Run Your Race

Yesterday I participated in the third of Sleepy Hollow's warrior runs.  This time the theme was fire.  I learned a valuable lesson not to allow things that go wrong to impact my mental capabilities to finish a race strong.  Near the start of the race there was a group of runners (including myself) who were in the front of the pack that were sent the wrong way. This was caught maybe 1/2 a mile after we took the wrong path.  We then were directed back to the race track behind many other runners, which created more problems.  This added many minutes to everyone's final time due to the extra distance, having to get around people, the emotional drain it took to have to rerun parts of the course we ran before and the physical challenge of having our 5K turn into a 4 mile race.  Three of us still finished in the top 5/6 in our heat, but it was tough for me to let it go mentally the rest of the race.

Reflecting back though, the fire run was my favorite course.  I wish I could do it again without the misdirection, but still had a lot of fun. In addition to being able to challenge myself it provided another opportunity to train longer distance races. 

The highlight of the day for me was able to run another mile with my son, William.  He participated in his first ever race for a total of 1 mile but with some pretty tough challenges including running up a monstrous snow tubing hill, climbing a cliff (he was carried on my back since it was a straight up climb with only ropes to get up) a rock wall and ending with a giant slip and slide. William was excited to finish in 1st place in the kids race with a time of 10:56 and is looking forward to participating in more races in the future. 

Now I will focus on the Green Run on September 16th, which will be my first 10K.  I have been using an application to train but haven't been as devoted to my training plan as I should be.  After this weekend I need to remember to just run my race and not allow things that are beyond my control to become extra obstacles.