Let this be a lesson to myself in case I hadn't already learned it: the races that I go into with no expectations are ALWAYS the best. Today I ran a 10 mile PR, and I'm confident that if the race had been a half marathon that I'd have a 13.1 PR as well - I ran a smooth, strong, consistent race with some of the most even splits I've ever seen out of myself...oh, and did I mention that I didn't taper and hiked 25 miles during the past week, including 9 miles the day before the race? Because, YUP, that just happened.
Some back story: back in the wintertime Joy got an email about this new race going on in New York, which we thought would be a fun racecation weekend/vaccination celebration - which, with Massachusetts announcing it was fully open on May 29, it really turned out to be! I had decided that the half was going to be my goal race before we signed up for this, so it was always kind of a fun run/cherry on top of the weekend in my mind from the start. I won't recap the entire trip in too much detail here, but suffice it to say it was a TON of fun, and not at all the sort of activities that I'd plan on doing before a race that I cared about, lol. The weather turned out to be absolute trash with rain every single day, but we somehow made the most of the dry periods and saw a ridiculous number of sights including a run in downtown Albany, several waterfalls and state parks, several breweries, and an absolutely ridiculous 9 mile hike on Saturday which included rain, a porcupine sighting, ledgy cliff walks, and having to ford a river about 30 ft upstream of a 200 ft waterfall! We also didn't eat any snacks during our 4 hour hike and then went to a brewery immediately afterwards (we did consume 3 pizzas at the brewery, so that's a better example of prerace behavior lol).
My legs had felt pretty terrible all week, as Andrew and I had been hiking up in the Whites on Monday and Tuesday and the first hike of the year always just annihilates my quads and calves. I had legit DOMS until Wednesday, and then my legs continued to feel just fatigued and achy. By the time our hike on Saturday rolled around I was finally feeling a bit better, but still figured that the lingering fatigue of the week was not going to have a positive impact on my race. We didn't get back to our air bnb until like 8 pm on Saturday night and tried to figure out the logistics of the next morning. The 10 mile was a point to point, but we had to stop by the finish line to pick up our bibs (we missed all the pre-race pickup opportunities because of hiking and breweries...oops but also no regrets) and then Andrew would drive us ~2 miles from the start so that we could warm up. I ended up eating MORE pizza at 11 pm because I suddenly realized I was hungry and we hadn't eaten lunch. We watched the Bruins win game 1 of their series, the first full game in the Garden since COVID, which was absolutely electric - I actually got chills watching - and then headed to bed.
Race morning we needed to pack up the Air BnB, and in between I downed some kona cola nuun and ate a banana, and then munched on a bagel in the car. We were all a little stressed about getting our bibs on time but it turned out to be totally smooth. The weather was ridiculous at 48 and cloudy, but as you know if you've read anything on this blog before, I was HERE for it. Needing a throwaway shirt on May 30? HELL YES! It had been in the 80s the past week in Boston so it really felt delightful.
Our drive to the start worked out fabulously - we happened to drive by an aid station that not only had porta potties, but was almost exactly 2 miles from the 10M start. After using the facilities we waited in the car for a bit before setting off down the bike path towards the start. I was really thinking about how nice it would be to just do a chill long run at this point - I definitely wasn't nervous, but was more just like wow I don't FEEL like running fast right now. Jogging along sounded really nice at the moment. We got to the starting area, where the porta potty lines were atrocious (apparently the people who were supposed to come and open the indoor bathrooms at the historic site where we started never showed up), so as per usual I wound up nature peeing in an extremely awkward area off the road...pretty sure there was poison ivy in the vicinity but I don't appear to have been afflicted, so yay for that! We headed back to the starting area and surveyed the scene; there were some definitely fast looking girls around including a contingent from Central Park Track Club who appeared ready to roll (and they did! So fast!) As we shuffled into the corral I realized that I had forgotten my mask in the bushes! Derp...even though masks literally aren't required anywhere outdoors anymore, we were still supposed to be wearing them in the starting area sooo I was standing there awkwardly with my singled pulled up over my mouth, as if that was doing anything. It really added to the overall awkwardness of my vibe. But it was just so much fun being in a starting corral with Joy again!
We were lined up in rows of 8 that moved up and started about every 15 seconds, and soon enough we were on the line and off! It was an interesting difference in feeling from two weeks ago - then, I was just SO giddy and happy to be out there. Today I was again, really happy to be out there, but in more of an emotional way. Something about the songs on my playlist and the rush of being out here again, starting off at 6:45 pace and seeing how long I could hold it, starting a race just feeling relaxed and free, felt totally magical. I found myself tearing up at least 3 times in the first 2 miles which is just silliness, but it was what it was. Happily at the outset my legs felt fine, not like let's go balls to the wall amazing, but not concerning in any way.
