Friday, March 31, 2006

cherry blossoms, here again


So the Cherry Blossom 10 Miler is two days away. I have trained myself silly with speedwork and long runs (peaking with a 13 miler two weeks ago). I ran that 8K three weeks ago to get a sense of my speed ability -- and was on track to run sub 1:20 for the 10 miler.

Now I have been sick all week -- as has Iz. (Abraham seems to have skipped the whole snotty nose, low-grade fever, coughing fit thing. No fair! He has no race to run!) I wasn't deathly ill or anything, and I am getting better and was hare-brained enough to wake up at 5:30 am to get a little 4 mile run in ("a little" 4 miles because I am supposed to be tapering, after all).

But there is no way I will be at peak strength on Sunday morning. And I am really disappointed. Maybe I am being silly -- I can run it just fine at a slower pace. Barring something extreme, I have no fears about not finishing. But I actually took my training seriously. I had aspirations! Sure, I'm no world-class runner. At my best, I am a front-of-the-middle of-the-pack runner. So why should I care? Ah, because I do.

Okay, the goal now is to enjoy the race, right? Just kick back... I can talk myself into this... maybe... After all, it's not a marathon (which is much more involved and daunting).

Actually, I ran fast last year, but I was uncomfortable much of the time -- I wanted to do the same speed, but have fun doing it...

1 comment:

Caitlin Adams said...

Okay... I should not have been so worried, so disappointed. I had a fantastic run! My nose was a bit runny, and I must have strained my lungs a bit because I had a coughing fit for a few moments about fifteen minutes after I finished.

But I felt great the whole time. I felt like I was flying, light on my feet even, and had very few "am I nauseous yet?" moments (I have to check in with the nasea meter now and again when I am running all out -- and I have not thrown up yet, after 8 years of running races). I finished the 10 mile run in 1:17:43.

My dad, who has never seen me run a race, came down to watch. That meant a lot to me. (Little Iz and dear Abraham couldn't make it -- Iz has an ear infection and is miserable.)