Comparison! should we compare apples to oranges?

Thunder Road Marathon, Half Marathon and 5K: Nov. 12~

Roctoberfest on Oct. 22, was my first 5K with little consistent running prior to race day. At the end of that race, a buddy urged me to run Thunder Road but I quickly turned down the idea of doing another race so soon. Heck, I was running for less than  two months at that moment. Well, with so many of my new running buddies via BGR! "Black Girls Runs registered to run this race, I finally signed up before the price increased again.

  Rocktoberfest's course did not bother me too much, it did have an incline or two but the race course was tolerable overall. My challenges came from me (see My First Race post). I finished 29:18.

 Thunder Road's course was hilly and very challenging; it went downhill then uphill within the first five  minutes and ended with two hills within five minutes of the finish line. We talked about beating our last time as we anxiously waited to hit the pavement. Kristin, our 7:05/mile runner, ran solely to be a cheerleader  and pacesetter to help a few brave souls attempt an impressive 9:30/mile pace. My original pace was not too off from that; however, I was very worried since I heard the race ended on a hill. Finally, I give in and agreed to run at or above that pace in order to beat my PR. Once the race started, I took off on my own and stayed ahead of the group until I saw the pacer who asked me to run ten seconds faster so I sped up accordingly. As I came within two minutes of reaching my PR time, it sunk in that finishing the current hill, conquering the next hill yards away and reaching the finish line was very unlikely. Reality kicked in once I faintly saw the timer in the distance, it was already passed my PR. My disappointment quickly elevated but I temporarily defused it by encouraging my running buddy whom I met minutes before to push on…it was hard but we sped up…I recall saying "keep running…go faster..do not slow down…..run...we're almost there" (all within the last ten seconds of our challenging race). Those few seconds are my most memorable moments of the race along with scoping out strangers who needed an extra push and shouted: "you can do it, keep going" and seeing their lovely faces come back to life as they regained their confidence.  

  Finish line dilemma: well, I said over and over: I did not beat my time....even though I was the first of my group to cross the finish line, this was an "internal race" and I was disappointed being the result driven person I am. As the ladies crossed the finished line the same words were echoed, I did not beat my PR and those darn hills were tough. We failed to immediately acknowledge that we FINISHED and we were not the last to do so (lol). Also, we overlooked how speed training and hill repeats helped us get through such a grueling course, regardless of our race time. As I spoke with our 7:05/miler runner and personal trainer, she broke it down for all of us (specifically me). She explained we cannot compare one race to another because everyone is unique and this race course was not only challenging but very hilly. We all finished within seconds or at least two minutes of our best race time, hence we did very well.

 Personal conclusion: Comparing our times to the last race is not fair to us; it is GREAT to work towards beating our last time; however, comparing apples to oranges is ineffective and pointless on every level. After reflecting on today's race experience, I'm very proud to say, I won even though my feet crossed the finish line 50 seconds later than my first and only race =)!  



30:08