If the Lord wills it, and with some help from friends…

The Black Bear Half Marathon is next week! Since I ran that last year under some suboptimal circumstances, I thought I’d like a re-run to see if I’ve improved any since last year.

Last year I finished up at 2:48:07, which was 20 minutes slower than I had even feared I’d be. I was very unprepared, as you can read at the post linked above.

We haven’t had any hurricanes this year, thank God, but my training has been sidelined by an apparent bout of the ‘vid that’s going around our communities. I finally got better, and I have trained a bit this week. I anticipate being a little bit faster, but I don’t think I’m in the shape I should have been. We’ll see! I do not feel tired when I run, and I’m coming back in with energy to spare every day. Mostly I’m just trying to keep from overuse injury due to stepping it back up too fast, but I’m also afraid of relapsing the respiratory problems I’ve had. Conditions will never be perfect. These are not excuses. These are battles I get to fight.

My goal this time is just any PR. The 5k, 8k, 10k, the whole thing, or any combination of the above.

I really like beating the smaller distances at the beginning, and I think negative splits are for weenies. Maybe they’re great, since everybody talks about them so much. But what I’ve come to understand about myself is that I have to start strong, or I will get to the end and wonder if I paced myself too much. Then I feel like I’ve wasted my opportunities. I do not want to be discouraged late in a race with irrecoverable mistakes.

Nobody and nothing can ever take away a step I’ve already taken. But I can take it from myself by trying to save it for later. I don’t know what’s going to get into my mind at the 10th mile to slow me down. I might daydream or lose confidence, or have on the wrong socks, like last time. All the steps I could have really pushed for in the beginning never happened, and now I can never make it up.

Other runners’ mileage may vary, but pacing myself at the start just won’t work for me. I’m not wired for planning. I’m wired for pushing.

I’m a pretty strong erg-rower, and that’s my indoor activity of choice. I always, always end faster when I start strong and don’t worry about whether I’m going to have enough steam at the end. I decided to carry that into my running. We’ll see how that goes for this race. My 5k PR last year was 33:47, but I beat that again in the spring at a local race by exactly a minute, 32:47, so I’m trying to get sub-31 this time. Seems unlikely, but I’m going in hopeful! Here are my Garmin predictions:

Those are usually very optimistic, but that’s what I’m pushing for, and then some. It really is a mental thing, as I will allow myself to slow down after a few good minutes with no real physical need to do so. You don’t get to rest on your laurels until you have the laurels! Any time I get that through my head, I win.

I only walked a few minutes last year because of some foot pain, so if the shoes and socks are just right, hopefully that won’t be a problem this time. I did have a shoe problem last time I went out this week, so I may make a last-minute stop at the shoe store this weekend to see if there’s a better shoe for the distance. The sock problem won’t happen again. I have been training in toe-socks. My feet are so much stronger this year from zero-drop and barefoot shoes that I’ve lost two shoe sizes! You really shouldn’t be wearing supportive shoes, folks. I’m wearing a 6.5/7 now, where it used to be 7.5/8!

Thanks to all of you who’ve donated to my run fund! I have enough to get some new shoes and I’ve bought a running belt that will serve me a lot better than my pockets have. You also covered the entry fee. THANK YOU! THANK YOU! THANK YOU!

Last year it was “Lord willing and the creek don’t rise.” My friend even bought me a tee shirt:

This year it’s “Lord willing and I have enough money to travel.”

If you want to help a gal crush some goals, this is my last blog-beg…bleg?…before the big day. If we have the money to sleep over down there the night before, I will go. If we don’t, I don’t think I can drive that far and turn out very well the same day, so I’ll switch to virtual and run a half marathon up here at home on some back road with comparable hills.

In that case, any money raised will still be used for running. I’m hoping to be ready for a marathon in the spring! It would be a little bit sad for me to try to run by myself that day, so I’m hoping some readers feel inclined to help get me there.

Help out if you can, pray if you can’t! Please leave a comment, too!