Marathon Pace Thursday, Jan. 18, 2018

I wanted to try out Garmin's tracker feature on this run, so I decided to run with a vest.  I didn't fill the bladder.  Instead I used soft-bottles and loaded them in the front.  I also packed a headlamp and my phone.  You have to run with your phone for the tracker feature to work.  The minute I put on the vest, I knew it was a bad idea.  It was too heavy for me to do a six mile marathon pace run, especially one that started with hills.  I knew, but I did it anyway.  My husband wanted to run a mile with me to warm up, so after a slow mile, I stopped at home to pick up the vest and headed out.


I think that I'll never find a vest that I like.  It was uncomfortable from the start, but I really thought that I could gut it out.  At about the 2 1/2 mile mark I knew that I would pass my house.  That knowledge just sucked the will out of me.  I decided to stop and ditch the vest.  I couldn't even make it home.  I stopped at the 1.9 mark and just jogged home.

It was a longish break at home, because I had to fill my handheld.  My plan, at that point, was to run four miles at marathon pace.  So off, again, I went.  There were hills to be had, but I had no excuse at all to quit at 2.7, but that is exactly what I did.

The fog descended on me.  I left my light at home.  My glasses were wet.  I could barely see a thing, and I just tried my best to interval myself home.  When I got home, I was a wet mess.  Despite the fact that I looked like I had jumped into a swimming pool with my clothes on, my little handheld was not empty.  Somehow, I had managed not drink hardly anything.  I was nauseous, but despite feeling like crap, I drank everything in those soft bottles.

When my husband asked me about my run, I said that I failed on every level.  He reminded me that at least I got in my mileage.

This epic failure had two causes.  First, the minute I put that vest on, my mind decided that I was going to fail. Before I left the house, I knew that I was going to stop and put the vest down at the 2.5 mark.  I was determined to try out the tracking feature, so I didn't want to admit it.  I'm not sure if I could have salvaged the run after I stopped under any circumstances.  Training is more about your state of mind than that of your physical state, but I also didn't have nearly enough food during the day to sustain the run.  I had a scoop of UCAN before I left, but I had a small lunch, and I wasn't even really hydrated.

I can't do this two weeks in a row.  Next week's marathon pace run is going to be magnificent.  I'm promising myself right now that I am going to do everything right, or at the very least, make different mistakes.