Prelude to a Race Report

I think before I get to the nitty gritty of the race, there are things I’d like to ‘put down on paper’.
For those who read (I assume there are a few, although not many) I didn’t qualify for Boston, but did get a 10 minute PR with a 3:50:37. Almost a week later, the sting has worn off but there’s still the slight itch of a wound healing. Every reason I didn’t qualify can obviously be directly attributed to me. Perhaps with a different approach – a ‘safer’ approach I might be sitting here with a 3:45, but that is not the case. Why bother beating myself up about that one?

I took the safe route on the 50k and while the results were great, I’m left with the feeling of what if I’d pushed a bit more? What then? No one can ever say. I didn’t push harder. A Marathon technically shouldn’t be easy. While the Colorado Marathon wasn’t easy, it wasn’t hard and I have questions about that marathon as well – what if?

I have no questions about Tucson – I had a plan, an aggressive one – some would say I over reached, was overly confident in what I thought I could do. That assessment – which is always just judgment poorly masked in advice – I’ll choose to ignore. Thanks but n o thanks – I’ll do what I do and I was reminded gracefully afterwards by E – it’s about the journey, not the destination, and he’s right. I would have learned nothing about myself had I finished safely with a qualifying time – I would have been left wondering again and right now I’d rather have the education. I have no doubt I’ll get there and when I do – I will have learned a lot more in the way I choose to go about this journey.

E bought the book ‘Running on Empty’ at the expo and I think I left that book remembering mostly this portion of it:

“Why do the easy, expected thing? It takes guts to follow your dreams. Courage. Many people, even those who love you, don’t understand how compelling that can be, and will try to keep you in the ‘safety zone.” But fuck that. Half the fun is venturing into the unknown, taking on the difficult task that yields new knowledge, doing more and testing your limits.”

That’s how I approached this race. I also realized what I miss most are trails. I’m not a road runner. The monotony of running on roads is evident in the song that comes to mind when I listen to my feet hit the pavement – and without fail I end up singing the chicken dance to myself while running on the road. I’ll return to the road to try again for a BQ, but I think in the meantime I’ll stick as much as I can to the trails – it’s more peaceful there.

Internally I have things I’d like to accomplish – races I’d like to run – 26.2 is a distance now – more than 13 and less than 31. There are bigger things out there – and I’d rather run mountains, but more on that later. I guess the most logical places to go next is to hash out the details of the race.