When I registered for the Denver Rock n Roll Half, it was going to be my A race for the fall. But with a bad spring marathon, training burnout, an injury and a focus on other non-running related things in my life, that plan fell to the wayside. While it has been nice to not follow a training plan religiously the last few months, this Saturday will be the first race I’m heading into completely unsure of what will happen.
The Fans of the Field 10k was a good test run to see how 8:50-9 minute miles feel these days. It did feel doable to hold that pace for longer (especially since I was feeling pretty ill that race day), so that was a little bit of a confidence boost. But the fact that my longest run for this race was 10 miles and it was 3 weeks before race day is less than reassuring.
I’m more worried about my IT band problems coming back than I am finishing (the last few miles are downhill – which always irritates it more). If it starts to hurt, I fully intend on pulling out of the race.
I’d love to break 2 hours, simply because I have broken 2 hours in every half marathon except one. That race was a half in Ft. Lauderdale in February 2010, right before I started blogging. I was there for a friend’s wedding and training for my first marathon, so I registered for the race to do as a training run. I completely overdressed and a few miles in stopped to take off my jacket and re-do my bib (so dumb). Then about halfway through the race I got a very bad blister – bad enough that it bled through my shoe. As a result, I had to do a lot of walk/run intervals for that race and finished in 2:00:43…so close.
Either way, I think after this race I may be ready to get into more regular running and training again. A lot of the blogs I read are coming to their peak of fall marathon training, and I am finding myself a little envious of that feeling of accomplishment. I’m going to hold out on registering for any fulls for now, but I plan on filling up my fall with shorter races.
With that said, my most important goal is to finish the race injury-free so I can focus on running for the rest of 2012.
Good luck, good luck! I hope all goes smoothly and injury free-ly.
I am planning to hang out and cheer in front of the Denver Bicycle Cafe on 17th (I think it’s just past the mile 4 marker).
Have a great race – I hope your IT band holds out!
You inspired me to start my own blog. I’m an avid runner and love networking with likeminded people. Check it out zinnrunning.blogspot.com
You inspired me to start my own blog. I’m an avid runner and love networking with likeminded people. Check it out