Shamrock 8K 2013

Pooh…

Perhaps the grandeur that I build up in my head weighed down my legs?...

Or perhaps sometimes, just sometimes... a race is well just...

POOH??!

But what I thought would happen at Saturday's Shamrock 8K in Virginia Beach did not... and that simple undisputed fact pisses me off..

I was ready to run a PR.... I was hoping for a top 5 age group placing or at least no worse than a top 10 age group placing....I was hoping to crack into the 37's.  I am a strong 5 miler.... I was hoping for confetti and flashbulbs..I was hoping for a magnificent moment... and well...

What I delivered to myself.... was my second worst 8K time ever, an over 40 min time and a 20th age group placing......

POOH!

No... I was not willing to accept the fact that this will be the 6th time i have run this race and have (sans the first year) never placed over a 40 min time or less than a 10th age group placing. 

No...I will not accept the fact that this course was one of the fastest flattest courses out there and even given wind running in the 38's should not be a problem for me, let alone the idea of dipping into the 37's.

No...it's not that i think of myself as a superstar, perhaps a star-twinkle... but not a superstar... and I know better than to think I am better than the really good girls... but I do have confidence in myself and know what I can do... and my mind knew what i could do... but the body... well the body just did not comply.

POOH!

Perhaps it was the extra “sprint warm up” that Joe and I did prior to the race when we realized he forgot his race timing chip and we were already walking to the race and then had to turn around  and “SPRINT” like mad men back to the hotel, get his timing chip and then sprint the 2 miles back to the start of the race.. yeah perhaps that little handy adrenalin rush didn't help.

Or perhaps it was that I was technically still rehabbing the quad/hip I had pulled two weeks prior at the 400 Meter USATF Mid Atlantic Masters Championships?

Or perhaps it was because I haven’t really slept well in a few weeks, trying to prepare for interviews for a new position and the thoughts of actually how to land the new position?

OR MAYBE I am just getting old and slowing down or maybe I didn't train enough, or maybe I trained too much?

Maybe it was a combination of all of the above... but the fact is.. I could go after excuse after excuse and that would not change the fact that mid run, after only two miles… I was exhausted.. I WAS flat out all body exhausted.. like lay down in the middle of the race and take a nap exhausted.

I tried everything I could think of to conjure up a good old fashioned ass kicking and came up short.

I tried to tell my mind I was NOT tired..

I tried to tell my body I felt AMAZING, powerful and fast…

I tried to rationale with my legs...but that damn body did not wish to comply.

And NOTHING pisses me off more than NON COMPLIANCE!

So after careful reflection... I realized that sometimes.. just sometimes..a race is just....

POOH!!!...

That there will be other races...and that you just have to flush the pooh… 

I am going to get me my magnificent moment... you just wait..and see...

Mid-Atlantic USATF Masters Indoor Championships 2013

SNAP, CRACKLE, POP...

Well it really wasn’t a snap, nor a crackle, nor really a pop… but more like being electrocuted....

..... that sensation of accidentally touching an electrical wire, when wet, and then as your teeth shake and you recoil, a dagger is thrust into your quad.. yeah.. kinda like that… All forward motion attempted to cease and resist... 

Let's go back a few minutes. I am at Delaware University's indoor track and was getting ready to run my first event of the day... I was debating about how to warm up since half the track was closed off for the 60 meter sprints and if I should wear spikes or not… hmmm..

Running in spikes is such a wondrous feeling ….like running barefoot with claws..but no support...hmmm...

First call for the mile and I was getting eyed up and down by the gals in my heat… 

One of the ladies walks over to me seeing my #6, she is #5 and said, "There is no way i am faster than you"...Indicating that I should be #5 and she #6.....

I told her I hadn’t run the mile in a few years and didn’t have a qualifying mark to put down.

See they make you fill in your qualifying time so they can sort you by time.. lane 1 fastest, lane 6 slowest… it usually makes the heats a bit more fair and thus you don’t get the faster runners bunching up with the slower runners…

Our heat of 6 gals consisted of all Masters runners (over 40) … and I knew the specs of two of the gals, that they ran under a 6:15 mile… I knew a few years ago I could do a 6:45-6:50 mile but honestly wasn’t sure if it was still in me to do so .. so I was totally ok with being considered the slowest runner…

I didn’t know the times of the other gals in my heat and I learned a long time ago that looks can be very deceiving, just because someone may look older and more frail doesn’t mean they can't put down the whoop arsh .. 8 laps.. here we go.

I started off conservative, following the pack…unable to determine my pacing.. and then i started to pick off people... #5 gal, #4 gal, #3 gal.. and i was still accelerating... I  could see the other two ahead… but the bell was rung..last lap.. and i was still a half lap behind... 

6:50 mile finish time.. YAHOO!

NOW that is what I am talking about… to run a race, to feel good, and to do it well!

SO I probably should have warmed down a bit… or maybe warmed up a bit… but the 400 was next… as soon as they finished the men's heats for the mile.

I usually run a decent 400, and so was very hopeful that today I could land a great time. I was coming off the mile and feeling quite confident, perhaps too confident.

We lined up.. set… and go….. two steps .. TWO lousy STEPS.. and I am incapacitated… one, two, and please remove the knife from my quad...!!!

Within a nano second I was thinking a gazillion things.. the extreme pain, ...why my damn leg wasn’t moving… knowing I would place in my age group and get points for my team if I just finished …and how the heck was I actually GOING to finish?… !

I instantly went into what I call Ironman preserve mode… I am hardwired to keep going forward. Was that a smart thing to do for a 400 meter race?.. probably not.

Probably why I am not a smart runner, but I knew that I wanted to finish.. and shunning the embarrassment of jogging in the remaining 400 meter laps I limped in and quickly went to lick my paw.

A bag of ice and some laughs. The rest of the day would be a scratch, no 200 meter, no 3000 meter, heck… no more running today... so my grand illusions of multiple records and medals.. POOF...

BUT the smile was still there.. because..

I got me a medal..and I love me some speed!