half marathon retrospective
I felt a bit "meh" and "blah" and a little "let down" after the Platte River Half Marathon. I was so close to my goal of sub 2 hours. 2:01:38 was the official result. However; I realize that at my current ability, I would have had to execute everything perfectly to have met my goal.
I can hear my friend, Phil now - "forget the clock, you are too new running to worry about about the clock, execute a solid race and that's success - not some arbitrary time goal you have pulled out of the air". As a data geek and number nerd - that's almost impossible for me to do.
Then I read this article.
I decided that I did execute very well (do you know how hard that is for me to type that??) - esp. considering this was my ever first half and the first time I had ever run more than 11 miles in one fell swoop.
I was conservative at the start, I picked it up in the middle miles, I made the most of the conditions by drafting people when I could, I essentially even split (1:00:40 vs 1:00:58) and I didn't bonk or 'hit the wall'.
I have a hard time saying I did something well. I'd much rather downplay anything I might have done well. I want to make excuses of "why". I want to say "well...I have great cardio endurance from mtn biking so I'm not really a decent runner, it's just a by-product of the past" or say "I've failed at a lot mtn bike races so I have learned how to pace and race, so this isn't my first go around with racing".
But you know what? I did do good! :)
I can hear my friend, Phil now - "forget the clock, you are too new running to worry about about the clock, execute a solid race and that's success - not some arbitrary time goal you have pulled out of the air". As a data geek and number nerd - that's almost impossible for me to do.
Then I read this article.
I decided that I did execute very well (do you know how hard that is for me to type that??) - esp. considering this was my ever first half and the first time I had ever run more than 11 miles in one fell swoop.
I was conservative at the start, I picked it up in the middle miles, I made the most of the conditions by drafting people when I could, I essentially even split (1:00:40 vs 1:00:58) and I didn't bonk or 'hit the wall'.
I have a hard time saying I did something well. I'd much rather downplay anything I might have done well. I want to make excuses of "why". I want to say "well...I have great cardio endurance from mtn biking so I'm not really a decent runner, it's just a by-product of the past" or say "I've failed at a lot mtn bike races so I have learned how to pace and race, so this isn't my first go around with racing".
But you know what? I did do good! :)
Comments
I hope I can join you and Kathy at either Slacker or Georgetown. :^)
I have such an ingrained engineer perspective - it's tough for me to let go of my data and I doubt I ever will. I DO enjoy the run and I DO enjoy the numbers and at 50 years old - I'm guessing that ingrained part of my personality will continue on. I do appreciate your perspective - makes me stop and think! happy running! :)