Tomorrow is the first race I've had since my 1o-miler back in April. While I did fairly well at my last race, I didn't really run it as a "race". In the weeks before the race, I had only gotten up to 9 miles on my long run and then I got injured. I had to take it easy for the three weeks leading up to the race, so I decided to run the race fairly conservatively, saving enough energy to be sure I could even finish the 10. Since then, I've been trying to build up my base again. Most of my runs have been 3-4 miles during the week and then my long run on the weekend, which as of last week was 7 miles. While it felt pretty good, my motivation just hasn't been there. I haven't done any "speedwork" and I've kind of had to force myself to even get out there and do my 3-4 mile runs and my weekly long run. I did complete them though and hope that I am somewhat prepared for my 5.25 mile run tomorrow. I know I can definitely go the distance -- what I'm worried about is pacing and hills!
To try to get a target pace, I used the Running Times Magazine Calculator and entered my last LSD run time. I ran 7.1 miles at a 9:06 pace. The calculator says I should be able to run my 5.25 mile race at around 8:57 pace. I've been doing nothing but "steady-state" runs for awhile now though and haven't hit 8:57in a long time! I'm hoping the momentum of the race will help me push it!
I'm also worried about hills. I used MapMyRun to find the route for the race and then clicked to show elevation. There is a MONSTER hill right in the beginning. From mile 0.75-1.25 is straight up with a change in elevation of +190 feet! From there, it's up and down until mile 2.5 then it's all pretty much downhill from there. Holy moly...that first half of the race is going to be TOUGH! I'm going to need some super rockin tunes on my iPod for the beginning! Clearly, with all the hills, I can forget about getting even splits. I figure, I'll run the first half the race trying my best to stay under 10 min/mile and then try to rock out the last half. We'll see!
The other reason I'm a little nervous is because none of my friends will be there to run with me. They had some other things come up and won't be able to go. On the flip side, my in-laws will be there to watch and cheer me on. As forever grateful as I am to have someone there to show their support, I am nervous because I am so NOT used to that! Of all my 80+ races I had during high school, my own parents went to a total of... 0! That never really bothered me since I was running more for me than for anyone else anyway, but the bottom line is, I am not used to having anyone there to actually watch me. Ahhh! What do I do? What do I say? I am so awkward when I comes to stuff like that! Oh well, instead of feeling awkward, I will focus instead on being grateful and running the best race I can! I hope to have a positive race report for you tomorrow! (Goal finish time: 45-52 minutes)
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