The Absentminded Runner

Before I post about the Turkey Trot 10K I feel I need to make a post about Thursday's run. I mentioned that I hoped to get in a short run on Thursday at lunch. Well, I completely forgot to pack my bag the night before (trying to cram in a panel speaking engagement, a trip to the gym, and dinner will do that to you). I threw some items in my bag in the morning and, per usual when I do that, I ran down the inventory of important things as I walked to the train.

Shoes? Check
Bottoms? Check
Tops? Check
Sports bra? Check
Socks? Check
Towel? Check
Face wash? Check
Make up? Check
Hair brush? Check
Deodorant? Check
Gloves? Check
Hair tie? Check

Alright, good to go. All the essentials were packed.

Do you notice anything missing?

How about the Garmin and my visor? Yeah, those were not-so-check.

Which means that I ran 3 miles sans visor and with no idea of my pace. I only know the distance because we ran the usual 3 mile route. And when I say "we" I mean me and one of the faster guys in our group. Yep, the only people man enough (or with enough free time) to brave Thursday's chilly and overcast weather were me and Hap.

Hap told me I could set the pace but I hate doing that when running with someone faster. So, I pushed it hard for the first mile and a half and (I think to Hap's dismay) suggested we turn around at the 1.5 mile mark.

It was a tough three miles. I'd been leading a training session all morning in a computer lab where we aren't technically supposed to have liquids. So, in order to set a good example, I didn't bring my water bottle. Plus, since I was doing that during my usual snack time I had to eat my morning snack earlier than usual. All that (plus my lack of running lately) combined for a rough run. I hope I didn't slow Hap down too much. I appreciated that he stayed with me.

Post-run I wasn't feeling too optimistic about the upcoming 10K. But how did it turn out? Stay tuned!

Sunday's Stroll

Source


After my post about my lack of running motivation I actually went out for a solo 8 mile run along the Salt Creek bike path. I hadn't been out on the path in awhile. The leaves have definitely turned colors and most of them have fallen. The creepy house on the decent plot of land that backs up to the bike path is for sale. And my run after taking over a week off? Went really well.

I averaged a 9:39 pace for 8 miles with my last mile at 8:49. I recently read about the 3/1 run on Hal Higdon's Advanced 10K training plan and halfway through my run I decided to try it out. What's a 3/1 run? Well, according to Hal:

A "3/1" workout is one in which you run the first three-fourths of the distance at a comfortable pace, then accelerate to near race pace over the last one quarter of the workout. (You should finish refreshed, not fatigued.)

Which meant my splits looked like this:

Mile 1 - 9:46
Mile 2 - 10:08
Mile 3 - 9:45
Mile 4 - 9:40
Mile 5 - 10:14 (includes a stop for traffic)
Mile 6 - 9:24
Mile 7 - 9:20
Mile 8 - 8:49

That probably wasn't the gradual acceleration Hal had in mind, but I thought it went well. At least taking a week+ off didn't hurt my speed much. That's a good sign!

The bad sign was that on Monday my right knee was back to aching. It went away but it was pretty painful for awhile. I suppose that means I should think about actually using the PT referral my doctor gave me. I've been trying to up my weights at the gym and my glutes are definitely feeling it but I'm guessing it's not enough.

Anyway, after running on Sunday I haven't run since. On Monday night Jason got us last minute tickets to see Paul and Storm with Peter Sagal and on Tuesday evening we were invited to have drinks with one of Jason's coworkers at a Hawaiian themed bar. So, yeah, darn social life interfering with my running. Just kidding. I'm hoping to get in a run on Thursday at lunch but if I don't I guess I'll just have to see how I do at the Lincolnwood Turkey Trot 10K on Sunday.

October Wrap Up

Source


It occurred to me, halfway through November, that I never did a monthly summary for October. Maybe because the big event in October was running my first marathon and I felt as though I've already said everything I want to say about that?

Maybe because I spent the first part of October dealing with a knee issue?

Perhaps it was because there wasn't much of anything else worth noting? Except, I suppose, the hilarious Corn Maze "5K"?

In all honesty, I think my lack of things to say is due more to burnout than anything else. I ran approximately 80 miles in October. So far it's two weeks into November and I've run a total of 13.5 miles. Of course, some of that is because I just spent the last week in San Francisco for mostly work and some play and didn't get a chance to run. Even though I brought my running clothes my schedule just didn't play nicely. Which is too bad because I hear running through Golden Gate Park is lovely.

