Race recap + staying focused and positive

This is my blog I wrote earlier today on the plane…

I’m sitting here on the plane struggling mentally and physically after my race this morning. Physically, I’m hoping I don’t have to sprint down the aisle to throw up since I had to drink 115 oz. of gross Powerade and water in order to fill my drug testing cup to it’s necessary line. Let’s just say my 5 mile cool down after the race with all the fluid in my stomach was the most painful cool down of my life!

Mentally I’m struggling because I can’t seem to think of any really positive things to come away with from the race. I really wanted to challenge for the win or at least finish in the top 3 yet I was never within spitting distance of the leaders after about the 2nd or 3rd mile at the most. I followed my race plan of staying as relaxed as possible until Summit Ave and then pushing as hard as I could those last few miles to the finish. However as I was slowly catching Jen Rhines who was in 3rd, two girls behind me were hunting me down. One passed me with about a mile and half left (Alissa) and I tried to go with her for a little while, both of us passing Jen, and then as we got to the 9th mile I knew I needed to totally put the hammer down. I kept digging deep and running as strong as I could. As we made the turn to the final downhill to the finish I was sprinting as hard as I could but the other girl behind me (Meghan) passed me right before the finish line.

My time 55:22, is relatively good for the very uphill course yet far from the 54:38 I ran at Cherry Blossom in 2009. The weather was very cold and my upper thighs were practically numb. I wore a fleece headband and gloves along with my CEP compression socks and I still felt pretty cold. It gave me a good reminder for what NYC will feel like though, possibly even colder! 5th place at a National Championships isn’t horrible, yet I’m just not satisfied. No, I didn’t taper for it and NYC is my focus right now, yet I’d feel so much better if I had at least held off the two women who beat me at the end by only a few seconds. I know I ran as hard as I could those last couple miles and my 10th mile was a 5:15 and my last little bit (course was a bit long) was at 5 min pace, so at least I didn’t completely fall apart. Beating myself up about it and being down definitely doesn’t help me when moving forward with training this week and with it being my FIRST ever week hitting 100 miles, I need to get excited and look forward to a great race in NYC in 5 weeks! :0) It’s easier said than done though, so I’m hoping by Tuesday I’ll feel better….At least it's nice to come home to people who love me and think I raced awesome no matter what :)

A couple good things over the weekend were: good weather (no rain or severe wind) and I was able to see and talk with my sponsor from MarathonGuide.com. He called me the night before the race too, which was really nice to hear from another person who believes in my abilities. It felt good to wear his logo proudly during the race and talk to him about everything afterward. Another weird thing is that the results have me being from New York! That’s definitely wrong and I’m pretty sure it’s because my agent lives in NY and she registered me. I like showing my AZ pride though and I tried to get it changed but they didn’t do it in time ☹

I’m sub teaching tomorrow and having an easy, short day of running plus my core/ST and then the week gets cranking with some long runs, a race on Saturday and another hard day of mile repeats on Thursday. I think I’ll celebrate on Sunday after my long run with some of my amazing homemade pancakes☺☺


Quote for today: “Most of the important things in the world have been accomplished by people who have kept on trying when there seemed to be no help at all.”-
Dale Carnegie