Sunday, January 23, 2011

The 1st Trail Race

Greetings All -

So the first trail race was this past Saturday....   The weather has been working against me for the last couple of weeks and I was not able to actually check out what the map looked like prior to the race.  The whitewater center trails have been closed for several weeks.   I was anticipating slippery conditions.  My goals were simple as I was considering this "practice" for the trail series that starts in March.

  1. Do not FACEPLANT (visions of chipping a front tooth kept coming to mind)
  2. Do not twist or sprain an ankle (I consider this not as bad as my chip tooth fear)
  3. Finish
Normally I say Finish and not finish last but hey I was trying to keep those expectations low like I do at work.  I did not finished last but I was damn close to last.

So...how did I do?  Well, I met all 3 goals successfully but I was not very happy with myself afterwards.   My head was definitely not in the game. I should have been at least 8-10 minutes faster on my time.  I had a bad week (brother in hospital - he's ok) and rattled at work a bit.  On Friday I ran with my trainer Kelly the Magnificent and could definitely tell I had a focus problem.   I guess I know now how important having your head in the game is prior to trying to kill yourself on a run.   This also was the first race I attempted without my ipod.  That was one of the rules (they want you to be able to hear if someone is trying to pass you), however there were plenty of rulebreakers with ipods.   I am comfortable with being a rulebreaker (all that morally flexibility you know) so I think I will having the ipod with me next time.   Biggest lesson learned: focus on the task at hand not the assholes in your life when you are running race.

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