Friday, August 8, 2008

Races as our "easy" runs

Charlie and I were talking about upcoming races and it dawned on me how I've started to approach these races. I've got a 12K XTERRA STOAKED trail race on Saturday that I just decided to sign up for this week.

Why? Well, 12K is an easy run for me. I do those runs during the week without a problem. In early October, I'll be running the Applefest Half-Marathon and the reality is that I don't need to train for it. I already do the required mileage each week to be able to run the race and finish respectively.

It reminds me of when I was training for my marathon. I was 12 miles into my 20-mile run and I realized that it was incredibly easy to run the 12 miles. A year earlier I certainly wouldn't have thought that. It just makes me very grateful to have put in the mileage I have and have the level of fitness I do.

Why do races now? T-shirts, of course.

2 comments:

ShirleyPerly said...

Oh man, not me. I dread signing up for short races. I don't run them usually anywhere close to my normal marathon training pace so they hurt, bad. A trail race might quite be different, though. Look forward to hearing about yours. Good luck!

Susan said...

The t-shirt is EXACTLY why I did the Elvis 5K today!