30K

Another winter training circuit has come to a close, and I finish things off with some mixed feelings. Listing the positives first, I finished this year roughly 30 seconds ahead of my last years time. I posted 3:32:39. That is at least a step in the right direction; however 30 seconds difference in a race that took my over three and a half hours to finish isn't too significant. The second of the positives is that I ran free from the knee and ankle pain that I would have expected. The significance of this is huge. I have a new glimmer of hope for wrapping up my marathon training as well as signing up for the St. George marathon lottery. Not only did I finish and feel great physically, but Becky did as well about 6 minutes behind me. I'm so proud of her. This 30K is her longest distance to date. If I were to have changed one thing about this race it would have been to have held together mentally much better. I had a real difficult time sticking to my game plan. I walked much more than I would have liked. I remember this same thing happened with my first 30K (hence the similar times), and luckily I was able to grow mentally from that frustration and perform better in the marathon. Let's hope I can do the same once again.