I needed that (7-4-09)

Today I did exactly what I set out to accomplish. Exactly. 1:25 exactly. 8:30/mile exactly. (The official, non-chipped time was 1:25.36; I started 20 seconds back in the pack so we will go with close enough :) )

Beforehand, I had to fend off the following doubting Thomases in my head:

1. Stomach churning + two bathroom visits + two Imodiums (Imodia?) before the race = I am never going to make it. There will not be any place for me to go. I will be crumpled over in agony and left to die out in a very compromising position in a field in Hilliard. (If you are not a fan of TMI, you might not want to read this blog. Sorry!)

2. IPod fail, of the oh-crap-my-Meg-Cabot-audiobook-is-still-on-here-rather-than-the-fab-playlist-I-created variety = I will be bored to death and unmotivated, unable to blast out the above negative thoughts.

I was thisclose to holding off and running with the 5K-ers, but TNT saved my tush. This run was really important to my training, and I did not want to let you, dear supporters, down.

And I hope I did not. I accomplished my goals: both my time goal and my do not stop at all goal.

Notes to self to remember:

1.I was patient the first two miles, not letting my nerves take me out too fast. Almost halfway, I felt a little queasy, so I backed off. And that was okay.

2.Not having an iPod actually was not too bad; the setting of the race was a little, ahem, boring, but serene, and it was nice to have the awareness of what was going on (or not) around me and to just relax without the noise of music.

3.It was good for me mentally to break the event up mile by mile, resetting my watch at each mile marker.

4.I stopped at each water station, grabbed Gatorade (no other nutritional product and no water), and walked as I drank it. Much better strategy than not stopping and/or gulping half of it and inadvertently sloshing the other half all over my person in an attempt to save a few seconds. Also, I did not have a GI revolt. Woot!

So it was a terrific morning. In the few moments of desperation (at one point I did think, Hm, if I just stopped here, maybe one of the bikers on the trail would pick me up.), I adjusted my perspective (Dood you are not going through chemotherapy. Chill.) and just tried to enjoy myself. I had some nice camaraderie with other ladies in the race; the running community is so wonderful. Additionally, one of the rockstars from TNT 08 was working a water station, so that gave me a nice point to work toward the second half (Thanks, Lisa! Remember when you dragged me through my first two miles around Antrim? You are awesome!). I have been stretching and rolling out my IT band this afternoon (stupid IT band), will do Pilates to get stretched out tomorrow, and then back to regular training on Monday.