Saturday P and I drove 45 minutes North to Rome, Ga. to run the inaurgual Berry College Half Marathon. P's a marathoner so this is old hat (and a short distance) for him. For me, not so much. I'd been consistently training since January and had two very strong 10 mile training runs prior to the race. The week leading up to the run was hectic and P had been fighting a cold. Friday was rather crazy for me...I attended a seminar with my students and dealt with a myriad of client projects, I didn't hydrate or eat enough and I was feeling pretty rough. Right from the start I felt bad. My legs were on fire and everything ached. I didn't anticipate having such a difficult time from the start...I figured once I hit 10 I might struggle a bit. P and I have run several times together and he paces me well and we just enjoy it. We started off strong...our first split was 9:02 our second was 9:10 and then he slowed us down to 9:25 but it didn't feel like we had slowed down. I couldn't get my breathing right and my legs felt like they were just going to give out on me. The frustration I felt was counterproductive so I tried pumping myself up but that wasn't working either. P was a great cheerleader...encouraging and pushing...but my body just wasn't in it. We finished a brutal 13.1 miles in just under 2:22. Completing our first half together was reason to celebrate. I just hated that I felt so awful the entire time. It turns out that I was running a low-grade fever during the run -- well, that certainly explains it!
P is beginning to get use to my "paparrazi-like" use of the camera. Us before the run...
After the run...man, I looked like I felt...like that course gave me a beating!
No comments:
Post a Comment