Defeat doesn't finish a man, quit does. A man is not finished when he's defeated. He's finished when he quits. -- Richard Nixon
Yesterday I won at Tobacco Road. No, I didn't come in first. I didn't place in my age group. In fact, I was nearly DFL. But after a year of DNF and being hesitant to even start most of the time, the fact that I finished 26.2 (or 26.3, according to my Garmin) is a total win.
It was hard. I wanted to quit a couple times. I wasn't sure I'd finish towards the end, but I just kept chugging along. And I saw it to the finish. No defeat. No quit. Maybe I shouldn't have done the race, but once I started it, I think the fact that I finished is the boost that I need to start the tri season. And for that I am happy.
Anyway, the first half of the marathon actually went really well. I was supposed to stay in low Z1 with my heart rate, but my Garmin was being stupid, so I switched over to a 3:1 run:walk to try to stay in a decent HR space. With that, I was able to stay within sight of the 6:00 pace group to mile 13. Yeah me! Much better than I expected. Ate gus and gu chomps, drank water and gatorade, and generally felt really good.
The second half marathon was a different story. I tried to keep going the same, but I was starting to feel it. And then I lost the 6:00 group. So I switched to 2:1. And then I just had to walk with running when I could. Everything hurt. I wanted to quit. And then I just walked...walked...waddled...plodded...well, you get the picture. It poured rain for 3 miles. But I kept going. And I finished. I was happy, because I broke the 7:00 time barrier. I wish I could have done better, but I need to remember that this was a win. It was win because it was a finish, even when I didn't want to. I kept moving forward and that's the key.
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