When I rolled out of bed I was sort of hoping for heavy rain, just for a good excuse to not show up for the running club. Of course, I’ve been known to be out there in wet weather, but still. Well, I didn’t get the rain so I geared up and headed to the store.

The 10K group was relatively small today. The group is in between sessions right now which would explain the lower number of people. Including me, there were only five that showed up. Regardless, we went out for 10K on a long slow distance run. Since there were so few of us, I felt a little bit more pressure to keep up with the faster people. I tried, but by the end of the first interval I was breathing hard. At that point, I just stopped trying to keep up. Soon, the other four pulled up ahead and disappeared off into the fog leaving me to myself. Such is life when you’re a slow runner. Not just that: I’m really slow.

I keep speaking about being slow, and most days I’m relatively alright with it. Other days it’s just hard. I mean, I’m not athletic in the least. I’ve seen people who haven’t run before blast right past. People need to understand that it’s not that I’m not putting any effort into it–I’m really doing what I can. It’s very much a mental game out there. Seeing everyone else fade away in the distance can be hard on the ego. During the run, there were a couple of moments where I’d turn a corner and hope that I could see everyone, even if they’re far away. Of course, that never happened.

Well, since I was on my own I was really left to my own thoughts. I had a rough idea of what my time markers were on the route, so I strived to meet them as best I could. I keep saying in my mind “give me strength,” hoping for some divine boost or something. The sidewalks weren’t as wet as when I ran out in the rain, but there were still some big puddles that I had to wade through. I didn’t enjoy the feeling of stabbing pain from the cold water last time, so I tried to stay dry. It wasn’t easy though and my sneakers inevitably got flooded through some paths. I got to the 7K mark a little earlier than I thought I would, so that was a bit of incentive to push harder. On the way in I saw some other runners that were from the half-marathon clinic. They were making their way back via another route. In the end, I arrived at a blistering 1:23. Heheh. That’s one minute faster than my fastest 10K slow run. I guess it’s only because of the hard first interval I ran so…well…I’m about even I guess. I spoke to the coach and he said that the rest came in at 1:15, so…I guess it’s not so bad.

I know I’m not getting any better lately because I’m not putting enough effort into training. It’s so easy to blame it on the season, but I know deep down I shouldn’t. I guess I should up the mileage one way or another. Got to keep at it!