Expectations...

I have the cue cards and “French for Dummies” book and progress is being made!! (I forgot to mention I have a live-in tutor who I happen to be married to). My mother-in-law and I have been having daily meetings over skype so I can work on pronouncing words…I think I am much better at it after a glass of wine, LOL! As of now I will be able to feed myself and ask for help if I have troubles with the bike in France. So I am not at total loss…which brings me to the point of this post. It is ok to not be the “best” at something.

Today I raced the Bolder Boulder with my hubby. It has been a tradition for the past 3 years and usually I end up running after being smashed from a long weekend of training; this weekend was no different. With over 5 hours of bike climbing in my legs and +2 hr long run, I was not feeling as “chipper” as I should have; even after an ice bath! I really wasn’t even sure if I wanted to run “fast” today and was leaning towards running with Gregory and pacing him instead of “embracing the pain.” But then I had to question myself, was I scared the “pain”, or something else. I experience pain during every workout, every interval, so it is nothing new to me; truthfully, I did not want to risk another “bad” race that really is not “bad” but what I consider sub-par because I set high expectations for myself. How does one deal with this? Well, today I changed my expectations:

A. I need to enjoy the race; if there is no smile, there will be no speed. This is Bolder Boulder!! One of the world’s largest and most entertaining 10km races, it SHOULD be fun.

B. I need to not worry about the next mile, next minute, next second; be in the moment.

C. Look at HR, not time! I had a specific goal for this race, and that was to get a max HR for Wolfgang to base my run interval training off of. So get that HR high and keep it high!

D. Be realistic!! I cannot expect to be a “fast” runner when I am a long distance triathlete coming off a long training weekend (unless you are Chrissie Wellington..that girl ROCKED it today, what an amazing woman!) So, take it with a grain of salt.

E. Keep in mind that this is less than an hour of my life, judging myself and worth on a race is silly.

So I did all of this and more. I chased a man in a pink tutu and laughed. An 8 year passed me like I was standing still and kicked my butt! I told my heavy legs that they “were going to make it” and they listened! I pulled off sub-7 min miles which I thought would have been impossible. I greeted the best husband in the world at the finish with a smile and the first thing we asked each other is “did you have fun” not “what was your time”. And we both had a blast!

I would love to say that I do better at things when I “don’t care” but that is not true because I do care! I am just finding ways to put it into perspective and keep relaxed so that I don’t “sabotage” my own success. I am sure a lot of athletes go through this and everyone has a different way of coping. So I guess this is mine, for this race….

Another cool thing about this Bolder Boulder is that Gregory and I had the same bib numbers but were in different waves. Very cool!!

After the race I had a chance to meet and catch up with some fellow Brooks runner and Justin from Justin’s Nut Butter. I have to hand it to the Bolder Boulder race organizers on the goodie bags! It is amazing how much time must go into packing the bags, handing then out (which is very efficient) and the goodness they contain. Normally I cannot eat any post-race food due to my allergies, but not today!! What a great spread!
Cheers till next year!!