My office mates and I have been training for a half-marathon. This past weekend I decided to run a 10k in preparation for it. It was incredibly windy yesterday morning, wind about 20 mph with gusts up to 40 mph and I figured my pace would be a little slower but not too much slower.
Mid-way through the race I saw the time and it was 10 min slower than I thought I would be. My first thought was "WHAT?!" At that point, that would mean I was running 3 min per mile SLOWER than normal. I was so upset. I thought I was going to be a little slower, but that was really slow. I really thought about quitting. I was sick of the wind and I was not in the mood to keep running. But I kept going. There were only 3 miles left and I figured my real goal was just to run the whole thing.
And then I finished. I was pretty happy to be done. Running in the wind is a rough. I then checked my time. The time we almost exactly my normal pace.
There was a 5k that started 10 min before the 10k and that is when the clock was started. So, when I saw my time, I should have subtracted 10 min. I was really happy that in the wind I stayed on pace.
I learned that sometimes things aren't as bad a they seem. And that I shouldn't give up. All these reasons to love running. Which I am really starting to do.