Debriefing Rock n' Roll Arizona

Yesterday was the Rock and Roll Arizona Marathon where I had a rough day, so here is probably the most essential aspect of running: learning from my mistakes.  The question is, what should I learn?

Time: 2:50   Place:10th

I'll just give a quick summary of how the race played out.  I wavered in the first 3 miles because there was a pack of 6 women just ahead of me, but they were running faster than I wanted to go (6:12s instead of 6:18s).  By the third mile, I realized that there were no people behind me, so I decided to commit and joined the pack rather than run the remaining 23 miles alone.  This decision haunts me.  It is the only time that I could have done something different yesterday.  But I don't regret it.  I don't run effortlessly by myself.

The pack broke up into 3 women at mile 10.  We found out we had all run Chicago and just missed qualifying, so there was awesome camaraderie and determination between us.  We decided to share the lead every mile.  We passed water bottles around.  They were awesome.  And then I fell off.  At mile 16, I lost a few seconds to them, and we had all started slowing.  By mile 18, they had sped back up and I was just holding 6:30s so I was on my own.

I didn't lose hope until after mile 19 when I looked at my watch and saw a 6:44 mile.  Then I knew I just needed to relax and finish, because it wasn't my day.  So I slowed to about 7min pace, although it did not feel easy.  With every step, I felt like I was willing my legs to push off the ground, but they had no more power. 

I did not get passed by another runner for at least a mile.  There truly would have been nobody to run with if I had decided to go alone.

Going into the race, I had three goals.  1) PR 2) finish in the top 10 3) qualify for the Olympic Trials.  One out of three ain't bad.

I had a chance last night to jot down the positive and negative aspects of the race.

On the positive side, I was very relaxed going into this race.  I was healthy (unlike Chicago), although I had been having issues with my shins in practice since a workout I did preparing for Cross-Country Nationals.

I was also encouraged that, while the time was disastrous, my body was not torn up, sore, and in digestive failure when I finished.  I walked away from the finish chute fairly unscathed, so my body is getting stronger.

At the time I was happy that I could run with a group of women clicking off 6:08-6:14 mile splits for the first 10 miles, but ultimately I think this may have been part of my collapse.

Also on the positive side, I am not deterred in my goal.  I know that it is within me to run under 2:46, perhaps more so than before even.

OK so what were the negative outcomes of this race?

Obviously not meeting my time goals was a disappointment.  It was hard to walk through the finishing chute and see the woman I was running with getting her picture taken because she had just qualified.  I politely declined a photo.

The problems that I'd been having with my left shin were the first thing to act up.  Maybe here is the first lesson I need to learn:  Issues have to be dealt with professionally and completely.  If anything goes wrong in the marathon, it goes really wrong.  

Not having the confidence in myself to hold back the first half is a negative.  I run best when I run negative splits, so I need to be willing to run conservatively in the first half.


Since this blog post is getting long, I'm going to sign off for now, but stay tuned for my upcoming topics:
Lessons I learned from the marathon
Why the US men should have a "B" Standard for the Olympic Trials (2 part series)

P.S. I finished Unbroken by Laura Hillenbrand on the trip.  It's a difficult but amazing read.  I felt like I had lived through the war and was relieved when it finally ended (the war, not the book).