Based on how I was feeling leading up to it, I have to admit that I wasn’t all that excited about doing this race. However, my employer, Member One, was a major sponsor of the event and had asked me several weeks ago to take part as a member of the company team. Sometimes it’s hard to say no to things like that, so between that and the fact that the race supported an excellent cause, I had hesitantly agreed to race, knowing that I might still be recovering from the Charleston Distance Run. What I didn’t know is just how much recovery the CDR would require, so as this race approached, I began to get more and more nervous about how well I would be able to perform and what running hard would do to me afterward.
I managed to put in a decent light workout on Thursday, which made me feel a bit better about my chances, only to have very rough feeling days on Friday and Saturday put me right back to the point where I was having some serious doubts. Regardless, race day arrived and the race had a great turnout, leading to a lengthy wait time for race day registration and even pre-registered packet pick-up. After I finally got through the line and headed out for my warm-up, the first thought I had was how I wished I was feeling 100% so I could take advantage of the almost perfect weather conditions and relatively fast course. I also wondered why I couldn’t have had conditions like these the week before for CDR instead of the sauna we had to race in that day.
After a few pre-race strides, I lined up beside J.B. Kerns, the soldier who lost both legs and an arm while serving our country in Afghanistan and the man who the race benefitted, and got ready to roll. I have the utmost respect for those who serve our country and seeing him there running with his prosthetic legs and after all he has been through was certainly inspirational. After a few words and some instructions, the race started with the sounding of an air horn, and we were off.
I went to the front immediately and began to pull away. I quickly realized this might be a solo effort, which honestly was just fine with me. My goal was to run hard, but at the same time to control my effort so as to not cause any lasting damage to my legs since I knew they were still recovering from the race the week before. I went through the mile in 5:17, which wasn’t too bad and actually a little surprising as I didn’t think I was running quite that fast. I hit the second mile in 5:29, which also surprised me because I thought I had fallen off the pace a little more than that. I guess that’s what a mostly flat course and nice weather will do for you. I hit the third mile with another 5:29, rounded a couple curves, and saw the finish line with the clock ticking ever so closely to 17 minutes. I tried to pick it up to dip under, but my legs just didn’t have it and that cost me a sub-17 by just a couple seconds, as I crossed the line to win in a time of 17:01.
I would have liked to have run faster, especially since this was an excellent opportunity to do so, but for a week after CDR, I’ll take it. I still seem to be stuck around that 5:30 barrier when it comes to running hard for extended periods of time, but to be able to hit that with my legs on the tired and heavy side was hopefully a good sign, and after the race I was excited about getting back to work and tackling the monumental task of getting some speed back in my legs. However, it now appears that will be placed on hold for at least another week. One of my wisdom teeth really started to bother me last week and has gotten progressively worse ever since. It’s now to the point where it’s affecting my ability to sleep and is also making eating very difficult. I had a consultation yesterday and will be getting the tooth removed on Wednesday. Needless to say that’s going to have an impact on my ability to train. It’s extra frustrating since this will make basically my third down week of training in a row, but unfortunately there’s nothing I can do about it. Hopefully I’ll bounce back quickly like I did when I had two wisdom teeth taken out when I was in college and be back on schedule by the weekend.
Race results can be found here
Link to some TV time I got, including a short clip from an interview WDBJ7 did with me after the race can be found here
No comments:
Post a Comment