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More proof that running is mental (another "sort of" race report)

If you follow me on Instagram, you know I started a new training plan yesterday. I needed something to get me out the door. Something to work on and toward. 

Last week began with physical therapy and my doctor telling me to take a few days off. My SI joints had decided they like locking up a few weeks before and weren't cooperating after running my second marathon in three weeks. So I took a few days off and ran again on Wednesday. My runs on Wednesday and Thursday were good but not great. And Friday I ran with the cross country team, but my heart just wasn't in it. Saturday I was supposed to run 10 miles, but I slept in and didn't get started until almost noon. The only thing I had eaten is a banana, which works great if I am running first thing in the morning. Three miles in I knew it was going to be cut short. I stopped and called it at four miles.

All this came the week after the St. George marathon, which itself was a challenge. I'm looking at it as a learning experience and another great lesson on how mental this running thing is. In the days before the race, I just wasn't excited. I was battling hip and sciatic pain, I was coming off the huge high of my PR/BQ at Big Cottonwood Marathon just three weeks before, and I just really didn't want to run another marathon already. 

When my leg and hip started bothering me two miles in, I started questioning if I should even finish. Seeing my little family at mile 7 just before the infamous Veyo hill got me up and over it. But then I went to put my sunglasses on at the top and one of the lenses had fallen out. I chucked my sunglasses and found myself staring longingly at the shuttles whenever they would come by with injured racers heading to the finish. I debated flagging them down more than once.

Sights like this helped push me through some other tough spots:


I seriously have the best little support crew. They made signs...

And shirts...

And made me smile at the finish...


But my heart just wasn't ever in it. It was hard to even be happy about my 3:29:17 finish time because it just wasn't the race it should have been. 

So now it's time to look ahead and move forward. That is one of my favorite hashtags after all...#keepmovingforward. Those words are also hanging above my treadmill. So with a big year behind me so far, I plan to finish it strong. 

Comments

  1. don't get the post marathon blues! you didn't give up and ran it :)

    Melissa

    www.theredheadedrunner.com

    ReplyDelete
  2. 3:29 finish?!?!? WOMAN YOU ARE AMAZING!!!!!!!!!!!!! Please, please, please take a few days but then come back and celebrate yourself on this race!!!

    ReplyDelete
  3. Maybe you should take a month or 2 off? I don't understand the despondency at a 3:29 finish - unless you are worried that you might be injured for a while. 3:29 is a phenomenal time for you.

    ReplyDelete

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