A clydesdale no more!

Epic failure!  Quite possibly my worst run ever.  Mentally I was not ready for today's run.  I was 3 pounds lighter this morning than I was yesterday morning so I was starting the run a little dehydrated.  I was overly cautious during the run and drank a lot more than I usually do.  Started out slow and continued to get slower.  Stopped at the grocery store at the halfway point to get some more Gatorade and a bottle of water.  At 16 miles I arrived at a park and just laid in the shade for a while.  I was close to my sister's and considered going to get a ride home but decided to try to tough it out.  Made it 2 more miles and had to take a break again.  After 20 miles I decided to walk the last mile home. The good thing about the run was that my legs do not feel like I have run at all today.  The last few miles were at a 9:00/mile pace.  Even when I hit the wall in a marathon, I can keep the pace in the 7's.  Hopefully I won't be too trashed for the 1/2 marathon next week.  I drank 4 times more than I normally do on a long run and still lost 6 pounds.

I'm going to throw the training plan out the window for this week.  I want to get my body back to normal after whatever happened yesterday.  My intent was to run easy but I saw Jeremy on the road and we ran a couple of miles together.  The pace was a little faster than I would have liked for a recovery run but it felt good to get the legs moving.  

High stress=low energy.  Struggled through another tough run.  I could start to feel some energy towards the end of the run so I know it is in there.  Just need to be patient.

Another toughie.  Saturday is not looking good.  I am actually considering a DNS.

I'm going to take a rest day and see if that helps liven up my legs.  I also just realized that my shoes need to be replaced which may be contributing to some of the extra soreness.

Solid run.  Started out a little slow but picked it up after the first mile.  Decided to run the 3rd mile at half marathon pace just to see how it felt.  Ended up running it in 6:30 which is slightly faster than my goal pace.  It was a little more work than I would like but it felt sustainable.  I need to focus on hydration today because I was a couple of pounds lighter this morning due to water loss.

This last week has been crazy and I really had serious doubts about this race.  It is the first year for this half marathon and I felt that there was a chance I could win (I'm good at cherry picking races).  Not feeling like I could perform my best had me a little extra worried.  I wanted to finish between 1:25 and 1:27 and hoped it would be good enough for a win.  Drove to the rec center and warmed up 1 mile.  Everything felt good and I was ready to roll.  Just over 100 participants in the 1/2 and only a couple of fast looking runners.  Horn went off and I immediately took the lead.  Fell into a groove and just went with it.  A heavy breather was right behind me and I knew he wouldn't be there long.  Cruised through the first mile in 6:01.  Oops!  Not sure how that happened.  It is a slight downhill but there is no way it should have been that fast.  This has become a bad habit.  I used to be so good about starting out in control.  Backed off the pace and another runner came along side of me.  We ran together through mile 2 (having just missed the train) in 6:30.  That is more like it.  This is still an aggressive pace but it felt good.  Something strange happened in the 3rd mile.  I was passed by a female runner and 2 more guys and I found myself in 5th place.  I think I kind of gave up at that point as evident by a 6:44 split.  After seeing that I told myself to snap out of it and that I am better than this.  The female runner and one of the guys had a pretty good gap on me and 2 guys had me by 15 seconds.  I decided to surge until I caught up to them so that my legs and mind would wake up.  Caught up to them and could tell they would be dropping back.  The quicker pace felt better so I stayed with it.  Settled into 3rd place while running mile 4 in 6:30.  First and second maintained a decent lead so I felt 3rd place was all that I could hold onto (yes it was killing me that I was going to be chicked).  The slight elevation loss was now over and we moved into the flat section on the LPT.  Mile 5 was 6:33 and mile 6 was 6:41.  I started to get low again during the 7th mile so I took a GU hoping it would provide some energy.  Mile 7 was 6:45 which included a couple of seconds stop to wash the GU down with some water.  It also included the tunnel which may have impacted the distance on my Garmin.  Suddenly felt some energy so I dropped the pace again to see if 1st and 2nd place would start coming back to me.  It was slow but the gap was closing.  Hit the big overpass and I was closing fast on the female runner.  Caught her at 8.5 and kept pressing so she wouldn't try to stay with me.  Mile 8 was 6:32 and I realized that first place was coming back too.  I was surprised because he looked like he was moving well.  Caught and passed him during the 9th mile (6:33) and he did not respond. Kept pressing because I wanted to have a decent cushion before we hit the uphill during the last 3 miles.  6:32 10th mile which included the aid station manned by the running club.  They really provided a much needed shot of adrenaline.  Focused on maintaining a good effort during the slight uphill.  Was glad to see a 6:38 for the 11th mile.  That is a good effort for that section.  Peeked behind me and couldn't see anybody.  Was not going to allow myself to relax so I tried to keep pushing.  6:45 for mile 12 which was a solid effort.  Made the turn onto Main street and looked down Pages and nobody was in sight.  There wasn't enough distance for anybody to catch me and I started feeling the win.  Mile 13 was 6:40 and I was starting to hurt.  Made the last turn and ran the last 0.1 at a 5:33 pace.  Crossed the line in 1:26:17 and on overall win.  Met both goals and felt great.  I am really happy with the result.  Now I can focus on some serious training for the next couple of weeks.