Marathon Relay 2009 race report.
To properly appreciate a good race, you must have a bad one sometimes, right? I went ahead and got that out of the way.
I actually had high hopes and high confidence going into this race. I ran some 7:40s on Tuesday and some 7:50s on Thursday. If I could run sub-8s at this race, I was going to have a PR and be elated.
Alas, it was not to be, and I'm probably more bummed about it than I really should be.
Karen asked if I'd rather run a 5k or a 10k, and I chose 5k because it'd been so long since I'd done one. I've been afraid that, even though I feel I've come so far, I'd run a 36 minute 5k again, like I did for my first-ever 5k in 2003. I decided I needed to get over that fear and get out there and do it. The race is set up as 5 legs, 12k, 10k, 10k, 5k, 5k. Mary and I were the 5k legs for our (chosen-by-Karen) team, and Mary expressed to me that she did NOT want to run the last 5k leg. So I agreed to run anchor. How did I not learn my lesson last time I ran anchor?
It was supposed to be hot; the cold front that we'd enjoyed the week before was gone and summer was back again. The race was supposed to start at 7am, but was delayed so that people wouldn't have to run in the dark. Good for them, not so good for those of us running the last legs. Finally it started and I settled in to wait.
The waiting wasn't bad. I mean, it was fun to hang out with my team (and the other teams) and visit the portapotty repeatedly and cheer for all the folks I knew. I love this event because there's so many people I know out there, many of whom I don't get to see except at events like this. Eventually Mary went off for her leg, and I had to get prepared to do my leg.
Karen said to only do about 5 minutes of warmup, because of the heat, so Lori and I set off to run to the portapotties, run for a few minutes, run back to the portapotties, then back to our tent. It was hot. Really hot. Warmup didn't feel good.
Headed to the start chute about 5 minutes before Mary anticipated she'd be done, and waited with the throngs of people and Josh. It was kinda fun to be on a team that was so fast, most of the people I was waiting with were 4th leg people (and I was a 5th-legger). I hoped to do my team proud.
Heard my number called and walked out to wait for Mary. Cheered for her as she ran up, she handed off the bracelet flawlessly, I turned and hit start on my watch as I started running.
Tried not to start out too fast, which was hard to judge since I wasn't very warmed up and it was so hot. Slowed down a bit. Suppose I could have looked at my Garmin to check my pace, but didn't want to get tied to time when I should be using perceived effort due to the heat. Hit the first turnaround and saw Josh right behind me, passing me a couple seconds later. He looked really strong, and I tried to use him to motivate myself. I was still feeling okay at that point.
Watch beeped for mile 1, and I saw it was a low 8. That's good. That's the plan. Start out low 8 then progressive pace my way down below 8 for the last 2 miles.
Mile 2 had hills. Not many hills. Not bad hills. But I slowed down. I took water whenever it was offered, which was often, and dumped it on my head. It was really hot. Running under the bridges provided 0.005 seconds of shade, and it felt wonderful. Mostly full sun, though. Ran by a sign that said "Mile 2 for 5k", but my watch hadn't beeped. Glanced at my Garmin and it said I was at 0.9 miles. That really messed with my head for some reason. I was already feeling crappy, and now I was afraid that the stupid 5k course was actually going to be short and my time would be meaningless to me. It's funny where our brains go in these situations.
Heard familiar breathing and footfalls coming up behind me, and Lori pulled up beside me. She said something about how this sucked. I agreed. I said something else, but I don't remember what, and she was wearing headphones so didn't hear me anyway. She said later she wanted to pace herself off me, but it was obvious she was feeling MUCH better than I was, 'cause she passed me and slowly moved off further and further into the distance until I could barely see her. I tried to hang with her. I tried to hang near her. It just wasn't happening. When my watch did beep for mile 2, I didn't even look. Didn't want to know. Just knew I was slowing way down.
