…in which the quest for 21:40 continues.  Under a heat advisory.

Seriously, I’ve done four of these Al Goldstein races now, and each is hotter and more humid than the preceding one.  90° at 7 PM?  Sure, why not.  It really is just a matter of time before I am actually sick before one of these races, anyway.  Last night could have been that night, because I felt really, um… crappy.

TMI alert here: when you are as incredibly skilled as I am in stressing yourself out over every stupid little thing, the self-imposed pressure of keeping a PR streak alive is not a good thing.  Particularly if you also have IBS that is exacerbated by stress.  Let’s just say that my digestive system was very, very, very unhappy all day before this race.

Short version: that was a terrible, horrible, no-good, very bad race.

Well, that’s from a purely subjective standpoint, I guess.  I didn’t get a PR, but if I hadn’t managed to do that at the last race, this would have been one.  I only missed by eleven seconds.  Which isn’t actually bad in these conditions.  It’s just that the whole thing felt so awful and was kind of a comedy of errors.

Beginning with the way my watch went nuts immediately.  Hear the horn, start watch, run.  Now, this is going to sound weird — maybe it’s due to the fact that I’ve fractured the damn thing more than half a dozen times, but when I’m running “fast” (say, under 7:00 pace) I can feel it in my pelvis.  And I felt it here.  So why the hell does my watch say I’m running 11:35?!  (Never mind that I can’t actually run an 11:35 mile — it falls into the little pace window which I am just physically incapable of covering on foot.)  I despaired of my watch helping me out and mostly ran by feel.

Clearly, what I felt like doing was dying.  My legs didn’t hurt, or anything (not more so than usual), but I just could. not. move. faster.  Which was terribly frustrating; it felt so much harder than the last race.

UGLY.

I’m actually all sorts of confused — when I passed over the one-mile marker on the road, exactly seven minutes had elapsed (.98 miles on my watch).  And at the two-mile marker, fourteen minutes had elapsed (1.97 miles).  Stupid watch chose a fine time to go haywire like that.

There were many, many times when I felt like just throwing in the towel and turning this into a tempo run instead.  But I’m a crazy stubborn person, so I didn’t do that.  Instead I battled my way through it, even started to sprint for the finish, and then when I caught sight of the clock and realized I wasn’t going to PR… I slowed down a bit.  Does it really matter if I miss a PR by five seconds or if I miss it by ten seconds??

According to my Garmin, 3.09 miles (yes, it measured short — and I didn’t even “take advantage” of that, grr) in 21:54, 7:05/mi.

Apparently this is another one of those cases where the weather conditions did a number on everyone, not just me (much like the Queens 10K), because I finally got my silver AG medal.  (Sure, that might be because some people are saving themselves for the NYRR Team Championships this Saturday, but we’ll just ignore that.)

Official results: 3.1 miles in 21:52, 7:03/mi. 40/294 OA, 7/143 F, and 2/29 F 30-34.

In retrospect, it’s kind of a relief to have broken the PR streak… the pressure was totally self-inflicted, but it really was getting to be far too stressful.  Still — mission obviously not accomplished; the next stab at sub-21:40 comes on Thursday.

But hey, I got to see Kristin!

In retrospect, it’s kind of a relief to have broken the PR streak… the pressure was totally self-inflicted, but it really was getting to be far too stressful.  Still — mission obviously not accomplished; the next stab at sub-21:40 comes on Thursday.

When the conditions are factored in you probably blew your PR out of the water. These are things that must not be dismissed.

 

That is precisely what happens to me when I look at the clock oftentimes, which is why I avoid doing so for the most part.  In the grand scheme of things it may not seem like it matters, but grouping race results as closely as possible (even those that are not PR's) is a worthwhile goal.

I suppose so... I'd feel worse about it if I slowed down because I HAD to (as in, I physically couldn't move faster).  I just got lazy, I guess.

 

When the conditions are factored in you probably blew your PR out of the water. These are things that must not be dismissed.

Too bad it doesn't count for anything!  It was humid last time, too... but I guess the fifteen degrees cooler thing made a bigger difference than I thought.

If you want to PR at every race, you might have to start spacing them out more. But that is a great time considering the conditions!

Ha, I don't WANT to PR at every race -- I always knew it wouldn't last forever!  (I mean, I wouldn't mind, but I know it's unrealistic to expect that.)

Great report, you're funny! I don't know how you could breathe in that.

+1

You self deprecate with the best of them.