I got a PR!!!
Before every race I always lay awake in bed thinking about the what ifs. What if everything goes perfect and I do amazing, what if everything goes wrong and I do horrible, what if get injured and cant finish, what if I stopped thinking and actually got some sleep, what if..... This race was different though, because I was on the pace team and was aiming for a 3:10 and knew exactly what I wanted to do for every mile. I used the even effort chart, so I knew what I was going to try and do. I had trained well and was 90% sure that I was going to be able to finish in 3:10.
Because I didnt have a case of the what ifs, I was able to fall asleep quickly (before 10:30 p.m., which is not normal for me the night before a race). At 11:00 p.m. my wife woke me up to tell me that someone who I had just installed a furnace for had called me 3 times and left a voice mail. She woke me up just in case it was an emergency. I was too tired, and it was too late, so I didnt want to deal with it. But this gave me another case of the what ifs. And this time it was all about work, and not running, which is waaaay worse. I was able to fall back asleep around midnight.
I woke up at 3 and ate a tortilla and a banana, then went back to bed until 4:30. I got up, got dressed, and had my wife take me to the shuttle spot. The bus ride up was pretty loud, people were talking. I usually try to sleep a little more, but it was obvious that that wasnt going to happen, so I joined in the conversation with the people sitting around me. We got to the start line took our pace group picture then got ready for the race (bathroom, clothes,,,).
There was a slight rain at the start of the race (the bad rain had just passed minutes before), which felt nice. Luckily it wasnt as cold up there as we had been told it was going to be.
Mile 1 started out a little slow, I was about 5 seconds slower than I wanted to be, same thing with mile 2. Mile 3 I was 8 seconds faster, 4 11 seconds faster. At about 4.5 I felt my stomach rumble and knew I needed a toilet. I sprinted ahead of the other pacer and got to the portapotty. It was just a gas alert, which was good because it was quicker, but bad because I had to sprint and stop. I got out and the other pacer was about a quarter mile ahead, I ran fast trying to get my time down to what I wanted for that mile. I ended up being only 8 seconds slow. This same thing happened around mile 17.
By this point we had a group of about 15 people that were going to run with us and shoot for 3:10. It was kind of fun to talk and try to help and be the lead pace setter for the group.
There was a pretty bad rain/hail storm at about miles 13-15 that soaked us to the bone. It wasnt super fun, but I had to pretend and say that it was to sound positive and try to keep the other runners positive.
Between miles 15-18 our group of about 15 was spread out quite a bit. By 19 the group was gone, and I was basically running with people I hadnt seen all race. I dont know if that is me failing as a a pacer, or if they failed as the pacees???
I will save all the details, but by mile 22 I was about 2 minutes ahead of my schedule, and I could feel my legs starting to want to quit, so I was really glad that I had gone a little faster. My miles started getting slower than my pace chart, but I was pushing and trying my hardest to bring it home strong.
As I rounded the final turn and could see the finish, my watch said 3:09. I didnt have it as the large display, so it wasnt showing the seconds. I knew I was close to reaching the goal, but I didnt know how much I had to spare. I kicked into gear and took off. As I got close to the finish line I saw the clock right at 3:10:00. I crossed the line at 3:10:08, but I also started a few seconds after the gun time, so I wasnt sure. I was so happy with my finish that I forgot to stop my watch. I didnt realize it until a minute or so after when I saw it reading 3:11. I knew I was close, but didnt know how close until they posted the results. In the end I finished at 3:09:49, 11 seconds ahead of what I was supposed to. It felt great.
This was my best run so far. I PR'd by 11 minutes and 45 seconds!!!
Let it be known, that training really makes running fun.
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