if nothing else, running can be said to be about starts and stops.
this, my friends, can thus be said to be one of those starts.
yesterday’s half marathon marks my official return to racing and these
words, my official return to the blog. after a couple false starts in
both departments it is time to get back to it.
so then, as for yesterday’s effort, it was…well…fun? nothing quite
beats the excitement and anticipation of race day. months of hard work
put to the test. friends and acquaintances abound. and of course, the
post-race postmortem.
i have come to the conclusion over the years that runners are
notoriously a self deprecating, perfectionist bunch. rarely do you hear
about how pleased someone was with their result. and yet we keep
coming back for more. which begs the question… why?
if i am to be honest i must admit that i was fairly disappointed in
my own outcome yesterday. it was a tale of two races. the first full
of easy strides and promising mile splits. the majority of the second
was run without the assistance of calf muscles as they decided to go on
strike due to the low wages and extreme working conditions. (see:
unoccupy Will street) thus a steady, painful decline in pace ensued.
so… what happened? why the jekll and hyde?
invariably races are a deep gaze into the training looking glass. as
such the answer to why the race unfolded for me as it did lies in the
preparation that preceded it.
after a couple midsummer bouts with injury and illness my training
took a fairly exclusive turn towards long slow mileage. in fact,
yesterday probably accounted for 5 of the fastest miles i’ve run since
july. therefore, the fact that those miles sent my legs into a tailspin
is not surprising. logic however, is rarely a remedy for frustration.
luckily it will become the fuel that shapes the coming months of
training as i prepare for this season’s ultimate goals at the full
marathon distance.
as i look forward to the next few rounds of races that rest on the
horizon i think the answer to why we keep coming back for more (despite
the obvious self selection towards masochism) is that we are also a
secretly optimistic bunch. we can do better next time. this belief
gets us out the door for hot and humid long runs, and laces our shoes up
after long days at work. and we get to commiserate about it in the
process. so here’s to doing better next time and enjoying the
commiseration in the meantime.
for my fellow number nerds out there who enjoy munching on the raw data:
