A Midsummer Night's Run 30k

Summer road races during the day are a safety hazard, which is why there are few of them.  To make up for this there are more night runs which encompass a different - ecstatic - dynamic.

Over the past few weeks I haven't been running more than twice a week and my eating habits weren't good.  I've been lazy despite knowing a challenging run was ahead of me.  To up the difficulty I've also got a cold and the weather was rainy.

I ran my first 30km - A Midsummer Night's Run - yesterday and it left me in a lot of agony, but I can smile through the pain and add another accomplishment to my display of medals.


What made it difficult besides my lack of fitness?  I didn't stick to my pace.  I am competitive; I want to keep up with other runners and feel strong when I pass them.  I set my virtual pace to 5:25 but for the first 20km I was averaging 5:10.  I struggled a lot between 21-26km and beyond that I was ready to cry.  But I didn't and I'm happy I never stopped or walked.  Music from the Sound Academy was a nice bonus.

I didn't have a strong finish but it re-enforced what needs to be done; maintain pace.  My next three races don't seem as much of a challenge (10k Terry Fox, 25k RBC and Toronto 10 miler) which will be great for training.  The big one is of course the full marathon in October!