There's bad races, then there's not so good races... then there was the race I had today. Today I ran the
Ventura Half Marathon. I believe it was the 12th annual race? The beneficiary for the race was
Habitat for Humanity.
It's a small and local which I always love.
{Picture from last year's race}
They had a staggered start which I also love. I was originally signed up to run with the "fast" start (because of my qualifying time) at 8am but decided I better play it safe and do the 7am start. My training has been all over the place and so have my paces so I figured this was my best option. Going slow is better than not going at all.

I used Clif Shot Blocks for energy gels this race. I had never used them before but I liked them. Good flavor, but I didn't think they were as potent as the gels. Maybe that's just me though?
Do you energy gels for fuel? What about candy? I've never tried candy during a race but I heard it works well.
Let's just be honest: I showed up to the start line already defeated.
The first mile I always feel pretty good then 3-5 tend to be
hard mentally for me. It's like I'm not in the groove yet and tend to focus on how much further I have to go while I
should be focusing on how grateful I am to be out there, healthy, doing what I enjoy. I tend to forget about that when way too busy having a pity party for one.
Then I realize no one showed up at the party except me and its not making me go any faster so I get out of the bitter barn for miles 6-9. Somehow I usually get a burst of energy during these miles. I finally start to into a good rhythm and my pace tends to pick up.
Then 10-11 I think start "
okay...I'm ready to be done" and 13 it's all about "
where the crap is the finish line!?!"
Can't win them all! I (try to) take each race as a lesson for the next one. Lesson from today: I need to keep reminding myself that even if I only have 30 min to run it's better to get out and get a few miles in rather than skip the workout completely.
"I would rather be standing at the top of a hill that I just dominated unable to breathe, ready to puke, hair matted to my face than at the bottom wondering what it would feel like."
Just need to keep moving forward!