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I was SO dang sore. I knew I’d be in a rough situation when I was
getting sore DURING the last half mile of Gasparilla! After a Tuesday shakeout,
I did a light workout on Wednesday and scheduled hilly bridge repeats for not
just a couple days later, but the next week.
I ran the bridge repeats with ML who was also looking to race the Gate River Run and
PR. We pushed it on the uphills and it
was super windy from the west. At this
point the Gate River Run 15K wasn’t too far away. Just 3 more days! The day before the race, I got together with
my high school friend OS and we ran through UNF’s trails. I know myself well enough at this point. If I hadn’t scheduled both sessions, I am
certain I wouldn’t have done either big run.
The 8miles worth of bridge repeats would have been a basic 4mi run in my
neighborhood. The 5mi trail run would have
either been a basic 3mi shuffle or a sleep-in with the idea of 'rest' being
rationalized. But I prepared, scheduled them, and
did them. Happily.
 |
| with Liz, German, Kirubel, and Kelly |
The race began. When I got to the Hart Bridge (the Green
Monster) at roughly mile 8, I saw three girls ahead of me. I knew that I could get the first girl and I
loved feeling the adrenaline to fight.
It wasn’t a hard pass, but I made sure to jump on it. Then came the second girl I passed and I was gaining mental momentum. It got windy and I was maybe half
way up the bridge. I looked ahead and
saw the third girl. She was a ways
up. I attempted a couple quick
calculations. Math calculations get significantly
harder deep into a race. My watch was
all out of whack and the race clocks were set for the overall field, not the
women’s elite wave. I looked ahead and figured
that I needed to beat that girl if I wanted to get under 58:00. I’d run 58:12 at Gasparilla and everyone
conceded that Gate was slower. = It’s
hotter at Gate, twists through neighborhoods, and contains two bridges. Still, I wanted
to break 58 for me. For some reason I
was sure I had to beat the girl near the top of the bridge to do so. As soon as I was getting close, the Green Monster got to her and she broke. She was walking. No way in hell was I letting someone who was
walking beat me. No way. I was happy to get feisty. I was closing in on her and she started
running again. Race was on! Fight was on!
I peeked over at her as I passed and I realized by her pink singlet that
she lives in Jacksonville and runs for the local running store, 1st
Place Sports. I love that place, but no
way was she going to beat me. I’d worked
hard up the bridge and had to defend my position by running aggressively
downhill and getting a little ugly over the last two minutes. It worked and I ran 57:48! I finished 41st or 42nd
and you could argue I wasn’t in the fight.
I'd argue I was in my own little fight and I proved to myself how important
preparation is for me. The little bit of
preparation I did between the Gasparilla 15K and the Gate 15K wasn’t a lot, but
it did help me pull on many past deeper experiences of being feisty, being
compelled, and feeling competitive. It was so good to be in the fight!
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