You know how they say that the best athletes have a short memory, so they can move on after a poor performance and all that? Well, I need someone to come over here and shorten my memory. Stat.
I keep revisiting Sunday's race. Over and over. Part of it is that this blister still bugs me. It isn't nearly as bad as it was on Sunday but, even yesterday, when my friend Bridget invited me to run I couldn't. Because I still had pain and I need that blister to heal.
The other reason I'm revisiting the race is -- and I'm a little embarrassed to admit this -- it was my slowest road 15K time and, for some reason, that just really bugs me. My running has been going so well! And my Boilermaker time does not reflect that at all.
I thought I was so tough. Mentally tough. Mentally tough enough to push through little pains.
Apparently not.
Because, really? How much worse would the blister have gotten if I had just run instead of taking all those walk breaks? The answer is: Probably not much.
Seriously. It wouldn't have gotten much worse. As it is, I haven't been able to run for two days. So what if I couldn't run for three days? Not much different.
Water under the bridge.
I need to shorten this memory. I need to channel the feeling I had when I was finally finished with the race:
 |
| I made it! |
So, I'm changing my focus. Moving on.
To start, I'm kicking up the cross-training. I put together a quickie full-body weights workout that I can do in my living room and I plan to make it (or similar) a thrice-weekly activity. I'm also finalizing my fall half-marathon plan. I'm running the ZOOMA Cape Cod race at the end of September and then the Mohawk-Hudson half at the beginning of October. I just noticed that this will give me Half Fanatic status so that's exciting for me!
Plans, plans, plans.
Now, tell me. What do you do to shake things up after a disappointing race?
Have a great day!
~ Felice
7 comments:
Nice finish photo!
There's always another race to do better...
Don't let it get you down Devine. Shake it off.
And you reminded me that I need to get going on my half marathon plan too!
I'm totally empathizing with your recent posts. I ran a 15k on the 4th of July and totally lost steam about 1/2-way through. I'm calling it my 'PW,' or 'personal worst' - kind of like a personal best's opposite.
I just started running 2 years ago, so speed is not my forte, so if I finished my 15k in the amount of time you did yours, I would have been thrilled (like jumping up and down thrilled).
I'm hoping time will get me over it. I'm sure there's lots to learn from it. We don't always learn the important things about running on our good runs - it's usually our 'bad' runs that teach us the most - at least that's the silver lining I'm 'running' with!
I know you had a bad day but you still did great! You had to walk and you were still really fast! I know it sucks to have a bad race but as Bridget said there's always another one and you are going to crush your goals next time.
You had a half PR, marathon PR and 5k PR. If you had a 15k PR, you would have NO goals... ha ha. This proves that you are human. Don't worry, you're still my idol!
Ugh. So sorry the Boilermaker didnt pan out the way you wanted. I've totally been there...for pretty much a year. But, youve analyzed it and you know what you'd do differently and I have no doubt you will. Put this one behind you and emerge stronger because of it. Hugs!
I agree with Hudkins family and Melissa's comments. Also our bodies tell us how it wants to run and sometimes our mind cannot overcome what our body wants.
UGH! So sorry about the blister and the tough race, mine sucked too, it was a personal WORST for me. Like you I'm moving on, focusing on my next half, which will most likely be the Empire State Half in October : )
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