Saturday I had my final big race of the season for me. This crazy race was my final big test that I set out to accomplish this year as I set a goal to get in shape and push my body. I have posted many, many times on this blog on my training and the races and am currently working on a final post of my thoughts on my goal setting and accomplishments. This post is not about that, but the actual race that I ran this Saturday with some other excellent athletes from my school staff.
Friday night I could not sleep. We drove to Chicago and had a good meal to get ready. When it was time to go to sleep my wife who has been battling a cold had a coughing fit from 12:00 – 12:45. After that point of hearing her struggle I was wide awake and my brain was going crazy. I had about a million thoughts racing through my head. I could not get myself to relax and fall asleep. Finally, at around 2:30 I dozed off and woke up to my alarm at 4:15 am.
I was tired. My eyes felt heavy and my legs felt like cement blocks. I was mad because I felt so bad. I started to get nervous about not being able to run well. I just had to stop the thoughts and get my morning ritual going on race day. I brewed some coffee, ate an egg and ham sandwich and just chilled reading on my iPad. I tried to stay offline all weekend to give myself a break from the internet and computer. As time slowly ticked by I felt better and more and more nervous. I don’t know why I was so nervous, but I think it was because I could not anticipate how I would do on the challenges.
We left at 6:00 and got to the starting line area around 7:00. We all got ourselves ready to go and Mr. Uhde took off on the bus to his station, Mr. Shepherd took off to get to his relay station, and Mrs. Reid made her way to the assigned wave for the start of the race. I also took off and waited to hear the horn.
7:45 the elite runners took off and Mario Lopez kept the waves moving every couple of minutes.
We had beautiful weather. The sun was out and it was not too cold, but not too hot and I felt good. I took off at a pace faster than I wanted after ran the first mile in 7:39. I ran the second mile in 7:37 and hit the first obstacle of the tires and balance walk. My third mile was around 8:07 with the obstacle. I was moving at a good pace and felt good. I hit a wall at the fourth mile like I always do, but overcame that and continue to run at a pace around 8:08 for the next mile. I wanted to push on the bike path and cranked out a 6:16 mile at one point. When it was all said and done I ended up with the following results:
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