Santa Hustle Race Report and Year In Review
This weekend I ran the Santa Hustle Half Marathon Race in Severville, Tennessee. But Before I get into that race report, I want to stop for a moment and re-cap the year that was , since I will kinda be using this blog as a Race Report as well as a review of the season.
Year In Review:
So, my season really kicked off January 1st as I opened the book on a fresh season after taking most of December off:
- January 1st- New Years Day 5k, Knoxville, Tennessee, - Missed a PR by just a couple of min after darn near oversleeping the race entirely.
- January 8th- Began Training for the Covenant Health Knoxville 5k and Marathon Back to back.
March- Completed a 5k on St. Patricks weekend . Again Narowlly missing a PR due to heat.
March- Completed the Covenant Health 5K with an all negative split.The first time ever doing that . Then 12 hours later, missed a pr by about 2 min in the half due to some fueling issues.
March- Registered and was successfully drawn in lottery for my First marathon, the Marine Corps Marathon.
March- Hired my running coach and got ready to start training for my first full
April- Ran the Dogwood Classic 5k with my best friend from High School and then the next Morning ran a SUPER muggy half in Farragut TN.
May- at the be a factor 5k, going for broke to win my division and PR. i turned an ankle ,75 of a mile in. Hobbled to my worst ever 5k finish.
May- Ran the knoxville expo 10k as a TRAINING run, and darn near pr'd that race.
May- September- No races. Strictly training for MCM on October 30th.
September- during a training run hit a milestone that I could now run halfs without training and then proceeded to smash a 5.5 min pr at the same time
October- Ran the Desmond Doss Memorial Half Marathon in Chatanooga. Helped to pace the 3hr group in. Found a love for pacing.
October- 2 weeks later: Ran and completed my first MCM. What a crowning moment.
November- 2 weeks after my first full- Ran a 5k that was free
November- a week later ran the turkey trot 10k again barely missing a pr by 3 min
November- a week later- ran another 5k
December- A week later- ran the santa hustle half Marathon
Needless to say, its time for a break. I will get into that shortly, but after 16 races and 8 out of the last 10, and being denied 2 more , then it's time to break, recover, and move to 17.
Santa Hustle Half Marathon Race Report:
So, yesterday, I ran what would turn out to be my final Race of the year , the Santa Hustle Half Marathon. This race started at wilderness of the smokies, went out 6.5 miles , into pigeon forge, turned around, and followed the same route back. This was a very hilly course, but the descents evened it out into probably one of the flattest races here especially for being at altitude. Taper had gone well this week. I had felt pretty strong going in. The weather was like 20 degrees , so it was frigid. I knew this would be absolute heck to get warm, but i thought I could get loose. Not so much.
As we took off, i was careful. I was starting up, to try to avoid some of the crowd. I came out and threw 2 12 min miles down. Imediatley i knew, get off and save gas. That is what I did. I figured , due to having a very large base, that it would take me sometime to warm up.
As I got deeper into the race, I was finding it very hard to get comfortable. As a result, it left me in a state of frustration. I was tired, and it had been an early cold morning. I just wanted to get going in a solid state, as I was trying to throw down a pretty good time , if not a pr.
As we got into the descent, i thought I had found my groove. I took off and flew. Then when we hit the flat again, It was like a bad car engine that was misfiring. I just couldn't settle in. It was extremely cold.
Finally, after what seemed like an eternity, I was able to finish. It took me 3:00 and 5 seconds, but it was done.
At first, when I texted coach, i was pretty upset. Nothing had seemed to go right. But , as coach always does, she was able to turn my thoughts around pretty quickly. The issue then became, can I run again next week and then again in 2 weeks. The answer was NO! I tried to reason, to no avail. Looking back on the conversation, she's right. I need a break. Which leads me to the why I need a break..
As to why I need this break, it is simple. Burnout and over racing. I have been racing 8 out of the last 10 weeks if you go back to the half before MCM. Which is RIDICULOUS. You can't do that and recover. So , now its time to re-focus and plan out 2017.
What I can tell you is that , why the calendar is still up in the air, there will be NO Chicago this next year. I have decided to delay that for a year. So, my big A feature will be in March when I tackle the Biltmore Backyard to Vineyard Challenge of a Half and a Full in 2 days back to back. I may have just lost my mind folks, but Were gonna give it all we got. So, from here on in, its back to putting the head down for the next 13 weeks and training. It's going to fly by and I will be back to taper before we can think about it, but here goes nothing.
-IRC #2148-
No comments:
Post a Comment