P2P

Hello cyberfolks! Yesterday was a busy day. My mother-in-law Denell and I participated in the Park to Park 1/2 Marathon in the morning, went out to lunch with some friends, and then went to the UNI football game in the evening. I will admit I took a nap in there somewhere (I did get up before 5) but it was only for about 30 minutes, which hardly counts as a nap for someone who can usually sleep for two hours in the afternoon.

Denell walked the Park to Park and I ran it. Her performance was much more impressive than mine. She finished in an incredible 2:35, which is just amazing! As for my run, my time didn't impress me, but I felt great the entire way, so I can't complain, especially because it was a gorgeous morning and a well-organized race.

I think sometimes I start too conservatively because I am worried about hitting the wall, and to really improve my times, I need to be more aggressive at the start. However, I sometimes debate how important improving my times really is to me. I want to be able to go out and comfortably run 1/2 marathons and have then be pleasant (not miserable) experiences. I typically achieve this. I'm not sure if my life would really be that different if I ran them 5 or 10 minutes faster.

I saw some folks I knew at the race yesterday. I knew people walking, running, doing the 1/2, the 5k, the 10k....younger people and older people. I think I heard 1,500 people did the Park to Park. It's always fun to see so many people come out to an event and have fun. The winning times always blow my mind, but so does the 70 year old man walking the 1/2, the woman pushing the kid in the wheelchair, the guy who has lost 60 founds in the last year and can now do a 5k...There was a kid who was maybe 9 or 10 running the 1/2 (faster than me) and I thought about how LONG the mile run was for me in elementary school. I would have sooner died than even entered a 5k, but that kid made 13.1 look easy.

I have to say that I think the reason I couldn't have run a half marathon 20, 15, or maybe even 10 years ago was not a physical reason, but rather a mental one. I really don't think I had the mental ability and toughness to do the distance training until my mid-20's. Ironically, when I might have been able to physically go the fastest, I didn't have the mentality to even really attempt serious running.

I am exhausted today. I don't think it's because of the race. It's a different type of tired than that. I think it's because I worked particularly long hours last week (at work and then also at home) and didn't get to recover too much yesterday. I thought I might do a short run today but I really just don't feel like it, although it is a beautiful day. I am being very lazy.