With all my belly aching about not having trained enough for this race, I forgot to get all the logistics of race day figured out. At 4:15 am, I was scrambling to get my Dad directions to and from the race. Not only that, but I wasn't prepared with my standard pre-race breakfast of half a whole wheat bagel with peanut butter and a banana.
A cup of coffee and a cliff bar had to do. But I wasn't happy about it. The whole morning I was filled with negative energy, feeling so disappointed that I wasn't going to race the race I had hoped for at the beginning of the summer. Nothing like a long run to shake that attitude but needless to say, I was pretty unpleasant.
I missed my corral start because of the long lines at the 'potties' but I guess it served me right since I was so incredibly ill prepared on race day morning. A fact that irritates me to this day.
I started off the race at a very leisurely 11 min/mil pace or so. And I took the whole race in. When my running buddy wanted to walk, I let him walk through the water stops.
We ran a 35:00 5K, 1:15:54 10K and 1:56:14 10 mile.
LEISURE.
What I learned, however, is that I make an awful running coach because I think I pushed LCT a little too hard in the beginning such that he needed to walk by mile 7. I pushed on thinking he would catch up as I maintained our pace and continued to walk through the water stops as well. Surprisingly around this point in the race, I was passing people left and right despite feeling as though I was jogging! And before you say, it, yes, I know I should have just hung back.
I crossed the finish line in 2:31:15 (my original goal was to finish under 2 hours). LCT crossed about 20 minutes later.
It was a good time. It was great not to run in the humidity that was life in Asia for the past two months. And it was great to have my Dad come down and cheer along side little Anna while I managed to run an injury free 13.1 miles.
