Success!!!

There are various kinds of success when it comes to sport. Most of them are related to finish times. You want the best one you can get, usually. I had a different kind this weekend when I did the Los Angeles 13.1. The kind of success I had isn't graded by my finish time, which was a PR by the way, but was graded by my ability to stick to a plan.

I had a few people comment to me something along the lines of, "You sure do blow up a lot," and "Why do you keep doing exactly the same thing and hoping for a different result? If you go out too hard you are going to blow up."

Amazingly, I took this to heart.

I decided that instead of trying to "race" the LA13.1 I was going in with a plan!

PLAN:

Run 10 miles at a 9:00/mile pace.

Run 3.1 miles as fast as I could.

Do it in that order, not the other way around, like you usually do.

RESULT:

Ran 10 miles at an 8:57/mile pace.

Ran 3.1 miles fast as hell.

Success!!!

Final time, not that it matters was 1:53:39. Most importantly, I ran really strong at the end of 10, I have never done that before, and I ran my desired pace and proved to myself that I could do it. Pacing and patience, never really a strong suit of mine. I know I have a long way to go before I can say that I am good at it but this was a huge step in the right direction.