Ok, now I have a better idea of where my training is at.
Saturday was the 5k Lung Run in Halifax and I entered it to get a better idea of what kind of shape I'm in compared to running it last year. Stacey ran it as well and was rewarded by setting a personal best of 26:25 for the 5k distance.
This year we agreed that we would run our own separate races as we were both going after personal bests. The weather was almost perfect, sunny and about 13C but with a bit of a wind.
I ran my race to perfection, starting slow and then increasing my pace as the race went on. I finished in 23:24, almost 6 minutes faster than last year! I'm 100% thrilled with that result. I ran it as hard as I possibly could and left nothing
in the tank at the finish. I look back now and I don't think there was anything that I could have done to improve my time so I'm happy. I finished 137th out of 580 runners and 24th out of 62 runners in my age group. My average heart rate was 180 bpm and I hit a max of 198 bpm at the finish. I don't think I've ever had my HR so high during a run/race. 318 calories burnt in 23 minutes. whew! Of course I ate them all back after the run. lol
I had an odd bit of an incident in the last kilometer of the race though. I was overtaking another runner and approaching a corner when she must have heard me catching up and then pointed to the apex of the corner, as if to say "thats where i'm going." I've never seen someone do that at a race before so I let her have the line. It also pissed me off a bit so I figured "f**k you, I'll just take the long way around and pass you and do it with a little burst to demoralize you." Yes, I'm competitive even if its considered a fun run. When I race I race to finish as high as possible.
So I give my stats for the run to my coach, along with the rest of my run data for the week and he rewards my effort with revised paces to aim for. Its like "way to go and now you can go faster" lol He seems confident that a sub 4 hr Bluenose marathon result is possible for me. I have my doubts right now but the next two weeks of running at the new paces will tell the story. If i can make it without pain at the new paces, I'll be on board with his assessment. Right now my jury is still out on this.
The 2012 Boston marathon just finished and I plan to watch it later tonight and tomorrow. I feel sorry for those runners this year, running in 30C heat. I'd love to be there though and its been on my mind a lot recently. 2014??? possibly. I'll know more in just over a month.
When someone tells you that you've inspired them to make changes in their life, it's very humbling. Hearing that also motivates me to push harder on myself, its kinda like thinking "people are relying upon me to help them get going so I gotta get going to". They're feeding off of me and I'm feeding off the fact that they're feeding off of me. Does that even make sense?? Anyway, you know who you are and thank you.
This Sunday will be my toughest run, 34k at a pace thats 20 or 30 seconds per kilometer faster than what I've done before. Wish me luck.
onward and upward
PS: If you're at all serious about running I gotta recommend getting the Garmin Forerunner 410. This thing is unbelievable at making sure your pacing is spot on.
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