Over the Hills and Far Away

Running.  Racing. 

Sorry - it's all I got for today. Yesterday was race day. A race. Not THE one.  

A year ago, I did my first big race - a 10 miler. People talked me into it as a good training exercise before I did my first half-marathon. The weather was shitty and I did ok........considering it was the longest I had ever run. 

When registration went live for this year's run, I signed up day one. It's a challenging course for sure, but also it's like $20 cheaper if you sign up early. 

It seems this weekend is a big race weekend:  Columbus, Toledo, Nashville, something in Iowa. I know people going to all of those places. I would have done Columbus had I known it was happening. 

Anyhoo - as I drove to the race, I'm looking out over Lake Erie to see tons of lightning. After I park, it's a downpour and sideways at that. Crud. I mean, they might have called it off due to lightning, but I was there early and 40 minutes before the start, the bad weather just stopped, save the 30 mph winds. 

I first met up with my training group. The idea was to warm up together, but there weren't many there. No one was organized. And then I ran into peeps from the running group, so it was a weird confluence. I felt like I was cheating on both with the other. 

Add to it, I ran into the guy - Joe - whom I met and ran with at last year's 10 miler. As it would turn out, with all the people I knew from all the running groups, I ended up with Joe for half of the race. Bethany, from the running group also ended up with me.  They are in the above image.  They'd both finish just before myself.  Bother. 

If I got any boost from my new fueling routine, I couldn't quite tell. I was fast for the first 6 miles, and then the hills started. The second half is all elevation. Two major hills and two medium ones. The knee wasn't having it. 

On the big hill, I had to walk most of it - and that fucked up my time. Even my tape started to come off the knee, so without even breaking stride, I reached down and yanked it off.  Ouch. 

The bad mile hurt my time, but not horribly so. As it would turn out, I still shaved over 8 minutes off last year's run. 

I know I started my taper for the Cleveland Marathon, and I know I told myself I have a handle on the mental aspect of it, but I'm not so sure. I said (in my head) often during the challenging parts of this run, "you can't make 26 miles!". 

There is a need to drown those out over the next three weeks. 

The plan was to do at least three races this month, but I scaled it back to two. It seems more reasonable in lots of aspects - though right now, mostly the knee. Everyone was talking about their fall races - and I have yet to make a decision.  Since all of them our out of state, I might just let 710 decide where he'd like to travel and I'll go with that run. He should get something out of this hobby of mine. 

Song by: Led Zeppelin