The Lake Natoma Four Bridges Half Marathon was my first half marathon, three years ago. It remains my favorite half, likely because my first time out still remains my fastest half to date.As I thought I was doing CIM this year (I am not, as my coach said no-go due to the unexpected staph-induced break in training), I signed up for LN4B with the intent of using the race as part of my CIM training. As my marathon plans have been deferred until February, I decided to still participate, but to treat the day as a long training run.
Paul, Dian and I headed to Folsom on Saturday for race packet pick-up. Our road trip over was so much fun. I hadn't seen Paul and Di in a few weeks and it was nice to catch up in person.
The moment we pulled into registration and saw people walking out Dian and I let out a groan. The race shirts were hideous. They looked like pumpkins -- orange and black. Not attractive.
After an entertaining dinner at Bandera (can you say Perrier?), a local hot spot I had frequented in graduate school, we headed back to the hotel to turn in early in preparation for the race. I didn't realize how tired and worn down I was until I fell asleep just after 8 pm. SO SAD. A good night's sleep and a surprise visitor to cheer us on made for a perfect pre-race evening.
I learned an important lesson during the race today. While I am fit and have a strong aerobic base -- a base that allows me to participate in longer distance events with little training -- without discipline-specific training I will not excel. I had wanted to post a PR at this event. I knew that was not possible due to the unexpected break in my training, however I irrationally held out hope that I would still post a somewhat respectable time. That was not the case. I posted a faster time in a half in which I fractured my leg in two places at mile 11.
While I realized that I have a lot of work to do over the next few months, the day was also motivational. These types of revelations are what make me excel.
4 comments:
Some us learn those lessons over and over and over again. Something about putting on that race number and wanting to go hard regardless of shape. Too bad about the race shirt. My mom has two drawers full of race shirts I didn't want to keep.
Rick, speaking of race shirts... there was a guy out there racing yesterday in this year's Headland's 100 shirt. I recognized him from the race, but could not tell you who he was. Older gentleman, longish straight gray hair.
Hmmm don't know him. The 50-milers also got the same shirts. It was one shirt for the whole event. That's one shirt I'd love to redesign.
I think you should talk to PCTR about that! : )
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