Typically, the Shamrock Shuffle 8K has been my first outdoors race of the year. This year, it was my second, and unfortunately there were just as many struggles on the 2nd race of the season as there were on the 1st.
In the past, the AWD wave has been in front of the Elites. While that created a little bit of anxiety for me (trying to get through the tunnel before they caught us), it also provided a really good pacing measure. In that I knew that if I made it to the turn after the tunnel exit as they caught up to us, I was at the right pace. However, this year we were towards the back of wave 1, which threw me off a little bit. I remember my guide telling me that I was running something along the lines of 8:30 min miles early on.
While that would be great for a short run, those early miles came back to bite me in the ass later on. Things were OK through about mile 2, but by 2.5 I was in utter pain. So much so that it was painful to even walk.
As I won’t throw in the towel unless it’s something really severe, like a broken bone, I struggled on. My guide (Kelsey) helped tremendously during those painful miles. And even as much pain as I was in, I still found a way to sprint in through the chute.
After the race, I found that my running sock on the more painful foot had had holes in it. While I don’t know for sure, my suspicion is that the uneven foot (two toes going through the sock, 3 toes in) created a strain that caught up with me.