It's all relative

Race Report Fort DeSoto Beach Halfathon

Did the race with the intention of running about 5 beforehand and then using the half as a tempo and finishing up with 2 recovery miles.  I had some bowel issues before the race, so that changed to about 2 miles beforehand followed by the half, followed by the final 5.  So basically inverted.  

The race:

My goal was to hold my placing (5th) for the money awards (hopefully) in the series or move up to another level.  There were only 2 runners I could realistically catch and move up in the series: Sean and Chris Y. who were both a minute or so ahead of me in the series, so I just focused on those two during the race and the time between us.  I thought the best thing to do would be to go out fast and see if they would bite into going too quickly early on.  I knew I'd been putting in the miles, so I could hopefully hang on to a slower pace in the later miles and make up the ground.  Well, funny thing- Sean is apparently in much better shape than I expected and I am in much worse shape than I thought so that was a hilarious joke as I watched him fly away at a 5:25 opening mile- in other words, I had no chance.  However, Chris didn't partake after the first mile, so I think I made a good decision, as he ended up finishing over 3 minutes behind me.  Fortunately, this means I earned 4th place in the series!  This is relatively exciting considering I was not running 2 months ago- and when I did run I was making things worse.  

In the end, I would rather just throw this race away and never think of it again, but it should provide a good starting point for my next marathon to at least maybe hit a respectable time.  

Splits: 5:33, 5:51, 5:34, 5:39, 5:39, 5:53, 6:04, 5:59, 5:45, 5:49, 5:59, 6:19, 6:15, Finish (60 seconds-ish).  My splits were ridiculous for this race, as you can tell.

PM: Run in Safety Harbor and saw the old track team I used to coach and watched them run for a bit.  I appreciated the nostalgia.  I ran quite quick today for a day after a long run with (effectively) speed work, with the majority of the run in the 7:30 range.  

AM: Track session with the group.  800s.  Only 8 of us there today, which made it tough, since not many could stick together.

Workout: three 800s with 200 jog recovery in between each item, 400 recovery in between the set, next set was four 800s with 200 recovery in between each item.  The times are still terrible, but, I held them.

Splits: (set 1) 2:47, 2:44, 2:40 (set 2) 2:40, 2:40, 2:40, 2:40

PM: Slow roll in East Lake, just for the sake of miles.  9 total.

PM: Solo in East Lake.  Shhhhlow.

AM: Track in Safety Harbor.  

Workout- 4x100 (100 rest), 2x200 (200 rest), 2x300 (100 rest), 4x400 (200 rest), 2x300 (100 rest), 2x200 (200 rest), 4x100 (100 rest).  All 5:24 mile pace or faster.

PM: 4ish miles with the team, 1 fast 200.

PM: Fun run

Armadillo 5k

This race was stupid. It was certified and I ran fine, but I just made two huge errors in this race. My running nightmare happened twice- I ran off course two times in this race. Twice. 180 degree mistakes both times and both in the final mile. They were not quick fixes either.

I understand it's important for me to know the course, but come on. At each mistake a guy was there to literally watch me screw up and did not make any attempt to correct and make the right turn until after I had gone down the wrong street. No lead bike either. The first was demoralizing, the second was just plain annoying.

I literally threw away time today. Twice. I threw away a certified PR. I threw away a sub 16. And I even didn't gut it out and sprint it in during the finish. I'm really at ends with myself recently with how my effort in training and now in races has been. I know running is about peaks and valleys, but this valley is a veritable Dead Sea. I want to persevere, but this is getting overtly challenging.

Splits: 5:15, 5:19, 5:06, finish 0:60ish.