The truth is, I got peer pressured by teammates. 🤣 I had a few shorter races on the schedule for the year but nothing that felt "big-ish," so when a group was planning to make a trip to Eugene with various members running the half or full, I decided to jump in for the half.
And then what happened?
I had a pretty solid February and March, but April was a bit catch-as-catch-can with all my various work and personal travel. By the end of the month I was feeling a bit run-down and struggling to recover super well from hard runs, but I was still excited for the trip to Eugene and to see how all my work over the spring would translate into the race.
Pre-race:
On Saturday I got up early to fly to Eugene. (Also woohoo upgrade! 😎) We arrived around noon and went straight to the expo to grab bibs, then got some lunch nearby. As per usual it was cold, overcast, & drizzly. I don't actually think I've seen the sun in Eugene even once.
After that my teammate I was rooming with and I headed to our hotel to chill out and hydrate. (I had been planning to get a shakeout run in that afternoon, but I was feeling tired and not super recovered, as had been the norm throughout April, so I decided it was actually probably better to just rest. Fun fact, a shakeout run is not always necessary or even helpful.)
After an early pasta dinner and a quick stop at the Trader Joe's for breakfast/snack provisions (the 7am race start made the 6am hotel breakfast a no-go), we headed back, prepped stuff for the morning, set alarms, and went to bed.
✅ and ✅!
We spotted this guy near the Trader Joe's & felt he warranted a photo.
Race day:
A perk of our hotel was that it was jogging distance to the start/finish; alas, we went the wrong way when we started out & cost ourselves a bit of time! Thankfully it was still early, we had a car, and it was only about a five minute drive, even with all the traffic from other folks trying to get to the race. We found a parking spot relatively quickly just a few blocks away and quickly jogged over to the bag check & portapotties. At the very least the whole debacle gave me a shot of adrenaline, which I very much needed at 6:45am. 🤣
Okay so before we get to the actual race, a little bit of story time. I think I have mentioned how back when I ran Redding 10 mile in March, I epically misjudged what I was capable of that day and a pace that felt comfortable and right in the first mile suddenly felt completely unsustainable by 2.5 miles in, and when that happened and I suddenly started to feel really really bad. That in & of itself is unremarkable; sometimes it's just not your day and this kind of thing happens. No big deal.
The bad thing was that mentally I sort of fell apart and had a little mini-panic attack. My brain was going this doesn't make sense, I *should* be fitter than this, what is happening, this is so embarrassing. But no matter how hard I tried to give just a little more, I spent the race watching my pace creep up and up and up and feeling more and more confused and panicked. I felt like it was stupid to keep going with how bad things were going, but also there was no quick and easy way back to the staging area.
All of this was bad for two reasons-- (1) It was super emotionally unpleasant. Like, if this is how racing is going to feel when it's not going well, then I don't want to do it, and (2) mini panic attacks do not tend to improve how a person's race is going. (I mean, maybe there is someone out there for whom a mini panic attack improves their race, but I feel pretty sure it's not most people and it is *definitely* not me.)
I knew I did not not NOT want to have another double-digit race where I suffered through something like that, so I did something I have never done before and booked a few sessions with a sports psychologist, just to, like, see what she had to say about my experience and get her thoughts.
Anyway, long story short, as a result of what I learned and the weeks and months I spent practicing some of those things during workouts and the 15K I ran in Pennsylvania, I went in to this race with some very specific mental goals.
(1) No "should" pace, even if it's based on legitimate workout data. The body's gonna do what the body's gonna do on the day, especially when there's travel or additional other stress involved. Run by feel and don't deny reality.
(2) Related, start conservatively (like 8:05-8:10 pace). If that feels okay, try speeding up.
(3) If it's a bad day from a pace/effort perspective, shift to focusing on making it a good mental day--which doesn't mean phoning it in or shifting to "Eh, I'll just tempo" (the absolute biggest cop-out on a race day that's not going well, EVERYONE KNOWS IT), but practicing on staying mentally engaged in spite of physical discomfort and less-than-impressive pace. No checking out, but continuing to run honest the whole way, even if it's slow.
So, in any case, this ended up being one of those days where I just felt tired, like fatigued from the first mile. I started the first mile feeling like I was running conservatively, but clocked 7:55; it didn't feel too fast so I thought maybe I could keep it up, but I kept thinking, "Wow I would really just like to curl up and go to sleep, maybe that patch of grass on the side of the road will do." I was able to slow it down a bit in the next two miles (7:59, 8:02) but never started to feel any better from a fatigue perspective. I sort of felt almost like I hadn't tapered, or like I'd already done a long run the day before.
In the past it would have been tempting to say, "Eh, not your day, just make it a long run." But that's not what we talked about and I knew that if I didn't feel good, the plan was still to do my best, whatever that best turned out to be, stay engaged in every mile instead of thinking about how badly I didn't want to be doing this for such meh results.
And honestly, with the exceptions of miles 5 and 9 (which had the two biggest hills of the race) and mile 11 (where I think I was just losing the gas), I found that I was able to mostly keep the pace right around 8:00.
Especially in the last few miles of the race I found myself constantly asking my body, "Okay do we have just a *little* something extra?? Some kind of final kick??" And time after time my body was like, "Sorry hoss, it ain't a good day, this is all we've got." And I'd be like, "Ugh, fine."
And then somehow this happened in the last two tenths of a mile:
%20(1).jpg)
Please enjoy this barely sentient, lens covered in sweat intentionally soft-focus post-race selfie
Official: 1:46:21 / 13.1 / 8:07 pace
Garmin: 1:46:23 / 13.17 miles / 8:05 pace
Speaking of photos. By some lethal combination of the lighting, angles, my general malaise/lack of energy, & bad luck (like seriously how many down-steps of one person can a photographer capture in a race), my photos from this race were among my absolute worst 🤣. Like here's the best one:
My two teammates and I who ran the half were of course done well before the rest of the folks running the marathon, so after grabbing some snacks, we found a spot in the stands to watch them finish. Say what you will about Oregon and Nike, but you have to admit that Hayward Field is a hell of a venue.
What's next?
Technically the next races I ran after this one were Devil Mountain Run Mile of Truth and Impala Stampede 5K -- race reports finally up so please enjoy! As of today's date, the next race on my calendar is the Twilight 5000 in Oakland on June 19, and then the SF version in July. I have really been enjoying getting in some faster training in preparation for these shorter summer races and can't wait to get out and race on the track. 🥰
No comments:
Post a Comment