National Capital Race Weekend
Well, my running clinic has come to a good conclusion with this weekend’s National Capital Race Weekend. I ran in the 5k race, and I am pleased with the experience.
I believe that my spring running plan has been a success, as I am now running about the same amount I was running three summers ago, and it is only May, so I have the rest of the summer to keep exercising. I feel sure that if I had not done the clinic I would have only now been starting to think about a running plan.
There were some frustrating aspects to the race. First, the large number of walkers (it was officially a run/walk race) were a bit of a problem. There were 3447 other people in the race, so there was a lot of threading your way from side to side along the course as you tried to run through the walkers. Also, I went out with my clinic to run the supposed course earlier this week, but the route we ran was not the real route, so that led to some uncertainty on my part during the actual event. Lastly, I feel that I finished with energy to spare, so I wish I had pushed myself a bit more.
It has been a learning experience. If you really want to challenge yourself, I have learned, you need to go out on your own with a stopwatch. The race atmosphere is fun, and the screaming hordes at the finish are fantastic, but you can’t look to the race as a challenge. It’s kind of like a nice party that you have an invitation to (by virtue of your training).
I do have a snazzy medal, and it is something that I would definitely do again, but I would go in with very different expectations.
Hey to you all with 300m to go!
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