My time in Toronto with Running Angel was 2:14 - so, I figured a good goal would be to beat that. On Tuesday though, we ran in the snow, and, my ankle has been extremely sore ever since.
I was so torn as to what to do. Originally, my goal was to hold 6 min/km....then, I said, okay, 6:10's (2:10).....finally, this morning, I said - 6:15 - which would bring me in around 2:12ish.
The reason that I had trouble setting this goal is that my last couple of races where I set unreasonable goals meant that I went out to fast. For this race, my biggest goal was to set a good goal!
Anyway....the race.
Plan was to hold 6:15's. I had my "flock" with me - about 5 or 6 clinic members that wanted to use me as a pace bunny. I reminded them a bunch of times, that, ya never know how I'm going to do - add my ankle problem, and, I had no idea what the day would hold....
The footing wasn't great - with the 1 inch of snow from last night, but, the sun was shining. It wasn't as cold as I expected.
Loop 1 (5km) - 31:02 felt great (6:12/km)
Look 2 (5km) - 31:33 (6:19/km) felt pretty good - starting working harder
Loop 3 (5km) - 31:29 (6:18/km) felt strong - pushed hard - coming into the turn around, I was hurting a bit, took a gel and got my mojo back!
Loop 4 (5km) - 32:06 (6:25) I died at about 19 km. The "flock" was mostly ahead of me now. I'm actually surprised I was only a minute slower for this 5km then the first one - and, really, it was mostly in the 20th km - 6:47. I came through the start finish area (for the last 1.1 out and back) and told James that I was hurting. He had the best response "take it easy". I realized that it was just one foot in front of the other, and, I could finish this. My legs felt like lead - I was briefly reminded of how tired my legs were during my Ironman - which made me realize that this was ONLY 21.1 km - not an Ironman, and, it was time to "suck it up, princess!"
The last 1.1 km, I walked briefly for 3 times.....
km 21 - 6:36
pace for my last 100 m - 5:09/km - I was going to finish STRONG, even if it killed me!!
Finish time:2:13:30 (6:19/km)
I'm happy with that. I'm even happier that I feel like I set a realistic goal. I stayed pretty much on pace until about 18 km. I just should have taken a gel I think, I would have had some more oomph. It was super cool seeing every one on every lap....I wish I had been on the lookout for bebette and SuperBob though
!
I was so proud of my clinic members - they all finished strong. One girl in particular recently faced a death in the family and had missed the last 2 weeks. She decided to run anyway, by doing her LSD pace. She had a smile every time I saw her. Her mom, sister and a bunch of friends were out there for her (in the freezing cold).
When she came through to run her last 1.1 km somehow, I had energy left and I ran it with her. I was so proud of her. (And wondered how my legs were running another km at a 6:20 pace!!)
I thought I was "running happy" the whole way, Joe's 2nd picture says otherwise:
I'm sore now. I'm happy that I gave it all I got.
I guess I need to figure out my ATB goal!
(can you tell I like numbers?!)
