Let me tell you guys a little lesson I learned this weekend.
Pacing is hard work. You are essentially running a race for two and trying to battle all of your own mental/physical weaknesses while doing so for the person you are pacing.
Ally was having a tough day and I was doing my absolute best to keep her motivated and positive. It became really difficult to do that around Mile 8 when my foot started hurting again and I started panicking about what that meant for my marathon training season and worrying about whether I should drop out.
Ally kept insisting that she could finish alone and I knew she could, but that wasn't what I was there for. My foot pain wasn't as terrible as it has been, so I pushed through. In all honesty though, if I wasn't with Ally, I would have dropped from the race at Mile 10 where we saw The Pilot and Metro'd home.
The race itself was fine. I don't remember much about the the course last year but I remember liking it better. Ally and I had fun reminiscing about all of the races we've run together and had fun out there.
I had a few complaints about the race itself.
- Water Stations: There definitely weren't enough. It looks like the volunteers for the Mile 7 aid station never showed up because there was 1 poor girl there trying to hand out water and gatorade. Then, the next station wasn't until Mile 11.
- The medal: The medal was nice, but seriously? Every Rock 'n' Roll medal I've gotten is exactly the same. It's getting boring.
- The shirt: Identical to the shirt from Philly. These races are close enough together that you would think a number of people would run both, so I wish they would have at least chosen a different color (which is saying a lot since it's my favorite color).
The signs though were awesome. "Due to sequestration, there are no porter potties. Unload at Capitol" and "Run like a Kenyan, drink like you're Irish" were my favorites.
As far as my foot is feeling...yesterday, I had pain in the morning and felt fine the rest of the day. Today, I feel fine. I'm planning to run after work to see how I'm feeling because, after all, I have another race this weekend.
And a marathon in 7 weeks which I've missed 3 weeks of training for.
I don't want to talk about it.
I do want to talk about how amazing this story is. Runners are truly an amazing bunch of people.
Pacing is hard work. You are essentially running a race for two and trying to battle all of your own mental/physical weaknesses while doing so for the person you are pacing.
Ally was having a tough day and I was doing my absolute best to keep her motivated and positive. It became really difficult to do that around Mile 8 when my foot started hurting again and I started panicking about what that meant for my marathon training season and worrying about whether I should drop out.
 |
| All Smiles. Clearly this was before the foot pain kicked in. |
The race itself was fine. I don't remember much about the the course last year but I remember liking it better. Ally and I had fun reminiscing about all of the races we've run together and had fun out there.
 |
| I kind of love this picture of us cruising to the Finish. |
- Water Stations: There definitely weren't enough. It looks like the volunteers for the Mile 7 aid station never showed up because there was 1 poor girl there trying to hand out water and gatorade. Then, the next station wasn't until Mile 11.
- The medal: The medal was nice, but seriously? Every Rock 'n' Roll medal I've gotten is exactly the same. It's getting boring.
- The shirt: Identical to the shirt from Philly. These races are close enough together that you would think a number of people would run both, so I wish they would have at least chosen a different color (which is saying a lot since it's my favorite color).
The signs though were awesome. "Due to sequestration, there are no porter potties. Unload at Capitol" and "Run like a Kenyan, drink like you're Irish" were my favorites.
 |
| Bests |
And a marathon in 7 weeks which I've missed 3 weeks of training for.
I don't want to talk about it.
I do want to talk about how amazing this story is. Runners are truly an amazing bunch of people.
Happy Monday!
Good race ladies, even though you had a tough day! too bad about the glitches but it still sounds like it was a fun (ish!) day :-)
ReplyDeleteLove you. So grateful to you dragging my undertrained ass through 13.1 miles. You're the best and I am so lucky to have you in my life!
ReplyDeletexoxox
Great pics of you girls! Kudos to you for pushing through the pain. Sounds like Ally is lucky to have you :)
ReplyDeleteOH no, sorry about the foot pain. I hope your run today went well. I'm not a big fan of RnR races due to the lack of personality. I also think they are kind of pricy. I ran Shamrock yesterday and it was awesome!!
ReplyDeleteMy favorite sign said "One thing sequestration didn't cut = the length of this race".
ReplyDeleteGood luck on your marathon - and your foot pain!!! :) :( (happy face for the marathon, sad face for the foot pain - in case you were wondering). Hang in there.
ReplyDeleteThat stinks about the pain and the water! No good. But it still sounds like you had a good time and were able to put another race in the books!
ReplyDeletewhere did you find those pictures online? i can't find mine! check out my DC half recap here: www.runningathousandmiles.com
ReplyDeleteall I know is it makes a Huge difference on him and keeping him running and his knees feeling better.
ReplyDeletehttp://www.footcentersofnc.com/doctors.html