Fair warning: I have a BAD attitude today. And when I say bad, I mean B-A-D. Tonight we had to run the Peter Niessen 5K again. Peter is one of our fabulous TNT coaches, and each season Michael Conlon names this god awful 5K after one of the coaches. I have to say up front I mean no offense or disrespect to Peter, it's not his fault we have to run the damn thing. I was pissed off all day that we had to do this race - I was dreading it and just getting more and more angry that I had to run it. In fact, I was pissed off last week, when Michael Conlon reminded us we had to run this today - so pissed off that I renamed it the Peter Niessen F*cking 5K.
What makes this 5K so awful? Let's start with the course. First mile: downhill. Awesome. Second mile: a series of long, rolling hills down the west side. Ew. Third mile (plus the .1): ends on the top of Cat Hill. Sadistic.
Then there is the fact that it's a race. The coaches always say "You're only racing against yourself." Ummm, bullshit. If that was the case, we'd all run this course on our own and report our times anonymously. We are racing against everyone, and it really sucks when you see people flying by you. It makes me want to trip them. I warned you, BAD ATTITUDE.
Then there is the unexpected: a frigging raccoon - yes, a RACCOON - crossed our path just before the 2nd mile marker (and by "marker" I mean Michael Conlon drew on the street with purple chalk). Are you kidding me?
All that said, tonight went better than I expected. I decided ahead of time to do a tempo pace and not try to go all out. Partly due to fear of failure, partly due to my bad attitude, and partly because I didn't want to go out too fast and blowup on the west side hills. I don't know whether to declare it a victory, but I will say it wasn't entirely a defeat this time. At this point, I'll take it.
As Laura and I were walking back to the subway and debriefing our 5K of doom, she mentioned a conversation she'd had with Layla about how hard this season has been. Layla said "You know what's harder than running a marathon? Running your 2nd marathon." That shit is profound. And insanely accurate. You know what to expect, you know it's going to suck, and it's kind of like what people say about tattoos and childbirth, how you forget how bad it hurts, so you go back for round 2. Now that we're deep into the season, we're being reminded of how bad it hurts, and we know just how miserable that last 6.2 is. It's really really really hard because it's physically demanding and mentally it's hard to stay positive - exhibit A, my current disposition - and my lovely Layla is right. This is hard as shit.
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