The USATF Indoor 5,000 national championships, hosted by the Upstate Holiday Classic. Five days before the meet I couldn't walk at 6 per K pace, so I had no clue what I'd be capable of doing, so I thought I'd go out and wing it and see what happened.
There's always little things to get organized the day of a meet, so I was running around way more than I normally would before a race and thus didn't get it a lot of a warm up. So even once the gun went off I had no clue what I'd do or how fast I'd go, so I just thought I'd have fun and race!
I can't even tell you how happy and excited I was that my first K was 4:51! I have speed! It's still there! I couldn't hold it, but hey, that'll come back over time. My K splits were:
4:51
5:02
5:10 (15:03)
5:15
5:12 (25:29)
Pretty happy with that. I felt like I could've kept going at that pace I settled into for longer, I wasn't going super hard, just lost that faster gear. But for me it was so much more, it was hope. Hope that I can get back to where I was, hope that I can exceed where I was, and hope that good things are to come. Whew! Hope!
My athlete AJ was going for a record in the 10,000. One of the benefits of only doing the 5,000 was I got to watch him and cheer for him. He was on pace right up until 4 laps to go. And if you know AJ you know he always has a faster gear his last lap. But you can never take anything for granted. with four laps to go he decided that he really didn't want his breakfast in his stomach anymore. After finding a convenient garbage can by the track he then made me so super proud by picking himself back up and finishing. It's that toughness that will make him an awesome 50K walker!
And here's what makes me even happier about my road back... I did 20K today. that in itself isn't so impressive, so bear with me for just a sec. The temperature today was 2 Fahrenheit (-15 Celsius) with wind and the road were still snowy and icy. So I did it inside at the school. The last 5K of my workout was 25:51! Very exciting!
So here's to a new year. A year of fun new challenges, a year of seeing how hard I can work, a year of setting goals and breaking them and a year of enjoying life. Here's to an awesome 2018!
Please visit my athlete stores for your online purchases! Each time you buy through my portal I get a percentage of your purchase. And please "like" my FB athlete page!
If you need to buy tickets to a show or sporting event, please go here first to look. If you buy through my portal I get a percentage!
No comments:
Post a Comment