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 wor