No Magic

the magic shoes

I have a history of having a little something magical left in me after my "A" race each year. It seems that every single year, no matter how much I sit on the couch and be lazy, somewhere in the 4-5 week post "A" race range, I have some fast running in me. Up until now, its always been one of those fun surprises where I just head out for a fun fall road race and totally surprise myself. Well, after a few years of this, I kinda came to expect it.

I signed up for a 10k and half marathon this weekend. They were new races right IN St. Augustine so it was awfully hard to say no to a local race all your friends are doing right down the street from your house.

I had a horrible week leading up to the race. Both my hips had flared up on me (like immediately after registering/paying for the stupid races.... figures) and I could barely walk for a few days mid week. I was thinking by then the races weren't happening and there was surely very little running going on.

As things go, my hips were ok by Saturday and I threw on my flats to see what I had in me. I love my magic little saucony's. Every time I put them on the magic happens and I surprise myself and fly! I haven't run many 10k's and my 10k pr is STILL from an olympic distance tri in college (40:20). So I thought what the heck, I will go out right at 6:30 pace and see how that feels (thinking 6:30's would feel like a steady tempo to build off of). Not. so. much.

Wow, I hit that first mile in 6:30 and it felt about a 5:45 effort. Wow. Luckily, no one was with me. I was running in second behind a speedy dude who had long since pulled away. I dialed it back to 6:45-6:50 pace and just tried to find some enjoyment in the lack of magic that was occuring. I got to the turnaround and a girl was coming on hard from behind. I hadn't noticed her at the start but she was hammering. I kept pretty much even (slow) splits from there on out and in the last half mile she blew by me and I didn't even put up a fight. She was way out of my league and I couldn't have went with her anyhow but I wish I could have! We warmed down together and as it turns out, she is University of Florida's ex-number one runner (which helped me feel a bit better about my performance). Neither of us were fast (41:30 and 41:50) but it was good to have a little local show down (if that even counts since she runs like a 35:xx 10k!)

It was a little tough not to feel disappointed that there was no magic in my legs but putting some thought to it I've now realized that hey, maybe I just actually peaked on time for once in my life!! That's a good thing!

Sunday was extra special because Neil (Mr. I'm super fast but refuse to race) signed up for the half marathon. In my 10 years of knowing him, I've convinced him to do exactly one race with me. Neil is a very talented athlete with ZERO desire to race. I would say zero competitive instinct, but when it comes to his wife, he somehow manages to find that competitive instinct.

After my ego beating on Saturday, I had no expectations. In fact, I had almost followed through on my plans to DNS Sunday's race and if it weren't for Neil racing, I likely would have bailed remembering the previous days' painful experience.

But it was so so much fun having our whole local club out there racing and cheering and Neil blew it out of the water. We started at 7:40 pace and I kept telling Neil to hold it back since his longest run to date was closer to 8 miles. We ran with another friend Jay who we were trying to keep on track to break 1:40. The course had a big bridge in it and Neil managed to hammer up the bridge without it affecting him at all and at mile 8 coming down the bridge he started to turn it up. 7:30, 7:20, 7:20, 7:20 and finally he had one mini low point at mile 10 which lasted all of 10 seconds as he tried to convince me to go ahead. But I was hurting! This was perfect pace for me and I was pushing it too sadly enough. Neil took his first gel ever and was quickly back in the game finishing the last two miles at 6:45 pace! He dropped me on the final bridge to the finish and ended up running a 1:36 and winning his age group in fashion with a sweet little negative split. Pretty awesome stuff. He's a natural. I managed to score third overall with a personal worst of 1:37. Ouch. That's closer to my 70.3 pr split than it is my open 13.1 split. Oh well. Tons of fun and I loved running with Neil.

I don't forsee much more racing in the near future.... lesson for the weekend is that I am not mentally or physically ready! But now I know it for sure :)