Thanks Daniel Powter for the inspiration.

I don’t particularly care for your song or having bad days!! If I didn’t write a post saying I was running the Shamrock Shuffle, I very well may have stepped off the course this morning and walked away with a DNF.  However, I hate quitting and the feeling it leaves in my stomach, so I figured I’d rather set a new PR in running my slowest 8k ever than finish with a big, fat DNF.

Within the first quarter mile I learned that I was definitely not recovered from the 20k trail race I ran last Saturday. By the time I was ½ a mile into the race, I knew that I was going to have to back off and settle for a good effort tempo run instead of racing. It’s hard to swallow my pride and let runners pass me that I could normally beat, but today I had to do just that.

Thankfully, my Dick Pond/Fast Track teammates (sponsored by Saucony), Shannon Ring, Meg Sullivan, and Columba Montes , ran very well. Congrats, especially to Meg, who Pr’d today!! We are all awaiting team results and are hoping we placed in the top 5! This year’s field was really, really competitive!

Things I learned today…One; while it’s a good idea to get a good night’s sleep before a race, it might not be a good idea to take a sleeping pill the night before a race.  Maybe there are some better ideas for Insomnia?  I’ve dealt with it for as long as I can remember. Two; I need to change my training and start adding speed work. I’m excited to be working with a new coach, Carla Hastert, who will be giving me a new training schedule this week. Three; I need to start strength training again, and four; I need to suck it up and run fast. Oh, and number five;  training tip of the day…to the guy at the race with the backpack containing smokes, give that up and I’ll bet you will run faster! ( ;

 So how did everyone else do?