This past Saturday, I ran the UAE Healthy Kidney 10K in Central Park. I never intended to go for a PR, but I did not expect to feel as badly as I did.
I started out with a friend, but as I expected, she pulled ahead of me almost immediately. We were also supposed to meet my friend Abbey, but we couldn't find each other at the start. I completed mile 1 in exactly 9 minutes, which is not a fast pace for me, but shortly afterwards I knew I was in trouble. I started to feel light headed and my legs felt like lead. I usually am very agressive/impatient and try to get around as many people as possible, so I knew things were bad when I didn't even want to bother trying.
Miles 2 & 3 were both done in around 9:30. I probably should have stopped for water, but I was worried that if I stopped, I wouldn't be able to get moving again, so I kept going. Then, miraculously, I caught a familiar face just up ahead of me. Hi Abbey!!!!! She had been running steady 9mm the whole time and had caught up to me. At the time, I was confused as to why she insisted that we were holding 9mm the entire time when my watch said otherwise, but now I realized that she crossed the start line after I did.
Thanks to Abbey's encouragement, we manage to stick to 9mm for the remainder for the race, and we even pushed it slightly at the very end, but it took everything I had. I was shaking at the end of the race, and the post run bagel / water was desperately needed.
I ended up finishing in 57:08 (9:12mm). If I had done this race before Scotland Run, I would have been very happy with this time, but since I PRd at Scotland with a 54:55, this was a dissapointing experience in comparison. On the other hand, I am proud of myself for pushing through and not DNFing (which I had thought about several times over the first few miles). Also, I ended up with a negative split, so there's another plus.
Miles 2 & 3 were both done in around 9:30. I probably should have stopped for water, but I was worried that if I stopped, I wouldn't be able to get moving again, so I kept going. Then, miraculously, I caught a familiar face just up ahead of me. Hi Abbey!!!!! She had been running steady 9mm the whole time and had caught up to me. At the time, I was confused as to why she insisted that we were holding 9mm the entire time when my watch said otherwise, but now I realized that she crossed the start line after I did.
Thanks to Abbey's encouragement, we manage to stick to 9mm for the remainder for the race, and we even pushed it slightly at the very end, but it took everything I had. I was shaking at the end of the race, and the post run bagel / water was desperately needed.
I ended up finishing in 57:08 (9:12mm). If I had done this race before Scotland Run, I would have been very happy with this time, but since I PRd at Scotland with a 54:55, this was a dissapointing experience in comparison. On the other hand, I am proud of myself for pushing through and not DNFing (which I had thought about several times over the first few miles). Also, I ended up with a negative split, so there's another plus.
Now it's time to look forward to the Brooklyn Half Saturday! I am trying to convince myself that finishing is the important thing, but a part of me knows that if I don't finish under 2 hours, I will be a little dissapointed with myself. We'll see what happens!
Sorry you weren't feeling great...but you still got a great finishing time, and another q knocked off..think positively!
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