Race Update - THE BEAR - Assault on Grandfather Mountain

As most of you know back in February I signed up to run the Bear at the Grandfather Mountain Highland Games.  Oh my how time flies, before I knew it the race was upon me.   Now this is no ordinary five mile race as you can tell by the image above.

I rested most of the day because the race starts at 7pm.    I knew two other people that were planning on running it as well and spent most of the day anticipating their arrival.  We picked up our packets, stretched and talked a bit before start time.  The organizers cut off registration at 800 and the race filled up months ago.   There really wasn't a "start line", just a guy will a loud bullhorn tell us to keep out of the road until he directed.  All of a sudden we were off, and up the hill we went.  Very shortly we turned a corner to start our way up a winding road.   I had ran this part of the route on Monday and it certainly was tough.    I tried to keep the eye on the prize.   My goal was not to picked up by the sag wagon.  To prevent that runners must be at mile 3 in 50 minutes or less.    Normally that's not a big deal but when all you can see is a steep grade....hmm...let's just say I was really focused on mile 3.    After the side road the race leads you thru the campground.  This was great because I really enjoyed hearing my fan club cheer me on.  And at that point I really need the encouragement.   Next up we were on the track around the MacRae Meadows - nice time to catch my breath.  Then the real fun started up a grass hill to the blacktop...the blacktop that led to the top of Grandfather Mountain.  OMG - I thought it would never end.   The last mile of that race was the hardest I have experienced.   Normally when I see the finish line I can pull out a little more juice.  Not so much this time around.   There was more walking than I would have liked but at that point, everyone around me was walking.   BUT............I FINISHED!  It was worth every step.  I even got a little medal to prove it too.  Yay me!

A shout out to Kirk and Dave  - Without them I might have not made it up the hill.   And thanks for waiting for me at the top (er...even though you didn't have a choice and I had the car keys).

Kirk, Dave

Maybe just maybe I will run it again next year......

Overcoming the Upper Limit - Mental Toughness

It's been a while since my last posting.  I've had a lot of challenges.  Ever since the RiverBound 10K I've been going backwards.   I could not understand why since basically my whole training plan is building blocks of miles.  This is a proven strategy.  So why was I having so much trouble?


At one point I actually sat down in the trail during a run said I cant do this and declared I was done.  Lucky for me my trainer Kelly was with me.  He had repeatedly said that physically there was no reason why I could not complete the run.   And unless I was partying it up and lying to him about my homework - this had to be MENTAL.  I had hit a wall.  My mileage went down as well as my times.  The worse the session, the more confidence I had in anything I could do got sucked away.  At some point I wasn't even running a mile before stopping and walking.


Well, crap.   Mental.  That  sucked.  That really sucked because I wasn't entirely sure what was wrong so how the heck was I was going to fix it.   Even now that I'm working on this problem I still think this sucks.


Enter Laura - she's like a combination of sunshine and a stern fairy godmother rolled into one.   She helped me see I clearly had hit an upper limit problem.   I clearly was comfortable with the fact that I was capable of reaching my 5K goal and I had even achieved the 10K on the road.  But I really struggled with the 10K trail.  Instead of overcoming and moving on - I hit my limit.  And thus, the self-sabotaging started.   I'm really good at this!  :-)   Every run after that trail race that little voice got louder and louder.  "You can't do this, you have never been good at any sports, you're over 40 why are you even out here, remember how the kids pointed and laughed at you".  Yep - not that I have this market cornered on negative self talk but I do ok.


Well screw you little voice.  And screw you upper limit.   I'm not quitting on my training plan.  I'm not backing out of my race schedule.  I'm not the fastest peep out there but I am not going to quit.


Today I did not run on a trail.  I ran a 5K distance on a greenway.  I did not suck.  I finished and I did it around my PR time.   So yeah I'm coming for you "upper limit" and you better be ready cause I'm going to busting thru you.   And little voice - if you don't have anything nice to say - park it and shut the hell up.


Next up: Grandfather Mountain's Bear Run - 5 miles straight up the mountain.