Taking the week off was kind of nice, actually. Since the marathon my motivation to run has been lower than usual, anyway. Is this what they call the post-marathon blues?

A Perfect Storm

After essentially not running at lunch all summer due to scheduling issues, I was finally able to get out there yesterday. Unfortunately most of the regular crew was unavailable but, thankfully, one of my female running buddies came out to run.

It wasn't a fast run, by any means. We both ran the Chicago Marathon and, as we discussed, have actually been slacking a bit in the running department. Lately I'm lucky if I get in two runs a week.

I wore capris and my long-sleeved Chicago Half Marathon shirt. It was the first time I'd worn that shirt and it turned out to be more like a tent than a top. Dear Race Organizers: PLEASE have women's cut shirts. Please please please. A men's small is NOT the same as a women's small. And to add insult to injury I didn't really need a long-sleeved top. It was a a lot warmer than it originally seemed and I was hot by the end of the first mile.

At least until we turned around to do the "back" portion of our out-and-back route. When we'd started the sun was shining but when we started heading back towards downtown we saw the dark and ominous clouds that had rolled in from the northwest. The air temperature seemed to drop and we got hit with a few raindrops. Thankfully we made it back before the rain really started.

We did our 4 mile route (which is actually more like 5) and averaged a 9:50 pace with a few pauses for traffic. Sadly, I don't have my fun stats or maps to show you because Bones in Motion (the website I used to use) was bought by Adidas miCoach which currently does not support Garmin data uploads. Boo to that!

Do you use any online run statistic trackers? If so, which ones?

Motivation

Over the past two days I've run 17.5 miles.

On Sunday, after attending a semi-Halloween party and drinking two beers and a glass of wine and grazing on the buffet table I got up and met some running friends for 6 miles. I ran to and from our meeting place for a total of 9 miles. Thankfully my running friends were also at the party so we were all pretty much in the same place in terms of running. That is, none of us wanted to push the pace that much.

It was a good run and it went by fast. When I left the house Sunday morning I was running a little late so I booked it the 1.5 miles to our meeting spot. Sadly, I have no idea how fast I was going because my Garmin battery was dead. Oh well.

It was also the first time I'd run in almost a week. Like I said in my last post, I was super busy most of last week and by the time I wasn't I just wasn't in the mood to run. I'm really glad my running buddy said something at the party the night before otherwise I may have just gone a whole week without running. I fear I'm becoming someone who only wants to run with other people. There's not anything wrong with that, it just means that my motivation to just lace up my shoes and go apparently got up and went.

Except for last night. My husband and I made a rather difficult decision to rehome our greyhound and the magnitude of the situation just hit me in the gut as I left work. From putting out feelers to rehoming took less than 5 hours and for various reasons I didn't want to be around for most of it. He ended up going back to the family we originally got him from. I hope they cherish their second chance with him.

Anyway, as soon as I got home I changed into my running gear and took off for my Monday night run. I ran to the meeting spot and even though my Garmin says I was only going a 10 minute pace I felt like I was going much faster. All I could think about was running and not stopping. I was looking forward to seeing the usual group of runners so of course I did stop at the store where we meet. I ran 5.5 miles with them and then ran the 1.5 miles home for a total of 8.5 miles.

When I got back to my neighborhood I didn't want to go home. If it hadn't been so dark and cold and if my husband hadn't had dinner ready for me I probably would have kept going. So what if my knee was a little achy? So what if my hip flexors were sore? I just slowed way down and those things went away.

I've never really been one of those people who thinks of running as an escape but last night it was. It was both scary and exhilarating.

There are so many reasons to run. For a long time I did it just as a personal challenge. Maybe it's because I've now gone the 26.2 miles of the marathon and need other motivators that this week I found two more: running as socializing and running as an escape. I'm sure I'll discover even more in the future.

Why do you run/walk/exercise?

Season's End

I haven't done much running this week other than Monday. Work has been busy (so no running at lunch) and other than going to a Pilates class on Tuesday night I haven't had the free time in the evening to work out.

That's partially because on Wednesday night we had our "end of track" party! Our coach and his wife provided the food and the rest of us provided the wine. We had a great time talking about next year's race plans and ideas for future club meetings. Speaking of which what kind of topics would you be interested in hearing about at a meeting for runners?

Of course we also talked about more than just running. Including Broadway shows. The reason I couldn't run on Thursday night after work was because Jason and I had free tickets to see Billy Elliot. My review? Sadly, just a "meh". Not bad, but I'm glad I didn't pay $100 a ticket for it. Although I do have Solidarity stuck in my head today.

