I was SO ready for 10 grueling miles. In truth, the weather wasn't too bad at the house. When I set off for Baptist Road, I wasn't prepared for quite as much cold, snow and wind. I wore 30 degree running clothes in 10 degree weather, with a 0 degree wind chill. Sitting in my car with the heat cranked to 90 and the seat warmer full blast, I thought to myself, "We're all freakin' crazy."
On my walk to get my bib, I regretted leaving my warmer running jacket at home, but tried hard to convince myself that it wouldn't feel so bad after my warm up. Frozen fingers pinned my bib to my shirt, as I hopped in line for the restroom. A few times, I wondered if anyone would notice if I hid from the wind in the porta-potty, but I decided to take a jog, instead. I ran north, and after 0.5 miles, I could feel the cold peeling away from my body. Then, I turned around. The wind was brutal. I couldn't see or breathe, but fought to run. Upon my return to the start, a volunteer looked at my face with fright. "I hope you brought a face mask," he stated while peeling ice off of my face. I almost hadn't brought a jacket. I most certainly didn't have a face mask.
A few moments later, a friend mentioned that the race was reduced from 10 miles to 5 miles. I guess Search and Rescue encouraged the change. A weight lifted off my shoulders. Five miles was easy. On a normal day, so is ten. Today, not so much.
I raced pretty hard and finished in 3rd place with 38:01. This is definitely a 5 mile PR, though I don't think I've ever raced 5 miles before. I'm now a solid second, overall, in the series. I'll never catch first, but I've never seen second, so I'm feeling pretty accomplished. First place is out of my league. Over three races, she is ten minutes faster.
This has me questioning the difference between those runners and the rest of us. Part of it is mass. I didn't have the body of a dancer as a kid, and I don't have the body of a runner as an adult. But a big chunk of it is discipline. I'm a pretty disciplined athlete. I wake up at 4:15 a.m. to swim or spin, and I typically end the day with running, riding or yoga. (I do have rest days worked in) The difference is that my workouts aren't focused. I have incorporated some speed work on a treadmill, which I moved to the track this week (motivated by these thoughts). But, most of the time, I'm just out there. Today, my run didn't have a destination, focus or plan. I just hit the trail and started running. I'm not sure that I'm ready for a change.
