Racing In Savannah

Award ceremony in Savannah

Hey everyone, hope all has been going good for you.  Well this past weekend was sure a running weekend for sure with the Savannah Rock n' Roll Half & Full Marathon on Saturdy and the ING New York City Marathon on Sunday.  Congratulations to all who ran.

Well, I went to Savannah to do the half marathon, last Saturday.  I went with my mom, as my dad was in NYC because one of his runners, Molly Pritz, was running her debut marathon.    There were quite a few people from Charlotte there in Savannah so I saw alot of familiar faces.  As you know from my blog, my last race didn't turn out very good, but I had figured out why.  Well, I must report that my race in Savannah went awesome!

As I ran my race I was calm and confident.  While I ran I stayed focued on trying to stay on pace and I turned any thoughts in my head to positive ones.  When I slowed down slightly in the 7th mile, insted of getting upset, I just said "okay, now lets try to get back on pace."  Instead of letting negative thoughts of slowing down consume me like in the last race, I looked at the positives and knew I could do it.  So I continued to push knowing God would be proud.  I pushed all way to the final straightaway.  That final straightaway was about 300 meters long and with a strong head wind against us.  My goal in the race was to get under 1:17:00 and as I passed the 13 mile point I knew it was going to be very close.  I was tired but motivated to give it my best so I sprinted in the best I could that last .1 miles.  I kept saying to myself  "come on, come on, you can do it" in my head the whole way.  As I pushed across the the finish line, I was close but wasn't sure if I had done it.  I did't care, I had run a great race, gave it 100% and was happy.  My gun time ended up as 1:17:01 and my chip time was 1:16:58 and I had finished as the 3rd women overall in a pretty big race.

Looks like I have figured our how I race best.  Those negative thoughts can kill you in a race so I have to stay positive.  I took what I did wrong in my last race and learned from it.  I had taken my focus away from giving my 100% best effort and praising God, and instead started focusing in the negatives and shut down.  But in Savannah, I made sure I focused on looked at the positives and gave it my 100% best effort no matter what.  When I slowed down some, I made sure I kept my focus and made sure I was giving it my best effort in the race.  The only thing you can control in a race is giving it your 100% best effort, and if you do that the time and place will take of themselves.