don’t commit to stupid things
that’s my 2013’s new year resolution. well unfortunately this commitment was made in 2012…but no more committing to stupid things! (Runners Challenge: the Triple Crown)
Skies were grey all week and threats of storms and rain dampened the excitement heading into the race for these brave runners. Various plot lines brought together this little group today.
Eugene and I were first timer half-ers, E loves to bring up that fateful day he read the Triple Crown challenge post and thought to himself “how hard could this be?” E’s a natural though and a few weeks into training he was breezing through 4-5 mile runs at 8-9 min pace times. Unfortunately 10 days before the race E’s daughter caught pnemonia and passed a little to him. Heading into the race, E was still sporting a cough…things weren’t looking good.
Stephanie had finished the nike women’s half last year up in the bay and has signed up for the Triple Crown challenge…she’s in it to win it! Last year around this time she probably would say that she would have struggled to complete 3-4 miles. Now she’s tackling not one, not two, but three 13.1 races in one calendar year. Amazing!
Patty is plain ridiculous. A last minute addition, she bought her bib off another runner on craigslist. She and I ran 5 miles last week in one of my last tune up runs and thought “this could be fun”. Patty’s the veteran of the group, having completed a full marathon before and is schedule to run the La Jolla half this year. Patty runs quite regularly but she didn’t train for this half at all. Who does this stuff for fun?!
Katie is also a running fiend. She just likes running. there’s not much more to explain there because I’d have to comprehend it to explain it, but I can’t. Ask her to run a 5K, 10K, 13.1 mi or even 26.2 with you…she’ll want to do it. Tell her they’ll hand out chocolate afterwards and she gets even more excited, which apparently, there’s a run for that too (chocolate run).
Then there’s yours truly. I went into this with some really low goals in mind; (1) finish (2) 11 min pace. that was about it. trained up to 9-10 miles and hoped adrenaline the day of would provide the rest.
Weather turned out to be pretty awesome for running, a little drizzle during the morning run but stopped just an hour before the half. The plan heading in was to up my pace each 4 miles and save enough to make a strong push at the end. Adrenaline and shot bloks do help quite a bit. Unfortunately knee and ankles began to act up at the tail end at the 11 mile mark as my form went totally out the window, stomping my way to the end. Lungs were totally fine as I crossed which means I definitely can up the pace considerably.
Great times by everyone and big thanks to Syl, Fontaine, and Bao for the hearty cheers! Knees and joints are recovering slowly today but surely. Props to Eugene for beasting it through the day!
Now with a proper baseline…is it time to set a goal for a sub 2 hr half? don’t commit to stupid things. We’ll have to see.
la jolla half anyone?
photo by H. Lee