March - and the cocky come crashing down

March, its a fun month, the promise of Spring around the corner and in DC, the warmer weather continued. I signed up for a St Patrick's day 8k. What other type of race would you do in March? It was a doozy. It was my first race downtown and my husband had me all psyched out about parking and getting the metro to Freedom Plaza.

I left earlier then I was planning to and got to the race location way too early. It was a colder morning and I am a new runner, so not lots of beautiful race clothes like I lust after now. Anyways, cold, lots of time and Freedom Plaza. Yup, I pretty much just walked around in circles. We had remnants of the Occupy DC (well on of) encampments there. Apparently they had gotten to the point where they could only occupy during the day and not sleep over anymore. There were maybe 8 tents with various signs in and around them. Weird to see them empty after all the news reports. Anyways, WAY TOO MUCH time passes and the race finally starts. Folks had cute outfits on and I started in the back as usual. I always make some friends there. :)

This race was horrible! I loved racing down the road and seeing the Capital apparently a little too much, as the photographer caught me fiddling with my blackberry to take a picture. (not cute) The route was a good one and one I would run again later in the year (can we say redemption?). I hadn't learned about eating for a race and so the chicken breast and broccoli that was dinner the night before did me no favors on race day. I had my first experience with being dizzy and just not feeling well. I was so desperate for a bathroom, I considered running into one of the Smithsonians or using the porta potty left out by some construction folks. In the end I did neither, but it was a humbling experience after feeling so elated in Feb. I finished the race in 1:20:43 almost 3 minutes slower per mile then before. Lesson learned.

Don't mistake my focus on stats for being ultra competitive. Let's face it at these paces, the only ones I am competing with are the people behind me and myself. I am motivated by stats (somewhat), but what became clearer as I moved through the year, was that finishing a race feeling strong was better then a PR.

3 months in the books and I was registered for several more races to come. My goal was coming into focus as the blossoms were blooming.