10 under 40

 Today I have accomplished something... First some background.

Growing up and a few times as an adult I ran the BolderBoulder, a huge 10k road race which takes place in Boulder Colorado.  It is a pretty large race and there are people are divided into waves for start time which are determined by how fast you are.  The last time I ran the race, I was in wave AB, which comes after the A and AA wave.  I found out that in order to run in the A wave, you have to be able to do a 10k in under 40 minutes.  And thats when an item on my lifetime bucket list was born, I wanted to run a 10k in under 40 minutes. The last time I ran this particular race I "trained" for it, which really only meant that I started running more frequently.  And I was only able to pull off a 43:30. Not quite the sub 40 I had dreamed.  I have run most of my life but not seriously.  I always thought I was a fast runner, but I didn't run cross-country in highschool (it was at the same time as Tennis, which I love more), and I didn't do track (it was at the same time as swimming - which I did because my brother was doing swimming).  So I guess it was time to get serious

Fast forward to the February this year when suddenly (due to the pandemic) I had a LOT more time to pursue some of my dreams. I made a goal to start actually training.  This time training meant timing myself. I makes a HUGE difference when you run with a clock, instead of just going out to run.  I have been pushing myself pretty hard over the past 6 months trying to get my mile times down.  I made a goal to run everyday (except Sunday) at least 2 miles, and I have succeeded in this nonstop for about 50 days now, and almost perfect for the month previous. (I'm 50 days into a goal program I created for myself called 100 days of Dallas, I'll probably post about that another day). I really wanted to test my training in an an actual road race, but they have all been cancelled all over Maryland for the next few months.  So I just decided I would just try it, see how I do, by myself. 

Saturday Morning, I woke up early, plotted the perfect course, ate my perfect race diet that week before, even had my family come out to cheer me on at the finish line.  At 8 am, I started out to break a personal record.   I started hard and I felt great.  I was hitting all of my times the first three miles and I thought that this could be it, the 10 under 40 I had dreamed of.  But right around mile 2.5, I started to feel a great need to use a bathroom, so much so that I knew I could not go on.  At the exact half way point I stopped at a port-a-potty on a construction site.  Even though I ended up running the 10k in 38:50, it didn't count because I stopped my watch while I was in the potty.  So, the rest of the day on Saturday and all of Sunday I sulked about my missed opportunity and decided I would just have to train hard this week and try again in two weeks to give me adequate time to recover from this attempt.   

Then today, I was going to go for a typical training run, 6 miles alternating race-pace and slow-pace, but when I started running, my second mile was actually just under race pace and I thought to myself, perhaps I could forego the wait, and beat the time today.  Maybe I would get an injury between now and then or perhaps the weather would turn to cold to run and my dream would be dead forever, so I buckled down and ran my little heart out.  The course I chose was NOT ideal, as it had taller hills and gained elevation.  I ate too much before I ran and I was still a little tired from my attempt two day earlier, but I just kept thinking in my head "40 minutes of pain and you could be done with this thing!"  So, I did it, 40 minutes of pain, and I was a lot harder than my run on Saturday, but at the end of it all, I just made the time! So thats it, my great triumph, 10k under 40 minutes and I have lived to tell the tale. So next time I run the BolderBoulder, A wave here I come!

"No Trophies, No flowers, No flashbook, No Line, he is haunted by something he can not define.......He's going the distance, He's going for speed, he's all alone (all alone) in a time of need....because he's racing, he's pacing, he's plotting the course, he's fighting, he's bitting, he's riding on his horse...

...He's going the distance!"

Here is a screen shot from my Garmin watch app showing my course and time!