Practice what you preach?

The day is done, the race is over.  Now the question is, can I look myself in the mirror and say that today was a success?  I can honestly say yes.  I'm sure there are others who would say no, because if you look at my time it was nowhere near my best.  But as I said in my last post, my time does not equal my success.  I can honestly say I pushed my hardest and gave it my best.  That for me = success!  I feel like I can hold my head high and I am super excited about upcoming races. 

Am I satisfied with my race?  No.  Having the day be a success doesn't have to mean that I'm not hungry for more.  My time was well below what I know I'm capable of.  My workout the day before was great, a nice warm up with some pickups.  Everything felt smooth and comfortable and Dave said my technique looked great.   However Sunday morning was a whole different kettle of fish.  Starting about 6K I was getting a pain in my hip.  Tried to ignore it, but it was very insistent.  So about 9K or so I pulled up and laid on the ground and did some intense upward dogs to try and loosen stuff.  It worked a little, but not a ton.  So I just kept pushing.  A few times my hip wanted to lock up, but I just kept pushing.  People passed me, I just kept pushing.  I passed people, I just kept pushing.  I slowed down, I just kept pushing.   So was my time my best?  Heck no, but I didn't stop!  I think many people would've stopped with that much pain in their hip. 

Someone after the race commented that they didn't realize I was in that much pain.  I said of course, I'm not going to let my competition know of any weakness I may have.  The last thing I want is for someone to think, oh, she's fading, I can get her!  In that way sports can be like acting, what may be going on in your mind can't show up on your face, you have a part to play.  And today the part of a successful race walker was played by Erin Taylor-Talcott!   And I moved up a place this year to a 5th place finish.  Not too bad for a 50K walker!  Another thing I'm happy of, I had only one paddle during the race, and that was with about 3K to go.  By this point my hip was hurting to the point I barely wanted to put weight on it, so I'm really glad I was able to keep it together as great as I did.  In the past I think I would've been DQed, but I think all my hard work and core work and technique work and strength training has really paid off!

So now to focus on the next challenges.  In August we're heading to Lyon, France for the World Master's Championships.  Dave and I are racing a 5K and a 10K.  We're going to miss doing the 20K, arguably our strongest event there, so we can head to the Isle of Man for our second go at becoming a Centurion.  We learned so much from our first attempt and have done a lot of research and talking to people who have been successful at it and we are training harder and smarter.  And it's a blast! 

Have I reached my goals at 20K?  Not yet, but I will.  And I'll have fun doing it!