Came back from the Pond. I was geared up to run better than 22 minutes because of the way practice went on Tuesday. I was mentally set, unlike at last Sunday's failure 5k.
I arrived in good time. Anytime I arrive at a race with more than enough time to get ready and jog a full warm up - that's good time. I changed my shoes, drank a requisite amount of water and took off.
My warm-up started out pretty stiff; it took my legs 10 minutes to loosen up but I felt they were ready to run. After 1.5 miles and past the dog pond, There's a stretch of road before we take another turn past the woody area, where houses stand on the hilly part.
There was a pothole that I didn't see...
...my ankle went one way and I went the other. I would have fallen pretty hard but l broke my fall with my hands and arms.
Dangit! (although, that's a much more sanitised version of what actually came out of my mouth) Dangit! Dangit! I couldn't believe that I had just twisted my ankle so close to the race! How would I race now? I'd have to settle for just finishing the race. And, unless I'm recovering from a serious illness, it's something that's not an option for me. EVER.
Anyway, we had a staggered start because there was a horde of high school kids who were racing to get ready for x-country season. When the race the race finally did start for us - 5 minutes later - I kept my focus on what I had had to modify my previous plan to be: Run farletks instead of running at a steady tempo, which was the original plan. I had planned to jog for 15 seconds and pick up at full speed again. It turned out that my body wanted to run a much longer fartlek than planned and so I focused on a target and didn't waver for a mile. I even picked some people off along the way. I kept telling myself that this was easy, because it felt like it at the time. Another runner cut off the runner who I was targeting...she just came out of nowhere. She wasn't in the trial, but I focused on her anyway. Ran 1.5 miles and that's when I started to slow down because I was limping. My ankle was in pain. I thought, "Maybe I can still salvage this somehow by jogging only for a very short time and then running hard for at least 100 to 200 meters." My jogs became limps, though I gritted my teeth and got through it when the hard running had to be done. Just when I thought it couldn't get any worse, I was seized by side stitches. I can run through those though, it was really the ankle pain that was getting to me.
Anyway, I limped in at 24:11 (9.67 pace) which is fine if you're that kind of person, but I'm really angry at myself for not being more careful during the warm-up.
I'm going back next Saturday ( the Whole Foods 5k can wait until next year; not doing it until I get a workable baseline time) looking for BIG time redemption.
