Saturday, Sep 27:
Really tired after the overnight flight. Napped at home after restocking my fridge, woke to cloudy skies and fresh legs - perfect. Ran a moderate 8.4 mi in 1:16:10, 9:03 ave, at the park... I would've liked to go longer, but the sun was too far down to see safely. Loop splits> 7:27, 7:13, 7:13, 7:12, 7:05, 7:02, 6:52, 6:47, 6:40, 6:34, 6:21.
Sunday, Sep 26:
First Zombies in a long time, due to being away. 6.0 in 51:02, 8:24 ave, at the park again. The New Balance 858s that I went with for this run cause blisters after a while... stiff shoes, too. I use it because I have it, though. Run felt good, otherwise.
Tuesday, Sep 30:
Since I wouldn't be doing intervals close to a race (haven't done them in a long time, due to travel), I decided to breathe through my nose only, 1.5 mi into the run, getting a total of 3.5 mi of nose breathing. I was breathing hard in the last mile. 5.0 in 40:48, 8:10 ave, 3 degree incline. Splits> 8:26, 8:14, 8:13, 8:06, 7:46.
Wednesday, Oct 1:
Held my breath the whole time, this time. I had almost decided to skip the run, because I was tired, and I had some concerns about my left plantar, but it was fine. Ran easy, and held back, for the race. 4.5 in 37:26, 8:19 ave, 3 degrees of incline. Splits> 8:29, 8:27, 8:26, 8:07, 3:54 for 0.5.
THE RACE:
After getting a 19:49 PR about a month ago in hot temps, I was hoping to confirm that this wasn't a fluke. I was eager to see what would happen. I also wanted to win, haha, moreso than confirming the PR, though it should be the other way around. At the starting line, I saw a GTC Elite woman, though, and knew that that probably meant no 1st.... there were many other fast-looking women, too.
Went off... there were about 4 ahead of me for the first 0.75 mi, but I was 2nd after that... I saw the GTC Elite woman in the first hundred feet, but she was gone after that, haha. She ended up running just over 17:00! My right hip was stiff, and I especially felt it on cambered roads, but it at least held up. I ended up going 20:46, 6:42 pace. It was ok, because it was just above my previous PR of 20:40, but it's still a minute slower than the race from a month ago. Some days, you have it, some days, you don't. One difference was that there weren't other women around me to drive my competitive spirit, since this was a less crowded race... I also wasn't in fear of losing a beer-related prize, like I was last time. Once I was comfortably in 2nd, I just had to finish.
Earlier that day, I had read a story cited by Joe DeSena's Spartan Up, which talked of a king who purposefully put a boulder in the middle of the road going towards his city, to test his people. His officials just went around it. His noblemen complained about how the King wasn't taking good care of the roads. Then, a peasant came across it and started trying to move it. When he moved the boulder, he found underneath it some gold coins, and a note from the king, saying that the coins were for the person who decided to help and move the boulder.
During the race, there was a group of girls with signs, one of which said "Run for the King". It reminded me of the story that I had read, and how even the seemingly non-spiritual, mundane things that we do can give glory to the King. I pushed through the discomfort with that in mind, in the last 0.5 mi of the race.
Splits> 6:47, 6:52, 7:05 for 1.1.
AFTER PARTY:
Went to the Greer Octoberfest. Learned a bar game, where you try to flip successively greater numbers of beer mats and catch them in one hand... got to about 4. Apparently, the winner of a contest earlier in the day did 35! How do you even hold 35 mats in your hand at one time? It was a chilly night, but the music and dancing were fun enough to watch in shorts and a t-shirt, anyway.
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