choked!!

yeah. don't know how else to describe this disaster of a race.

as i said yesterday, i wasn't expecting a PR, but I figured beating my 31:56 at the Race to Deliver was realistic. After all, back then I was only running 15 mpw at the most, my longest run at the time was 6 miles, and no speedwork. Now, i'm up to 25 mpw, my long run is up to 10, and i've been doing speedwork for the last few weeks. One would think this would mean a better time today, right? Sadly, was not meant to be.

I attempted to take pictures of the guys' race but was having issues with my teammate's camera that I borrowed-it was eating up batteries like crazy. Plus was just too damn cold standing around-my warm-up jog earlier had pretty much gotten canceled out. At around 9:10 I saw a teammate that was supposed to take over picture-taking duties from me and practically shoved the camera in his face, that's how much I desperately needed to warm up. But I was only really able to get in 10 minutes before I had to line up. Had barely enough time to drop off my baggage and go to the start-decided to be realistic and line up by the 8. The starting gun sounded, way too soon.

I began to regret lining up "honestly" as the first mile was pretty crowded. (as most who run NYRR races know, no one lines up in the right place.) First mile through the West Side Hills was 8:08-not too bad, that's always a tough mile for me. Figure next mile was a downhill and I can pick it up...but for whatever reason, it felt tougher. And my calves and shins were beginning to hurt, big time. That split was 8:29 and I knew I was in trouble. Big trouble. Mile 3 had Cat Hill and I can usually pick a few people off there, but today that didn't happen as I failed miserably in that mile-8:49. I was hurting big time, everyone and their mother was passing me but I tried to run the last mile hard...that was 8:05 (but I've been thinking that mile on this course is a little short.) So all in all, 33:31, 8:22 pace. Over a minute and a half off my goal.

I know what you're all gonna say, but I think this race was a total disappointment-especially since I don't know how and where the hell it all went wrong. Was it a mistake to have done the pictures before the race-as I didn't really have enough time to stretch and warm up as I would have liked? Was it just plain too cold? Should I have not done a spin class after work yesterday? Or something else? It's just so frustrating in so many ways. What's the point of training when you're not improving-and just getting slower? Once again, I'm feeling pretty damn lost.

On another note-thank you Derek-and any other Flyer guys, if any of you are reading this...for sticking around and cheering during the women's race. You don't know how badly I needed to see you guys...thanks again for your cheers and support.