It takes alot of thinking to get past what I went through this past Saturday.
What? you ask? You should be so happy you finished a 5k and ran 42 out of 45 minutes! Well, really, I am VERY happy with how far I have come. But I still didn't meet my own goal of running the whole time.
So I needed to get underneath that. Because I am a runner now. I'm not giving up on this. I'm just not necessarily the person dominating the 5k mile time in my age group...or any age group for that matter...yet.
So I discovered a few things I will try to do differently in my next race, June 26th.
1) I am going to eat more for breakfast. Before this race I ate the half of banana like I normally do at 6am before heading out for my run. I didn't think about the fact that the half banana would probably not last me the 2 hours I needed it to...so I will eat more.
2) I'm not going to wear a hat. I wore a hat for the first time ever in this run. It was supposed to wick sweat away from my forehead. I think it made me hotter. It matched my tank (see the pics below) and I wore it also because of that and it was cute. I think it made it harder for me!
3) I'm scoping out the course before June 26th. I will get either a course map and drive it or a description of the streets, whatever it takes to know what I am up against before that morning!
4) I'm going to go back to running for 35 minutes for the next few weeks until I get comfortable there. I jumped crazily in my training the last few weeks - going from 28 mins, to 33 mins, to 37 mins to 42 mins and then staying at 42 mins for 3 more workouts. I never got really "good" at 33 mins to begin with.
5) I'm going to pace myself really well in this next race and start really slow. My amazing friend Heather who has legs twice as long as mine paced us a little at first and man that girl was holding her stride back - pretty sure my first mile was way faster than I normally go - and she was holding back - seriously!?. I will miss having a buddy in the next race but I want to race with her again sometime to watch her do it in under 30 mins - the girl could have won in our age group I'm sure. That's a good friend right there. I'm going to make sure to thank her appropriately!
6) I'm NOT GIVING UP UNDER ANY CIRCUMSTANCE. This is huge for me. I said to Heather, literally, during the run, "maybe I'm not cut out to be a runner? this is too hard." Shame on me! A moment of delirious trying not to puke-weakness. I am a runner, by golly, and I'm going to just continue to improve.
So this is what happens when I start thinking. But to me, this is a good kind of thinking. I'm making real progress here, and I'm going to be sure to share it with whomever out there is needing to hear it. This journey is as real as it gets, folks, and I am living proof that you can set goals, readjust them, and NOT be on a diet and lose weight. Its a lifestyle and one I am so happy to be living right now.
Until next time...I'll be thinking some more.
~Clara
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