It’s been a while since I blogged but Saturday was an
absolutely remarkable day for me and I really wanted to capture a race recap
and some thoughts while they are fresh in my mind. Since becoming a part of rabbitElite back in
May there was a good couple of months where I put unnecessary amounts of
pressure on myself to perform. I wanted
to live up to the name and I felt I had more prove myself again and again. For a 6-week period leading up to Boilermaker
15k, I put immense pressure on every race.
I had to hit goals, I HAD to now to measure up, or to prove myself to
everyone. Race after race I fell flat on
those goals, I felt horrible during the race, and then felt pretty sorry for
myself post-race. Luckily as I have
mentioned many times my coach is perfectly suited to handle this and many times
just kept posting subtle reminders to love myself, laugh off life, not take any
of this too seriously. After Boilermaker
we shut down racing for a bit, I wanted an aggressive Fall with races almost
every weekend and he was nice enough to talk me out of it. We put some races on the calendar but no
pressure, train through races just to get me back to how I was earlier this
year, enjoying running.
As my fall marched on towards California International Marathon,
I had 3 races lined up: Navy AirForce Half Marathon, Army 10 Miler and Richmond
Half. The first two I’ve posted about
but the weather for both of those was 70+ degrees with around 95% humidity and
both I was very happy with. As we got
close to Richmond, I was feeling more like myself from earlier this year. I was not stressing paces, times, workouts. I was just running and enjoying
everything. I’ve posted about the week
leading up to my race before so I will not go into that but I really had no
expectations going into this race. A PR
was definitely in play (1:13:31 from earlier this year) or just a solid race to
keep building on. It would just depend
on my back and how I felt, but I knew no matter what I was going to have a fun
time down in Richmond with my large group of friends.
So, race morning I got up and popped two Aleve and stumbled
around to figure out what to wear. I was
nice enough to have a friend Emily Ballantyne to stay with while in Richmond
and she was an amazing host, helping me get situated in the morning. We left her place and warmed up to the start
line and my back was tight, ugh… Met up
with some friends at the start line and finished my warm up did some strides
and figured I’d give this thing a go. I
pulled out my secret weapon my Nike Vaporflys and as soon as I put them on I just
felt fast and everything else about my back left my mind. I did some strides and got to the start line
and off the gun went and at this point anything was possible but I was in it.
I like to look at Half marathons in pieces, the first 5k is
just get out comfortable, pack in, don’t worry too much about anything and just
get ready. Then after that 10 miles is
more manageable, but for Richmond all everyone told me was the last 5k was fast,
so I knew I just had to get to 10 miles in a solid time and the course would do
the rest. I settled in early as leaders
just took off, and I found a nice pack of 7 or 8 runners and I tucked in as
there was some wind. Around two miles Charlie broke the pack a little and 3 of us crested a hill and then went down
a road for an out and back. On our way back, the pack a little again and it was just 2 of us heading towards 5
miles when I excitedly saw Cheryl who has photographed so many of my races this
year with the absolute more amazing photos!
I focused on looking good, you know for the gram. Rolled through 5 miles in around 27:15 and
then put my head down as we headed into the park. A nice pack of 3 of us worked together in the
park and it was so awesome. Each one of
us at a different time pushing the pace while the rest of the group followed
along and it really helped me on these rolling miles as none of us wanted to
let our pace drop. And the splits kept
rolling off nice and easy, 5:19, 5:21, 5:22, etc
As I came up on 10 it was really the first time I let myself
acknowledge I am having a DAY. I still felt really good and I passed 10 miles
in 54:26, a 20 second PR and I knew I had the easiest part of the course ahead
of me. The one runner I was with took
off and I thought I might be able to keep him in a view and make a move later
so I kept the distance between us the same for the next 2 miles. I did some quick math at 11 and found out if
I ran 2 6-minute miles the rest of the way I’d still PR, but screw that I wanted
more. I want sub 72 minutes; sub 71
minutes even let’s dig deep. From 12-13
I saw my buddy Jerry shouting at me, my friend Ryan who uttered something along
the lines of complete shock and awe that I was this far up and running this
fast. Which brought a smile to my face,
and then Emily just in the perfect place to cheer and snap this video! I made the last turn and was told it’s all
downhill from here. Let’s be honest as a
runner when you hear stuff like that you are always somewhat suspicious because
half the time there is always some incline or something, they are forgetting
but I looked straight ahead of me and we are basically running down this steep
decline for 800 meters and I opened up my stride and said let’s get after
it. I went as hard as I could downhill
without feeling like I was going to trip and roll down the hill and I turned
the final corner and saw the clock counting up from 1:10:52, and then saw it
just tick over 1:11 before I crossed a couple seconds behind the pack I had
been trying to run down since 10.5.
I literally couldn’t believe it, I just ran 71 minutes for 13.1
miles, 2.5 minutes faster than NJ this year when I thought I was all out. I saw my friend Caleb right in front of me in
the chute and we chatted a bit, he was 1 second off his PR but ran a great
race. Then I turned around and watched
as my Baltimore crew came flying in. PR
after PR, Maxime Chevee 1:11, Sean Caskey 1:13, Tristram Thomas, 1:13, Drew
Landgren 1:15, Ryan Stas 1:16. The whole
crew lit it up, even the ladies with us Michelle and Shannon both ran huge PR’s
while Bryn got back out there with a solid race, and all my boys in the 8k
absolutely crushed (Andrew Cantor, Zack Kaminski, Brad Leatherbarrow, Chris
DeCamps). But Emily was the big hero for
me this day, she carried my bag with her stuff the whole time. She came out and cheered and took photos of
me, and she was the most supportive person for me post-race. Find yourself a friend who will
unconditionally support you at a race and give up their weekend and you know
you have met an amazing person. Also,
the other big hero of the weekend is my amazing wife who watched my daughter
back in Maryland by herself while I went out and chased my goals. A weekend where my daughter seemingly decided
it’s time to act like a true 2-year-old and get into everything. I couldn’t do any of this without my amazing
wife and how much she supports me in chasing these crazy running goals. Additionally, we didn’t just all crush the
race, we proceeded to go out and crush the town of Richmond and I’m pretty sure
as Cantor would say, “Drank the town out of beers”
Two Days later I look back at this race and I still am in
shock, I ran 4 straight 16:54’s 5k’s this day and two 10k’s around 33:50. Back earlier this summer when I was putting
too much pressure on myself, I was running 17:11 5k’s and stumbled through a 35:25
10k. It’s not like in 5 months my
fitness basically doubled, but thanks to my amazing support system and my
coach, my mindset changed. I believed in
myself, I enjoyed everything much more.
The photo’s I keep sharing from races over the last 6 months are full of
me smiling and enjoying it all, when in the past they were full of grimace. I am constantly thanking fans and volunteers
when things get hard and believing everything my coach is saying and what I
know to be true in my head. I am not
going into a race saying I need to run this time to define me, I am just
running a race and letting it all come to me.
I have goal times in my head sure, but when I am racing now it is for
the love of the game. I am 20 days out
from CIM and just ready for whatever will happen that day but today was one of
those days in my life where I finally put it all together. And a lot of that has to do with me being
much less hard on myself as a runner and believing.
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