Memorial Day 10k Recap – It’s not always about the clock!

It’s a Monday kind of Tuesday today. It’s all good though, cause that means we’re having a short week. 🙂

Yesterday, I ran the Memorial Day 10k and I can tell you…SUMMER IS HERE. I know summer doesn’t OFFICIALLY start until June 21, but that is a lie.

I have to admit that I didn’t prep for this race like I would generally prepare for a race that I’m serious about. I’d run for 26 days in a row prior to race day. I had “a couple of beers” the night before, as well as a 1/3 pound burger, a 1/4 pound hot dog and two types of salad that were not actually salad (potato and pasta). Throw in some lemon cake and I pretty much did everything wrong to be race ready.

The morning of the race, I woke up feeling about as you’d expect. I felt slow and bloated. I caffeinated those feelings away a little and tried to tell myself that it was all in my head. After all, you can’t eat and drink yourself out of shape in one day, right???

Robbie and I went for a little warm up and I immediately warmed up. It’s never good when you’re sweating pre-race, so I drank a little water to try and salvage whatever was left of my hydration.

Robbie and I before the race, looking dry.

Away we went! I made the decision to run without music to stay focused. The downside is that then I can hear the sound of my own suffering, and it is quite unpleasant. Unfortunately, I started suffering at about a quarter mile. I felt exactly like a guy that ate what I ate and drank what I drank the day before. This was my fault. I tried not to panic. I slowed my pace down a little to try and catch my breath and calm down. It wasn’t working.

I honestly thought about quitting. It would have been my first DNF. You have to get one eventually. I had no real reason to quit, other than in that moment I hated running. I couldn’t see myself pressing on for another 5 miles. I decided to press on and hope that I’d snap out of it.

By the second mile I knew I’d finish, but wondered how much longer I could keep up anything resembling a race pace. My lungs felt well below normal capacity. My legs felt heavy. Even the smallest of hills felt like a climb. Bleh. My pace slowed up by over 30 seconds a mile. It felt the same. Awful. Mile 3 was more of the same.

Once I made it to the turnaround, I caught a second wind. I was heading back! It was great to see so many runners that I know as we ran past each other. It was also great that there was a slight downhill grade going back. It helped that I had a competitor to chase. I kept Marshall about 50 feet ahead of me, thinking that I might take a shot at him later. His wife Alicia was spectating and told me to get after him (I laughed as much as I was capable of). Unfortunately, I didn’t quite have it in me to chase him down, but it certainly helped keep me going for another 3 miles.

I got back to nearly my starting pace and ended up having enough in the tank to push hard at the finish. PEOPLE WERE WATCHING.

This guy is giving all he’s got.

I finished up this race in 43:30, good enough for 11th overall and 2nd in my AG. I predicted I’d run in 42:30, but I’m not even remotely disappointed. Not every battle is a battle with the clock. This was a victory against myself.

Happy to collect my dog tag race medal!