Salty War

On Sunday, two thoughts echoed in my mind. One was that I had put in a faster run in training. The other was that I had no idea what had gone wrong. I was afraid that, having failed, I wouldn't be able to learn from my mistakes. I think I'm past both of those now.

Most people that I talked to had slower-than-expected times. It's far from scientific, but 5 minutes higher than expected wasn't uncommon. Under those circumstances, the ~1:42 pace I started at was WAY too fast, and even the ~1:47 pace I was at around 15km was fast. Everyone talked about the humidity. By mid-summer standards, the weather wasn't really intense, but considering my training was done in the snow and thaw of Ottawa, the environment was more than my body was used to dealing with.

Mistakes that I made:

Going out too fast: 4 of my last 6 races have been 10ks. It's tough to overcome a slow start in a 10k. This wasn't a 10km race. I could have started at a 5:00/km pace, and picked it up the second half if I'd felt good. Gunning for a fast first 10k left me open to fading later on.

Not respecting the weather: I kept telling myself that I'd run a 1:45-1:46 in training. What I didn't tell myself was that it had been sub-10 degrees, and totally ideal conditions. I discounted the effects the different weather would have on my body over the course of the race, to my detriment.

Lack of mental preparation: When Lisa Bentley gave her awesome talk last month on mental preparation, she mentioned that it was work. Hard work. I vowed to try it. You know what? She was right. It was more time and effort than I was ready to put in. It cost me, too. Cramping up on a warm day is a foreseeable bad thing that can happen on race day. I wasn't prepared for it, I didn't know how to deal with it, and I got very negative about it.

Which is too bad, because in the grand scheme of things, it wasn't the end of the world. It was a great day to run, I wanted to run, I ran. Ending the run anything other than happy is as grave a mistake as I can make in this sport.

Which, I suppose, is a weak lead-in to:

Things I did right:

I went for it: I ran an agressive race. It was my sixth race over 20km. All of the others had been "to finish" or "training runs". This one was a race. I wanted to set the best time possible. I had ambition this race, and I pursued it. Trying and falling short is in no way worse than finishing the race wondering if I could have done more.

I persevered: In the middle half of the race, when I was starting to feel the heat, I had good mental toughness. I kept my turnover up. I ran when I wanted to walk. I started running again when I wanted to walk some more. When the spasms started, I fought them as hard as I could. I can distinctly remember having a spasm, slowing to a walk, and the spawm going away. Five steps later, I was running again. Sure, it might have come right back (and did a minute later), but I was determined to go as fast as I could despite my wrecked muscles.

I hydrated well: One of my big problems in earlier races was that I would stop drinking and taking on electrolytes once I got tired. I'd run through water stations, being too mentally fatigued to stop. It caused me problems in the past, but I think that my hydration during the race was excellent. (Before the race? Not so sure.)

I ran fast: Something started bugging me yesterday. There was a paradox at work in my mind, and I needed to unravel the knot. I'd walked SO MUCH of the last 5km (at least it felt that way), and yet my time (sub-1:53) wasn't that bad. The solution to the riddle was this: "Man, I really cooked the first 15km."

Yes, I failed to put in my goal time over 21.1km. But for 15km, I was fast. Faster than I was in January. Faster than I was last year. Faster than I dreamed I could be two years ago.

My training: I had coolrunning chart my average pace per week over the last two years yesterday. The numbers don't lie. The last few months have been a breakthrough. I've been faster than I've ever been. Plus, I exceeded expectations in the pool this winter.

I'm in the best shape of my life. There's no doubt in my mind. I'm just about as fast a runner as I've ever been. I have much better core and upper body fitness thanks to swimming that I ever thought I'd have.

The last four months training have absolutely rocked.

I'm happy I ran Sunday. I'm proud of what I was able to achieve. I look forward to applying what I learned in future races. I look forward to finally conquering my half-marathon demons.

Special thanks to everyone I've spoken to since the race. The encouragement and praise have been just what I needed to help get over my funk, and to put things into perspective.