In addition to wrapping up track for the season, I thought my interview about the Chicago Marathon over at Melinda's blog was a great capstone to the experience. Check it out for a nice summary of why and how I managed to run my first marathon.

So although track season and my marathon season has come to an end, I'm not totally done racing quite yet. Although I passed on the Chicago Monster Dash half marathon, I am tentatively planning on running the Lincolnwood Turkey Trot 10K with people from work as well as running the Rotary Santa Run 5K with Kim.

And then the season will really be over. At least until January when training for spring races starts. Stay tuned!

Opa!

Monday night was probably our last decent night weather-wise until spring and I definitely took advantage of it by going for a run. Originally I'd thought about doing 8 miles but since it was also my running club's "run of the month" I wanted to get done in time to change and make it to the restaurant without having to rush too much.

So I ran 5.5 miles and for much of it I was hanging with the 3:30 marathon crowd.

Impressive, right? Well, they WERE recovering from racing so they were taking it easy while I was pushing it. However, I was still able to carry on a conversation while running negative splits for the first 4 miles. The conversations mostly revolved around our various marathons, upcoming races, future plans, and who was running the half marathon on Halloween. I took it nice and easy on the last 1.5 miles although I could have pushed harder.

I admit, I thought about running the Monster Dash half marathon on Sunday. I really did. But, as I told Maribeth, I'm SO CLOSE to breaking two hours in a half marathon that I'd be afraid of being mad at myself if I went out there and missed it again. I think I'd rather focus on keeping my speed over the winter and making a spring half marathon my goal race.

After our run a group of us went to the local Greek restaurant where we chatted about skiing (both downhill and cross country), duathlons and triathlons.

All in all it was another great night with the running club. I didn't even mind that I didn't get home until almost 10 PM. I'd had a crazy day at work and was totally frazzled when I got home but the run followed by dinner relaxed and refreshed me. Amazing what a good run and good company can do.

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Note: Just ignore that strange extra line there. I accidentally turned the Garmin back on when I got home. Oops.

Activity Route: -- Elev. Avg: 628 ft Location: -- Elev. Gain: -10 ft Date: 10/25/10 Up/Downhill: [+22/-32] Time: 06:34 PM Difficulty: 2.1 / 5.0 Performance Distance: 5.48 miles Time: 0:52:02 Speed: 6.3 mph Pace: 9' 30 /mi Calories: 644 Map   Elevation (ft)   Pace (min/mile)   Splits Mile Pace (min/mile) Speed (mph) Elevation Gain actual +/- avg actual +/- avg 1 9' 31 +0' 01 6.3 -0.0 0 ft 2 9' 22 -0' 08 6.4 +0.1 -9 ft 3 9' 02 -0' 28 6.6 +0.3 +3 ft 4 8' 55 -0' 35 6.7 +0.4 +7 ft 5 10' 00 +0' 30 6.0 -0.3 0 ft end 10' 49 +1' 19 5.5 -0.8 +3 ft Versus average of 9' 30 min/mile

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Going Forward

Kim asked me at the end of last week if I wanted to run 8-10 miles with her on the weekend. Well of course I did! She even suggested a new-to-me trail: the Des Plaines River Trail and Greenway. I'd been jonesing for a nice run that wasn't marred by having to stop for traffic or watch out for cars and this was the perfect solution. Company and a beautiful trail? How could I say no?

We met up around 8AM and it was much warmer out than I'd thought it was going to be. I felt sort of silly in my long sleeved shirt. I think it was warmer outside than it was in my house.

The first few miles of the run felt tough. I was really struggling but Kim kept me distracted with conversation and together we oohed and ahhed at the trees. I mean, look at them:





Between mile 4 and 5 I started to get a weird feeling in my stomach and I had to stop and walk. Of course that's when we got passed by a group of bicyclists who shouted "WALKERS UP!" Okay, we might have been walking right that moment but we are runners! Ah, well.

I felt better after eating some Shot Bloks so I think it was just a case of not enough pre-run fuel. In fact, I felt so much better that other than stopping to take some photos during mile 8 we ran negative splits for the second half of the run. Woo hoo!

Towards the end of our run we got passed by a Team in Training coach.

"Hey, ladies! How's it going?" He asked.

"Good," we responded.

"You know," he said as he ran past, "if you answer 'Forward' you're never lying!"

We laughed but I think he made a good point. I'm going to remember that for the future.

At the beginning of the run I didn't know if I would make it all 10 miles. But by the end I felt pretty good. Have I really become the type of person that now takes 5 miles to warm up? Perhaps I have.

