A Little Mental Toughness....

On Saturday, I set out with a few goals in mind...Well actually one goal and one default goal....Goal #1 was to set a PR in the Half-Marathon(1:47) and Default Goal was to set a PR for the Rock N Roll Seattle Half Course in case I did not set a PR for the day...

The day started out rough...4:15 a.m. Wake-up, get ready for the race, load up the family with the help of Vanessa and head over to Seattle...From 4:15-6:15 it was SMOOOOOOTH, then we got to the drop-off area...actually 15 blocks from the drop-off area...It was here that I had to get out...otherwise Vanessa and the kids would be in traffic for the next hour....I already made her get up at the butt crack of down, this may be pushing it.

So I got out and started walking with Hundreds of my closest friends to the Starting Line....2 Miles later, I was there....Let me think, the last thing I was to do before a Half Marathon is walk two miles...

It was now 6:45 a.m. and the race start was in 15 minutes..."Well, I had better start my watch"  Sometimes it takes a few minutes to pick up the satellites...Wanted it to be ready for the start..This is how I pace, how I motivate, how I stay on track.....HOLY SHIT!!!!!  That's right, it did not turn on...NOOOOOOOOOO, this could not happen...I already hurt, I was mentally tired...I needed it...I actually tried the damn thing for the next 5 minutes, to no avail, and with every failed start the SHITS, F#$%s etc. got louder...Now what?? Well I had to pee, and I had to pee bad...Have you ever been too a race with 27,000 people?  Well it seems as if all of them have to go to the bathroom at the same time...So after waiting in line for 9 minutes, It was time to get into my corral for the start...

How was I going to meet my goals...I have not run WITHOUT a watch in a race for over 2 years....First thing I did was look at my playlist...Memorized the order of the last 5 songs and told myself, when they start, I will have to be at mile 11+ or else....Then the gun went off, and we started to slowly progress to the starting line...When it was my turn, my corral was 9 minutes behind the start of the clock....and then it hit me, that will be my clock....

So for the next 13.1 miles, I would look at the time and subtract 7-9 minutes dependent on how I wanted to feel...and it worked...

It all worked, my music cues and the clocks...enough so that when I crossed the finish line at 1:54:23 I still had songs remaining and I had set a PR for the Rock n Roll Course...LAst year I ran it in 2:06...12 minutes better...I will take it....I missed a PR in the half by 6 minutes...so there is another goal.

So what did this race teach me...I have a little mental toughness....and I am going to need it as I move forward with my training for the Portland Marathon in October...My goal is to get back down under 200 by the start of the race, and to set a new PR for the Marathon...so for those of you keeping track, I will need to get a 3:58.....

Enjoy the pics...and thank you to all of you who read this and comment...I appreciate all of you....

Love

Chris