River Jam 10 – August Edition – The long slow fade

Last night, I was back racing their 2^nd Thursday of the month River Jam 10k Series at the Whitewater Center. The heat and humidity was on everyone’s mind, and there was precious little shade near the start finish line.

Even thou, I went out in 7 minutes for the first mile, the trail was jammed full of runners in front of me. The trail are extremely tight during portion of the opening mile so this makes passing very difficult. I worked my way up to Andrew, and we ran together for the next several miles.

My legs didn’t feel great but they didn’t feel bad. Andrew had asked me how I was feeling before the race. I replied that I feel fine but I don’t know how my legs will feel until I get a few race miles under my belt.

I led us through the next several miles until we turned on to the Lake Loop. Normally, this is a section that I thrive. The trail is fairly open and makes for some fast running.

However, this night, I turned the corner, grab a cup of water, and dumped it over my head. Then, like a light switch the wind went out of my sails. Andrew pulled up and passed me. I was making every attempt to hang on to him. In fact, I feel like I was closing some on the long gradual uphill on the backside of the Lake Loop.

But once we turned the corner, he was gone. I could see the gap was growing, and it was all that I could do just to keep my legs turning over. It wasn’t that I was breathing hard. Rather, it was like all of the drive had left my legs.

For some reason, on this night the Lake Loop was jammed with other non-race runners and walkers. I ended up passing by so many people.

In fact, I didn’t even realize that another racer was catching me until we left the woods. Andrew had pulled well ahead by now. Not helping my motivation, this new guy was pulling away as well. My legs were not cooperating so there was little that I could do about it. Then, with maybe 200 yards left in the race, I got passed by yet another runner. I am afraid to look back for fear that there are a stream of runners catching me. I just focused on moving forward and hoped for the best.

I would cross the finish line in 48:35 so roughly two minutes slower than my races here over the last 3 months, and I would finish in 8^th place. I felt hot, sweaty, and miserable. Even the cold water that I drank afterwards didn’t help make me feel better.

I went home, ate dinner, and crawled in to bed for a good night’s sleep. Knowing full well, the sun will come up tomorrow no matter how bad one day may be. With it is another opportunity to excel.

Tails from the Trail,

The Cool Down Runner