Kim and I have plans to keep our weekly mileage between 20 and 25 this winter and to meet up at least once a month for a long weekend run. The seasons don't stop going forward and neither will we.



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Activity Route: -- Elev. Avg: 659 ft Location: -- Elev. Gain: +0 ft Date: 10/23/10 Up/Downhill: [+282/-282] Time: 08:10 AM Difficulty: 2.9 / 5.0 Performance Distance: 10.00 miles Time: 1:45:13 Speed: 5.7 mph Pace: 10' 31 /mi Calories: 1194 Map   Elevation (ft)   Pace (min/mile)   Splits Mile Pace (min/mile) Speed (mph) Elevation Gain actual +/- avg actual +/- avg 1 10' 40 +0' 09 5.6 -0.1 -10 ft 2 10' 38 +0' 07 5.6 -0.1 +6 ft 3 10' 34 +0' 03 5.7 -0.0 +30 ft 4 10' 44 +0' 13 5.6 -0.1 -9 ft 5 12' 00 +1' 29 5.0 -0.7 +53 ft 6 10' 22 -0' 09 5.8 +0.1 -50 ft 7 10' 19 -0' 12 5.8 +0.1 +9 ft 8 11' 41 +1' 10 5.1 -0.6 -33 ft 9 9' 56 -0' 35 6.0 +0.3 -7 ft 10 9' 36 -0' 55 6.2 +0.5 +10 ft end ** ** ** ** ** ft Versus average of 10' 31 min/mile ** Insufficient data to calculate this split

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Back to the Track

For the past 24 weeks (if I counted right) I've spent my Wednesday nights at the track. So where did I go this Wednesday night? Well, the track of course!

Except, with a twist. Track with the group is over (sadly) but I finally managed to do something I'd thought about all summer: run from my house to the track and then back home.

I wanted to get in 6 miles and I knew it was 3 miles from my house to the track if I followed the route I'd taken on my bike a few times. So I strapped on my reflective gear and left the headphones at home and headed out.

My goal was to do 6 miles at a 10:00 pace and I hit it directly on the head. Of course, that doesn't mean it was easy. Oh no. For some reason this run felt tough. My knee was fine but my legs felt like concrete and my breathing never did feel easy. Perhaps I overdid it a bit on Monday and Tuesday? Perhaps I didn't fuel right during the day (work has been a little crazy these past few days)? Who knows. Still I did my 6 miles at the pace I wanted and I got to see a few new streets as a result.

On Thursday I went to the gym and did 30 minutes on the stepmill followed by 30 minutes of strength training and ab work. Oh, I also raked leaves. Let's just say my obliques haven't quite forgiven me.

And what about my knee? The doctor wrote me a prescription for physical therapy if I want to go. She thinks my meniscus might be slightly inflamed and said we can do an MRI if the PT doesn't make it better. So far, though, it's behaving itself so we'll see.

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Activity Route: -- Elev. Avg: 627 ft Location: Forest Park, IL Elev. Gain: +0 ft Date: 10/20/10 Up/Downhill: [+75/-75] Time: 05:40 PM Difficulty: 2.1 / 5.0 Performance Distance: 6.00 miles Time: 1:00:08 Speed: 6.0 mph Pace: 10' 01 /mi Calories: 712 Map   Elevation (ft)   Pace (min/mile)   Splits Mile Pace (min/mile) Speed (mph) Elevation Gain actual +/- avg actual +/- avg 1 9' 51 -0' 10 6.1 +0.1 +6 ft 2 9' 52 -0' 09 6.1 +0.1 +13 ft 3 9' 53 -0' 08 6.1 +0.1 -13 ft 4 10' 09 +0' 08 5.9 -0.1 +3 ft 5 11' 17 +1' 16 5.3 -0.7 -7 ft 6 9' 57 -0' 04 6.0 +0.0 -3 ft end ** ** ** ** ** ft Versus average of 10' 01 min/mile ** Insufficient data to calculate this split

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Massage Miracle

After running the corn maze "5K" on Sunday I had an appointment for a massage. I'd been carrying around a free one hour massage coupon for months and figured that post-marathon was the best time to use it. Plus, I knew that a good deep tissue massage would help me ward off the IT band issue that were starting to crop up.

The massage therapist was amazing and dug into my glutes and my IT band with so much force it felt like she was jamming flaming needles into my muscles. Yes, it was painful but painful in a good way. And it worked! My knee felt better immediately! It's still not 100% but it's definitely getting better.

