Flashback Friday - Reston 10 Miler 2015

I love it when Timehop or Facebook Memories turns up each day. It's fun to look back on where you have been, especially since it can provide some perspective on your journey. The other day a memory popped up about the first time I ran the Reston 10 Miler. It was 2015 and I was toward the end of my training cycle for the Shamrock Half Marathon. My buddy Johnathan and I had chatted about this race for weeks. He and I worked together at Potomac River Running every Monday night for months. As the time approached for the race, we talked about running it together. He would help pace me for the race. That was the plan. A week before the race I told him that my race strategy was to run intervals (3 min running followed by 1 min walking repeatedly) as Shamrock was a few weeks away and I didn't want to go full out in the 10 miler. Johnathan is not an interval runner (he just starts running and doesn't stop til he's done) but he agreed to my strategy with one small caveat, he said he gets to set the run pace. I laughed, nervously, because he is a much faster runner than I am. Since this is a flashback, I am not going to do a full recap, just the highlights:

• At the time, this was the coldest race temp I have ever had at race start, 25 degrees. The weather forecast for race day was so bad that the race series posted the night before that they reserved the right to redirect the course mid-way, if needed, to a 10K if the weather deteriorated. It snowed at several points during the race and sleeted at the end.

• We started with the race plan, 3:1 intervals and dropped back to 2:1 because I was struggling.
• Johnathan was my personal coach and cheerleader. He kept me going and is the reason I didn't just walk the last 4 miles. He also literally pushed me to the finish line in the last 50 meters.
• I PRed the 10 mile distance by 18 minutes that day. Johnathan told me later that he kept pushing the pace.
• I still refer to this day as "the day Johnathan tried to kill me", but really, its the day he believed in me more than I believed in myself.

I have a shirt that bears the words "Embrace Your Pace". Its one of my favorites because my pace has changed so much in my journey as a runner. I look back at this race from 3 years ago as I prepare to run it again this coming weekend. My overall pace that day was hard fought. I was wiped out that afternoon, not just because of the weather, but because I had to dig deep to run that hard. This weekend, the pace from that day 3 years ago, is the low end of my "long run" training pace. That means that its a good pace for me, but its a middle of the road pace for me now. When I looked that up yesterday, I really let it sink in. There aren't many races where I remember as many details as I do about this one, especially three years and many races later. I vividly remember struggling. I remember my legs being sore and my lungs burning. I remember having to dig down and find the mental fortitude to keep going. And I remember being so proud that I survived that experience. How crazy it is to me that three years later that pace is just a part of my regular routine now. I have come so far and don't ever really take the time to appreciate it. I hope Johnathan knows how much I appreciated his company, coaching, and cheerleading that day. It will forever be etched into my brain as a significant part of my journey as a runner. Reflecting and appreciating how far we have come is an important part of our growth as athletes and humans. I hope to do this more often.