Cowboy Hazel

Considering the condition of my foot, running the 10K today was admittedly not a smart decision. Then again, I've never claimed to be smart (especially not when it comes to running). The foot actually held up fairly well. Unfortunately, the rest of me didn't. I missed my P.R. time by almost half a minute and had to give an all-out effort to even get what I did. How all out, you ask? Well, I puked my guts out right after crossing the finishing line. Yikes. I can't even remember the last time I threw up... I think it's been years and I'm pretty sure the last one was because of boozing and not running.

A little personal back story on this race: At the end of last March, the Homecoming Scotland Run 10K was the first NYRR race that I ever ran. It was also the first time I raced in Manhattan and the first time I ever blogged about a race (here, in case you're interested or really bored.) So, I had extra incentive to run today – I really wanted to see how far my running had come in a year. Good news is that it has come a long way... Last year, I finished in 43:51, today I finished in 39:31, an improvement of almost four-and-a-half minutes. That's huge, especially when you consider that I wasn't even close to feeling 100% today.

I've been trying to use these shorter races as both speed work and as opportunities to experiment with diet, fueling, etc. This morning, I tried a slightly different pre-race routine (one which I won't be repeating). I've noticed that I do much better when I have a very light breakfast, so today I decided to try no breakfast. I woke up at 7:00 (so I'd have time to get everything moving, especially since I didn't run yesterday), made a pot of coffee, and had a leisurely morning. Then, a half hour before the start of the race, I had a single PowerBar gel.

Of course, a half hour before the race, I was standing in the midst of a huge mud pit, getting soaked with rain. I was a little late getting over to the baggage check, so I ran back to the starting line and everything felt good in the legs then. The starting chute was so annoying – people kept cutting in front of us as we were lined up. I understand that everyone's trying to get their fastest times, but so are we (the people you're cutting in front of). Unless you're running sub-5's, don't be cutting in front of everyone. A note: most of the people cutting position were not even that fast. I recognized several of them as I passed them in the first couple miles.

Those first couple miles actually went very well despite the contact and the assholes who kept trying to box me out (seriously, folks, this is not NASCAR, chill out). According to Guadalupe, I ran 6:08, 6:06, and 6:10 the first three miles. The fourth is where it got messy... Coming up that second big hill, I just died and my pace for the mile plummeted to 6:53. I recovered somewhat and ran the next two in 6:15 and 6:25 but it was such a struggle.

Then, right after the 6 mile marker I completely bonked. Seriously, if the finish line was another quarter mile off, I don't think I would have made it. I came so close to quitting then because I was just so spent that I felt like I was about to pass out. I actually worried about that and how embarrassing it would be to pass out at the end of a 10K. I mean, who does that? I managed to limp over the finish line and then promptly threw up everything that was inside me. Fortunately, there wasn't a lot.

I grabbed a bagel, dug through the mountain of bags to find mine (slathered in mud by this point), and retreated back to the subway as quick as possible. I've never been so happy to get home and get into a hot shower. Although the rain didn't really bother me at first, I was so soaked and cold by the time I got home that I could barely move my hands to open up my front door. I'm still shivering even though I have two layers of sweats on.

So, to sum it all up: I'm happy with today's run even though I didn't get the P.R. I feel like I tried as hard as I could and that's all I can really ask for. Even now, my foot isn't as swollen as it was yesterday, so I'm very happy about that. But it has started to make this grating noise when I bend my toes (which has me nervous). I have a 20-22 miler on the calendar for tomorrow, but am not sure how that's gonna go. If it happens, it will definitely be slow.

Oh, and I didn't win the trip to Scotland... Originally I had thought, Hey, because of the rain, no one will be hanging out afterwards and I might actually have a chance of winning the raffle. Well, because of the rain, I wasn't hanging out afterwards either.

Have a good weekend everyone.