December 18th, 2010
Today, in Westmont, NJ: 20:57, #4 female, #1 Masters, #1 AG.
28 degrees for this race. Everyone got into position early on and after that, there was little movement. I followed this one guy the whole time, passed a couple kids midway but nobody returned the favor.
Garmin splits were just where I wanted them: 6:30, 6:34 and 6:28 for the first 3mi. Alas, Garmin was lying its ass off. Not that it would have made a difference had it been truthful; I raced full-out from the get-go (breathing was noisy the whole time) so no excuses, but it was a downer to see the finish line clock not be at all what I expected.
When I got home, I tried to make myself feel better by checking out Tinman’s heat index chart but felt like a lamer for doing it. Then I compared it to my last 5K which was a few seconds slower in much better weather with a flatter course, but since I raced that one badly, taking the first mile to get up to speed, it negated anything positive I could gain by the comparison. Ultimately, it is what it is, yet another mediocre race.
But I can’t let it get to me. Improved workouts and the resulting heart rates (this particularly) indicate something is going right. And the fact that I even raced at all is in the Plus column, you can’t get that kind of workout on your own.
Btw, I initially wrote this entry with no indication of how I felt about the race, facts only (shortest report ever) because I didn’t want to steer you lovely readers into any “poor Flo” comments. But then I thought it would result in well-meaning, yet awkward “yay, Flo!” responses, which would have been even more ouchy, so in the end, I’ve vomited up everything I feel as usual. You would have known something was up anyway since it’s no secret that my heart is permanently staple-gunned to my sleeve.
Anyway, I’ll close this with a shout-out to Victoria and the Smiley couple, 3 sweet souls at the race who were kind enough to admit they read this blog. Was great meeting you today! Hope to see you in the park and at more races.
Oh look! It’s happy hour on the East Coast…I’m gonna have me some wine now and go to a happy place in my head. Cheers, everyone and enjoy the rest of your weekend!
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I’m here to put some icing on your shit sandwich:
5k race while training for a half, don’t sweat it sweetie.
let me repeat:
#4 female, #1 Masters, #1 AG
Look at me being all positive.
Keep believing in you. It’s all you can do.
(Got the headbands, yeah!)
I’m about to go out to…well it’s post-happy hour now I guess. But I’m going out drinking just the same. I’ll have one for you
Well despite you not seeing the clock say what you wanted I still say the race was really impressive. #4 female? bamf. #1 masters? bamf. #1 AG? bamf. so, like dogpound, i’m being all positive and you probably hate me for it but color me impressed girl.
i think that you’ll get that breakthrough race. not every race can be it so keep putting in the good work and it’ll happen. i’m excited for when it does.
I will Flo… what’s left of it — lunchtime Sunday. A beautiful day out — sunny and about 20C.
Sorry the race wasn’t what you expected. You’re in better shape than that. I wouldn’t be surprised if you ran another next week to see a 20-flat. Sometimes it takes a few short races in quick succession to take off a chunk of time. Anyway, enjoy your evening.
You totally made our Saturday by 1)Finally meeting you – such a pleasure! 2)Wow, thanks for the shout-out ;-) Love your writing & your awesome running spirit! Truly inspirational & motivation for The Smiley’s….Cheers to a PHENOMENAL runner! hopefully, we will cross paths again
Happy Holidays!
Not a bad little outing, Flo. I’m sure the awards softened the non-PR. The sub-20 will come soon enough. Meanwhile there’s a certain half to be thought about, which won’t be in the cold…
Hugs to you, sweet friends. You are always supremely supportive and I love you folks for that (though I wish I didn’t have to say this so much). Honestly, I’m confounded how I can feel so much fitter now yet race like nothing’s changed.
To be continued in Monday’s post…
Your frustrations seem perfectly justified; I’m sorry to hear that the training breakthrough wasn’t reflected in the finishing time. Interested to hear your musings about why that could be. Maybe it’ll take a little while for the gains in half training to trickle down to those shorter, speedier distances. And even if the time wasn’t where you wanted it, you walked away with the hardware… which might indicate that the course and conditions had a bigger impact on finishing times across the board.
It’s the meh races that make the great ones so great; you can’t have one without the other, unfortunately. So take pride in the fact that a few years ago, you would have been THRILLED with that time.
Get over it. Most people would be quite happy with that time. PRs will come when you don’t expect them, not when you feel you deserve them. Demanding a PR of every race is just setting yourself up for disappointment. As long as you had a good run, that is all that matters.
Plus you know that it is bad karma to not invite someone to race with you that grew up right in that area. :-)
HUH?!? Are you smoking crack? This was the first PR I was expecting in over a year! And only because my fitness finally indicated it.
Geez, know what you’re talking about before you admonish me for feeling ready. “deserve” “demand”…wow, this pisses me off.
Sorry, wasn’t meant to piss you off. Just stating my current feeling about running. I’m not going to get wound up about PRing every race anymore and be disappointed when I fail. If it happens, it happens. If not, I still want to know that I did my best on that day. I know that you weren’t trying to imply that you deserved a PR, and I never said that you weren’t ready. Just saying that sometimes even when we feel ready and have done everything right, something that we can’t control may prevent us from achieving our goal. Sorry again, I’ll refrain from posting and just stick to running.
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