Second Helpings

“What’s next” is the question everyone is asking, and the question I ask the day after every race.  I’m prone to the post race blues and have found the best thing to combat it is plan my next race. 

Now that I’ve sampled them all from the 5k up to the full marathon, what next indeed?  Some folks once they’ve reached the full marathon distance stick with that and try to improve their times; maybe to qualify for Boston.  In order for me to qualify for Boston, I’d have to shave off more than 2 ½ hrs; so that’s not going to happen.

I found that when starting my running journey years ago and reached a 5k distance, after a while you think about going further and increasing the distance to a 10k.  And once you do the 10k, you look to the ½ marathon distance.  A lot of folks stick at the ½ marathon distance as there are loads of races for the ½ and it becomes fairly easy to train up for the distance and the recovery is quick.  Plus it’s an exponential jump up to the full marathon distance which scares most runners away.  But after a while you start thinking “just maybe…”  Luckily we have a handy 30k race nearby and that’s just 9k more than the ½.  After completing the 30k you get to thinking “well that’s was tough, but I survived, and it’s only another 12k to a full marathon.”  So let’s go for it!

I said prior to even contemplating the 30k distance that instead I wanted to work on getting faster at the 10k and ½ marathon distance and only then I might do the 30k and full.  However, that idea got snuffed as the 30k and full came into view and I felt the drive to go the distance. 

But now that I’ve successfully completed the full distance, I feel an almost calming sense of relief, like a weight has been lifted.  I have nothing more to prove to myself.  Now I feel I can go back for second helpings.  I’ve eaten everything on my plate and now I can have more of the yummy thing that I like the most.

For me, the most delicious thing is speed instead of distance.  I want to run to a faster 10k. 

Don’t get me wrong, I’m really glad we did the full marathon distance; and this won’t be my last full marathon, I just don’t feel it calling to me as other folks do.  I found that in order to go longer distances I had to slow my pace considerably which seemed very unnatural for me.  And running those long tedious distances I didn’t find that exciting.  Sure it’s really neat to look back on a 20+k run and say “wow, look how far I ran.” But I didn’t find it nearly as thrilling as just plan running fast.  Maybe because I’m more built for speed, but I find it loads more exhilarating to run a fast 10k.  Running 20+k only leaves me exhausted, whereas I get a much bigger endorphin rush going shorter and faster.   

Plus you can recover from a 10k much quicker, it takes way less time to complete, you can get away from having to carry water, food, etc. on your run.  It has more of an appealing “just throw on some shoes and head out the door” kind of feel to it.  And training for a 10k doesn’t totally consume your whole weekend like marathon training does.  So I look forward t running less, but faster and not feeling totally whipped for the entire weekend.  But then again, I’ll have no excuse why stuff is not getting done on the weekends.