There has been so much to say, so many good posts floating around in my head, but it seems that I've been to busy living and doing, eating well, bringing my own food for breakfast, lunch and dinner, working out before work (even swimming), having Christmas parties, celebrating Christmas (but not yet taking down my Christmas tree) and, well, living and doing, that the posts never get written.
But, I will tell you about my first "race" of the season. "Race" and not Race, because I decided a week ago to run a 5 mile race instead of my 50 minute scheduled training run. There was no race specific training, no tapering, no involved plan with the coach. Just me, going for a 5 mile run followed by brunch.
I arrived on time enough to get checked in and warmed up before the 8 am start. Had I known about the NYRR's new plan to keep us corralled in the running lanes I might have arrived earlier. Or not. I'm not good at arriving places before 8 am. Anyway, the "race" started and I crossed the starting line shortly thereafter with the same - Oh God, how am I going to get through this feeling that I always have and in addition to the "will I finish?" panic, it was super crowded. Trying to find room to actually run (v. shuffle) was, at best, like playing a game. But I suppose it distracted me, because the 1st mile flew by in 10 minutes almost even. I thought this odd because given my training runs and the crappy, crowded conditions, it seemed that I should have been going slower - I actually thought the markers might be off which is virtually unheard of for a NYRR race.
My original pacing goal had been to try to keep up with Sara, but in the game of find some free space to run, I managed to misplace her, so I had no one to keep up with and decided just to run and I did and I ticked off the next 4 miles in about 9:15 each and while this wasn't easy, I never really thought that I was going to die - perhaps my giddiness at running paces I haven't seen in years masked the pain.
I finished strong in around 47 minutes and I was pleased to say the least. Given that I DNF'ed my last Race, I was due a good race. Post race I decided I was also due a good brunch and headed to sarabeth's with sara and theresa (a potential future triathlete). Post brunch I swam and ran some errands so by the time I got home, official results were posted ...
46:55.
Not bad I thought and then began scrolling through my race history to see what my PR was. And then I realized that I missed a PR by 9 seconds - I really need to know these things going in, because I think I could have gone 9 seconds faster, right? Certainly without the 1st mile traffic jam I would have PR'ed. Of course, its easy to PR with the benefit of hindsight and almost PR or not, it was an awesome day that has me excited about the next few months.
So, 2009? So far so good, kids.
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