When I was younger, during my choir years, I used to perform with our traveling group at least once a month, sometimes once a week during holiday and opera season. And even with all of that conditioning and experience, I still got nervous before a performance from time to time. For those of you who haven't felt that particular sensation, it feels like the butterflies in your tummy want to burst out of your body and your hands can't stop shaking. Charming, isn't it? Well surprisingly, my pre-race jitters are bizarrely similar even though I really only have an audience of one, me.
I know that I've always been my worse critic, and the people that matter to me will still love me even if I don't make my speed goal or don't finish the race. But to me, it's all about the effort that I just put into it. I want to "perform" well and prove to myself that those last couple of months of training weren't for naught. On the other hand, I know that I didn't train as hard this time around as I did for the Nike Women's Half Marathon last year. So naturally, I'm even more worried that I will not cross that finish line within the allotted three hour time limit.
With all of this mind, I decided to take my last long run yesterday (10 miles) as a diagnostic run. Mind you, that the longest long run I've done in the last couple of months has only been 7 miles. Obviously, doing this kind of mileage increase is not the easiest or smartest thing to do. So, do I dub myself race ready after that run? Well, let me give you a play-by-play of that run and my thoughts so you can see for yourself:
Mile 1-2: "Omg...piece of cake! I'm going so much faster than I did last year, and it doesn't hurt at all!"
Mile 3-4: "Rats, perhaps I shouldn't have started out so fast. My muscles are starting to burn. I'll try to keep pace with that muscular guy in front of me. He's going relatively slow."
Mile 5: "Oh well..there goes that muscular guy. I'm implementing that Walk-Run method for this race. Walk for 4 min., Run for 12 min. Maybe I'll have more energy towards the end."
Mile 6: "Why does the sign on that porta-potty say 'Beware of the rattle snakes in this area'? I've never seen that warning on this trail. Omg... is that log moving??? Oh...no, I'm just delirious. I hate snakes....damn".
Mile 7: "Oh, Hello Muscular Guy! I caught up to you. I think I'll pass you now. Oh...you weren't a guy. hahaha, I love San Francisco."
Mile 8: "Sigh...Hello big wall that I've slammed into. If I sit down here, will my car come and pick me up like the batmobile? And, will it bring my gf, booze, and dinner? Hmm...I should look into programming my car with AI, cause that'd be neat."
Mile 9: "That girl with the pink cowboy hat has a nice butt. I'm not sure if I'm hallucinating her, but at least it's getting me to pick up the pace. Then again, why would I hallucinate a pink cowboy hat? If anything, it'd be purple."
Mile 10: "2 hours and 30 minutes!!!?!? Oh CRAP! That's 20 minutes longer than my 10 mile time last year. Uh oh...I don't know if I'll be able to make the 3 hour limit next week."
And that concludes my run. Now, don't think that I didn't pay for rapidly increasing my mileage yesterday. Today, I've landed a nice little bout of sesamoiditis. Not to worry though, it's nothing a little ice and ibuprofen can't cure. Considering that though, I know that my injuries after the race will be a lot worse. So herein lies the big question of the week: Should I go through with the SF Half-marathon as planned, even though I'll most likely come in after 3 hours and with some minor injuries? Or should I wait for the SJ half-marathon that is coming up in October which I'm thinking I will do anyway? What do you folks think?
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6 comments:
i say run part of it. choose a reasonable goal (like a mile or 2 more than what you comfortably do in practice) and set a time goal for it. or challenge yourself to see how far you can get in 3 hours. i prefer the first because it doesn't require a huge jump in mileage that may hamper your post-race training. you already paid the entry fee, so at the very least use it as a chance to practice running in a race atmosphere. your mile-by-mile commentary highlights how important it is to find the right pace. it takes even more practice to be able to follow your inner pace with thousands of people running beside you!
You're totally right that I don't have enough practice concentrating on my internal pace with other people around. In fact, last year everyone around me threw it off, so by the time I made it to the hills I was exhausted. And, I also agree with you about the entrance fee. The pake part of me would totally kick me in the butt if I just let that money go to waste.
alright, all good points. I need to think about it..
Love you for this:
Mile 7: "Oh, Hello Muscular Guy! I caught up to you. I think I'll pass you now. Oh...you weren't a guy. hahaha, I love San Francisco."
As for advice: I'm with Michelle--Dude! Michelle! Good advice!--if you paid to do it, make a reasonable goal and at least do some of the race--not all of it.
And when you pau? Ehhh, actually train for the SJ race, kay? We no like see you get hurt.
I have to say that the term "sesamoiditis" made me laugh, although I'm certain it's quite painful :( I just got this vision in my head of something involving too much sesame seeds or something! lol. Anyway, I have no useful advice re: training since I still hate to run. However, I think that Michelle's advice sounds good, just run part of it that you feel comfortable with - at least you won't have wasted your money, you'll still get a good run in, and you won't hurt yourself. Good Luck!
-Sarah
you crack me up.
get you some zheng gu shui for that sesamoiditis.
=) I knew Sidewalk Monkey would prescribe a chinese medicine. At least I've actually heard of that one or seen it in the store.
Luckily, I don't really need medicine right now because it feels fine. But, I'll probably need it after the marathon.
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