March 7, 2010
57 F Sunny and very Hilly
My foot was telling me I cant cross that finish line, but my mind & heart told me otherwise.....
This event was suppose to be my 1st race of the 2010 season. My plan was to guage my fitness level at this stage which is about 8 weeks away from NJ Marathon. But yesterday I had to shift my goals from running a potential sub 2hr performance down to only attempting to finish running the distance 13.1 miles.
Flashback to Feb. 2nd, I had surgery on my left foot to remove a nasty wart. As a result it gave me a big open wound on the bottom of my left foot. So I was sidelined for 3 weeks, no running for me only did some strength exercises and some spinning on the bike trainer.
About 2 weeks before the event my doctor said I can run again as long as I can tolerate the pain, however the weather here in NJ was horrible, it was cold and lots of snow on the ground. So I started some mini runs on the treadmill. It was still a bit painful to run, which my body compensated for it and changed my running form and now my lower back was hurting too.
Finally it started to get warm and the snow melting away, so the day before the event it was my first time to run on pavement again. I couldn't even run 2 miles without stopping to walk around Agnes house. Prior to that my longest run so far this year was only 9 miles back in mid Jan.
Ok enough with the excuses and lets get down to business.. The weather couldn't be more picture perfect on race day! Lence and I got to the venue, we went to register and then saw a lot of friendly faces from the Jersey Shore Tri Club and my compatriots from the Filipino-American Tri Club... I felt lots of good energy, everyone was happy to be there and just to finally be able to go outside and play again after a very tough winter season...
Just before the start, I felt I needed to pee again but I decided to hold it! I said a little prayer and off we go...
The 1st mile I was going a bit too fast for my pace, So I had to really hold back or I wont make it. The first 4 miles was so painful and very uncomfortable because I still had that feeling that I needed to take a leak. But finally between mile 4 and mile 5 my foot started to numb and I didn't feel like peeing anymore. Then I concentrated on my form and picked up the pace a little bit. The course is very tough because of the steep hills and the long inclines. I continued to focus on my form and making sure to get my nutrition in, I also kept telling myself not to walk.
From mile 5 to mile 10 I was running in a good rhythm, then right before you enter Thompson park the last 3 miles of the race you have to go over a monster hill. From there it was purely survival mode for me, my pace slowed until I cross the finish but I never walked.
Here is my data from my Garmin http://connect.garmin.com/player/26427474
My foot told me I cant cross that finish line, but my mind & heart told me otherwise so I crossed that finish line http://www.dotphoto.com/Go.asp?l=jsrc05&P=&AID=6109880&IID=233769039#Mabuhay!
Cerrone
