Yesterday I ran the Clarksburg Country Run Half Marathon (The picture on top is of me and my mom, who came to support me).
Here is the summary of the run from the Runkeeper app:
I ran this run four minutes faster than my previous best, back in March. It’s both thrilling and humbling.
What was thrilling:
- increasing my personal best.
- that I ran so well the day after an intense weekend of shows (which also were thrilling).
- that a half marathon no longer feels as daunting as it once was. I have been increasing my longest distance: I did my first ever 16 mile run a few weeks ago. I am aiming to increase to 20 miles in the next year. In some weird way, this half marathon (13.1 miles) almost felt psychologically more like a 10k (which is about half as long).
- spending the second half of the running faster and faster, due to pacing myself well.
What was humbling:
- being passed up by what seemed like hundreds of runners in the first ten minutes. My strategy was to run conservatively for the first few miles to ensure that I had enough in the tank. This certainly paid off (as mentioned above), but I had to swallow my pride a bit and stay focused as the other runners passed me.
- (despite my personal record), performing toward the back of the pack: 15 out of 24 in my age category for males, and 106 out of 162 of all males. Dang it!*
*Note: it feels kind of stupid complaining about this. I know I shouldn’t be doing it! Throughout the race I reminded myself that I was there to run my own race. And I did so. I run for the joy, the satisfaction, and the sense of personal achievement.
Not to try to be better than others. 🙁
And that is what I shall continue doing. Running my own race. Not ruining it by comparison or competition! That just sucks.
Oh well. The bottom line is, despite the negative head trash, I finished my 4th Half Marathon, and I knocked it out of the park! Yee haw!