Notes
I almost didn't do this race. I'd been feeling under the weather on Thursday and Friday, and I woke up Saturday and it was pouring. Jonathan had offered to come support me, but given the weather, I told him to stay home. I drove a somewhat harrowing 40 minutes up to the race through the rain and paid the $24 day of race entry fee. After signing up for the race, I scurried back to the car and stayed there until 9:55, 5 minutes before the race started. At that point I walked down to the starting line. Many people were huddling under a roof next to the start line, but there was no room for me, so I just kind of stood next to them until it was time to walk to the start line. We all walked over and we were off. I positioned myself in the front half of the pack to start and didn't have to pass many people.
I told myself that the first mile should be comfortable, the second mile should hurt, and the third mile should be all guts. I took the first mile a lot faster this week than last month, but I wasn't really hurting. I was mostly just freezing and wet. I sprained my thumb this summer and it hurt - a lot, due to the cold and wet, I guess. I need to get some gloves. Thanks to adrenaline, I felt fine but definitely wouldn't have been OK going any faster. I traded places with a couple of women in halloween costumes here and ended up staying near them the entire race.
When we finally reached the first mile marker, I was glad to see it. I reminded myself that this mile should "hurt" and while I wasn't really in pain per se, I definitely was not enjoying things. I focused on staying with the women in costume and not stepping in too many puddles. My feet were soaked at this point. My focus was wavering by the end of this mile, but getting to that second mile marker was a major boost.
At this point, I focused on not falling off the pace too much until we got the straightaway by the water. (This race is run on Lake Washington part of the way.) I was definitely hurting now, and I think I slowed somewhat, but I pushed until we got to that final straightaway. I reminded myself how much I wanted to run sub-25:45, how I'd been diligently running over the past month, and how I wanted to be able to report a good time to friends and family members. I told myself I wouldn't run another race until December. The final straightaway next to the water was easy enough because the end was literally in sight.
I saw the clock a little ways from the finish line was 24:25. Since I didn't run with a watch I had no idea what the clock would say, and I was extremely pleased to see it was sub-25.
I was completely exhausted the rest of the day, so I know it was a good, hard effort.