Seize the Day!

It is not an exaggeration to say that I ran one of the best races that I’ve ever run yesterday. The weather was optimal for running. I ran a smart race. I had beautiful pretty splits. I felt good. Great running time and a nice finish. What more could a girl ask for on a Sunday race day?

The funny thing is that this was another race that I went into without an actual plan. Nope. Nada. Clueless. Like any tutu runner, I was more concerned with coordinating my outfit which I do believe that I did so perfectly.

bronx10m_5 Mission accomplished!

When walking and getting into the corrals with my MRTT Mama’s, I was saying that I was just going to run the Bronx 10 Miler as a training run. I was just going to run it at a solid 10:30 pace like many of my training runs.

bronx10m_2

Gun goes off and we are off. I start off with my friend Kim. I tell her just go ahead as I don’t want to affect her race as I’m going to be going slow. She goes her way, I go mine. Then a funny thing happens as I’m trying to maintain my 10:30 pace, I realize that I’m going too fast. I feel good. I know from experience though that starting out too fast can be a real problem, so I change my mindset to running a smart race.

Seize the Day mentality.

I still have not thought on overall time, but I figure I will try to just keep my splits good. I did runt them faster than I was trying, but I was feeling good and felt like I could maintain the pace. I figured that it was only 10 miles and I could just keep going.

It seemed to work for me. I did a couple things to distract me from the actual running during the race. First, I listen to those around me while running. I listen to the sounds of the feet, conversations, and just pay attention to where I’m actually running. Kind of taking in the sites. One of the other things that I did was take the time to say Thank You to every Police Officer that I ran by. Just a simple, “thanks officer.” They probably were like who is this crazy lady in red, but I figured they deserved it.

Then I get to the finish line which this year is on a downhill as they changed the course a little. I’m feeling a stitch in my side, but I push it hard at the end. Why not? I can always breathe after I cross the finish line.