Notes
My email to MF
RE: The race
The race. It went better than Cloverdale and that is something to be happy about.
I hang my head when I admit that my execution, while somewhat better than 3 weeks ago, was still not just right. I went out with the intention of running those 9:30s we discussed for the first 2 miles. As I started out, I felt like I was running smooth and easy and I let many people pass me by. At the first mile marker I looked down at my watch and had run an 8:40... I said to myself "slower Lisa" and I let more people run by me as I cruised very comfortably along. Next mile was 8:26. I was sad about this but felt very comfortable like I could have been chit chatting easily if I had a companion. I was a bit nervous to have once again blown up my plan so early on, but the pace felt so comfortable, I tried not to freak out. All was great through mile 5 when I ran an 8:59 and then I thought to myself "now's the time to go to work." Miles 5-10 went well (but not without a fair amount of effort to hold onto those 9s) then I started to struggle more seriously. Too soon. My early miles had hurt me (as you knew they would.) I was then only able to hang on to 9:30s (at best) through about mile 15 and from there I headed straight into the pain cave for the balance of the race, digging very deep to run just 10s and even a 10:30. Wrapped up with a 9:25 that nearly killed me. Not very graceful.
On paper, the details look better than my race actually went:
My goal was to break 3:10 and I ran 3:08
I finished 8th of 43 women in my age group (and no one older than me beat me)
36th of 167 women
88 of 268 overall
At the end of the day, I wish I had run even more slowly at the beginning (per your wise suggestion.) I know I can run a better race than this. I am not overly disappointed, but a little. Having never run on a track I am very bad at gauging my pace (obviously.) My early miles really did feel VERY easy and slow, but they were not, not for my abilities anyway.
It was another day of learning (although I will admit to already being a bit weary of "learning days.") I loved the course though and the small town nature of the race. Very sweet. It was also a perfect weather day - cold and sunny. John asked about the course and i told him it was all vineyards. He said when you guys were running it it was all just fields of grass. It is pretty different now. I would of course go back to do it again. I loved the whole scene: Nice medal, great shirt, good food at finish, lovely course, tons of porta potties (even out on the course), excellent volunteers, easy parking. All I need now is to match up a good race with all this good stuff. Next year :)