Saturday, July 27, 2013

Bix - goal met, a bit of disappointment, and a next goal

Ahhh.  It is behind me.  I made my goal of running every step of the Bix!  Hallelujah.  We were blessed with an unseasonably cool day - really nice change from last year's run.  

Oddly enough, my pleasure at having reached the goal is mixed with a bit of disappointment, too.  That surprises me.  You might recall that I ran last year's race in 1:56:29.  That was running part of it, and walking not quite half of it.  

This year, I ran every step.  This year's race time:  1:58:47.  It's still under 2 hours, which was last year's goal.  And on its own, the time probably couldn't touch me enough to provoke disappointment.  But it is not on its own. 

The thing is, I run back near (and almost instantly AMONG) the walkers.  And hey - big respect to power walkers - they rock.  But it is ALWAYS humbling to be running along, giving it my best shot, and have someone walk by.  Today was worse than that, though...some of the walkers weren't exactly POWER walking.  For over a mile of the second half of the race, I was running behind a couple of women who, I tell you, WERE NOT IN A HURRY.  They were walking along, not winded at all.  How do I know they weren't winded?  They were talking animatedly, non-stop.  Pinterest recipes and such.  Sauntering along.  Like an easy Saturday morning walk.  No hurry.  

And I was BEHIND THEM.  And for OVER A MILE, I couldn't catch up with them, much less pass them.  That breeds disappointment - at least in me!  

It's not enough to wreck the race experience for me.  I am still very glad that I managed to run every step, even if my running is slower than other people's easy sauntering.  I'm still pleased to have made a goal and followed through.  I am also pleased that I noted as I crossed the finish line:  I could probably run 10 miles.  I probably had 3 more miles left in me.  Not EASY miles and I'd have been a pile of jelly afterward, but I could have done it.  (And no, there is no 10 mile race in my plans at this point.)  

I guess knowing I had 3 miles left in me means I didn't give the Bix everything I had.  I guess?  Apparently I did not push myself as hard as I could have.  I definitely never want to run it alone again.  It is easy for me to see that I run faster with a friend than without, and I certainly wouldn't have been so honed in on noticing the sauntering ladies, if I had been running with a friend.  

I've been wondering what I will do for my morning runs after the Bix.  For months, I've been training on 5+ miles per morning, 3 mornings per week.  It has been consistently making me late for work and crowding my schedule up too much, since it takes me a bit over an hour and a half to run that far.  I've been thinking I'll want to shorten the distance, post-race.  With today's results, I think I WILL shorten the run...and then use my "coaching" on my Map My Run app to train for running FASTER.   I raced today at my usual pace of between 16.5 and 17 minutes per mile.  Maybe I can get that time whittled down, over a year.  For sure, I would like to be able to pass sauntering ladies, next time around.

Yeah, there's almost definitely a next time around.  Not disappointed enough to quit. 

My placing for this race fell at:

10,308 out of 10,672 runners
5,017 out of 5,271 females
413 out of 438 females ages 45-49


5 comments:

  1. Karen, I TOTALLY get this. My first 10k I did, I got passed by a man at least 30 years older than me who was walking - and I was running! I think you have a TON to be proud of - it is amazing that you RAN EVERY SINGLE STEP and that is definitely something to be proud of and I am VERY PROUD OF YOU! GOOD JOB KAREN!!!!! YAY!!!!! :-)

    That being said - I have done a lot of reading/research on running and have read a lot about how integrating walk breaks can actually improve your time, as is evidenced by your better time last year doing some walking. If you're interested - Jeff Galloway's book "Running Until You're 100" is an awesome book which has great advice for how to incorporate those breaks and improve your running and your times... but it's not for everyone. Everyone has a different journey and different goals... I REALLY want to run a complete marathon someday but have a lot of work to do to get there. I have NO dreams of being able to run every step of my half marathon in 12 weeks... heck, today I barely walked 2 miles. There's nothing at all wrong with having goals to get faster if that's what you want to do - everyone has different goals. I'm a super slow jogger, and there are lots of walkers who out walk my jog any day of the week! But - as you've often said - you're only competing against yourself.

    Keep up the great work!! Awesome job today!!

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  2. Agree with Sherri - especially the super slow jogger - I consider myself a waddler. It is my pace, my race and I one time had two police on motorcycles escort me through to the end of a race in Davenport a few years back, begging them to go......I would stay on the sidewalk and behave, not get hit and so on if they would leave me. I was dead last with the exclamation point of 2 cops on bikes to make sure everyone knew it.

    I always have walkers pass me. They do that. It is not fun, but life is short, so I want to keep moving and if my moving at my speed of waddling is still faster than my walking speed - it is ok.

    I am super proud of you. I would love to get faster, but moving forward one step at a time is the real goal. Press in on your goals with joy. Try some fartlek's in the running time.

    laurie

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  3. If I could "like" Laurie's comment above, I would. Love that: "It is not fun, but life is short, so I want to keep moving and if my moving at my speed of waddling is still faster than my walking speed - it is ok." Yes fartleks are good.. and it's fun to say... "I did some fartleks in my workout today!" ;-)

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  4. golly, I wrote a whole big long comment and then it diskappeared!!! well, mayBE it was too much...
    I love your courage and your accomplishment.
    YOU are amazing and more than enough.
    xoxo

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  5. You keep pressing on! Proud of your accomplishment! Someone told me along time ago: "If you aren't in the running for the money, then just have a goal, do your best and keep moving." Those were words I took to heart when doing any race.

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