Ow ow ow.

I think the overriding feeling I currently have about that race is being pissed off, although probably because I just went to look at the results and I'm not on the list. Fuck you, that was so hard and you didn't record it? There are people before and people after. Oh well, this is gun times, maybe I'll get an official time later, assuming my chip wasn't faulty.

I'm kind of torn between being proud I finished and annoyed that I didn't train more to have avoided jelly-legs syndrome. But finishing was a trip - I know I can do it now. Moreover I /ran/ the whole way, which was extremely surprising. Last week we ran 9 miles and halfway through I had to stop because my foot hurt so bad. But anyway even before that I was taking walk breaks every half mile - I'm seriously not in race shape. But yesterday I kept running steadily for 13 miles. (Not exciting running, like, barely sub 15 minute miles, I was being passed by speed-walking seniors, but running anyway. Well, ONE speed-walking senior. He had a "senior olympics" t-shirt on, though, so I can say that it was just an OLYMPIAN walker who passed me. Heh.) It's amazing what resources I can suddenly draw on in a race that I don't have at any other time. I need to train like, at ALL next time, man, so I can draw on them better.

The whole thing was giving me major flashbacks to cross-country running in elementary school. I was last place every time except in the provincials where there were always a half-dozen kids who were forced to join and just walked the whole way. I remember the time the big school in our district was on a field trip and didn't come, and I finally got a ribbon because there were less racers than ribbons. Hee. I kept going to race after race after race, though. There's a certain pathetic cachet in being dead last, especially on purpose, but that's not what I was after: finishing last after having TRIED really really hard is the bitter wine I enjoy drinking. An acquired taste perhaps. Looking at the bottom of the results list for last year's half and this year's, though, I can see that there are a few others who have acquired it too: there are three or four names in common, each having improved their times by 6 or 7 minutes but still finishing well above 3 hours. That's something I understand very well.

Anyway. Training. Yeah. I think I will feel more motivated to run now. I've been avoiding it for months, mostly, but now I will have extra time every day for running and having run a half my practice runs feel even shorter and more trivial, so hey. I think when the triathlon(s) are all over I'll train for Go-Wireless in November and do the 10k. Then my longest run doesn't have to be more than around burnaby lake. And maybe next year I'll do this half in under 3 hours.

I read a marathon training program once that started out with the warning that if you can't run 10k in 60 minutes or less, don't bother with the marathon, it will just be a bucket of pain for you. He was probably right - whenever I start training for long distances, the long run every week is almost a race for me. Running the 18 milers would take me 4 hours at least - I think the conventional wisdom is that training runs over 2 hours should be split up, since you'll just exhaust yourself instead of getting a training effect. Some marathon training programs forego distances for long runs and just tell you how much time to run. These make me snicker since a long run of 75 minutes for me would make it a shorter distance than some of the 6 or 8 mile tempo runs during the week. Heh.

Well. 10k in 60 or under, that's about a 10 minute mile. I can run 12s fairly steadily when I'm in shape. I think 10 might be doable at some point. I'll keep at it.

I almost quit the race before kilometer 2. I started out fast, running with dad, and stopped suddenly for a quick stretch break. Starting too fast, stopping too suddenly, and my allergy medicine combine in to the megazord Heart Palpitor! I almost fainted and was walking off to the bus loop, promising to call dad when I was safely home. Anyway, I started jogging a bit and immediately felt better and my heart slowed down (figure that out..) so I went back to the course and finished the race. Mom called and I asked her advice about whether to tell dad or not, since he looked so worried. I did call him in the end, but it was probably for the best that we didn't run the race together. I run faster than I probably should around taller folk, and he's almost a foot taller. He finished in a fine time, 2:28 (heh, HIS time is posted.)

Ohhhh my quads. At least my hip has stopped hurting. I did my iliotibial band stretches last night, and they have repaid the cost of my running reference 3 times over just for making my hips stop hurting. Hoo-ray.

God, maybe I just like running for the right to complain so much. I'm grinning like an idiot as I hobble around the office.