So today I ran the Colfax Marathon, it was a great race. Good course. Great weather. Enough entertainment to keep runners interested. However, this was not my day. I’ll do a full review of the race but wanted to share my marathon #11 experience. In a word: strugglefest!
Today’s marathon in a word: strugglefest. But it’s done and the day and course were beautiful! #runchat@runcolfaxpic.twitter.com/WUsY240euz
— Katherine (@MouseRuns) May 17, 2015
So today was not my day. There were a lot of excuses I can make reasons I can give for why it wasn’t my day:
- First marathon at altitude
- Hip has been bugging me and messing with my gate/efficiency
- I was really anxious going into it
- First aid stops that I was banking on for tylenol either weren’t there or I some how missed them. All 8 of them.
But the real reason this marathon was a strugglefest was, that little annoying cranky voice in the back of my head never. Shut. Up!
I was my own worst running partner.
I was my own downfall today.
Sure all the things I mentioned above happened and definitely fueled the fire for that little nagging voice to take hold. The blerch was strong today, and it sucked.
Normally, I get into these funks and I can shake it off with a good song or by the time I get to the last 10k I get my second burst. I tried. Nothing worked. It’s the first time in awhile that I wished I had a running buddy, someone to distract and motivate me and quiet the annoying inner voice.
Around mile 23 I saw a sign that just said “Embrace the Suck”. Yep, that’s what I needed to do. Those last 3 miles were slow, I walked when I needed to and ran when I could. In those last few miles I looked up at the blue blue sky and felt the breeze and reminded myself how lucky I was that I have a body that allows me to do it, even on the sucky days. This was the silver lining.
I embraced the suck.
