I definitely want to share some of my thoughts from our 5 days in Pittsburgh -- things like weather, elevation, marriage changes after 50 years (not for the better I don't think :( ), baseball, WWII, puzzles, new life plan, wedding festivities, revised vacation plans, etc. And I will probably feel better if I get some work drama off my chest -- leadership change in progress rather unexpectedly, huge meeting to discuss today.
But instead, I just have to write about something funny. I'm making a solo trip home tomorrow for 5 days to see my family. And one awesome thing about my family being filled with equally or more active people is that they just assumed I'd want to run over the 5 days, and one of my brothers chose a race and made sure I'm in for it. Not sure who all will be participating, but definitely me, my next youngest brother, my nephew (who is 9.5), my niece (who is 8.5), and my niece (who is almost 5). My youngest niece is going to be in a stroller that my brother pushes, possibly because he doesn't want to have me beat him without an excuse, but that's just my suspicion. Anyway, for the race, I feel like I have two options: go for a PR, or go with my niece.
In favor of going for a PR, are the facts that (1) it's an unusal distance so basically a single opportunity to run it every year here and that opportunity is in the summer, (2) the weather will be significantly cooler than my annual shot here, (3) I have a weak PR at the distance, (4) even out of shape, I ran 50 seconds off my PR in early June (and like I said, this will be at least 20 degrees cooler).
In favor of running with my niece (who is 8.5) are the facts that (1) it would be fun, and (2) I'd have a hope of inspiring an early love of running in her. I have no idea what her pace would be, but my running buddy has a daughter about the same age and he guesstimated it would be a 10-15 min pace.
So today, I discussed both options with my running buddy. He suggested (as I knew he would) that I go for the PR. Guess we both know I'm not teed up for many this year.... But he also suggested I check the results from past years to see if a PR-ish run would get me an AG award, which he reasoned would be equally inspirational for my niece.
So I looked up past results this morning.
Hahahahaha.
My AG winner last year ran a 5:4x/mile pace.
Hahahahaha! Or, as they'd say in Italian, ahahahahaha!
So, um, yeah, inspiring my niece while PRing by getting something AG is totally not an option.
Think I'll wait and see how I feel in the morning, but a large part of me wants to try to run hard since I seriously don't see another PR in the cards this year (of course hoping for a marathon PR in October, but the magic 8 ball demonstrated by the scale and recent runs suggests that's less than likely). Anyway, just had to share how funny it was. Humbling too since my 50 sec over PR run last month won my AG here (obvs a significantly smaller race and all).
Go for it!! (Easy to say from the girl who hasn't run hard in several months - ha!) If you're feeling good when you wake up, run hard ... and then if you can pull yourself together maybe you can jog back and run the last quarter mile or so with your niece. Have fun!! And sorry about the work drama!
ReplyDeleteThe beauty is, either option you go with is a positive choice. Not too much down side with either direction, I love/hate those kinds of conundrums.
ReplyDeleteI agree--see how you feel that morning. If you go for a PR, could you do a separate run with your niece some other time over the weekend? Enjoy the cool temps for the race!
ReplyDeleteAs I said before I am fully on the 'run with niece' side ... but then again you have such an active family that it isn't like this is the sole inspiration opportunity ... so I think the 'see how you feel' option makes great sense also.
ReplyDeleteI can't fathom every being able to run a pace that starts with a 5! If you run for a PR you will be there at the finish line to cheer for your niece. Maybe you can even run back a bit to accompany her as she finishes the race. I think it will be a great race either way. I can't wait to hear how it turned out.
ReplyDeleteI love smaller races. In December I snagged 1st in my AG in a run that had about 90 people in it. I think about twice that registered, but a huge cold snap happened and it was below freezing, so no one showed up. in fact, I had signed up with a team from work (11 people in all) and I was the only one to show up. a 5K I did a few months ago would have netted me 2nd place in my AG had they done 5-year AGs, but instead they did 10-year AGs. The race director was standing next to me when I was complaining about this and he promised 5-year AGs next year!!!
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