That's actually been a key element of my training, the mental strength workouts. I know my body is strong and fast enough to hit the time goals I set for myself; but mentally I have a tendency to get in my own way. I overthink things, and psyche myself out of what should be a victory. Ashley's been helping me get around that. At our last session before today's race, in fact, we spent some time going over ways the race would be similar to a regular weekend long run: since Runner's Edge was doing it as a training race, I'd have plenty of friends around to offer encouragement and support, and help me push myself. Plus, having run the race a couple of times before, I'm familiar with it and would know what to expect. It really helped set my mind at ease.
Last night I barely slept at all for nervous excitement. This morning I was up at 3:30 to get ready. I'd arranged to carpool with some friends from Stapleton, which necessitated the early wake-up call. But a can of (flat) soda gave me enough caffeine to start the day, and I knew my excitement would build and keep me awake as start time drew closer. (By the way, the flat soda is something else I'm trying this year. I don't drink coffee, but I've found that a jolt of caffeine in the morning before a long run helps get me moving. I let it go flat so the carbonation doesn't cause me issues, either. I read that some of the elites do this, and thought I'd try it; so far, I've had good experiences with it. Plus it's like the only soda I drink during the week anymore.)
Prior to today I put together my splits for the race:
| Mile | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 | 13 | .1 |
| Pace | 8:53 | 8:38 | 8:23 | 8:18 | 8:13 | 8:13 | 8:13 | 8:18 | 8:18 | 8:18 | 8:23 | 8:23 | 8:23 | FAST |
I covered my first mile in 8:54. I'd put myself very close to the start so that I'd have an easier time of getting up to speed. I felt strong and fast (in fact I had to work on pulling myself back occasionally, so I wouldn't burn out too quickly). I exchanged greetings and shouts of encouragement with my friends as I passed them (or they passed me) as we wound our way through Georgetown.
Knowing that I would need it later, I began reciting a mantra in my head with each step: "Pain is Temporary, Glory is Forever." Actually, to keep it in rhythm with the cadence of my footstrikes, it got shortened to "Pain temp'ry, glory f'rev'r."
Over the next few miles I increased speed on schedule. Actually some of my splits were a bit faster than I'd intended; I was mildly worried about that but figured I'd slow down as I went through the aid stations enough to balance things out.
I continued to tear up the course, averaging about 8:20 per mile. As I ran I repeated my mantra, interchanging it with another inspired by a t-shirt I'd seen about mile 4: "Pain is Just Weakness Leaving the Body." I also took great delight in seeing so many Runner's Edge shirts on the course, running with some, passing some, being passed by others (and those that passed me pushed me--without knowing it--to run a little faster for a while, to try and keep pace with them). I was having a great race and feeling fantastic. The sun was shining, and even though that was warming things up, there was a cool breeze blowing that balanced it out very nicely. I felt strong and speedy and unstoppable. I was maybe a minute or so ahead of schedule, and even thought that a sub-1:48 finish could be in the cards.
This almost euphoric feeling in my race continued through the first 10 miles. But at mile 11 I finally started to feel tired, and my pace started to slip. I could feel myself slowing down, but didn't worry too much about it because a)I was a bit ahead of my pace, and b)I had built a slowdown into the last 3 miles anyway. But I didn't realize how much I'd slowed down until I finished that mile in 8:46, more than 20 seconds behind what I'd wanted. I pushed harder, but only managed to finish mile 12 four seconds faster. At that point I glanced at my watch and saw that I had less than 10 minutes left to finish.
It was time to rally. I focused all my energy on picking up speed, increasing turnover and pushing myself forward over that last rolling mile. With a quarter mile to go I saw Coach David and some other Runner's Edge folks cheering and taking pictures. That plus the sight of the crowd at the turn to the finish helped a lot. Suddenly I didn't feel tired or heavy as I had over the last two miles. I felt strong and fast and invincible. I wasn't looking at my watch, but I knew that I was going to come in under my goal.
I flew around the last corner and saw the finish line. I put on my final burst of speed and crossed the finish line, arms upraised triumphantly. I checked my watch, and sure enough I had reached my goal: I'd finished under one hour and 50 minutes.
Now that I've hit that goal, I'm more confident than ever (and I was already plenty confident) that I will break 4 hours when I run the Chicago marathon in October. I've even been thinking about just going for broke and shooting for 3:50 (although one of my running idols was quick to say, "Take it one step at a time, Doug The Doug. Break 4, then worry about breaking 3:50"). Either way, this race was a tremendous shot in the arm and a huge accomplishment for me, and I'm ridiculously proud of how I did.
Official Time: 1:49:18
YTD Race Miles: 119.2
YTD Total Miles: 816.5
Countdown to Chicago: 57 days...
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