The Feeling Bad for Myself Mile

I haven’t posted for a couple of weeks on my running progress. Even though I only ran a race in two consecutive weeks, it has felt odd not racing the last couple. It has made a big difference in my long Sunday runs, making them faster and easier to complete.

I have noticed something funny when looking at the mile splits for my long runs recently, an anomaly I call The Feeling Bad for Myself Mile. I thought at first that it was just because I was overworking myself with races the day before long runs, but it’s continued even without races. The run over the weekend was a great example. Twelve miles, averaging 9:09 overall, with the slowest mile checking in at 9:18…

Except for The Feeling Bad for Myself Mile. 10:12 for that one.

I was grumpy, I was hot, and all the fun has gone out of running. Each week, right smack in the middle, there’s a mile that is horribly off the pace. Just awful. Bad bad bad, and that ain’t good.

I’m not sure if I should be alarmed by this or not. I seem to come back strong after The Feeling Bad for Myself Mile; before it I averaged 9:09, right on pace, but after it, I averaged 8:56 and felt good. Guess I’ll just have to watch out for it in the future, and get over it.

Going racing again this weekend at the Hospice of Guernsey’s Flamingo Run in Cambridge, and then a 14-mile long run on Sunday, just for fun. Don’t forget that I’m raising money for the Nationwide Children’s Hospital in Columbus. Tell all your friends. You can give at http://10t.co/brockcm14 or by downloading a donation form and mailing it in.

Ogden Half Marathon

Brock at the start of the Ogden Half MarathonSo, I’m one day removed from running the Ogden, my first half marathon, and I am surprised but pleased by how little my legs hurt. They are tired, but I feel like if I really had to run today I could, but in the interest of recovery I am going to take the day off and go for a light run tomorrow.

My chip time was 2:04:29, which I’m pretty pleased with, considering that I though I would be more in the 2:10:00 range. I was also slightly faster on the second half (1:01:25) than I was on the first half (1:03:04). (Seriously, go see me cross the finish line strong.)

The climb up 29th Street hill to Bethlehem was rough, but not as bad as I expected it to be from the point of physically being able to run up it; the significantly shorter climb up to McColloch’s Leap near the end of the race was much more taxing.

29th Street posed a very different challenge, though: climbing up the same hill for 20 minutes was mentally exhausting. I had driven up the hill the day before to get an idea of how long was, but I still wasn’t ready for just how long it was. After about five minutes I started thinking that the top must just be right around the next turn, even though I knew it wasn’t. It never felt like that sucker was never going to end.

Ogden Half Marathon Classic ResultsThanks to everyone that helped out with the race, both officially and unofficially. The police officers that were along the course did a fantastic job keeping car traffic flowing as good as could be expected, and keeping all the runners and walkers safe, and not just from the traffic; almost every officer I passed along the way offered encouragement, asked how things were going, waved, made eye contact, or something to just check and make sure everything was OK. It was also cool to see the groups of people along the route that were not associated with the race offering free water, a spray down from their hose, encouragement, or what have you.

To the young man dressed as Captain America near the bottom of the hill up to McColloch’s Leap, you were right: high-fiving your shield did indeed provide me with a little extra strength, and helped me get over the hill. Thanks for being there.

All in all, though, a great experience, and a race I want to run again next year.