I tried to pick it up for the last mile. There was some minor uphill, and I stared at the ground and tried not to throw up. Finally got to the bridge and turned. I knew I was close. I felt horrible. I was panting and wheezing. I remembered why I despise 5ks. A big group of my Team and Matt were there on the bridge, cheering. As I ran by them the girl I'd been running up on took off on the slight downhill, and I hated her for making me look bad in front of my people, because I couldn't match her pace as she pulled away. Then at the bottom of the hill we turned the corner and it was the final stretch to the finish line. Hated-girl slowed down again and I passed her, and tried to use that momentum to pull me across the finish line. Heard some people cheering for me. Couldn't look to see who. Just wanted to be done. Pushed and finally crossed the finish line.
Stopped my watch and glanced at it. 25:54. I knew my previous standalone 5k PR was 26:something, so I had a PR, but it was so close, and it was nowhere near my nebulous goal (23-24ish minutes). I staggered through the finish chute to get water, a beverage and I grabbed a banana even though food sounded awful. I was incredibly out of it. I got a cold, wet towel and put it over my head. I couldn't cool down, and I couldn't make my brain work. I staggered after Lori, figuring following her would get me back to our tent. I just felt.. very wrong.
Probably took about 20 minutes before I really felt vaguely human again, and then I felt irrationally depressed by my time. It is a standalone 5k PR, but I've run a faster 5k in a sprint triathlon. I have plenty of reasons it wasn't a great race for me, but their validity doesn't make them feel any less like excuses. It was (the car said afterwards) 88 degrees and full sun, I was an idiot about when and how much I ate (not nearly enough), we've only been doing speed work for ~2 weeks. I recently ran a marathon. I had fast, hard workouts Tuesday and Thursday. Blah blah blah.
Anyway, I'm trying to get over it. I know short, fast things aren't my forte. I know that I CAN run sub-8 miles, since I did so twice last week. Someday soon I'll get an official time that reflects that. :)
Garmin says:
1: 8:09
2: 8:26
3: 8:02
Last 0.17 miles: 1:13 (7:02/mile pace)
Average pace: 8:09/mile
Doesn't matter what Garmin says, official results say average pace was 8:20/mile.
The fantastic part is that my team, collectively, ran a 3:20:53 marathon and came in 15/150 in our division. It's neat to be part of a team of such strong runners.
Remind me next time that I don't want to be anchor.
I actually had high hopes and high confidence going into this race. I ran some 7:40s on Tuesday and some 7:50s on Thursday. If I could run sub-8s at this race, I was going to have a PR and be elated.
Alas, it was not to be, and I'm probably more bummed about it than I really should be.
Karen asked if I'd rather run a 5k or a 10k, and I chose 5k because it'd been so long since I'd done one. I've been afraid that, even though I feel I've come so far, I'd run a 36 minute 5k again, like I did for my first-ever 5k in 2003. I decided I needed to get over that fear and get out there and do it. The race is set up as 5 legs, 12k, 10k, 10k, 5k, 5k. Mary and I were the 5k legs for our (chosen-by-Karen) team, and Mary expressed to me that she did NOT want to run the last 5k leg. So I agreed to run anchor. How did I not learn my lesson last time I ran anchor?
It was supposed to be hot; the cold front that we'd enjoyed the week before was gone and summer was back again. The race was supposed to start at 7am, but was delayed so that people wouldn't have to run in the dark. Good for them, not so good for those of us running the last legs. Finally it started and I settled in to wait.
The waiting wasn't bad. I mean, it was fun to hang out with my team (and the other teams) and visit the portapotty repeatedly and cheer for all the folks I knew. I love this event because there's so many people I know out there, many of whom I don't get to see except at events like this. Eventually Mary went off for her leg, and I had to get prepared to do my leg.
Karen said to only do about 5 minutes of warmup, because of the heat, so Lori and I set off to run to the portapotties, run for a few minutes, run back to the portapotties, then back to our tent. It was hot. Really hot. Warmup didn't feel good.
Headed to the start chute about 5 minutes before Mary anticipated she'd be done, and waited with the throngs of people and Josh. It was kinda fun to be on a team that was so fast, most of the people I was waiting with were 4th leg people (and I was a 5th-legger). I hoped to do my team proud.
Heard my number called and walked out to wait for Mary. Cheered for her as she ran up, she handed off the bracelet flawlessly, I turned and hit start on my watch as I started running.
