Dog days in Dog Town

I did it! First race of the year has come and gone. Check me out holding this guy off at the finish line:

http://www.zazoosh.com/photos/386340657

Feb. 26 marked the first annual Dog Town 9K and Half Marathon in and around Washington City. It was a cold, blustery day but someone did us a favor and held off the rain until about noon that day. The course was up in the air until that very morning, and ended up being a nice, hilly challenge that my buddy Ryan would have really enjoyed (he likes the uphill stuff). I did the half marathon in about 1:55, which is about 10 mins above my personal best for a half, but taking in several considerations it's not all that bad:

1) I was horizontal nearly the entire 10 days before the race
2) Wind!
3) Cold!
4) All things considered, I probably didn't take the race as seriously as I should have, and my training was lacking.

So that's Lesson #1 for this post, I guess: Make Every Race A Grand Event. It doesn't matter if it's a 5K, an ultramarathon, a weekend group ride or an Iron Man. Of the handful of races I've completed to date, the most memorable ones were the ones that I spent the most time preparing for - not necessarily because I posted my best times, but because the anticipation for the day of the event had built it up so that, when the day came, it became a celebration. And the reverse is true, as well: the more you mark up your mental calendar in anticipation of race day, the more work you're likely to put in to prepare. One thing lends itself to the other, and then come race day, you're bound to have a lot of fun and most likely a good success.

Case in point: the night before, I went to go pick up my packet and got stuck behind a couple of 40-somethings who were whining and waffling over whether they should sign up for the race the night before. For those of you familiar with Saturday Night Live in the mid to late 80's, they sounded a lot like Doug and Wendy Whiner:

"But it'll be windy......"
"Maybe we should just do part of the Iron Man course instead..."
"But I don't need more race shirts...."
"Maybe we should just go for a bike ride..."
"I bet the finisher's medal is ugly...."

To get the proper effect, say every sentence like a 5 year old and hold the last syllable out for 5 seconds.

I was surprised at my frustration with these people - I mean first of all, who decides to sign up for a half marathon the night before? I didn't stick around to see how it turned out, but given their lackluster attitude standing in front of the freakin' sign in desk, had they decided to go for it, my guess is that they would have felt afterward like it was a waste of $45, regardless of how good of shape they were in or what their finishing time was.

On the flip side, I'm sure the person who got the most out of it was the brave soul who was race number 0001, who signed up way back in November, who had spent three months pounding the pavement to get ready, and they were going to get out there and do it, weather be damned.

Okay, enough of that.

Now that this race is behind me, I've changed gears a bit and am now training for the SHAC beginner's triathlon on April 2 (mental calendar starred and highlighted in technicolor orange). I generally SUCK as a swimmer, so I anticipate that the next few weeks' training will largely be spent in a pool or on a bike, which my legs tell me is just fine with them.

I am, however, going to keep up the running so that I can quickly change tack after the triathlon and gear up for the SoCal Ragnar, which promises to be a hoot and a half. But I'm planning on keeping the miles down and focusing a lot on strength training and interval training to see if I can get my minutes per mile down a bit from that rather mediocre 9 min/mile I posted last Saturday.

End Transmission.