Finished but it was anything but pretty

I don't know if I got caught up in the excitement of the race, if my music was faster paced then I usually run with or it was just because I was feeling good...

Mile one and I was feeling good...I wasn't feeling sluggish and my legs were cooperating...which usually doesn't happen during the first mile for me...but I finished mile one with an 11:08.

Miles two through five were much the same...I felt great...I knew my pace was much faster than I was used to running...my training runs, only a 7 (avg pace 11:37) and a 8 miler (avg pace 11:24)...at mile 5 I was at 55:05...an avg pace of 11:01...I've done this enough to know what was coming next...

And sure enough...it came at mile 6...the wall...I ran into head on...I seen it coming but it was too late...it took me 12:14 to complete that mile...I recovered a little to pull off a 12 minutes for mile 7...but that was the last mile I respectively pulled off...rest of them...I completed short of crawling...All of mile 8 I held my left side since I had a horrible pain, thankfully it went away...

I had pretty much called it quits...I had given up running...walking had become a chore all by itself...I came around the corner about a quarter mile from the finish line and the road was lined with all these National Guardsmen clapping and yelling "Finish Strong" and I just had the dig in and find whatever I had left...that quarter mile might as well been a mile since I had to run uphill and my calves started burning...it felt like the muscles were tearing...each stride I thought I was to trip over my own feet...everything seemed to move in slow motion...every ounce of me wanted to quit...but once I got to the top of the hill...it was all downhill from there...even managed to squeeze out an 8:27 pace to finish it out...helping me to squeak in just under 2 hours with a 1:59:17...

I was initially very unhappy with this...but once the initial disappointment subsided I knew that a 11 min pace wasn't really realistic...I know it can take months of training to shave 30 seconds off an average mile pace for a long run...I hadn't ran in two weeks since my 8 mile run and until Tuesday...I wasn't even sure I was going to be well enough to run...then I came across a 10 mile run from last December...the last time I ran 10 miles and I had been running regularly and was running over 100 miles a month...and my avg pace was 12:16...so as I look at the big picture...I pulled it off...it wasn't a stellar performance by no means but I finished...and the last thing I told my boyfriend before heading to the starting line...I will be happy with anything less than two hours...

Tomorrow starts my half training...I have 14 weeks to train...I decided to go from running a 5K to running 10 miles in 6 weeks and lost the last two weeks of training due to being sick...but I have 14 weeks to get ready for my half...I know that I can do 10...I could have probably finished with a better time had I paced myself better and slowed down at mile two when I realized I was going too fast...I know what I did wrong...now I have time to learn from my mistakes and get it right for my half...and if I am lucky and training and I play nicely...maybe...just maybe an 11 min/mi pace could possibly be in my future.

Pre-race Jitters

Well tomorrow is the big day...my first big race since April 2012...the Reindeer Dash for Cash 10 Miler. My training fell short after coming down with a cold shortly after my 8 mile run and I was down for two weeks...only feeling like myself in the last couple of days.

I am really scared that I won't be able to finish the race without having to walk a majority of it...my last training run went great...my 8 miler, I did 7:1 intervals and my average pace was 13 seconds faster than my 7 miler and I ran that without any walk breaks...I am going to stick with the 1 minute of walking every 7 minutes since that seemed to work for me during my training run. I know my lungs aren't completely 100% yet, so I am not really sure what time to aim for...I guess just finishing should be my goal...prior to getting sick I really had a goal of 1:50 or less which would have me right on target for my half marathon training even though my training doesn't officially start until Monday...but after completing 10 miles finishing 13.1 is a piece of cake right...after all a half is just a 5K with a 10 mile warm up...right?!?!?!

I guess I have to look at it this way...even if I do end up having to walk it...my walking pace is now where my run pace was when I did my first 10 mile race in 2011...so either way it goes...I will PR for that distance...

Fingers crossed...and wish me luck

<3 Bobbie