Well, as those of you on Facebook know already, this was not the race I wanted to have. I've been training hard all season and was looking to set a PR or better yet get sub-1:50 on this race. Well....... it's been a year since I ran this race and that was on a stress fracture so I think I blocked a lot of it out due to the pain! This is a tough race and miles 3-7 are full of hills. Mile 8 has another hill and then the rest is pretty flat but by that time I was spent. It was all I could do to finish at that point! There were so many incredible people along the course who encouraged me. Two complete strangers who told me they'd been behind me the whole way and to just keep it up. Another guy from my running club and we ran together for awhile and he kept me going with encouragement of beer and pizza to come! They would all keep me going for a while and then I'd crash again.
I wound up finishing in 1:57 something which it's so strange - a year ago, I would have been ecstatic with that time. Now, it's not good enough and I'm disappointed. I keep trying to focus on the positives like 1) this was not really the race I'd expected to PR in, that's the December half 2) I set a personal best for this course by 16 minutes! 3) I hung in there with the pace group through the hills. It was just too much for me after that. 4) I still finished only 3.5 minutes off my PR which was on a course that was a lot flatter.
So I'm hitting the drawing board again. I'm taking this week easy from running and I'm extending with my coach through the December half. And I am going to find time for a massage AND a chiro appointment this week! Oy, I am sore.
