"If you push through the dark moments when everything hurts, you will find another reserve of strength you didn’t know you had. Know that a high is going to come again." - Courtney Dauwalter
That quote basically sums up everything about race day. There were a lot of highs and a lot of lows all in less than 30 minutes. If someone asked me what's the easiest way to have something slip away because you got into your head too much, it'd be running. This sport is such a mental battle and you either end up really happy or extremely pissed off for a moment right after crossing the finish line. We'll get to the race recap and takeaways in a moment. Let's not skip too far ahead and remember, we did finish another week of training. Here are the numbers from week 5:
2/25 - Easy miles w/strides 
2/27 - Fartlek 
2/28 - Recovery miles 
3/2 - Shakeout run
After having what felt like the worst workout last Saturday, I felt 110% better after Monday's run. Everything just clicked back into place and I knew I had to give it my all because it was the last week to really test my limits and listen to my body. Come Wednesday, my last speed workout, I knew I had to put forth the most effort possible. I couldn't find my breath and then I get in my head thinking almost immediately that this run is going to suck. Don't do that! Negativity, in fact, kills the vibe real quick. Instead of only focusing on what didn't happen, I checked my stats and noticed I hit all of my 'on' paces pretty damn well. "Okay, you're doing alright", I said to myself. Sometimes you need a little pep talk between you and the mirror. The last two remaining runs felt great. I locked in the thought that I was ready for whatever came on Sunday. My husband cooked my traditional pre-race meal of spaghetti and you better believe I ate two bowls!
My alarm went off at 4:45am Sunday. I woke up more than ready to run. I ate my pre-race oatmeal, I did my pre-warm up exercises, and set out for my warmup run. Coach had me do a specific warm up and it really got me amped up. As I was running, buses passed me that were on their way up to the mountain for the 15k. The sun was rising as I turned back to home and the weather was perfect. I don't think I've ever raced in more perfect weather. It was always really cold or really hot. It was also the closest race I've ever ran, being roughly a mile from the start line. We opted to drive anyway because I knew I wouldn't want to walk home after running my ass off. I lined up at the start around 7:20am right in the front. Hello confidence, where have you been? Never have I ever been in the front. I always thought I was too slow or not good enough. Today, I was not messing around. Right at 7:30am, we were off. Mile one, strong; Mile two, slightly less strong; After that, lost control. This is why I hate when people say "it's just a 5K". It's never JUST a (insert distance). A run is a run. I went into this race feeling super confident and finished feeling defeated. I did not PR. I did not even beat my last 5K time. I slowed my pace down for the last tenth of a mile knowing I failed. Just give me my medal and my free beer. After crying for a slight second and feeling like a piece of garbage, I checked the race results: 26:29, averaging 8:30/mile, 4th in my age group, 11th overall female. Okay, not terrible. I may have not gotten my sub-25 but 11th overall female out of 121? That's pretty awesome.
Finisher's Medal 
Post-race burrito 
Around mile 1.2 
Free swag! Buffs!
My friend Jenn gave me a subtle but huge reminder that I hadn't run for two months straight and only trained for 5 short weeks for this race. When you put that all together in perspective, I did run a good race after all. Once I finished, checked out the small expo, and got some free goodies, we headed to get food. I always joke and say I'm going to make shirts for this blog one day that say "will run for burritos" on them. We got our food to go because I wanted to spectate the 15K since they ran right past our street. This is the first time I've ever spectated a race and it's a lot of work! We were cheering and had the cowbell for everyone that came past. It's really incredible to be on the other side of things and makes you appreciate how strong we are as runners no matter how fast or slow you may be. Which brings me to my post-race thoughts. Yes, I sulked about my finish, but after some great encouraging words from my husband, my coach, and my friends, I stepped back to look at the bigger picture. I ran the fastest average pace I had ever done in a race, I still placed pretty high overall, and I felt pretty strong most of the time. My husband, who is my biggest supporter, told me that I need to remember why I do this first and foremost: because it's fun. I run because I enjoy it, not to go out there and beat myself up for nothing. As I watched the 15K racers, I thought to myself, 'damn, us runners are amazing and our community is incredible'.
So, what's next? These next few months, I plan to focus on getting stronger and still building my base. I feel like base building never really stops but there comes a time where you don't focus on it as much. I plan to get more into trail running (I live in Arizona, after all) and enjoy the nature of the outdoors over the treadmill as much as possible. Even when we are not training for a race, we are still training ourselves. It never stops. I do have another raced lined up but that will be announced at a later time.
I don't have a recipe to share because we were just so busy last week and, well, we cooked stuff I've already shared! BUT fear not, I will be trying a new one this week and will most definitely post it up if it's worthy. I do, however, want to share a book I dove into recently. It's a great read even for you non-runners out there. The first few pages alone are inspiring enough to make you want to conquer your own inner demons. Rob's story is incredible so far (I'm on Chapter 3) and I can't wait to see what else has to come. You can check out more about him, his book, and access his podcast on his website: trainingforultra.com.
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