Ran a local 10K race on Sunday: 43:53 which was a minute faster than my previous PR. I went in with instructions to try and do 40:30 so even though it was a PR I felt a little disappointed. Another case of finding a comfortable level of pain and then just settling in. I ran about 5 meters behind the first place female for most of the race (foreshadowing for Vegas?!?!?!?) until the last mile or so where she opened the gap to about 100m. Finished 11th overall and 6th in the AG which was M20-35! The whole race I knew that if I wanted to meet my goal I would have to pick it up and pass her but I couldn't, or more accurately I wouldn't. The thought of passing her, blowing up and getting passed again made a perfect excuse and kept me from pushing ahead when I had something left in the legs. After a day and a half of reflection on Sunday's race, Kerrie Wlad's comment on Lucho's blog today really hit home for me. Tim was writing about the anticipation of pain and how that can be a limiter for performance. I was reading the post thinking about my race and about last week's tempo run. I ran 3 miles at 6:40 pace in training and then raced at 7:00/mi. The fear of blowing up all over the race course kept me from even trying to hold goal pace. Then I read Kerrie's comment:
well princess, it's time to toughen up! ditch the numbers, shut up and just run.... you know how to suffer so that's not an issue, you know you can endure discomfort, so just stop focusing on those external limiters when you are racing. and if you do blow up, just make sure that it is pretty spectacular, like crawling/projectile vomiting spectacular. i think that i broke 40 min for a 10k for the first time when i was 12, almost 13...and i wasn't super fit and i didn't know much about racing/training(not like now ;) ) but i just wanted to WIN. there was a little tv for the prize and i desperately wanted a tv. it was pretty simple.
A couple things:
1) she called Lucho a princess. That's awesome!
2) she broke 40 minutes as an out of shape 12 year old. That's ridiculous!
3)She's 100% right.
It was pretty simple and it still is. I wanted to avoid failing more than I wanted to succeed and as a result did neither. Lesson learned.
6 comments:
great race! a PR is nothing to be bummed about- that's a big deal!...just don't get chicked again next time....
great quote from kerrie by the way
kerrie is on it! Just go... don't think about anything. A spectacular blow up giving it everything have is way better (and more fun to watch) than knowing you could have went harder when it's over.
didn't you know... ending up in the med tent is cool.
alright, so when is the next race? cause i'm holding you to that!!!
by the way, where is cloverdale?
(i'm originally from saskatoon ;( )
Kerrie,
Cloverdale is a suburb of Vancouver, a suburb of Surrey technically. I was in the SK not even a month ago. I have some pics on the blog that will look a lot like home! My wife is originally from Swift Current
Not to show to much of my computer stupidity but how did you get the pics from your garmin?
brfoot,
Pull up the Garmin software, hit the 'print screen' key, then paste it into whatever photo editing software you use. My PC had Microsoft Picture manager preloaded and that works fine. Hit me up if you have any troubles.
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