Notes
Dew point 65, 78% humidity
Mentally I wanted no parts of this race from the time my eyeball opened this morning until somewhere during mile 3. I just did not want to race today, I would have totally rather run marathon pace miles but I do not want to limit myself by running only at MP so I went through the motions and headed out the door.
Once there it was all I could do to even warm up, all the while trying to talk myself out of leaving. The thing that kept me there was knowing I had to get some quality miles in with tomorrows long run looming and besides that, where would I go?
The conditions were not ripe for racing which did not help matters mentally as I was already drenched after a 2.75 mile warmup. I am also in day 12 of a running streak that currently stands at 101 miles (was at 95 miles before the race).
Excuse making aside, I decided while standing in the corral that I would try my best to hang around my tempo pace of 6:20 while fighting off mental demons from the word go.
This event looped the 5k course twice and for the entire mile heading towards the 5k finish I was totally convinced I would check out at 3.1 miles. In fact in my head it was all but done!
Somehow I managed to fight back, ran past the first loop and got in what was really a mentally tough but one of my most gratifying runs this year despite running below my fitness.
But sometimes splits, pace or overall time do not matter and today was one of those days. It was not pretty, but I did not let my effort fall completely apart and thus am very proud of what could otherwise be considered a sub-par performance.
For now it is back to marathon race training, where I am thoroughly immersed in the challenge. That is ultimately why and how I was able to see myself through the full length of this race, which turned out to be a tad bit short.