This past Sunday Bryan, Chris and I ran the Rock CF Half Marathon in Grosse Ile, Michigan with a bunch of our other running buddies. The three of us had never done this race before but had heard great things about it. It did not disappoint! The race raises funds and awareness for Cystic Fibrosis, hence the running shoe lungs logo. I love that! We had never been to Grosse Ile before but it’s not far from where we live. We left around 5:30am so we’d have plenty of time to cross the border, get to the race site and pick up our race packets. The race started at 8:00am right from the parking lot of the local middle school. I have to say, even though this race was on the smaller side, it was extremely well organized. There was a 5k, a half marathon and a relay. The half marathon made a nice loop around the island so for much of the time we were running along the water, which was beautiful.
I wasn’t particularly nervous for this race; in fact, up until I started running, I hadn’t even decided if I was going to race for time or just run for fun. I figured I’d start out running with Chris and see how I felt. My biggest issue in past races was going out to quickly, letting the adrenaline get the best of me and then I’d have trouble down the stretch. I’d had some really good training runs the past few weeks by using the method of taking the long runs easy. Our first few miles were just under 9:30/mile and they felt good. By mile 4 I decided to go for it and picked up my pace so that I was running sub 9:00/mile. This meant I was now running alone but I’ve run every other race alone and I needed to get another monkey off my back. When I run alone I tend to have trouble in the later miles and have even walked stretches in the past. I needed to figure out the mental part of my runs and today was the day! I figured out that as long as I could maintain a pace somewhere under 9:00/mile for the rest of the race, I’d probably be looking at a personal best time so that’s what I focused on. “Just stay under 9, just stay under 9” became my mantra. Everything was feeling great and I seemed to be cruising along pretty well but the closer I got to the 10 mile mark the more I started to feel that old mental game creeping in. Mile 10 took us through an airport hangar and then onto a very open section of pavement. It made for quite a headwind which is never fun near the end of a race. I made it through, maintaining my pace, and reached the turn in the road. No more head wind! The mile 11 marker loomed ahead but I was still fighting the mental “wall”. Mile 11 for me is tough because you are now so close to the end but not close enough. I decided distraction was the best was to get past it so I just started watching road signs. I told myself I couldn’t check my watch until the next sign and that really helped me a lot. By the time I reached mile 12, I was getting a second wind and looking at my watch, I knew I’d be looking at a great time if I just kept the pace up a little longer.
A running friend of mine told me that when he races he looks at the runners ahead of him and imagines reeling them in one by one. I was able to do that until mile 13. Once I hit that marker I tried to sprint the last tenth of a mile but ran out of gas and jogged across the finish line. When I looked at my watch I was so excited!
I beat my personal best by over 3 minutes and, more importantly, I really felt like I’d improved on my mental game. As it turned out, Bryan and Chris also pb’d with 1:43 and 2:01 respectively 😀 . What a great race! After everyone in our group had crossed the finish line and we’d picked up our complimentary banana and bagel, we headed home to hit a local restaurant for a well deserved beer and some breakfast.
If you’re in the area and are looking for a scenic and relatively flat course, definitely check out Rock CF, it’s a great race and benefits a great cause.
Any races on the schedule?
Does anyone else ever hit the mental “wall”? How do you get through it?
Shauna says
Good for you guys–you’re so inspiring! A friend of mine has a daughter with CF, so reading about the race’s cause was even more special to me. Congratulations!