I have a race of my own to report on

As the phrase is these days, "I did a thing!" And that thing was, stay injury free for at least a month and participate in a race. I pulled my hamstring on October 5, took 3 weeks off with a few rides and even a swim, then did a few walk-jogs before jumping right  into a full on long run on November 5. Seriously, I ran two times that week and then went 13 miles. I figured if I could survive another month, I'd do the Blue & Gray Half on Sunday, December 4. I told my new watch that I wanted to do this activity and it told me I was going to run slowly. 

My training plan was to listen to the watch's coaching daily suggestions. Most days, it told me to run 8:45 pace for about 40 minutes. I never did that. I'd look ahead to see it would tell me to do some sprinting workouts (10 x 15 seconds at 4:15 pace) or to do a long run, but then I'd take the next two days off and the workouts would disappear. I think the only time I actually listened to the watch was on Thursday, December 1. 10 minute warm up, 20 minutes at 7:00 (tempo pace, allegedly), 10 minutes down. I did it, but struggled to run within the desired range of 6:45-7 something. It was too fast (pats self on back.) So that was it, I was trained and ready to run the half. My coach (re: watch) thought I'd run 1:27-mid.

Graham believed in me though. He thought that I'd be able to run faster than that, but wasn't quite sold on my belief that muscle memory would get me into the low 6's. I was cautiously optimistic, giving KC estimated times around the course in the 6:20-6:30 range. I decided to wear Tim's Alphaflys to give myself the best chance of success, and the weather turned out to be warm enough that I went straight singlet and gloves.

I got an exciting text on race week that Sallie and Chris Post would be joining me on race day-- Chris racing and Sallie long-running/spectating. They met me at my house at 6am, and honestly, running away from the house with Chris to warm up was the highlight of the morning-- just having someone to run with from my doorstep again. The warmup was everything I could have possibly hoped-- brief, filled with conversation, and uneventful. We grabbed Sallie along the way once she was parked behind my car, and wrapped up pretty quickly. I knew that my body could sense that a hard effort was coming, because I started to get some lower back pain. Typical.

It was very cold, but sunny and calm. As we approached gun time and I started to strip down, the national anthem began to play and I worried that I'd somehow lost 5 minutes, or they'd elected to start early because of a dog parade or something on the canal path later that day. Needless to say, the race did not go off early and I made it to the line just fine. Brian Flynn was doing strides off the line as I walked down the hill to make my way there. We exchanged pleasantries and then I moved on to Chris, where I jokingly confirmed to him my earlier suspicion that Brian would be there. Then Chris went off to do strides (notice that I am not doing that) and Brian asked me who he was. I wish I'd told him that he was a super fast out of towner, but I told him his name and said not to worry. I didn't recognize anyone else of consequence around the starting area. I saw the race director and thanked her for the entry to the race, even if my finish would be inconsequential.