seconds. Too fast for this race. I had to slow down. But my ipod was pumping great tunes and my legs were fresh.... So hard to run my own race.
Needless to say, I started paying for my fast start at about mile 6. But I remembered this pain from my 11 and 12 mile runs, so I pressed on. I knew that my second wind would kick in. And it did. Things were settling into a pretty good rhythm by mile 8.
The hard part about this race course is that there is a long out-and-back section on the second half of the race. I HATE out and backs. With so many people passing me on the first half, they all run back at me on the second, giving me an "in your face" type of wake up call to my position in the pack. It's a pride issue, I know, but there it is. I will confess this right now. I hate races for this reason. I love to run and enjoy the challenge of the half marathon, but when I run in a race, I have to face the fact that I am very slow. So, that means that I usually spend the second half of a race worrying about my time, berating myself for how slow I am, recounting all my training mistakes, and vowing never to do this again. (It's kind of like having a baby. The pregnancy is fine, but you never really remember the pain of the birth until you're in the middle of it again.)
For whatever reason, I started having knee pain. I pressed on. I got water at every aid station, and sucked down my GUs. By about mile 10, I was ready to be finished. My hips hurt, my calves were starting to threaten cramps, and I was very discouraged. As I did on the previous Saturday run, I had to stop looking at my watch and forget all the people around me. Again, I started a gratitude list: the beautiful morning, the clouds over the mountains, and the blessing of a healthy body (no matter how much it hurt at the moment). That helped. I ran as much as I could the last three miles, but walked more than I wanted to. I just needed to finish. One thing I kept telling myself was, "Run your own race, run your own race..."
As I came down the last stretch of the race, there was my family, cheering me on towards the finish line. Now there was something for the gratitude list. They had gotten up with me at 5:00 a.m. and had been hanging around for over 2 hours while I ran. They never looked better to me than they did at that moment. Their encouragement gave me the strength to run all the way across the finish line with the last song of my playlist ringing in my ears. Done!
It's been three days since the race and I'm still recovering. I was so sore that I knew I must have given my all. That makes finishing 311th out of 325 finishers easier to take. Will I run this race again? Well, I know I'll run 13.1 miles, but it may just be me and my ipod...
Sunday: RACE DAY! Where do I begin to express all the emotions that came with this day. I started out excited. So fun to see everyone assembling for the race. There were men and women of all ages, shapes and sizes. We gathered at Kailua Intermediate School just as the first light of day was breaking. I felt ready. I had my ipod all programed with a new, up-beat playlist that I was sure would last longer than I needed to finish, vanilla GUs in my pocket, and a race outfit that would not malfunction.
With timing chips strapped to our ankles, all the runners filled the street in front of the school. At exactly 6:00 a.m., the gun went off and the herd surged ahead. Knowing my tendency to go out too fast, I tried to stay to the side and let the crowd pass on by. That's much harder than you'd think. Everyone seems to be going at a great pace, why not stay with the pack? As we wound our way through the Enchanted Lake neighborhood, the pack started to spread out and at the one mile marker, I checked my watch and found that I had done the first mile in just 10 minutes 21 seconds. Too fast for this race. I had to slow down. But my ipod was pumping great tunes and my legs were fresh.... So hard to run my own race.
Needless to say, I started paying for my fast start at about mile 6. But I remembered this pain from my 11 and 12 mile runs, so I pressed on. I knew that my second wind would kick in. And it did. Things were settling into a pretty good rhythm by mile 8.
The hard part about this race course is that there is a long out-and-back section on the second half of the race. I HATE out and backs. With so many people passing me on the first half, they all run back at me on the second, giving me an "in your face" type of wake up call to my position in the pack. It's a pride issue, I know, but there it is. I will confess this right now. I hate races for this reason. I love to run and enjoy the challenge of the half marathon, but when I run in a race, I have to face the fact that I am very slow. So, that means that I usually spend the second half of a race worrying about my time, berating myself for how slow I am, recounting all my training mistakes, and vowing never to do this again. (It's kind of like having a baby. The pregnancy is fine, but you never really remember the pain of the birth until you're in the middle of it again.)
For whatever reason, I started having knee pain. I pressed on. I got water at every aid station, and sucked down my GUs. By about mile 10, I was ready to be finished. My hips hurt, my calves were starting to threaten cramps, and I was very discouraged. As I did on the previous Saturday run, I had to stop looking at my watch and forget all the people around me. Again, I started a gratitude list: the beautiful morning, the clouds over the mountains, and the blessing of a healthy body (no matter how much it hurt at the moment). That helped. I ran as much as I could the last three miles, but walked more than I wanted to. I just needed to finish. One thing I kept telling myself was, "Run your own race, run your own race..."
As I came down the last stretch of the race, there was my family, cheering me on towards the finish line. Now there was something for the gratitude list. They had gotten up with me at 5:00 a.m. and had been hanging around for over 2 hours while I ran. They never looked better to me than they did at that moment. Their encouragement gave me the strength to run all the way across the finish line with the last song of my playlist ringing in my ears. Done!
 |
| I'm happy on the inside... |
It's been three days since the race and I'm still recovering. I was so sore that I knew I must have given my all. That makes finishing 311th out of 325 finishers easier to take. Will I run this race again? Well, I know I'll run 13.1 miles, but it may just be me and my ipod...
enjoying the run!
