I'm competitive. Do you hear someone laughing? That is someone, somewhere, who knows me, and knows what an understatement that is.
Last Sunday I ran the Parks Half Marathon, a race that was built into my program's schedule from the start. Our coaches reminded us time and time again that we were not to race this race, that it was purely to help us establish and practice a pre-race routine. Up until and even the morning of the race, I was considering it just another training run. I had considered trying to run the entire race at 10:00 minutes/mile, about 30 seconds faster than my long slow distance race I train at. But the start was clogged with runners, and I was happy hanging back and chatting with a couple friends from my pace group. I clocked 10:44 minutes/mile for Mile 1.
Then, at about Mile 2, a volunteer had pulled their car to the side of the road, opened all the doors and was blasting pop music. And he was ringing a cowbell. I instantly went into race mode. For the rest of the race, save for some narrow parts along the trail, I ran seriously negative splits. By the time I got to the hill that almost killed me last week, I was racing. It was during that incline that I gave myself a, at this point, very challenging time goal: 2 hours and 10 minutes and 59 seconds, about a 9:55 minutes/mile pace. I ran my last full mile in 8:14 and crossed the finish line in 2:10:03.
I'm not sure what this wild pacing means for my marathon strategy. I'm still inclined to run 10 minutes/miles, consistent 10 minutes/miles, and feel I may be able to go even a little faster than that. But at the same time, I wouldn't mind starting at 10s and then trying to run negative splits if I'm still feeling good toward the end.
Anyway, there are still 7 crucial training weeks left, including a 20-miler this weekend. I'm excited to brag that we will have run through 2 states and a district.
This is my running schedule for the rest of the week:
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