Satisfaction

I finally found some peace with the RRS half marathon.  For years, I have struggled with this course.  I have had personal worsts, bonks, and general grumpiness on it.  I could never figure out why, as it is an out and back course with a few rollers.  It can be boring, yes.  But generally, everyone seems to run well on it.  Everyone except me, it seems.  I have had some PWs on this course, even during my fittest times.  The course and I just have not been friends. 

Sunday I went to the race with a plan.  I was "supposed" to do a training run...warm up 4-5 miles/tempo 4-5 miles/cool down.  But, for the first time in many months, I got almost a full night of sleep.  I get to the race and the temps are in the 30s and there is hardly any wind.  The sky was cloudless and beautiful.  It was just another great day to run.  In my mind, I started making exceptions to my training plan.  Afterall, who wants to waste a perfect race day?

So, I sort of stuck to the plan.  I did start off slower, and I let my friends and friendly competition get out of sight.  (I was giving myself imaginary pats on my back for *being good*).  I will admit my warm up miles- while they were slower than race pace- were not exactly my normal warm up pace.  I normally warm up at a sloth pace, but it is hard to do that when you are surrounded by hundreds of people.  Then I hit the tempo miles, and I ran them as planned and started moving through the crowd. 

And miles 9-10 came, and I was supposed to cool down.  And I did slow down, about a fraction of a fraction.  But then I would see people ahead of me and try to catch them.   Finally I just gave up, admitted that I didn't want to slow down and was going to disobey the cool down part of the workout, and just ran it in. 

It was just one of those days where I was enjoying the run.  I finished with a huge smile, lots of thanks, and happiness that I continue to get stronger and make progress.  I think I am still in that phase where I have zero expectations with my racing.  And for this day, going into the run with a training purpose lifted the pressure off of me to run a certain time.  Even though I fell one more place in the AG standings, I was more than pleased with my time and felt completely at peace with the course, my time, and my body.  I am not even sure I need to run the 2nd half marathon, as I don't want to ruin my new friendship with this stretch of highway. 

Cheers to happy running and satisfying miles.