Every Mile Earned

Sometimes numbers don't tell the whole story. This was the best time in a 5k I had this year. But this was the hardest 5k I've had this year. I had splits in my mind that were on the edge of what I was capable of but not hitting them is not what is bothering me. We got to the race and as we were walking to the bib pickup, my hip flexor had a slight painful catch to it. Seriously, I tend to ignore any prerace tweats of pain because my brain likes to play tricks with me. I've had some pain before races that was pretty intense and then it just disappears. I read an article once that our brains basically freak out on us when it knows that we are going to face a intense race or workout. (I wish I'd saved the article but there are actually lots out there if you just google it). For the record, I don't ignore pain that doesn't go away! So I felt this tweak and I vaguely remembered slipping this week and feeling a pull in my hip flexor. And then it was gon...

I haven't updated in awhile. There's not a lot to update but I like to have this as a log for myself, too. I'm terrible with writing down anything about how I feel during training or a race, it all goes here or it's lost forever.  My training has really suffered this winter and we had a mild winter! It's very frustrating to me that I allowed myself to hide curled up under my blanket all winter instead of out doing what needs to be done. I'll fully feel that lack of training commitment in my marathon in just over a month.  I have a half marathon coming up and even that I don't feel as prepared for as last year and last year I had less miles going into the same race. I know some of my mental issue is that I'm comparing myself to my PR half last September and I'm just not in that shape.  I'm also a bit bummed that I realized that for my full at the end of May, I just have to treat it like a really long run and go easy at it. I don't want to comp...

I ran this race for the first time last year. It was a fast course through the neighborhoods of Binghamton, NY. This year they changed the course.  I liked this one much better.  This race brings people from all over for the bicycle races and the 5k.  Here is a brief description of these very competitive events:   The race attracts over 1,000 participants from local athletes to world-class competitors with crowds of up to 5,000 spectators. The Chris Thater Memorial consists of the Pro, Elite and Novice cycling events, and a 5K Run through the Westside of Binghamton. The Chris Thater Memorial also features  demonstrations and other youth sports and special events. Before I race I look at the times of my AG from the year before.  My goal was to try to run a sub25 minute 5k, however I knew that wouldn't be enough to place in this race.  Last year the top women in my AG were all 23 minutes and under (the woman who placed 1st ran it in 19:...

The RRCA Woman’s Distance Festival and Kid’s Run is a yearly run at Otsiningo Park to help raise money for Mom's House.   On July 16, I ran this 5k.   If you know me, or you’re a part of my on-line running group, you already know the end of the story, so I’ll jump to the punch line.   I ran this race in 25:58. Last year I ran it in 32:11.   I couldn’t have done this without a whole lot of painful work the last 6 weeks, without my husband's sacrifice of time with me, my sacrifice of time with family and the hard work of Drill Sargent putting together a personalized plan for me to follow.   I'm still in shock at how well this race went for me, especially since it was an evening race, the sun was actually out (we've had a very cool and cloudy summer) and the temps were in the low 80's.   I spent the day trying to stay off my legs as much as I could. I made sure I drank lots of water, ate very carefully and in general tried not to think about the...