It is weird to think that just one week ago I ran Bloomsday. It was my first one and I had high expectations going into the race. Unfortunately, I suffered an Achilles flare up a couple of weeks before and I could not get the workouts that I wanted in before the race. In fact, two weeks before the race I only ran 32 miles. For those of you who know me well enough that is typically my mileage for two days, not a whole week. Sadly, that is the nature of this game, you can train for months at a time for one or two goal races and have it all fall apart with one little ache and pain.
The week of Bloomsday is always hectic at my job. I work at Spokane's only running store, Runner's Soul. The week was as usual and Friday and Saturday were pure hell. I worked 20 hours in two days. Most of those hours are spent on your feet, which is not ideal for running a race on Sunday.
I went into Sunday with no goal in mind. To me everything had fallen apart with my injury, and add on top all the work and lack of food the two days before and I had absolutely no motivation. I still wanted to run well, but the fire that I had just a couple of weeks earlier was not quite there. I went out hard, in fact I went out too hard and was next to the leaders. When I realized that nobody I knew was around me, I decided to get off the pace and settle into my own. I didn't catch my mile split, but at two miles I was at 9:46, which is also the time I ran for the 3200 my sophomore year of high school, and I still had 5.46 miles to go. At this point things began to get tough for me. For the last 3-4 years I have suffered random back spasms. They always creep up at the right time, and by right time, I mean nowhere near the right time. By mile 3 my back was in extreme pain. I was trying to push through it, but it was hurting too much. I was hunched over and trying to run in a more comfortable position, but that did not work either. I got to the famed Doomsday Hill and was as one of my friends estimated, in the 50th place range. I am typically a hill runner and consider myself pretty dominant when it comes to uphill running. Doomsday was apparently the hill that might have changed that image as it felt like I was crawling. Shortly after the top of the hill I saw my coach and friend Chris Zeller. He told me that the hard part was over and just to get to Broadway. I felt a revival coming on. Here the course flattens out and truthfully, it might even be slightly downhill the rest of the way. I started to get my eyes up and focusing on each guy ahead of me. I started picking guys off and ended up in 33rd with a time of 38:22. It was truly disappointing, but at the same time it was a good learning experience.
Now my focus is on the USA 25k Championships this Saturday in Grand Rapids, Michigan. I have had a couple of solid workouts that have given me a tremendous confidence boost and I look forward to going over and running a solid race to get me ready for my marathon in June. This will be quite the bitter sweet race no matter how I run. It has been nearly a year since my Grandma Limpf passed away and it will be the first time returning "home" since it happened. Although most of my family will be there, it will be hard not to see her at the finish. That being said, I have a long run with the boys here shortly. Gotta get it going.
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