Notes
Tacoma Sound to Narrows 12k!
My goal was to beat my time last year, coming full circle on the first of my washington races. Last year I was strong, running some, kickboxing, lots of exercise, but not really training for running in any sort of harcore way. I surprised myself with a time of 56-ish minutes, but pushed myself extremely hard-and was completely wiped out afterwards.
This year, after running the marathon, the 50k, several smaller races, it would be unacceptable to not beat my time. If I could run a hilly half marathon in March at a 7:07 pace, I should be able to beat a 7:35 pace in 12 k easily, right? Well March was ancient history. A crazy schedule the last couple of months turned most of my runs into 8-9 minute paced stress relief jogs. Both hill and speed training seemed to disappear, and a lack of cross training made me feel even weaker and out of shape. Nonetheless I had experience going for me.
The race was cold again, but not raining. I didn't shoot out as fast this time. I was also in the correct 'wave' this year, so instead of passing people left and right like last year, I needed to ignore the deflation that comes with being passed by people you think you should be leaving far far behind. A few stomach complaints, etc. hindered my pace and I couldn't seem to get the ripping adrenaline like last year to push me beyond my limits. I just ran, but didn't put in the extra oomf I should have. Part of it was being aware of the giant hill(which really isn't all that giant) coming and wanting to save some steam for that, some of it was just not having the same muscle mass to click into gear. Despite all this complaining I'm doing, the course was still gorgeous and challenging, very pleasant. I thoroughly enjoyed it. I made my goal of beating my time, and did reasonably well for the level of training I've been doing lately. My recovery was much better, my body is used to me doing this to it. The 3rd place woman in my age group was about 4 minutes ahead of me, so I placed probably where I would have no matter the training. A great experience overall. I think this race should become a tradition for me!