Yesterday I ran in my 3rd Around the Bay (ATB) 30k race. Always an enjoyable race no matter how I do.At that, I will give a little background on how I've done in this race:
2009 was my 1st time running it. At the time it was the longest race I had done. But I was in pretty good shape going into it, as I was getting ready for my first Ironman later that year. The only down point to my physical conditioning was a toy dropped on my foot which as silly as it sounds was a bit painful, and had caused me to back off running a little before the race. But maybe that run taper was the trick because 2009 still holds as my fastest 30k run at 2:38:39 (5:17/km pace)
The next year 2010, found me not nearly as in shape. I took a long time to recover from Ironman and just didn't have the base, plus I had a foot injury, don't know exactly what it was, not a toy this time, but it hurt me going down the hills a heck of a lot. It was last minute that I decided I would try to run it on my sore foot, and I plugged away to finish in a time of 2:53:51 (5:47/k pace).
2011 I didn't race because I was focusing on distance swimming...
So that brings us to this year. It has been a long process of getting back to running after being off it for basically a year, but starting in January 2012 I was running regularly/daily. But ATB is 30k and for whatever the reason my longest run since starting back was only 19k, so this would be a stretch. I knew that when the hills started on this course my legs would already be feeling the distance run... Still I set my goal for this year to be in between my best and worst time (a 15 minute window to play with)
The day started a little overcast about 7C. I hung on to Bill at the beginning until he took a potty break at 10k, I kept on but I missed my personal pace bunny and kept looking over my shoulder. He eventually caught back-up and quickly started to pull away. This is the biggest running race I've done in terms of # of people and I love that there are always lots of runners around you, so even without Bill near me, I wouldn't feel alone.
It warmed up and I was overheating a little by the end, the sun came out when I was on that last hill (which I power walked up) And with legs screaming at me, I chugged along to finish in 2:43:49 (5:28/k pace); within my goal time range and happily closer to the best than the worst.
I was a little surprise to realize as I looked at results later that at 20k I was actually ahead of my 2009 split; so I sort of regret that I hadn't been more properly prepared with my mileage leading into the race as a PB may have been possible. Not to mention that I dream of breaking 2:30 in this race one day and earning a "silver" medal.
As a perfect wrap up to a running race, we went out for lunch with a bunch of running friends, sat on the patio in the sun, and had a couple beers.
I am sore but I expected that and I am happy with my race.
I was chatting with Bill after and said that even though I started to hurt at around 21k, that having that past experience of the Lake crossing when finishing didn't seem possible, but somehow I managed to, stored in my memory bank, helped me to plug through some pulled muscles and keep running.
So every time you get through something tough (applies to more then just physical events) it will help you face the next challenge. You don't ever know how far you can push, so just keep pushing!
No comments:
Post a Comment