Pity Party of One right here…
Today I ran the Mountain Goat race here in Syracuse (NY). It’s one of the most difficult races I have ever ran because of the 4 major inclines in the race. Last year I ran the race in a time of 1:32:15 – roughly a 9:13 pace. (I clocked the time on my watch – had a bathroom stop around mile 7 that their timers can’t really account for). After that race I was talking to a friend and had mentioned how my ultimate goal has been to finish this race in under 90 minutes (9:00 pace). Something completely doable. Plenty of people do this every year, and I do believe that it is within reach for me…with a great deal of training.
This year I finished in an Actual Time of 1:38:44 (9:53 pace). Had another bathroom stop once again though so my watch had a time of 1:37:20 (9:33 pace). Definitely a far cry from the time I was shooting for.
With the new job I started at the beginning of the year it’s really allowed me to train on a regular basis. Before it would just go in spurts. I logged more long runs than I have in the past, but it just wasn’t enough. It bugs the crap out of me that I missed the mark by so much.
Even worse was how I actually ran the race. The first mile was pretty solid at an 8:34 pace. Right where I wanted to be to start out. Mile 2 brings one of the first hills – 9:12 pace. Third mile is yet another incline – 9:44 pace. Mile 4 wasn’t so bad, somewhere around an 8:59 pace. Turns out that would be the last time I would see an 8 on the watch. Everything after that was 9 minutes or higher even. I just couldn’t seem to get mentally in the zone from the start. I started letting things get into my head, walking here and there…just I don’t know.
So in the end of it all, it was far from one of my better races for sure. I need to really just put it behind me and start looking towards the 10k I am running at the beginning of June. I am hoping to continue to get some long runs in just in case I sign up for the 4th of July 10 mile in Cazenovia, but also time to start riding my bike again to get ready for the 40 mile ride I’m doing at the end of June.
