Respect the Run(s)

Well, this Saturday is going to be interesting. And hopefully fun, too. A month ago, CP and I decided it would be amusing to sign up for the Pacers Mini-Relay that runs from their store in Old Town to Pentagon Row, Pentagon Row to Logan Circle, and Logan Circle to Clarendon (where apparently there's a rockin' after party waiting for you...).  Since I'm more of a distance runner than CP, I decided to take legs one and three of the race, which are 6.5 miles and 4.5 miles.  We're still working on the logistics of how this is going to work since most groups will have three runners, but somehow I'll get from Pentagon Row to Logan Circle and be ready to finish the final leg.

Well...


Last week, my DC Road Runners buddy Kyle told me that he is still recovering from an injury and had a free bib available for the VA Wine Country Half Marathon out in Leesburg. I enthusiastically told him that I would love to run it and asked when it was. June 2nd. Hmmm.  Errrr...yep. Same day as the relay. BUT the 1/2 starts at 7am and the relay starts at 6pm. I mulled....and mulled....and mulled some more.  And then I decided that this was something I could do IF, and only if, I decided to make this fun and didn't concentrate on finish times at all.  Two years ago, it would have been easy for me to ignore the clocks and pace groups around me. These days, though, I've got that competitive edge pumping through my blood again that I thought I'd ditched back in college. It's going to take a lot for me to truly treat these as FUN runs.

I've never done the 13.1 distance before (I figured if the goal was to eventually get to 26.2, there was no sense taking small steps to get there), and I know that even if this was the only race I was planning on running on Saturday, it wouldn't be a fast day. I've been doing a lot more strength and core training since the marathon in March, but I haven't been getting in the long distances that I do during marathon season.  In that way, I think it might even make it a bit easier to focus less on the time and really enjoy myself out there.  I'm still a little nervous though.  I know now is certainly not the time to go crazy and injure myself before we even start training for Marine Corps in October.  That being said, the energy at those start lines is infectious.

I hope that I'm able to respect the runs on Saturday.  I know that if I don't, I'll probably wind up injuring myself and regretting the whole experience.  There's a time to run fast, and it is not on Saturday. In fact, I think I'd be okay alternating between running and power walking the 13.1. We'll see. One thing I've learned about running, though, is that when you are unrealistic and don't know your limits, you wind up injured and/or pissed off. Not how I want to be feeling Saturday night.

SO....I'll trot through wine country with a big grin on my face and hopefully squash some grapes along the way. Then, I'll head back to DC and try to navigate my way from store to store (which, honestly, I'm most worried about since I have zero sense of direction).  Hopefully CP and I won't find a way to annoy each other during the race since we won't actually be running together.  We've learned that running and loving relationships don't mix well :)

As long as someone has a big adult beverage waiting for me at the after party in Clarendon, I should come out with a smile on my face that day. Sunday, though? That might be a different story....