Scratch That
June 7, 2010
I think know my race schedule had me racing at the North Olympic Discovery Marathon this past weekend, but I really couldn’t justify going out to Sequim two days in a row. After contacting them, the race directors were kind enough to let me sign up for the 10k after it had been sold out, but I would have had to gone out there Saturday for the expo to pick up my packet then return the next day for the actual race. I’m pretty sure it would have been good for me to run it, and I could have put up a good fight (I think) to win – the first runner across clocked in at 42:35, with second place closer to 46 minutes (who, interestingly enough, I knew from college).
Instead, I hit the road on Sunday for an attempted 15 miles. I headed down my usual route, thinking I would do 5 out, 5 back and then another 5 on the track. The day was feeling good though, and my shins seems to be doing better, so at the 5 mile mark, I opted instead to try to it all out and back. I pace was pretty quick to the half way point, at about 7:48 pace, but I was drained afterwards and ended up easing up after 12 miles for an overall pace of about 7:52. The uphill return plus my fatigue slowed me down a bit, but, perhaps most of all, I could tell I didn’t have store of energy from the night before. Coming back from a longer period of casual running, I forget about the little things that permeate the life of a runner. Last year, there would have been no way I would have let myself go to bed on a dinner of a lamb burger with a side salad from the Pub, so I guess I must be more vigilant.
In the mean time, I am trying to figure out my best option for a make up race. Right now I am leading towards the Sound to Narrows Run, a nice 12k run down in Tacoma. The price is right ($35 that day), I can register on site, and it’s well attended. There’s no chance of winning, but I don’t remember when that became something I cared about. It would be part of a 17 mile day, so I would want to do about 10 miles of jogging – perhaps 4 in a warm-up/cool-down scenario – but I don’t think that should be a problem. The course is a bit hilly, but I think my runs on Bainbridge should help me with that…
