How Soon Is Now

I was looking at the calendar to see how far away May 1st was....wait what?? Three weekends away! Crapola! That means one more long run, one taper run, then the race! Can I get a few more weeks? Please??

Despite the fact that I had a killer 8 mile run this weekend (with 5 miles all sub 9:30, and 2 of those miles being sub 9:00, thank you very much) I feel like I am not at all ready for a 2 hour half marathon. And that's okay. I have plans to run at least 3 more half marathons during the year (and likely, I'll probably run at least 6 more) so I know I have plenty of chances to run a 2 hour half. But really, I have no idea what a realistic pace for my half marathon should be. I know I can PR, especially since Long Island is flat. It's crazy to say "I don't feel ready"...but I don't feel ready! I don't want to taper! Maybe it's just race day jitters....

DNS - Did Not Start

Discliamer:
I'm sure many of you are tired of hearing about the following topic. I'm sorry. This is the last time I mention it. Promise.

For those of you that aren't aware, I tweaked something during a workout last Tuesday that has kept me sidelined from running for a few days. The bike was fine, so I was hoping that after a few days of cross training and rest, I could take an easy run on Saturday, and hopefully I'd be ready to run today's More Half Marathon. After a few minutes of running, it was obvious that this tweak had not untweaked. Running wasn't painfully unbearable, but it did hurt, and I knew running on that pain for 13.1 miles was a bad idea. I have another half May 1st, and the RTB Relay a few weeks after that--it just wasn't worth the risk.

I'm not sure which hurt worse--my wallet (the race WAS $70 after all) or my ego. This was the first time I've ever had to miss a race due to an injury/something out of my control. So many of my friends PR'ed this weekend and had amazing races, obviously I wanted to be one of them. It's also really hard not to feel like I've dissapointed a lot of people. I had made plans to meet up with several friends to run the race with them, and I had made plans to meet up with other friends for a post-race brunch. None of those things happened. And of course, you always feel like you've let your coach down. I know none of these things are true. No one is mad, disappointed, or upset with me in any way. Maybe I'm just feeling those things about myself. It's hard to have an aggressive goal, and then feel like you're taking steps backwards.

I finished March with a total of 87 miles, last year I had only run 36. I have about a month to get my sh!t together for the LI Half, and then I get to go on a 200 mile adventure with some of my closest friends. There's a whole lot of year left to run. I know I just need to be optimistic, patient and let myself heal so I can come back strong and race hard.