Shamrock Shuffle and JSR

Well, again a Major American Road Race, this time only local runners showed. I knew going into this one that I could win as long as no one "amazing" showed up. Since the World Cross Country Championships were on the same day that wasn't a problem. I had been having a pretty challenging time staying healthy for the two weeks prior. I was hoping to run a sub 28:00, or around 5:30 pace, and my runs two weeks out reinforced that my goal was quite reasonable. Then came the plagues... I was smart and backed off. This helped me to get over the worst of the symptoms before the race. Really, the only thing that haunted me during the race was fatigue. I was lucky, it could have been a repeat of Detroit. So here's the low down. Careful I'm going to be point blank, not for the sensitive.

I went to the bathroom just prior to the start, and realized I was bleeding through. I have quite a history of running like shit when it's "that" time. That's all I needed one more thing to try to fight off, mentally, and physically, during the race. At the start line I just felt like, well there's not a lot I can do other than let my body do what it's willing today. Basically, the race was just a battle between my mind and my body... isn't every race? My first two miles were 5:35 pace and felt fine. Everything felt smooth, and comfortable. The third mile was where my body just said, "no way". It was like I fell off a cliff.

The third mile my body just wouldn't go. It refused, no matter how I tried to trick it. When I saw the third mile was a 6:11 I was a little more than pissed. Ten days earlier during and easy 9 miler I had 3 miles at that pace, and they all felt EASY. What the hell is going on that I'm running my easy pace in a race and feeling so tired? There was no lactic acid burn, no feeling as though my lungs would explode. It was just like that dream where you are running in tar. I just hung on to Karen and kept CLaudia in sight. At this point I knew I wasn't going to run a PR, I wasn't going to be close to my goal time. My body was rebelling and it was going to be a battle just to get it to the finish.

I was happy to see that mile 4 was sub six, though still not as fast as I had hoped. At least my efforts to wrangle my body, and force it to do what I wanted were successful. Okay lets be honest... to do more of what I wanted. My body made it quite clear that the 5:35-5:40 pace it was trained to run simply wasn't happening. I was making it quite clear that the 6:10 pace it wanted to run was unacceptable. So the last two miles were 5:50 pace. A compromise I guess.

At mile 4 I gave my body a big "Fuck you" and went for the win. Claudia was right there, Karen was getting tired. I figured, "hey, if I'm not going to run what I wanted, I'm going to win it." The cool part is that Steve was right there to witness my rebellion. I put in a surge up the hill on the way to the finish, and as I crossed the line I thought I was going to puke (for me, a normal side effect of my period). I was so worried I was going to puke on My JSR teammates. The final mile, a 5:49.

While the win was sweet, it is a big enormous race, I was extremely disappointed that I never felt the burn that comes with race effort. As I reflected on the race I decided, while it bugs me as a runner that I was unable to get an accurate read on where I am, it's pretty cool to me that i ran 29:00 and felt like shit. That's some progress. Honestly, it's the JSR team, and Jenny that I have to thank for that progress. I believe, if left to my own devises I'd be sitting on my coach saying, "I think I'm better than those girls. I could've... I should, I would...only if".

The whole premise of the team is that we all have excuses, viable ones, that should keep us from being successful, from reaching our potential. None of us accept those excuses. Everyone has a family, a job, a life outside the sport. Everyone works their ass off. See the Who is JSR entry to find out more....