I will admit, I have been in a funk the last couple of weeks. I have re-gained some of the weight that I worked so hard to lose, I haven’t been running or working out so much, and my eating has been crappy. I had been doing great with my training plan (only one month until my first half marathon!) but for some reason I just got lazy. So I did not really feel prepared for this race.
This was my first time running the BARC St. Pat’s race. I opted to run the 8k… but next year I have a feeling that I am going to want to do the Irish Double which is an 8k followed by a 5k (they got really cool shirts!). Despite my lack of training, I was still hoping for a PR… the only other 8k I have run was in Frankenmuth, on a really hilly course. The 8k for the St. Pat’s race is very flat. And the weather was good – cold, but not freezing, and a little windy, but not blustery. I started off fine… my first kilometer was about the pace I wanted to start at. I thought I sped up for my second kilometer, but I actually slowed down! I didn’t get back to my original pace until 3 kilometers into the race. Then I maintained negative splits for the rest of the race. The race was super flat as expected, all along city streets, a simple out and back. It was a bigger race – not as big as The Crim, but bigger than a lot of the races I have done. There were people along the course cheering for us and playing music to keep us going. The worst part of the race was the finish – I hate long finishes, where you can see the finish line for what seems like FOR-EVER. I pushed hard to the end… I wanted a PR so badly!!!
I didn’t end up getting my PR, but I was darn close to at least meeting my best time. I finished the race in 1:01:08 – my best 8k was just at the beginning of February, I finished in 1:01:06. I’ll blame my lack of training and laziness recently for the few seconds between me and my PR… but I WILL get my PR next time I run an 8k. I want to get under an hour! It will happen – shoot, I shaved almost 7 minutes off my 8k time from last year. I just need to get back into my training and into the swing of things. I am starting the 21 Day Fix and doing a monthly challenge next month with a friend, so I hope that better eating habits and re-committing to my training plan will get me where I want to go!
RD on the Run 