Race Bandit

I ventured out on my five mile run this morning. I felt very good the first half and was actually running much faster than I had been the last few runs. I also switched to 7/1 which was good. I figure that I will do that in the first half of the race next week and then switch back to 7/2 if I need more recovery time. As I turned around at the 2.5 mile sign, the wind died. Or maybe it was just blowing the wrong direction.

Oh, I forgot to mention that during the first half I noticed lots of orange cones and tables with lots of little cups of water. A race!! Oh, my. I started to worry how it would impact me coming back, but decided to worry about that when I needed to. At about 8am, as I approached the 2 mile marker, I heard the gun go off. I looked up and saw a large group of women running on the upper level path. I then remembered that it was the Nike Women's Race: 5k and 10k. I forgot that it was today and surely didn't know that it was up in my neighborhood. I had nearly signed up for that race a couple of months ago, but I was afraid it would negatively impact my training to run a race the week before the half marathon. As it would turn out, however, I unwittingly became part of the race anyhow.

After I turned around and approached my three mile marker, I saw the long line of women running. And they were running fast. I stopped completely, trying to figure out what to do because they were running where I was supposed to be running. I merged with them for about 100 feet, just long enough to make it through the narrow passageway under the bridge and then was able to move to an alternate path. But soon, again, the time came where I was forced to merge with them. I did this as the 10k runners passed the three mile marker. The time clock read 23 minutes. I told you they were fast. I managed to (sort of) keep up with them for about a half a mile until they reached another point where there was an alternate path.

Part of me wanted to keep running with them. It has been too long since I was in a race. It has been too long since I ran fast. But I knew it would do me more harm than good. Even though I liked the people cheering, it made me feel guilty because I was a fraud. Plus, I would hate if I paid money for a race and a race bandit jumped on the course with me and started running. Granted, I didn't do it on purpose and really had no other choice, but still I felt guilty.

So I headed over to the bike path to finish the last mile or so. It was great to look over and see all of the women running. I had to fight the urge to yell "Girl power" or "Women Runners Rock!" I definitely will be signing up next year.

Only one week to the big day!!