The Weekend of Races

This weekend I had two races.

The first was the Pride Race on Saturday. Even though I knew I was running again on Sunday, I decided to do this race because:
1. It is a qualifier for the NYC marathon, and my Sunday race was not
2. The t-shirts are usually a lot better than the other race t-shirts you get (they are usually navy with some kind of rainbow, not white with some kind of lame logo)
3. You get a rainbow popsicle at the end
(When you run a lot of races it's the little things that make the difference :)

I decided to run this race at my long, slow distance pace, seeing that I knew our coaches would not be looking at these results, but they WOULD be looking at Sunday's results, so I was saving my energy.

As I told Lauren the next day, running a race instead of racing a race is so enjoyable. I had a lot of fun, never felt like I was dying (even though Cat Hill was at the end) AND I learned how to drink and run at the same time!!! (which I have never been able to do). I averaged a 8:42 pace, which I was happy with...right on track with my long runs!

Sunday was a different story.

I was going for a sub 8 pace. I was not too worried about this, because my "test" from 2 weeks ago yielded a 7:58 pace and I felt like I could go a smidge faster then. The strategy was to go easy on the first two miles and kick it up for the last three, keeping in mind that Cat Hill was in the second mile and would therefore be the slowest mile. (It was the same course as the Pride course, just starting and ending at different points).

First mile was a 8:04. PERFECT! Second was an 8:36. Not incredibly bad.

I don't know WHAT happened after that. For one, my legs felt like LEAD. Now I know this is a symptom of lactic acid buildup, but I really didn't feel like I took it out too fast. My breathing was under control and I felt really good. I started throwing up in my mouth, which is just awful. I was overheating. I decided to walk the next water stop, even though I had just perfected running through them. I could use the break.

Next mile was a 9:07. Oooh. Not so good.

I wanted to pick it up but was doing the mouth throw-up thing again. 8:36. Ptttt. With my sub-8 no longer possible I decided to just finish the thing.

I walked a long time through that next water stop.

My legs REALLY felt like lead now. I just kept thinking 'Form! Form! Form!' But it wasn't in the cards. Even Bill said that it looked like my form had fallen apart at the end. That's crazy because even when I feel like I'm dying people usually say that my running form looks good.

I felt bad, but when I passed the happy cheering huge squad of TNT coaches yelling "Go Emily" I must have looked REALLY bad because one of them was like "uh, oh."

I was mad. I had a 42:17, which I knew was not that much faster than yesterday, when I wasn't trying. I also had this gut feeling that this time was slower than last year's Hope and Possibility run, which had been a PR for me at the time.

It wasn't. Last year I got a 43:25. But it still ticked me off. I am running so much faster this year, so I feel like my times should be a lot faster.

My average pace was an 8:27. According to my chart of all of my races this is still a PR for a race, but I was not happy with it. :(

Oh well. I decided to chalk it up to a bad day. An hour later, when I was eating my favorite McDonald's breakfast, I was already over it. ;)

P.S. My resting heartrate is usually 64-68 bpm, but before the race on Saturday...remember, the one I was not trying to race...my resting HR was 80. Bill thinks this is proof that I get worked up before races, even if feel calm. I would have to agree with him. I'd hate to have seen what my resting HR was Sunday.