It has taken me over a week to feel like I can write about this race in a lucid manner. It really crushed me mentally. I came out of Buffalo Run two weeks ago feeling good and wanting to run a fast AR. I had myself convinced that all that rest from the broken foot would be beneficial and I could run hard and competitively. Well, that worked for the first half. I came through the marathon in 3:27 and thought I would be able to reach my goal of sub 7:15. Then I bonked. Big time. I had run this race two times before and wore road shoes both times. This year I thought it would be better to wear trail shoes for the added support. By 20 miles I had blisters in the oddest places. I don't know if it was the shoes or the fact that my gait has changed so much since the break. I constantly remind myself not to overcompensate to protect the foot but I catch myself doing some pretty strange maneuvers. I ran the second half with the worst attitude ever. It was this beautiful day and I was doing what I love but the thoughts that kept going through my head were "my feet hurt", "I'm so tired", "got passed again #$%@", "stupid poison oak", "I'm never doing this run again", "blah, blah, blah". What I have figured out in this passed week is I need to cut myself some slack. It has only been 5 months since the break, I just returned to running in February, and I raced 2 weeks prior to AR. I need to appreciate that for crying out loud...I JUST RAN 50 MILES and although it was almost 30 minutes slower than last year, (results) I finished and I learned some valuable lessons.
1. wear shoes I am used to and lube up!
2. don't ignore Howard and think he is being too easy on you
3. quit the grumpy self talk
4. eat more
5. don't start too fast
6. remember this is about having fun and surrounding myself with great people not the time on the clock
Now I have over a month to train for Blue Canyon 100k and then the biggest event of the year. My daughter's graduation!
