Tuesday, May 2, 2017

Not that anyone cares; but, I'm making it official. I was bummed for a day & received some encouraging words. My body was quite capable of doing the miles, this past weekend. I wanted to negative split my race & was prepared. The temps were forecasted to be warm but I've run in warmer temps. I was worried how the temps would affect my RACE times. (There is a difference between racing & running.) I gave myself permission on the days leading up to Canton to run not race. I had a much clearer head, this way. As the time came, the evening before was rainy but PERFECT running temps, in my opinion. You get what you get on race day. It's a gamble & part of the appeal to many. I had been training all winter long using Tailwind nutrition at a certain concentration. It got me through every training run- just fine. I had my nutrition locked in after years of trying "everything." --What I had never done was run a warm(er) race after a long winter & not practiced adding all the extra water I would need to compensate for sweating. I feel foolish looking back, now, thinking that my little sips of Tailwind would get me through 26.2 miles of warm miles. I fell apart at mile 15. I started taking water at the aid stations- guzzling water, actually. I didn't get sick because I wasn't "running". Eventually, after walk-trotting, I pulled the last couple of miles together, charging the last hill as I could, passing people left & right as they had given into the heat as well. I finished in under 5 hours. I was shooting for 4 hours. 😕 Needless to say, I was embarrassed; but, passing all of those physically fit runners that were walking, reminded me that it wasn't a normal race.

I had friends that did WAY better than I did. I'm sure they had their nutrition & hydration plan nailed down better than I did. -I'm in, again, for redemption. I'm training for an August 1/2 & a Fall full. I have some different distances on the horizon & am still not counting out ultra marathon training.

Some people have fast times, naturally. Some of us bust our butts to just be average. This girl has a stronger base & more knowledge to tackle the distance, again.

Sub 4-- I'm coming for you. Until then, I must say the BLING from this race was worth the discomfort.

2 comments:

  1. I know what you mean... some people do have to bust butt to be average (me too!!). I know so many people who can lay down a BQ on almost any given race day, and that's not me either. You did the training, and finished the race. Congrats to you!!!!
    Love the medal!

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    1. The medal was the deciding factor to do this race. :) As for training: I am proud of how far I came during this cycle. I just didn't pull it together on race day. It's a mixed bag of emotions. It upsets me because I wanted to do well for myself & represent my first ever training group. I know passing all of the runners at the end tells me I would have had the strength to perform better... but botched it- personal error. It fuels me to try again.

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