I really needed it to feel better, too, since I was in charge of doing announcements at the running club's Monday night run. I mean, sure, I could have done announcements and then not run but I really wanted to run.

My legs apparently really wanted to run, too. Without meaning to I ran an awesome tempo run. The only time my knee acted up was when I had to move laterally to dodge a pothole and even then it just twinged for a second. The guy I ran with laughed when he asked me about my knee and I responded as if it was it's own entity: "It doesn't really like going down stairs."

Which is true. Especially all the stairs I have to navigate during my commute. And, yes, I made a doctor's appointment for Friday to make sure I'm not doing any serious damage by running on it. Maybe the doctor will prescribe more massages!

In the mean time, I've decided to get back on the strength training and Pilates bandwagon. When I printed out my strength workout last night it very nicely informed me that as it had been over three weeks since my last workout my weights had been reduced to make my comeback "more comfortable". I'm still sore today, though. Although that may be because I also took a 45 minute Pilates class last night. The new-to-me instructor had us do some new-to-me things that made it very clear it's been awhile since I've taken a Pilates class. Time to get crackin'!

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Activity Route: -- Elev. Avg: 628 ft Location: -- Elev. Gain: +3 ft Date: 10/18/10 Up/Downhill: [+22/-19] Time: 06:33 PM Difficulty: 2.1 / 5.0 Performance Distance: 5.43 miles Time: 0:51:01 Speed: 6.4 mph Pace: 9' 24 /mi Calories: 636 Map   Elevation (ft)   Pace (min/mile)   Splits Mile Pace (min/mile) Speed (mph) Elevation Gain actual +/- avg actual +/- avg 1 9' 26 +0' 02 6.4 -0.0 0 ft 2 8' 56 -0' 28 6.7 +0.3 -9 ft 3 8' 46 -0' 38 6.8 +0.5 +3 ft 4 8' 59 -0' 25 6.7 +0.3 +7 ft 5 10' 18 +0' 54 5.8 -0.6 0 ft end 10' 42 +1' 18 5.6 -0.8 +3 ft Versus average of 9' 24 min/mile

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World's Largest Corn Maze Race Report

Yes, this is the course

Kim had been talking to me about the World's Largest Corn Maze 5K for months but since I didn't know how I would feel after the marathon I waited until the last minute to decide. Either way I figured that this would be a nice race to run post-marathon. Not too serious, no chance of holding out for a PR so no need to worry about time, and on hard-packed dirt instead of asphalt or concrete.

My knee felt pretty good on Saturday after copious amounts of foam rolling and stretching so I dragged myself out of bed at 6AM on Sunday and drove to meet Kim, her husband, and her brother-in-law for the race.



The set-up was a little strange since they only let one runner start at a time. Apparently if you pre-registered you were supposed to pick your finish time from a list and they based your start time and bib number on that and had people line up in bib number order. If you registered day-of like I did you essentially just got put at the back of the line. Your bib number corresponded to how many seconds after the official start you got to start. Which meant that because I was number 414 I didn't start until 34 minutes after the first person. Which also meant that I got to see the first half-dozen finishers cross the line. Amazingly the first guy finished in like 17 minutes! Of course, there's a reason for that that I'll get to in a minute.

Once it was my turn to go I quickly realized that this was more like a trail run than anything else. A trail run surrounded by corn.



The path was rutted and bumpy and there were corn stalks and husks everywhere. And there were stairs!



Yes, we ran up and over two sets of those stairs. Fun! And as you can see, the course was marked with orange tape to make sure we didn't get lost.

At one point I thought about how this reminded me of a horror movie where the heroine is running through the corn field trying to escape the chainsaw wielding murderer. Now THAT would be motivation!

I wasn't paying much attention to my pace since the hairpin turns were a little rough on my knees and I wanted to take it easy on the stairs as well. However, I still wore my Garmin since I wanted to have the map it produces. Strangely, though, I noticed it was significantly off of the mile markers. I think when I saw the mile 1 sign the Garmin thought I'd only gone about .8 miles. Maybe it was all the turns?

Soon enough, after passing quite a few people, I emerged from the corn and decided to sprint to the finish.



I met up with Kim and Co. and enjoyed the post-race bagels, cookies, and bananas. Then we goofed off by climbing the stairs to the top of the observation tower and playing on the kiddie zipline.



.

We also joked that we should go run another half mile to round out our 5K distance. Of the three of us wearing Garmins, we registered 2.61, 2.62, and 2.7 miles. No wonder the first person finished so quickly! The course was a half mile short!

