It’s football season, so I’m going to start with a quote from John Madden –
“Always have class, and be humble.”
I… prefer ice cream with my humble pie
Nobody likes to get beat… but I’d rather be beaten running hard, than win easy, and Rachel Hannah definitely made me run hard at the 10k champs. I knew going into the race that I was going to have some stiff competition to defend my title from last year. For the first time in as long as I can remember we had 5 girls line up with times under 34 min.
After CWG, when my coach and I put together my training plan for STWM we decided that I’d have to train through the 10k champs and hope that I would have enough pep in my step to perform well. It’s a hard pill to swallow… head into a championship race knowing you’re not going to taper and you are nowhere near peaking… it’s even harder to swallow when you know how strong the field is going to be and that a lil’ taper might make all the difference. I came away from the Zoo with the silver, a 36 sec PB on the course, and a solid 22 miler the following day… can’t complain about that.
We are now less than a week away from STWM and I’m excited to be in my taper! I think my roommate is probably more pleased… means I am no longer procrastinating my morning shower to justify getting out the door for my second run. Much like last year, I am trying not to get too nervous or think too much about the race itself. I’m sure that once I arrive in Toronto and I’ll have plenty of time to think about the race – hard not to when everyone is going to be asking me my goals and race plan. I know my training has gone well leading into the 10k champs, and since then (aside from the week or so that I was sick with a chest bug) which makes me excited to see how this whole race thing pans out on Sunday.
I’ll be at the expo Friday and Saturday and will be sticking around Toronto for a few days post-race for some running and non-running related activities. (I’ll let ya know when those expo times will be later this week.)
For now, all that’s left for me to do this week is eat some turkey dinner, and respect the taper.
This last year has been full of amazing experiences, accomplishments, lessons, and miles (so many miles!) Looking back on it all, I’m incredibly thankful for the opportunity to do it all again next week in Toronto. October 19th is coming… and I’m as ready as I’ll ever be.