The first mile was down a nice gentle downhill street, and then we turned onto the bike path which essentially made up the rest of the course. The course was really lovely - net downhill, but with enough flat sections and inclines to make it still feel honest and the bike path was really pretty! Once we were on the path, after making a few quick passes I latched on to a girl in a maroon lululemon tank top and an older guy in knee socks and gloves. My first couple of miles had clocked in around 6:45, and while I was pretty sure the downhill had helped me out a bit I was feeling relaxed and smooth, and so just tried to get into rhythm behind maroon girl as she seemed to be on a similar plane as me pace-wise. The bike path was quite pretty, and I just tried to let myself groove along, aiming not to work too hard in the early miles.
While the temperatures were cool and amazing (maybe low 50s?), it was definitely humid. The race was cupless so I actually had a bottle with me, which was amusing because it made me realize how much I rely on the water stations to dictate my drinking schedule! So, around mile 3 I was kind of like...uh...maybe I should drink? and just took a swig. It was actually kind of a pleasant surprise to just drink from a bottle and not just throw a cup at my face! I continued to stick like glue to maroon tank top girl. After about mile 3, there definitely wasn't the same ease to things as there had been the first few miles. We started encountering some minor inclines which I think woke up the feelings of fatigue in my legs, and while I ended up dropping the pace to around 6:55's, give or take, I definitely felt like I was slowing down more than I actually was. I actively tried not to look at my watch during this race and just kind of ran along by feel. I was passed by a couple of people who came blowing through from behind (I assume people who probably should have been in wave 1 but got stuck in the porta potty line or something).
Around mile 4 or 5, we encountered the end of the marathon runners running in the opposite direction, and because I literally cannot pass up the opportunity to cheer even if it's in the middle of my OWN race, I started yelling and whooping at each runner we passed. The girl in the maroon tank top totally gave me a side eye of confusion but I didn't care - I was cruising along, and those people had like 20 miles to go to my 6 - they deserved some positivity! Joy told me after the race that she had the exact same response and even threw some high fives across the bike path...amazing.
We headed into a more woodsy section, and by this point I was definitely noticing my perceived effort start to increase. Aerobically I felt completely fine (according to my Garmin, my heart rate was only in the 150s which I don't totally believe/almost hope isn't accurate because if true it means I was being LAZY) but my legs were absolutely starting to notice the effort. I eventually broke ahead of maroon tank on an uphill, which boosted my energy a bit, and was still managing to click off 6:55s at halfway. One thing that was really wonderful about the course was that everytime there was an incline, it seemed to be followed by a long/gradual decline, so just when you'd feel like "ugh, this feels hard", you'd have the opportunity to recover a bit. It really kept me in it mentally, and helped me to avoid the trap I think I sometimes fall into where I start to feel tired around 60% into the race and just totally give up. The forested bike path and the weather reminded me so much of all of the tempo runs I did this spring on a stretch of road along the Charles - for some reason, always in the mist or the rain. It just felt so fitting to be doing this race, running that same pace, in such a similar atmosphere, and I laughed a little bit thinking about how I LITERALLY had trained for this specific race.
I took my Gu at 5.5 with a larger swig of water - totally threw off my flow trying to do all of that at once but I managed to get into rhythm again pretty quickly. I don't really have too much to say about the next couple of miles. I was getting tired, and was sort of sick of putting in the effort, but I kept telling myself that not feeling like putting in the effort wasn't a good reason to stop putting in the effort, so I had to keep doing it. 6:55s were still feeling relatively cruisy (in hindsight, I think I could have raced even FASTER if I'd really been willing to go to the red line in the second half of the race, but I've come to terms with the fact that that's something I have a really hard time doing.) I was telling myself that I could cruise for 2 more miles to 8, and then maybe start trying to pick it up. The fatigue was definitely starting to kick in, though, and "cruising" slowed from 6:55 to 6:57 to 7:05. I'd been trying not to look at my watch, but when I saw the 7:05 split I was like oh, goddamnit. You didn't come this far just to come this far. So I beat back the laziness and the total apathy of my legs (which is probably the best word for it - they weren't like completely donezo or anything, they were just like ugh, but WHY. We are so uninterested in this task right now) and forced myself to hang on.
