First thing is first… what a beautiful day for a half marathon!! Compared to last year today was amazing!! Congratulations to everyone out there who gave it their all today!! I hope everyone had a great experience.
On to my race… well the half marathon continues to be my nemesis and I do not know why. The plan was to go out in 3:40-3:45 and hold on with a goal of 1:17-1:18. With this being a nice flat course that should be an ‘easy’ task. I was paired to run with another MBP runner who had the same goal as myself. It was great for me to work with another person… for the first 12k until I lost pace. I always seem to find myself alone in races… which is a pretty big feat in some of the larger races, I must admit.
So we went out in our 3:40-3:45 pace and I knew it felt harder than it should off the start but I have always said if you do not try you will never know so off we went. My training shows that I should be able to maintain this pace and so it is always frustrating when in the second half of the race it starts to fade. Then comes the struggle of my negative nancy side speaking higher than my positive side (this is tough to do as I am a very optimistic person generally).
Of course there are a million excuses I can give it was a crazy hectic week with a full schedule and long days at the clinic and an impromptu trip home for some family reasons. But at the end of the day you have to perform on the day so I do not hold any of these things accountable.
On a more positive note I was so touched by all the cheers from passing runners… it made me feel awesome even though I was struggling!! I appreciate each and every one of them and I am sorry I did not cheer back, I did in spirit!! But I was very focused on keeping one foot in front of the other. I hope you enjoyed my pain face! Haha I had so much fun talking to so many #runTO athletes pre and post race!!!
I was hoping for a better time today and possibly even a PB. We are runners and we expect more of ourselves after all that is why we do it and that is what fuels the fire to keep training. So needless to say this has only fueled my fire more and I will be back to training to hit my 2016 running goals as I am not content with my current PBs and not ready to throw in the towel!!
So whether you had an AWESOME day (*I heard of a lot of AMAZING PBs today!!) or a not so awesome day I hope you can learn from it. That is the amazing thing about running there is always something to learn and grow from.
Racing season is here… bring it on!!
Until the next time onwards and upwards to the next cycle of training!! Wahoo!
See you out on the roads!!
Toronto Running Chiro 