I don’t like racing when I am out of shape. After years of training being priority #1, its is hard to come to terms with no longer being at that level of fitness. It is frustrating to ‘push the button’ only to find out that the button is broken. Or even worse, to lose the button completely. So I haven’t done much racing the past few years, except for the really fun stuff (orienteering, Tuesday Night Races). I keep saying “Once I start getting back in shape, I’ll start doing some races.”
Well, I’m starting to realize that racing needs to be part of journey to get back in shape, not the destination. Races provide the motivation to get out and train, even in the face of all the other life responsibilities. And nothing is better training than hammering on yourself for an hour or two, which I rarely do unless I have a bib on.
So to that end, I entered my first running race of the season – the Turnagain Arm Trail Run – on Tuesday night. The race starts with about 12 minutes of uphill, and I was pleasantly surprised to be feeling pretty good at the top. Then the wheels fell off. The downhill pounding, the fancy footwork to avoid rocks and roots, the mental battle to keep pushing even though I was careening slightly out of control – it was exhausting. It was also embarrassing. This stuff used to be second-nature to me, yet I felt like a road runner on his first trail run. Am I out of shape? Yep. Getting old? Yep. Not much running off pavement this spring? Yep. Mentally, I packed it in and decided to just enjoy the run. Towards the end, when the trail got smoother and went back uphill, I picked up the pace just enough to avoid getting passed by the first couple of women. yeehaw. congratulations.
After all that, I was surprised to find out that my time (1:03:34) was only a minute and a half slower than last year. I guess I was out of shape last year too. No matter, it was a good workout and it provided plenty of motivation to improve.
2008 Turnagain Arm Trail Run Results
I bounced back with a pretty good showing in this week’s orienteering meet on Wednesday. It was a fun course with more controls and shorter legs. I finished second, only 1:18 beind Ian. Of course, Ian raced without a compass, just to keep things interesting.
Dan and Anne’s O Meet
