Half a Person

Ooooh - my first race for 2025. 

I'm the one in the red hat, red shorts and red sleeves under the grey t-shirt. 

It was a half of a half marathon. 

Or, I guess a quarter of a marathon, but that doesn't sound as good.  6.55 miles. 

500-ish participants. I landed at 195 coming in. I can live with that I suppose. Like I have a choice. 

It actually wasn't cold enough for a hat. We started out at 48°F which is too warm for hats or leggings of any kind. I did need the gloves, only because my hands are still freezing at those temps. 

I was ok with my final pace, but not in the 'during' phase. 

Lately, I'm not happy with my runs. The last week has been frustrating at best whether 3 miles or 11. I feel like I'm struggling more and more, though when I'm done my times are about where they should be. For yesterday, I was 33 seconds per mile faster than my norm - yet the run was a chore. 

I know that with competitive runs your pace is almost always going to be quicker than a training run. It's just the environment. But all runs have left me questioning my goals. 

Perhaps this is normal. It is for me.......but I'm not sure I want to be the benchmark. 

I hit the bakery with two others in the Old Man's Running Group who ran with me - well, one was a good 2 minutes faster - and we were all too lazy to find our cars to take our medals there first. So standing in line some woman comes up to us and asks us what the run was for (yes, she ended it in a preposition). Now a lot of runs are for some charity, but this one wasn't. I just thought or a second and go, "for our egos, I suppose". 

She looked at me quizzically. But I made my two companions laugh. And the rest of the people from the group who were already at a table when Andrew relayed the story.   ....so I suppose, the race wasn't a loss. 

Song by: the Smiths