Friday, July 2, 2010

Afton, ready or not?

Sometimes I go into a race full of confidence, sometimes I don't, it's safe to say that my race tomorrow will be the latter. A few weeks back I felt great and I was ready to take on this course and get a PR. Over the last few weeks things have seemed to come unraveled.

First my back wouldn't stop hurting after FANS, I had it looked at and over the next few weeks it will be fine, by tomorrow, probably not. Then my foot started bugging me, no idea why, but it will probably bug me too. Then I was in San Jose for work this past week, which meant not eating normally and despite my good intentions, zero runs for the week.

When I got there on Tuesday I thought about running but I was beat from the plane ride and from going into work. When I have work weeks like this past one they wear me out as I end up talking all day. Although I can do this, being a complete introvert by the end of the day I am worn out. I was going to go on a run Wednesday morning, but nope I procrastinated by checking emails and taking care of things back in Minnesota and then I was out of time. No problem I could go Wednesday evening except we got back to the hotel later than I thought we would so we went to dinner and again I was worn out. No problem I thought, I would go Thursday morning except Wednesday's dinner didn't settle well and I didn't really want to have a gastronomic experience on a run. No problem I thought I could run around 2 in the afternoon, hopefully by then the system would be normal, except a meeting got moved so I couldn't get out for a run. That night we were going to go to Santa Cruz for dinner, the guy I was with said I could go ahead and run but that meant we might get back late and I had to leave for the airport at 5:00 AM. So I didn't run, I thought to myself besides my procrastination habits maybe this was my way of me just needing to take a break.

So tonight as I think about my race tomorrow, I am convinced Afton will be a blast.

Why you might ask? Especially after all my whining above and when you add that the weather is going to be miserably hot, the course is not easy that is a good question.

Here's why, I am capable of starting this race so I am going to, nothing more complicated than that. One day I may not be able to do that so I plan to enjoy any race I enter and if my day goes bad, what the heck, who cares. If I have to go into races so intense about my times or finishing them that I don't enjoy the variability they offer than frankly I think I should give them up. I enjoy these long distance events because of the unknown, that is my challenge. Besides I have gone into quite a few races feeling great and the day turned into a disaster.

All I can do is plan to give it my all and if my stomach, back or my body fails me so be it, but I think it will go ok. I will take my time, stay hydrated, soak up the sun and just think of how lucky I am to be able to experience such a wonderful personal challenge plus I get to take in the beauty of Afton State Park.

1 comment:

Thompson said...

Today was my first Afton race, and it really is a great park. But San Jose has some great running, road and trail, and would have been great prep work for Afton. I used to live in that area and miss all the trails.

Hope you had a good race. -Mark

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