And Other Lies I Told Myself To Run A Great Race
Lie #1: I don’t believe in carb-loading.
I have read many different articles on carb-loading, and I am not convinced that I need to carb-load before a ten mile race. I am more concerned about post-race GI issues, and since Carrie wrote this article about half marathon race preparation, I think over-eating before a race may be more risky for me than under-eating. Still, I can’t completely pass up an opportunity to indulge the night before a race!
Zpizza California pizza on whole wheat crust, hold the onions, sub Greek olives.
Lie #2: I am not excited about this race.
I went to bed early (around 10 pm) and set my alarm for 5:00. Even after a week of business travel, I woke up before my alarm. As soon as I was awake, I couldn’t resist checking the Army Ten Miler countdown clock.
Before I took Tiger Lilly for a walk, I cleared off the kitchen counter and set out everything I needed, so I wouldn’t forget anything.
Lie 3: 50° is perfect race day weather.
When I checked the weather and saw that it was 50°, I thought it was perfect running weather, and it was. But, it wasn’t perfect weather for waiting around at the start for two hours! Oh, I did I mention the wind?
Oops! That’s my alarm going off after I had a quick shower and was getting dressed.
I wore a throw-away sweatshirt over my t-shirt, but I could have used another layer and some gloves.
My husband says my bright Zensah compression socks made me easy to spot!
Lie #4: I don’t care about my pace.
As I explained last week, I don’t feel like I really trained for this race. Because of that, I didn’t set a specific time or pace goal, other than being careful about not starting out too fast like I did at the Go Fourth 8K and Lawyers Have Heart 10K earlier this year. My friend also didn’t want to push herself, so we agreed to “take it easy” and “have fun.”
I originally had decided that 8:30 should be our maximum pace, but we settled in at 8:15 and that felt good. We even discussed our pacing at mile 4, and we both agreed that we felt good where we were. When we still were maintaining an 8:15ish pace at mile 6, I thought: We got this!
Lie #5: I love the 14th Street Bridge!
This really should be lie #1 because it is such a lie, but as I faced my nemesis (a/k/a the 14th Street Bridge) I decided that I needed to draw on my mental strength to get me through. What better way to do that than use a positive affirmation?
I love this bridge!
I repeated that as a mantra as I went up its first climb, and had to smile at the absurdity of it. I repeated it earnestly as I looked over and saw the Potomac River glistening in the morning sun. I repeated it with a vengeance as I trudged up its last climb just before the 9 mile marker.
The whole course is remarkably “hilly,” with bridges, overpasses, underpasses, and steady climbs. The 14th Street Bridge spans from shortly after mile 7 to mile 9.
That last overpass after mile 9 was a bitch joy too.
Lie #6: I can’t do better than I did last year.
According to an article in Runner’s World, I have reached that age when I really can’t expect to improve my performance year after year. Instead, I can focus on “beating the line” of steady performance decline that comes with getting older. I was really happy with my Army Ten Miler finish time last year, especially since it was 1 minute and 50 seconds faster than the year before. As I ran the Army Ten Miler this year, I couldn’t remember what my pace was last year, but I had an idea that it wasn’t as fast as 8:15. When I looked up my results, I was astonished to see that I have improved my time each year over the past three years, and beat last year’s time by more than two minutes!
The past results are out of order for some reason,
and the “gun” time is really “chip” time.
Did you surprise yourself this weekend?
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This is probably the cutest race recap I’ve read in a long time. Wow, YOU are really speedy for not caring about your pace and splits! 🙂 Congrats!
I don’t think you need to carb-load either for a 10 miler, but definitely be mindful of what you eat the night before, and carbs don’t hurt the cause either 🙂
Thanks! I think I’m still feeling punchy from the endorphins. 😉
WooHoo!!! Way to go – another PR!!!
I liked all the lies you told yourself – whatever it takes, right?
And, I’m like you – I tend to under-eat before a race – just works better for me (usually!). But that pizza looks tasty – especially with the olives!
OMG! Until I read your comment it hadn’t sunk in that it was a real PR! I was focused on the last few years. 😉
I DID!!!!!
but not in running.
In fiction writing.
But I wore bright colors too–so theres that.
Your comment about the bridge cracked me up – my first thought when reading the title and waiting for the page to load… “I thought she hated that bridge”
Congratulations on your race. I hate it when race weather is perfect, minus the fact that you have to stand around for 2 hours waiting for a start. Brrr… and I’m a weather wimp, so I really don’t know what I’m talking about.
Hah! Now I need a plan to stay warm before my November race — maybe I can remember to take some of those air-activated chemical hand/feet warmer pods.
You ran a fantastic race! It definitely helps to take the pressure off sometimes and run it for “fun” and then end up surprising yourself. Congrats!
Way to go on your PR!! Congrats!!
I think declining speed as we age is true after a certain age however it’s really hard to compare year over year results due to variables like our weight, training intensity etc. As well, I’m sure everyone has a different age at which this begins to happen too.
I surprised myself on Saturday by running my third fastest half marathon despite putting in a mediocre training effort. I am 10 years older than when I set my current half marathon PR and I bet I can beat it *if* I trained in a manner that would prepare me to be my best (which I have decided to do).
Great job on your race!
Thanks! I think one thing that really helped is that I have pretty much staved off injuries this year — knock-on-wood!
Congrats! I loved reading your race recap! Looks like you had a fun day!
I do the same thing, but with distance! “You only have one more mile to go! You can do anything for a mile!” In reality, I have ten, or eleven or 20 more miles. Whatever works, right?!
Oh, I’m not sure those kind of lies would work for me. I get so mad when people yell “almost there” when you’re not ….
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