Thousand Miles to Salamanca

Costly

LOG ENTRY

Distance: 12.4 miles

Today's race was, well, the best word I can come up with is: uncomfortable^2. In retrospect I shouldn't have done it. But I guess I did it because I believe racing more is a good thing for me. In retrospect, I wouldn't have laced 'em up this morning.

The story. Got to the Convention Center on time, and was in a good mood thanks to: "Sam's Town" spinning in the old CD player. Bitter cold. Didn't warmup. Big mistake.

The race: Took a full 4.5 miles for my ankles to wake up. It was awful. Note to self: warm-up. I never thought they would.

Here's some splits: 6:31, 7:12, 7:39, 7:50, 7:15, 7:10, 8:17, 6:50, 6:51, 7:17, 7:34, 7:59, 3:09

Started too fast but maintained what I thought was a consistent effort through mile 4. To say the wind was tough is an understatement. Was quite surprised how slow 4 was. when I was passed up by a group of about 10 people, I consciously picked it up eventhough I knew it wasn't my day. Miles 5 and 6 weren't bad. But just after six, at the Gazelle waterstop, I choked on a package of Eneverit and threw-up. I pulled behind the array of Gazelles passing out water and let it flow for about a minute and a half. I briefly thought about asking someone for some clothes and passing out water but just started running again.

I was warmed up at this point, ready to get the run overwith, when I started "cheating on the hills" by running up them on my toes. That was something that proved costly. Finished it in 1:31.38.

After getting dressed, I realized I couldn't step on my left foot. Tried to run, but couldn't. Was able to hobble back to the car and head home.

I don't know how this happened, but this was actually a PR for the 20K distance. The cost of this, is, well, we'll see...

posted by Gray @ 5:46 PM