Saturday, June 16, 2007

Expectation meets reality

This weekend is full of running. I don't normally run back to back days but per the rest of the group, the 10k race scheduled today in the valley was a must so I decided to suck it up and run both Saturday and Sunday. I've failed to mention along the way here that I recently decided to try my first "ultra" distance race...a 50k (31. sumthin' miles) and I'm really excited by it. It's all on trails so hopefully the wear and tear on my body will be a little less intense than a regular road race. Anyway, knowing that I have a 16 mile trail training run on tap for tomorrow I really didn't want to run this 10k at a breakneck speed (ha, like I have that capability in the first place) so I went to this event with one thing in mind-just enjoy it. And that's exactly what I did.

The weather couldn't have been better even though the temperature was already starting to climb as I pulled into the huge field used for parking. I found Red who was eagerly cheering her daughter on as she ran the kids fun run. To see all those little kids out there is actually very inspiring. It's refreshing to look at their tiny faces and know that what's driving them isn't that gnarled ugly beast that resides in so many adult athletes...they're running cuz it's fun, cuz it feels good and cuz nothing is as carefree as getting away from your parents for a little bit. Once the kids finished their portion of the race, the adults all anxiously toed the line...very few exhibiting the same carefree spirit as the kids-it's more a mixture of self doubt and over inflated egos, nervous laughter and inane chit chat. But nonetheless, this mostly unknown mass of people are my peers and as different a vibe there is between us and the kids, we all at least know what are purpose is.

I told myself from the beginning that I was just here to enjoy my friends company, and the beautiful course and obviously to log that 6 miles I needed to...and that's just what I did. Not only did I thoroughly enjoy myself but I felt strong the whole way though in both mind and body. My time was not my greatest but it wasn't my worst either. Let's just hope that my conservative running today helps keep me strong for tomorrow's run. It really does help to know that Red, Debi & Kurt will be there-after running alone for so many miles over the years it's still so refreshing to have people that I can share these ups and downs with.

1 comment:

Soapin' Cindy said...

I don't like doing that back to back hard running days either. Just think how well we'll tackle those roller coaster hills when we are good and rested up!