5.22.2011

Run to the finish and don't disrespect the bike

Yesterday I forced myself out on the bike. I did an hour and fifteen minutes. After an hour and 5 minutes, I had had it so I stopped to run for a little bit to see how it felt. I feel pretty good transitioning from the bike to run so I told my sis and she told me I wasn't working hard enough on the bike, so I tried focusing on that today. I only ran just less than 1/2 mile and I was running around 8:00 pace without any effort. I felt like I was running 10:30 pace. I thought I tried hard on the bike but still I stink at it. Not hard enough.  My pace went down from last weekend - from 5:29 average pace to 5:13.  Improvement!

The bike:
By the end, I was thinking, I better research how to change from olympic distance to sprint for the June race.  Also after a car passed me and someone screamed out, I got nervous maybe they didn't see it or got too close to me. I think I'll be riding on the trail from now on (but I did enjoy house hunting while I was riding).

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Today was the ODDyssey half marathon. I ran a 1:54:59 or faster - I started my watch before I crossed the line.  After 2 weeks of sluggishness and eating like crap and junk workouts, and then sleeping horribly last night, I was kind of thinking, oh man, why did I decide to do this?  I also woke up and got my period. Awesome.  I'd so much rather have Sunday morning with the family.   I picked up a girl from my running group and headed down. I did just over a mile warmup and felt ok, then just hung out at the start.   It didn't seem like it was going to start on time, but suddenly, it was like 3-2-1 go!   No talking or announcements at the start, it was weird. (no usual mayor speech, director speech, none of that). There had to have been people still standing in the port-a-potty lines.

My strategy was to go out comfortably, at about 8 minute mile pace and bring it down if I could later in the race. If I held 8 minute pace it would be a PR and since I ran 8 minute pace at Broad Street not even feeling well, I figured I could do it EASILY.  I started out kind of stuck between people and didn't want to be running super slow so I did weave a bit and what was comfortable was slower than I hoped, like mid 8s.  In the first mile I saw a baby around Kara's age in a stroller with her mom and was thinking - why am I here? I should be home with my family!  By mile 3, I was just not feeling it. We passed through the finish line after 3 miles and I would have been happy to be done. There were multiple times where I thought about walking to the finish and just not finishing. I just wasn't into it today. My mile 7 I knew that biking yesterday was really dumb.  My legs were shot. I couldn't move by mile 10 and was barely moving. 

There was alot of negative talk throughout the race:
this sucks
why am I here?
I'm taking off a week of running after this
how am I going to run a marathon
why would I want to run a marathon?
this feels like the second half of a marathon 

My legs don't want to move
Why did I bike yesterday?

should I just walk to the finish and not officially finish this thing or should I finish?

A couple of things that helped: 
-Trying to spot Lindsay on the course and the girl that I drove down. I spotted Lindsay looking strong around 4/5 miles in her black tutu - awesome costume!  And my running group buddy too. She was going for a 1:45 and that was what I thought I could run too.   There were 2 out and backs so it was good to see those 2 and that there were a good number of people behind me too.

-People in costumes


When I went through the halfway point, I really had to bring myself out of negative talking. I wanted to stop running. I wanted to be home.  I kept on smiling and trying to move forward. I thought maybe I would do the optional twists on the course to lighten up a bit  but then when I went past them, I realized it would take even longer to get to the finish. And they seemed kind of silly - a moonbounce, game of Jenga. I saw 2 people go for the moonbounce and no one was playing Jenga.  There weren't too many fans, but I think seeing the other runners still going behind me kept me going. I just wanted to finish.   Throughout this race, I thought of Marlene - have you seen her 5 year transformation photos? and her success in running and just felt happy for her. And I thought of Amanda because all I was thinking is RUN TO THE FINISH. RUN TO THE FINISH.  I stopped looking at my watch and didn't care. I peeked at it for the distance once and saw my pace was in the 10s and I didn't care. I could not move. As you can see...



I stayed in the game in order to get my medal and pint glass but wow, I have never felt like I wanted to quit so badly as I have today and in Broad Street.

 The best part of the race - I got to meet Run Blondie!
I wish I had gotten it together to wear a costume!

11 comments:

  1. Great job on the race today... some races are better than others :)

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  2. Congrats on the half! Way to PUSH THROUGH it! Thanks for thinking of me. :)

    Keep working at that bike, but I don't blame you for wanting to avoid the roads. Cars would scare the crap out of me!

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  3. Learning to push on the bike take a little time but once you figure it out, the bike hurts like hell, worse than running in my opinion. Get a trainer and get on there and bike until you see stars!

    Looks like a fun half marathon. And you look happy in that picture and that's all that matters.

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  4. i think that's a great overall time for the half! too bad it wasn't fun...i hope you get the fun back. the bike doe take time...has anyone ridden with you to work with you on shifting and stuff? i learned the most just riding behind someone who knew what they were doing and trying to copy.

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  5. Sorry to hear that someone yelled at you while riding outside on the roads. That stinks. And like others said, the bike takes time.

    I think you did great at your half even if it wasn't fun. Maybe you should take a little break from the longer races if it isn't fun? You could do some shorter races in the mean time. Or maybe trail running?

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  6. Awesome! Good for your for not stopping and pushing yourself!

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  7. Great job with the bike - stick with it. And be careful of drivers... we get yelled at a lot when we aren't doing anything wrong. Cars don't have respect for bikes many time. Trails are good! :)

    Congrats on a great race today! :)

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  8. Wow! I can't believe you got that time even when you felt so bad during the race! Way to push through and keep going!

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  9. One of my recent races had a similar start. I had not even gotten my arm band/ear phones on. Strange. Biking is hard on the legs. I need at least one rest day/cross training b/f I can have a decent run. Congrats on the finish :-)

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  10. Congrates on the half!
    Also, recognizing bloggers at races is super fun!
    http://beboldrunwild.blogspot.com/

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  11. You did an amazing Job! Glad you finished!

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