Forerunner 405 to the Rescue!
How depressing. I run my first race in nearly a year and a half (training diligently, by the way, for a distance I used to do five times a week) and my results aren’t even registered. At least the Forerunner 405, given to me by my loving, wonderful fiancé, has stepped in to save the day!
This morning, after a short weekend in which I had to work on Saturday, (and am feverishly anticipating a job search thanks to the shenanigans that went down at work this week), I dragged myself out of bed at 6:30am for a race. I would’ve loved a few more hours in bed, but the fact that today was also the New York City marathon also got me out of bed — I need to turn my running around, and the only way to do that is to prove to myself that I can still race. So up I was, IP accompanying me (isn’t he the sweetest?), heading to the Rockville 10K/5K at King Farm Village Center. At 8:34am, I started the run and hoped for a good race. I ended up with a great race instead.
My last race, the Race for the Cure, was pretty awful. I didn’t think I did so well, the streets of DC aren’t really that fun to run on, and the late spring weather (nice ‘n warm) isn’t a favorite condition of mine. I’ve always been partial to fall/winter runs, so when I decided that training for the marathon was going to be impossible for me since I didn’t really have a running base, I decided to start off smaller. The 10K has never been a favorite race distance of mine — the 5K means less time invested and a 10K was my usual training distance, so it was snooze-worthy — but I decided I needed to get myself back to that distance in order to build up for a 10-miler and for a half-marathon next spring. The 10K was a great starting point — above my current preferred distance (anywhere from three to 4.5 miles) and a distance I feel should become “easy” again. So I trained for eight weeks, missing some days here and there, but rebuilding the semblance of a base.
Getting back to the 10K was a great move on my part. I measured myself carefully, starting out slowly and deliberately, intentionally focusing not on the people around me (it’s easy to get sucked into the idea of passing, passing, passing peope!) but on my pace and my breathing (I love you, Forerunner!). It seemed as if I reached the halfway point quickly; the race as a whole was a joy. What hills there were I took in easy stride, finding myself passing plenty of people here (which was surprising; hills are my downfall, but I’ve made it a point to tackle two hills that give me trouble while in training). When I finished, I felt like I could’ve gone further (which is great since I definitely want to go further!). So it was disappointing to discover that the tag I wore didn’t register at all. 
(Though I’m still wearing my rightfully earned race t-shirt, dammit!)
However, as I said, the Forerunner came to the rescue. It said I ran 6.29 miles in 59:22; not spectacular, obvs, but pretty damn good for someone who thought she would not come in at under an hour. And the fact that the Forerunner registered a slightly longer distance means that I was a tiny bit faster than I anticipated. I am extremely happy about that.
I’m looking forward to my next race (which I think will be the Candy Cane City 5K — let’s just say that I’m not too far from it) and I’m looking forward to having the Forerunner by my side from 5K to marathon, charting my runs even if those new-fangled tags (not chips, alas, which have never failed me) decide that I actually didn’t run the race.
