As I’ve said many times in the past, I am not a strong runner. I didn’t really start running until 2014, and that was after almost 20 years of not doing it. But it’s part of the Triathlon, so I can’t just avoid it…
Knowing that I need to get better prior to the main season starts, and knowing that running by myself isn’t always the greatest (mostly because I end up doing a 11 min 1st mile and are drained for the rest), I went looking for a plan B. This was and is to do multiple 5Ks starting in March. I figured that this would not only give me someone to run with but also force me run, hard.
Having not been able to find guides to run with me through my friends, I reached out to Achilles Chicago. They did an amazing job with finding guides for me. I believe that within about 24 hours of my initial e-mail, they had found guides for all 3 March races/runs for me!
My guide for this race (Jen) was just starting out her guiding career. She did an amazing job for her first time! And for those who might be thinking ‘I’d like to do that, but I can’t because I’ve never done it’, I encourage you to still try. If you can run, if you’ve got a good attitude and you’re willing to give up your race to help someone else, you meet all the criteria. If you have an interest in doing it, reach out to your local Achilles chapter or running company for help on getting started!
While Heed was in my bottle as usual, the real help for this race was Endrolytes. During a really bad Half a couple years ago, one of my guides told me about starting them 3 days out to help minimize issues. I’ve been doing that since and it’s worked well.
As we started the race, we were greeted with a nice long uphill. For those of you who are wondering, no I don’t intentionally choose to run hilly races (see Columbus). The hills just know where I live; they stalk me and try to see if they can break me. So far they keep losing… We were able to keep the pace and I was able to keep going throughout the hills (up and down) for about 1.75 miles before I had to walk to catch my breath.
As we made the turn at mile 2, we were greeted with a really nice surprise… more hills! What goes down (into mile 2) must come up (towards mile 3). At about 2.5, the normal numbness that I sometimes get came up and I had to walk for a little bit until it relaxed enough to run. Remember those lovely hills at the start? We got to finish going down them, and I thought the finish was just around the turn. So I was giving it everything. However, it turned out to be around the corner and down a few blocks. Quite an interesting .1 to run when you’ve already kicked it. Even with very little left, we still finished strong and in the right pace area. That happened mainly because Jen’s counting, which I was focusing on during that last .1.
I had such a great time, and am grateful to both Achilles for the connection and Jen for running with me. I wouldn’t have been able to do it otherwise!