Sounds fun, huh? Not so much.
I want to start off by saying that I have the most wonderful husband, who decided to stay with me for encouragment instead of leaving my ass in the dust ;P
This race was down near Dunedin Brewery on the Pinellas Trail. That's right a race on the PInellas Trail. Seriously who does that? It sounded really good when we signed up. Free beer, free mug, free dry fit shirt & food. But there were many things that were not mentioned. BUt, I am getting off track. There was four of us running: myself, Josh, my bro-Ryan, & sis-in-law-Jillian. Jill & Ryan stayed out front & JOsh & I hung out back. The race itself was rather unorganized & a little confusing. There was nothing indicating when you were starting, you just started to see the stampede coming towards you. SO, we took off at a faster pace than normal, and to be honest with ya I think that set the tone for the race. I know what I am capable of & it is not a fast pace. This was an out & back course on the tiny trail. So it was a little chaotic, but that's ok. We got about a mile in & I didn't feel terrible but just blech. If you know me you know what my blech feels like. It seemed like it took forever for the turnaround/water station to come upon us!!!!!!! When we did get there it was almost a standstill because we were giving shot glass sized cups of some nasty water, but everyone was hogging the table. Oh well, so we started running again. I started to notice that it was REALLY dark out, & I mean DARK! I did not care for this it all, it was kind of creepy & there was nothing to focus on. I guess I just like the scenic runs. We're kinda spoiled living in Florida. Oh & did I mention that every 40 or so feet we had to cross over a crosswalk where we met with obnoxious flashing lights from cop cars. Not good is all i can say. You are gonna love this, Josh knows that when I get discouraged I just need someone to whoop my ass into shape, so he says to me you have 2 more short walks & you're done, running the rest of the way. I <3 him. I think this whole race just threw me off my game, but I am so HAPPY that I had him there with me. Another thing not to love about the race was because it was so dark you couldn't even see where the heck the finish line was. WHO DOES THAT!!!!!!! So, he kept saying we're almost there about 30 times when we weren't. FINALLY....I could see the numbers on the clock so I hauled my ass to the finish line to be met with nothing. THAT"S RIGHT~NO WATER!!!! You had to walk down to the street to go get your water, & I mean literally down the street.
So, all in all, not my favorite race, not my best race, but it is another race under my belt. This has taught me a few things about myself & about Josh. It taight me that I need to not give up on myself because had I not given up I could've finished in the time I wanted to & proved myself. I guess it didn't really teach me anything about Josh, more or less reminded me of why I married him. He showed me he is in this 100% WITH me. He is encouraging & I just love him.
So, final race time...you ready for this.....35:36........1 minute slower than IRONGIRL!
Oh well, I gotta work out my schedule for training.
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every race is different and you can't get discouraged if a race doesn't go as well as expected. At the end of it all, you finished and you have another learning experience to draw from. Races are a completely different beast than training and it takes time to figure out the best way for you to race. I did a ton of races last year and it wasn't until the Gasparilla THIS YEAR that I had the right mental strategy and felt like I ran a smart race. You are doing a great job and every step counts. Remember that, even the worst run or race still counts as mileage on your legs! So proud of you!
ReplyDeleteT, thank you so much for all of you encourgament!!! Sometimes I don't know what I would do w/o you! I am determined to have a good race by the end of the year.
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