Notes
Not too much to report. Didn't go sub-21, but apparently sub 21:15, which was my PR for 10 years, is now a pretty standard time for me. I didn't sleep a lot... decided to turn on Netflix after I was already in bed, so I was up past 1:30 and had a hard time falling asleep. I woke up at 5am, so I got 3-ish hours asleep. I tapered for this race, which is also working pretty well, it seems. I seem to be mostly recovered from the blood donation though I could tell that it became harder to dig deeper after mile 2. I could tell I was getting slower and couldn't do much to stop it. It was a positive split with a bit of a sprint at the end, so I guess maybe I could have pushed myself to go faster a little earlier. Tough to find the motivation though, and a lot was going on in my head.
I tried to keep the pre-race routine what it was during the PR, but I was sleeping at my parents again and didn't have my Gus or Stroop minis, so I actually was fasted, except for the Vietnamese coffee and some fruit gummies. (180 calories total?) Maybe I need to get more food in/run a later (but cooler) race.
With all going on in my head and for my job, I actually left the house as little late and made it just in time for a quick warm-up and ABCs, doing strides as people were already lining up for the start. Saw a bunch of running friends, tried to tell myself/remind myself to run my own race.
In perspective, I am getting faster. My time at this race last year was 21:39. I'll take it!