Tried not to start out too fast, which was hard to judge since I wasn't very warmed up and it was so hot. Slowed down a bit. Suppose I could have looked at my Garmin to check my pace, but didn't want to get tied to time when I should be using perceived effort due to the heat. Hit the first turnaround and saw Josh right behind me, passing me a couple seconds later. He looked really strong, and I tried to use him to motivate myself. I was still feeling okay at that point.
Watch beeped for mile 1, and I saw it was a low 8. That's good. That's the plan. Start out low 8 then progressive pace my way down below 8 for the last 2 miles.
Mile 2 had hills. Not many hills. Not bad hills. But I slowed down. I took water whenever it was offered, which was often, and dumped it on my head. It was really hot. Running under the bridges provided 0.005 seconds of shade, and it felt wonderful. Mostly full sun, though. Ran by a sign that said "Mile 2 for 5k", but my watch hadn't beeped. Glanced at my Garmin and it said I was at 0.9 miles. That really messed with my head for some reason. I was already feeling crappy, and now I was afraid that the stupid 5k course was actually going to be short and my time would be meaningless to me. It's funny where our brains go in these situations.
Heard familiar breathing and footfalls coming up behind me, and Lori pulled up beside me. She said something about how this sucked. I agreed. I said something else, but I don't remember what, and she was wearing headphones so didn't hear me anyway. She said later she wanted to pace herself off me, but it was obvious she was feeling MUCH better than I was, 'cause she passed me and slowly moved off further and further into the distance until I could barely see her. I tried to hang with her. I tried to hang near her. It just wasn't happening. When my watch did beep for mile 2, I didn't even look. Didn't want to know. Just knew I was slowing way down.
I tried to pick it up for the last mile. There was some minor uphill, and I stared at the ground and tried not to throw up. Finally got to the bridge and turned. I knew I was close. I felt horrible. I was panting and wheezing. I remembered why I despise 5ks. A big group of my Team and Matt were there on the bridge, cheering. As I ran by them the girl I'd been running up on took off on the slight downhill, and I hated her for making me look bad in front of my people, because I couldn't match her pace as she pulled away. Then at the bottom of the hill we turned the corner and it was the final stretch to the finish line. Hated-girl slowed down again and I passed her, and tried to use that momentum to pull me across the finish line. Heard some people cheering for me. Couldn't look to see who. Just wanted to be done. Pushed and finally crossed the finish line.
Stopped my watch and glanced at it. 25:54. I knew my previous standalone 5k PR was 26:something, so I had a PR, but it was so close, and it was nowhere near my nebulous goal (23-24ish minutes). I staggered through the finish chute to get water, a beverage and I grabbed a banana even though food sounded awful. I was incredibly out of it. I got a cold, wet towel and put it over my head. I couldn't cool down, and I couldn't make my brain work. I staggered after Lori, figuring following her would get me back to our tent. I just felt.. very wrong.
Probably took about 20 minutes before I really felt vaguely human again, and then I felt irrationally depressed by my time. It is a standalone 5k PR, but I've run a faster 5k in a sprint triathlon. I have plenty of reasons it wasn't a great race for me, but their validity doesn't make them feel any less like excuses. It was (the car said afterwards) 88 degrees and full sun, I was an idiot about when and how much I ate (not nearly enough), we've only been doing speed work for ~2 weeks. I recently ran a marathon. I had fast, hard workouts Tuesday and Thursday. Blah blah blah.
Anyway, I'm trying to get over it. I know short, fast things aren't my forte. I know that I CAN run sub-8 miles, since I did so twice last week. Someday soon I'll get an official time that reflects that. :)
Garmin says:
1: 8:09
2: 8:26
3: 8:02
Last 0.17 miles: 1:13 (7:02/mile pace)
Average pace: 8:09/mile
Doesn't matter what Garmin says, official results say average pace was 8:20/mile.
The fantastic part is that my team, collectively, ran a 3:20:53 marathon and came in 15/150 in our division. It's neat to be part of a team of such strong runners.
Remind me next time that I don't want to be anchor.