5 Miles Past Empty: You know what's weird?

Monday, December 3, 2012

You know what's weird?

A 12K PR....THAT'S weird.

I had no intentions of getting a PR on Saturday. I actually simply hoped to finish. To not die, or throw up...or make a huge spectacle of myself. All of which were certainly very legit possibilities. I figured this would be just a run.

I showed up for the race with no expectations other than to freeze until we started running. It was cold, in the mid 30's, which is actually good running weather, just not good stand-around-and-wait-to-run weather. Luckily we didn't have to stand around too long before it was time. Once we started running it didn't take long to warm up since the first half mile was a nice incline. It was nice to run with new scenery, new people, and new music on my iPod. I quickly fell into a nice pace that felt comfortable as my running crew disappeared around a turn and weren't seen again, until the finish. I had hoped to keep each mile under 9:30. I succeeded in this until mile 7 which ended up being 9:32. Not sure what happened there other than I was bored and tired.

I remember back in 2010 when I could run for miles, holding each mile pace within seconds of each other. I just ran at a comfortable pace and it was steady. It became a game to keep each mile at the same pace, or within one second faster or slower. The best I ever did was an 18 miler where 15 of the 18 miles were right on at around 8:53 min/mile. My paces were kind of close during Saturday's run: 8:55, 8:41, 8:58, 8:58, 8:56 ....9:26, 9:32, last .44 was an 8:06.

Unofficial Garmin Time.

I finished this 12k in 1:07.20. That's a 9:02 pace. A PR!! My stupid last two miles brought my pace way down. I can't say I am exactly disappointed though, especially since I had no plan or intention of going out and actually running hard and I probably could have held the last two miles to a 9 min/mile but there were hills, I got warm, I was bored, there were lots of walkers all over the course, and a stupid girl in front of me was driving me crazy by A) running on her tippy toes in a very unnatural way and B) speeding up when I got right beside her, pulling a head then slowing, then speeding up...That drives me insain. I just wanted to run. I didn't particularly care to pass her, I was just running. She was the one who couldn't hold a pace to save her life.

Either way this race was a new PR. My previous PR was 1:08.43 at Sound to Narrows 12k, one of the most difficultI have ever run, on a very hill course though North Tacoma's Point Defiance, but Saturday was a PR nonetheless of 1 min 23 seconds. That's a pretty good PR if I do say so myself. And the race bling wasn't too shabby either...