A Passion for Running

Warning: This post contains unadulterated BRAGGING

The Result

Woohoo! yeah baby yeah!! At 39:56, my finish time in this year’s Corporate Challenge was just a few seconds slower than last years so I’m tossing those seconds out and saying I equaled last year’s effort!

The time is a huge accomplishment for me. Huge because there was a part of me that thought last year was just a fluke result where I ran over my head. Huge also because I truly believe I was better trained last year (I was about to taper before a marathon) and most importantly huge because my mind was able to overcome the lesser conditioning and push through the pain. In other words, yesterday’s race was all about mind over matter.

The Plan

For this race, I went against most everything I’ve read and/or been told about running a race. Instead of going out a bit slow and building momentum, I went out fast – very fast and just held on!

The strategy was simply to try and duplicate what I did last year in roughly the same manner. Last year, I ran the first mile in 6:45, the second in 7:40 and the rest (if memory serves around 7:15).

I had a couple reasons for this year’s wonky strategy. First, last year’s effort was the fastest I’d ever run a race so I figured “why fix it if it ain’t broke”. Second, I wanted to take advantage of the opportunity to test my mental strength.

Going out fast in a so-called “shorter” race (shorter in comparison to a marathon!) is very strange territory for someone like me who mostly trains for marathons. In running a marathon, a person has to learn a pace that will spread energy consumption over 26.2 miles. It is a difficult skill to learn and one I still struggle with in comparison to Aaron who has an awesome sense of pace.

In contrast, running a shorter distance forces a marathon runner to do something different – it forces them NOT to conserve energy and to run a much faster pace. For me, it’s akin to discovering a new, faster gear and figuring out how long you can run in that gear – it’s a very different and challenging territory for some marathon runners.

Splits

This year compared to last, I went out a little less quickly and my splits were more varied:

Mile 1 – 6:56 (I know it’s fast but I’m determined to gut it out for another 32 minutes)
Mile 2 – 7:28 (backing off and trying to catch my breath)
Mile 3 – 7:54 (long gradual hill + fatigue setting in – EVERYTHING was hurting)
Mile 4 – 7:45 (a bit of downhill, speeding up a bit and gathering momentum again – I’m beating the pain)
Mile 5 – 7:02 (actually – this pace was over the last 1.4 mile stretch)

I kicked ass on the last 1.4 miles. I passed runner after runner and, in the last 0.4 mile stretch, was even blowing by small GROUPS of runners – I LOVE finishing strong!!!

Thoughts

Well, to start – I’m damn happy! Beyond that, this race and the previous couple races are teaching me I have inner strength I didn’t think I had and this is translating into growing confidence. Of course, one never knows what will happen in the next race and whether one can stay injury-free but right now, I have to be happy about my progression as a runner.

My second bit of learning is that I think I’m finally learning how to run my own races. In my last two races (Energy 1/2 marathon and Kelowna Marathon), it did not bother me when Tom and Aaron went ahead and other runners past me because I finished strong, passed some of those runners later on and got the results I wanted. Yesterday, I followed my instincts and was rewarded once again.

Here’s Something Neat

Corinne also ran the race but her division started 5 minutes ahead of mine. I think it turned out to be a good thing we ran separately since her plan was to go out slow and build – which she did. Funny enough, Corinne and I ran entirely different races but came in with the EXACT same finishing time of 39:56 – how cool is that?!

I imagine if we had run together, neither of us would have gotten the results we were after.

Inspiration

Besides my desire to equal last year’s outing, I was driven by two things:

1) My power word – “after”, and
2) Aaron’s Bloomsday result. Aaron ran that TOUGH 10km course in 7:35 minute miles so I figured if he could bust his ass to do that, I should honor him by busting mine over 8.69km.

Aftermath

I’m exhausted today and my legs are completely rubbery and devoid of energy. There’s NOTHING left in there but MAN that’s a damn good feeling.

Grateful

I’m a lucky guy to be able to run – I thank the divine aka “The Running Gods” for that privilege.

Thanks also to all of you bloggers for your encouragement!

ONWARD!!!!

(P.S. I have forgiven Christopher for keeping me up!)