Training Log Archive: hamlet

pure pain, worst race of my life. Not because of the rain or the dark, i liked that. Just the hills were seriously way over my ability and I was completely dying. The cameras gave me a few anxiety attacks, which really didn't help. Also, because of the cameras, I gave out on focus and took routes that I otherwise would never have taken, just because I wanted to run past the cameras as fast as possible and I wanted to get out of their line of sight asap. I was fine with running on a flat area, but as soon as it was a really steep downhill or any sort of uphill I just couldn't. I also fell a few times, but that was expected in that terrain. The blueberries are what kept me sane enough to go through the spectator, and then I just finished instead of continuing to the second loop because I really felt terrible physically and mentally, and the entire time I felt like I was on the verge of passing out for no reason. I tried to give it my all, but my all was not nearly good enough for this terrain, and I get that.

Even though I had such a crap race, I'm still glad I have this experience. Everyone has to have their worst race someday, and frankly I'm kind of honored mine is a WOC race. I felt mostly terrible about not finishing since it was a relay, but my only comfort is that we would've been overtime anyway even if I finished. Basically my biggest takeaway is that I should really stop avoiding hills and, in fact, I should start seeking them out more. Also I need to work on my endurance, but I think if I focus on hills and getting good at running them, speed and endurance will come along with that. I hope that by this time next year I won't have to worry about hills destroying me this much anymore. Maybe I can go back to that area and run it on my own next year and see how I've improved.