Race to Robie Creek: I Fought the Hill (Or The Heat?)…
Still mulling over Robie Creek? Maybe it was a great day, maybe you walked more than intended. What I am hearing is more of the latter; the warm day forced many to their Plan B. After training for months, it is disappointing for a strong influence on your race to be so outside of your control. One Bettie’s report captures the emotion I heard from so many. My Robie Race Report AKA “I fought the hill and the hill won! ” Or maybe it should be called “I fought the heat and the heat won!” And what is the point of being half Egyptian if I can’t run in the heat, anyway?!?! I started the day with high expectations. I was hoping to beat my time from last year (which was 2:09 something) or maybe even do as well as 2:05. I felt like I had trained well. I had trained harder and more for this Robie than any other Robie: more mileage, more speedwork, more hill repeats, more time on the course, more weights, more core work, more cross training. I think my fitness level is in a better place than last year, so I didn’t think I’d have an issue beating my time. Plus, on my long runs, I actually *ran* to the summit. It was a slow run, but I was “running.” And that’s something I had never done before. So I hoped to be able to do that in the race too. I covered my watch hoping I’d be able to go off of effort and not be distracted or discouraged by pace as it slowed towards the summit, as I had in previous years. I felt okay the first couple of miles. On the first hill I told myself I would not pass anybody. That would my way of keeping my pace in check. However there were some people that stopped to walk and others that were just running at a slower pace than I felt I wanted to be running so I did pass some people. When I got to the 3 mile marker I saw it and thought something along these lines: “Oh s@#$!. Only 3 miles and I feel like I am running out of gas already. I must have run the first 5k too fast. I effed up. I am totally screwed. I want to quit. I am never going to make it to the top. I am not even at the dirt yet and I am hot. And I feel sick. This sucks.” Totally self defeating thoughts. Not exactly what you want at mile three of a half marathon. Or any race really. I thought when I looked at my splits for the first 3 miles I was going to see that I had run them ridiculously fast or something. When I saw the splits I don’t think I had run them too fast. I think it was just the heat that got me. The heat got me last year too. I got too hot too fast. After that point I started walking through each water station. I’d grab two cups of water and drink one and pour the other one over my head. Once I got to the dirt I felt a little better. I like the dirt better than the pavement. And by a little, I mean just a little. I was still pretty miserable and feeling sick. I saw Ashley pretty early on in the dirt passed her and told her good job. It made me so happy to see another Bettie! I was pretty sure she’d be passing me...
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