“Anyone can give up, it’s the easiest thing in the world to do. But to hold it together when everyone else would understand if you fell apart, that’s true strength.”

Yesterday, I ran my second 5km of the season in Riverside, California. As I’ve aged, I’ve actually started to run faster! In high school, my fastest 5km was like 24 minutes. In college, I remember running one race that took me 20:38 minutes- that was my fastest race of all time! Now, my mature age of 36, I find that I am more committed to running, more committed to exercise, and faster. It’s been really fun because I knew, if I had just a little more interval training, I would have run a 21! I love racing now because I love to see improvement.

As for the mental aspect of racing, I used a lot of positive affirmations throughout the race. I could hear myself saying things like “you are strong, fast and doing great”. In addition, I always focus on the women who are just up from me and attempt to pass them- never am satisfied with my position in a race. Same thing in cycling races- always MOVE UP- don’t get comfortable.

Some things I learned at this race, drinking a high quality sports nutrition drink would have been appropriate for just before the race. Instead, I drank an endurance drink that is suitable for longer races and I was tasting it throughout- not good! Directly after the race, a protein shake or bar would have been nice (waiting 2+ hours to eat any solid food is not smart either).

So, lesson learned:
1. Train for the last mile of the race.
2. No solid food for at least two hours before
3. Sprint at the beginning to get away from the rolling roadblocks
4. Take a non-running partner for keys, glasses, and jackets

Any other suggestions or comments???