On the plus side, I was running it for fun and it was definitely fun. And even though I registered the day-of I was still able to get a t-shirt in my size. However, I have to say that the $35 registration fee ($30 prior to race day) was a little steep for a "5K" distance although the shirt was nice. But it was the inaugural year so if they do it again hopefully they'll work out the kinks.

And what was my official "5K" time? 24:21.3 A new PR! Except, not really. It's a good thing I wasn't running this race for time. I ran it for the unique experience and the company both of which were great. It was the perfect way to start my post-marathon running.




No, I'm not standing in a hole. I'm just that short.

P.S. Thanks to Kim for the photos!

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Activity Route: -- Elev. Avg: 852 ft Location: -- Elev. Gain: +0 ft Date: 10/17/10 Up/Downhill: [+49/-49] Time: 09:05 AM Difficulty: 1.7 / 5.0 Performance Distance: 2.62 miles Time: 0:25:29 Speed: 6.2 mph Pace: 9' 44 /mi Calories: 311 Map   Elevation (ft)   Pace (min/mile)   Splits Mile Pace (min/mile) Speed (mph) Elevation Gain actual +/- avg actual +/- avg 1 10' 09 +0' 25 5.9 -0.3 0 ft 2 10' 04 +0' 20 6.0 -0.2 +6 ft end 10' 25 +0' 41 5.8 -0.4 -6 ft Versus average of 9' 44 min/mile

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What's next?

Well the first thing I did was run a bit on the track on Wednesday night. I didn't take my Garmin and I didn't count my laps but I'd guess that Maribeth and I ran for 30 minutes at an easy, conversational pace. Amazingly my knee felt just fine even without wearing my knee strap.

Of course, my knee hurt most of the day on Thursday but maybe I'm just not ready for dress shoes quite yet.

I think the first thing I'm going to do is make an actual doctor's appointment and get some feedback. I'm still not sure what kind of cardio I can do safely (and don't say swimming. Sorry, swimmers, but blech) and I'd like to get a medical professional's opinion on my knee. For whatever that's worth, anyway.

Then, if I can, I'll spend the rest of the running season doing some easy 5Ks and 10Ks. No worrying about breaking any PRs. Just running for fun. And working in some more cross training and strength training.

But next year? My goals are as follows:

1. Cash in my CrossFit bootcamp Groupon.

2. Do at least one duathlon (run-bike-run)

3. Break 2 hours in a half marathon

4. Run another marathon

There's a rumor that my running club is thinking about organizing a trip to Las Vegas to do the marathon there in December 2011. I'd be down for that.

In the mean time, I'll be enjoying the spoils of finishing my first marathon.


From my brother


From Rae
Click photo to see larger


From my friend W
Click photo to see larger

P.S. You know those top 10 things I learned while running a marathon that I thought of while running and then promptly forgot? I remembered one. It's that the Mythbusters were wrong. Banana peels are very, very slippery. Especially when combined with heat, water, and Gatorade.

Post-Marathon Thoughts

As promised in my pre-marathon thoughts post, I'm doing a follow-up of the top 10 things I learned while actually running the marathon.

The funny thing is that I spent a good portion of the marathon coming up with things to put on the list and trying to remember them. How many do I actually remember? Approximately none.

But here's a list anyway.

1. You run the race you're given. Don't spend your time thinking about the "what ifs".

2. Even someone with almost 30 races under their belt can still go out too fast.

3. Don't let yourself get talked into something you're not 100% sure of. I knew I could finish that race but I wasn't sure I could finish it in 4:30. I let the excitement get the best of me.

4. Adrenaline helps but it is not enough. It will get you to the finish line but it won't be pretty.

5. No matter how fast or slow you run, when you look back on the race it will seem like it was over in the blink of an eye.

6. Try to figure out the official race shirt color ahead of time. Don't wear the same color if you want your friends and family to be able to easily pick you out of the crowd.

7. Sun and heat are humbling. Don't let anyone tell you otherwise.

8. If you feel like you have to walk, try to come up with a plan and stick to it.

9. It's not supposed to be easy. If it were easy everyone would do it. Tell yourself this when it gets hard.

10. Remember to smile and laugh at the funny signs, shirts, and spectators.

Bonus 11. Don't let yourself get beat by a guy in a bear suit. There are some things a guy in a bear suit can't do.*



P.S. I beat the guy in a bear suit.

*P.P.S. Does anyone other than me remember that Late Show with David Letterman skit?