Oh boy, bad performance. Turn back the clock, I'm back to 2009. Every year I've gotten faster in this race, last year was 20:00. I don't know what to think of this, I wish I had an excuse, like illness or injury. Can't claim either. I knew there has been nothing in my training to make me think I would PR but I was still thinking I might have a shot to be pretty close to 20. I thought what I had been doing up to this point was enough to maintain my fitness. Wrong. My strategy today was to go out at a 19:59 pace and hang on for dear life. First mile was right on target, 6:26. The first mile felt pretty good, I like how the race was going and at the beginning of the 2nd mile I started to struggle but I didn't realize I had slowed down, a lot. I finished out the 2nd mile at 6:40. I knew I was not going to make up the time during the last mile, no way I'm running a low 6 minute mile. Quite the opposite actually, 6:54. Too bad the race didn't stop here, I was 19:59.79. 41 seconds for the last 10th of a mile. I'm motivated to correct this performance. Looking forward to hitting the road tomorrow and working towards earning a PR at the Salt Lake Marathon. Anger is good! |