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...