Luckily, there was a girl in front of me in a black top with a french braid who I had been slowly reeling in, and continuing that process was a welcome mental distraction for the final 2 miles. It had started sprinkling a bit, which actually felt wonderful, and I could practically sense the moment the caffeine and sugar from my Gu kicked in. We came off the bike path and headed up an incline which truly felt like we were getting onto the highway, at which point I managed to pass french braid girl, and then entered by far the most annoying section of the course which consisted of running back and forth through a couple of side streets before the last stretch on the bike path to the finish. I had managed to pick it up to 7 flat for mile 9, and I willed myself to just hang on for one more. One more and I get a goddamn PR out of this ridiculous year and training cycle and whatever. Come on come on come on.
Right after the mile marker we turned up what, again, was not a large hill by any stretch of the imagination but for some reason just made my legs balk, and I could feel my form totally dissolve - hunched trunk, shuffling gait. Nope nope nope. Get up tall, eyes up, you'll go down the hill on the other side. And I did! When we turned downhill I knew there was one more ramp and then flat to the finish, and I was confident that I could finish it out. And then, as I made the turn into the final stretch, it started DOWNPOURING.
I love to run in the rain. I find such a magic to it, and as I ran down this bike path knowing I wasn't holding anything back because I was so close now, it felt like magic. I knew that I had run a strong race, a race I was proud of, and I gave that last half mile everything I had to give (it was a 6:55, which is actually sort of perfect) I motored into the finish in the pouring rain, hands up, with a PR. It wasn't a huge PR, it's not one of those PRs that I think of as a "big one", like the half and the full marathon, but damnit who knows how many PR days you get in your lifetime, and this, in the pouring rain, after a week spent doing things I love no matter the cost to my performance, after this training cycle that I thought was a bust after the half two weeks ago went south, was one of them.
Maroon girl and sock guy both came in immediately behind me, and we exchanged high fives and pleasantries on a race well run. Upon stopping running it immediately became apparent that this was a COLD rain, and so after grabbing a space blanket I began jogging back up the course to go and find Joy, who showed up not long after and cruised in to finish well under 1:20. We quickly attempted to start cooling down, but realized that our original plan to run to meet Andrew at a park a couple of miles away wasn't going to be feasible because there was no pedestrian way across the river. Soooo mission aborted, and we hung out in a random parking garage while we waited for our amazing chauffeur to come and pick us up.
We changed in the warm car and headed off towards lunch and beers, and about 10 minutes out I decided to check the official results. I had 100% written off receiving any sort of award as soon as I'd seen the CPTC girls, so imagine my surprise when I discovered I actually was 3rd in my age group! I was a little mad at myself, because I hadn't even thought to check and so missed out on my pint glass award. Just goes to show that I shouldn't write myself off!
I feel like this race report is all over the place, but I will summarize by saying that I really ran a beautiful race. I NEVER run even splits - NEVER - and while today wasn't perfectly even the differential between my fastest and slowest mile was much less than my norm, and I ran the majority of the race right at the pace I ended up running overall. I'm really pleased with the way I hung tough even when the pace didn't feel "good" or "easy", and am extremely surprised with how well my legs were able to cope with the overall fatigue of this week. And I'm just so, so pleased to get my happy ending of this weird training cycle/COVID year - I had such a dream of coming out of the pandemic and proving to myself that I was stronger than ever and that all the work that I'd done in the dark of 2020 would come into the light. And even though it wasn't exactly how I pictured it, it did. Not to mention, I have a newfound confidence in my ability to handle different/more challenging workouts and training weeks than I have in the past, more confidence that sub 7 pace doesn't half to be scary and a half at that pace is just around the bend, and maybe even more importantly, that I can do it without sacrificing the other things I love to do. I have always prided myself on being a runner who loves to run, and wants to train hard and run fast, but is never willing to give up the other things I love to do for the sake of one pursuit. Some might say that that's a negative trait, but I'd argue that the satisfaction I got from running PR under today's circumstances trumps anything that an extra 15 or 20 seconds faster would have given me. It just goes to show what I've always said about myself: my best races never come when I psych myself up, taper, prepare. I want to be that athlete, have that intensity, but at the end of the day, I think I'm my best athletic self when I break free of my own expectations and stop building things up in my mind, and just go out there and freaking run. And if there are weird extenuating circumstances like "25 miles of hiking the week of the race" or "rain" or anything of that sort...well, I guess that's all the better.
Miles on the Mohawk 10M
1:09:07 (PR)
51/ 635 OA, 13/375 F, 3/51 F30-34
No comments:
Post a Comment