Enjoying the beginning of race season

As you well know, motivation has been a bit of a struggle for me. Despite the extremely mild winter in New England (snow-wise), I ended up doing a lot of indoor riding on the trainer, and very little outdoor running. I'm happy to report that we've had nicer temperatures and that's gotten me out in the great outdoors.

I also did what I haven't done for 2 1/2 years: I entered a race. I ran in the Shamrock Shuffle in Manchester, NH. It was an extraordinarily short race of just 2 miles, but it was a race nonetheless. It required me to be somewhere at a certain time, put on a race number, stand around in a huge group waiting for the start, and then actually running.

It felt great.

When you don't race, you forget about how good it feels to complete a race, even if you run regularly. And it did feel good. Mind you, I ran with a friend and didn't push myself. I easily finished the 2 miles in about 18 minutes. No land speed record by any account, but it was easy, and it reminded me that it wasn't a big deal.

Tomorrow, I'm doing the Gilmanton 5K. It's supposedly quite hilly, but I'm not all that concerned. As I was driving home, I just thought to myself: "Self: this is 3 miles. I can do this easily." That's a good feeling to feel that level of confidence, even if it's for something as short and achievable as 3.1 miles. I like what the feeling of race season is doing for me, and it's getting me motivated to increase the distance and the frequency.

I've needed this.