Conditions:
Temperature: 78
Humidity: 92%
Me: Still hacking up a lung
If I hadn't already paid a few weeks back, I wouldn't have gone this morning. I had a not so good night of sleep, and besides that I still was trying to cough crap up when I woke up.
That kept up throughout the 3.1 miles. I tell you though I do take some comfort in knowing that even the really fast kids struggled this morning. From what I hear the front runners were all slower than their average times. It was brutal this morning.
There were a couple of times where I almost just gave up, but I didn't. I figured you know just freaking keep running and finish. You already know its not a PR day for the distance. I did PR the course/race though from last year.
Here are the splits from LAST year:
Mile 1: 10:19
Mile 2: 11:04
Mile 3: 11:20
last .1 : 9:08 pace
Here are the splits from THIS year:
Mile 1: 9:37 (a 42 sec improvement)
Mile 2: 10:21 (a 43 sec improvement)
Mile 3: 10:33 (a 47 sec improvement)
last .1 : 9:30 pace
A definite improvement no doubt, but I had NOTHING left at the end. And I actually walked the 2nd mile water stop; might have been 30 seconds or less, not sure. I was having a really hard time breathing and the coughing was just too much for me. This is where I seriously thought about just quitting.
Eh, in the grand scheme of things I'm ok with it. I am just really sick of trying to race in this heat. I can run and train in it no problem. Other than that I am over it. To me today was speed work, nothing more as far as I am concerned.
I'll race the cross country at the end of September, but then its just me training for Houston in January.
Don't get me wrong I will still run the Clear Lake 10, the Houston Half (both of which I hope to PR) and I suppose I have to run the 25K this year (as suggested by Sean). I was a cheerleader at that race last year and I am not looking forward to those loops as I recall hearing about it sucking last year. Eh, it is what it is. At least I know I will have a PR for the distance since I've never 'raced' a 25K before. :o)
Peace.
