This past weekend I ran in my second 5K of the season. It was a local race so my family (wife and two kids) came to watch me and a couple of friends run. Pre-race I felt pretty good. I scheduled this race as part of my “pre-season” before I begin my half-marathon training this spring. However, my finish ended up as a disappointment. Here is what happened.
At about halfway into the run (1.5 miles) I began to feel my right knee start to swell. I will admit that I played ice hockey earlier that morning, so that the knee pain (which I do occasionally get) was probably due to overuse. A little over 2 miles into the race the pain started to become a nuisance. Although I knew structurally there was nothing wrong with my knee, mentally I could not get the pain out of my mind nor could I recapture my running rhythm. Rather than push through the pain, I throttled it back, walked a couple of short walks and finished with a slower time of 30:20, about a minute off my planned finish.
Remembering why I was running
Was I frustrated with my finishing time and that I had to walk a couple of times? Sure I was. It was a 5K, a distance I have been running for years. But then I remembered a couple of things about this race.
First, I scheduled this race as part of my “pre-season” runs, a series of 5K runs in February, March and April to get me prepped to increase my mileage to 10K’s and half-marathon training. This was only my second race of the year, the first being a fun run on New Years Day. I wasn’t going for a personal best, I was training.
Second, my family was there to watch me. I wanted to do well but my children didn’t care about when I finished. All I remembered was my daughter and son screaming, “Go Dad” repeatedly as I approached and crossed the finish line.
I realized that I was a better runner for throttling back rather than work through the pain. My reasons for running this past weekend became clearer to me;
· To prepare myself to take on the challenge of a half-marathon later this year
· To be a role model of a healthy lifestyle and exercise for my children
As runners, we log a lot of miles, and we can’t expect every run to go as planned. It’s when a run doesn’t go as planned that we need to suck it up and remember why we run.
Happy Running!
Remembering why I was running
Was I frustrated with my finishing time and that I had to walk a couple of times? Sure I was. It was a 5K, a distance I have been running for years. But then I remembered a couple of things about this race.
First, I scheduled this race as part of my “pre-season” runs, a series of 5K runs in February, March and April to get me prepped to increase my mileage to 10K’s and half-marathon training. This was only my second race of the year, the first being a fun run on New Years Day. I wasn’t going for a personal best, I was training.
Second, my family was there to watch me. I wanted to do well but my children didn’t care about when I finished. All I remembered was my daughter and son screaming, “Go Dad” repeatedly as I approached and crossed the finish line.
I realized that I was a better runner for throttling back rather than work through the pain. My reasons for running this past weekend became clearer to me;
· To prepare myself to take on the challenge of a half-marathon later this year
· To be a role model of a healthy lifestyle and exercise for my children
As runners, we log a lot of miles, and we can’t expect every run to go as planned. It’s when a run doesn’t go as planned that we need to suck it up and remember why we run.
Happy Running!
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