Skip to main content

Faster as a Master

I ran the Monumental Mile as a Master for the first time on Thursday. It's not that I am new to Masters racing. I haven't race the mile in three years, last time was right before my 40th birthday.

The mile scares and challenges me. If you can't run fast, run long - right? Well, that's what I do...but then there's the whole mile thing. Basically everybody runs it. Like 30+ from my team alone, plus other friends from clubs and other teams. 

So I did the track workouts that were supposed to help. I couldn't get my head in the right place. It didn't help that my open water swim on Monday set off an allergy reaction that I am still recovering from.

There were a lot of expectations around this race after my half marathons and 5K and 5 mile races since Ironman. Both mine and coach's. His were bigger than mine. I didn't believe (really) in either of them. That might have been part of the problem.

I got to the race in plenty of time since I work downtown and the race is two blocks from my office. I had time to change at the Y, buy a new hat at the downtown running store since I forgot one, and pick up my packet before most people even got there. After some team pictures and such it was time to head out for warmup. I did my three miles the way that the team had talked about on Tuesday. I double-checked that there was a timing mat at the start and it wouldn't only be gun time. I lined up with some teammates that are only a bit faster than I am (or a lot, depending on the distance). The gun went off. I crossed the mat and started my watch. I thought I was managing effort, but dang the first quarter mile was far...and then the second I was sucking wind...which was what warmup was supposed to prevent. I knew from the clocks that my time had slipped. I held on through the third quarter and ran what I had for the fourth. I came across at 9:02 on the clock...so I wanted to get my official time...I went over there and it was 8:59:48 - yay for under 9 (albeit barely and not enough to survive rounding).



Happy at the time even though I had fallen short of the goals. Well short. Disappointment hung in the air even as people were congratulating me on the PR...especially a 41 second PR at the mile. But I knew it wasn't enough. I hadn't been able to catch a teammate that I can outrun at half marathon either, she finished 3 seconds ahead of me. 

The next day I had a meltdown. I am still working though that. But in the end I ran a PR by 41 seconds and I am #fasterasamaster. Still slow as molasses.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Iron Rose 2020

  Some race reports are easier to write than others. Some take a while to process everything that happened. On September 26 th  I set out to do my own full Ironman distance triathlon (2.4 miles swim, 112 mile bike, 26.2 mile run). When coach at I first started talking about it we talked about maybe as a one day effort (race format) or three days (like some of the virtual options have been). My last big training weekend (biking 100 on Saturday, running 20 on Sunday, and swimming 2.2 miles open water on Monday) confirmed that I needed to shoot for single day because I had come so close to the three day in training. So we were full steam ahead with the plan already in motion. I had planned routes, marked my bike course, secured volunteers for aid stations (amazing people all around), dropped off aid bags…finished training and tapered.   Race morning Trena arrived at my house early and we headed over to Andy’s for the swim. Trena and Jen were doing safety kayaking for me. And...
Post a Comment
Read more

Vision 2020

I'm a planner. And a dork. And I wrote a lot of Vision 2020 plans around 2000 so now that it is 2020 everything feels weird. Ok, that's out of my system. Let's talk about 2020. I've already done a self-assessment of last year and met with coach to plan 2020. Everything is focused on Ironman Wisconsin on September 13.The milestones have been set, but there will be some infill along the way. Milestone 1: Carmel Marathon - I did a spring marathon (also Carmel) in 2018 ahead of Louisville and it seemed like a good idea to do that again. So for the 10th Carmel Marathon I am running the full. Spring marathons feel undertrained compared to fall because the time between recovering from fall and getting ramped up to multiple 20 mile training runs is not there. I take the spring effort as a see what happens sort of race. Must finish to keep the streak alive, but I will see how everything else unfolds. Milestone 2: TourdeLou - not so much of a race as a supported event ride ...
3 comments
Read more

I want it more: the road to IMLOU18

I've had a good training week.  My coach reviewed my past training block and had good things to say and was happy with my speedwork on Tuesday.  I had a strong long run today and was able to run negative splits during the "fast finish" portion of it.  Also several people said that I looked smaller every time they saw me or that I was the incredible shrinking woman.  All happy. Later I was texting with a friend who is one of my superheroes.  She said I reminded her that she needed to want it more than anything else.  We didn't say it, but we were talking about Ironman. It got me thinking about what I wanted it more than, I want to hear "Rose Scovel from Indianapolis, Indiana YOU are an IRONMAN" more than I want: Cookies Frosting Chips Fried food Milkshakes Alcohol Pizza Cinnamon toast Waffles Coffee cake Sleeping in on Saturday Being cool Being warm Being dry Smelling good Great hair Money/a higher paying job A new car A nice yard A s...
1 comment
Read more