I'm lazy, so I'm copying this from my Dailymile entry:
Well, on a chilly overcast morning, her streak of age group victories
& PR's was broken...as they all are, eventually. A combination of
too little training, breathing issues and recurring heel pain kept
Natalie from running quite as fast as she wanted to. Right before the
race, I asked her if she felt like pushing the pace. She said yes, so I
put on my pacer hat once again. In hindsight, I should have backed off
the pace when she started struggling a bit instead of encouraging her to
push. Still, she ran a decent time and I'm proud of her. The field was
quite large (for this race, anyway), so she "only" managed 4th in her
age group (nothing to be ashamed of!) I'm not sure of the total number
of runners yet (EDIT - see below). I'm considering running another local 5k next Saturday
on my own. While I enjoy running with my daughter, I'm itching to air it
out a little.
For those who are curious, the 5k I'm planning on running next Saturday (Dec. 10th) is the Candy Cane Dash, in Shoreline, WA. I ran this event in 2002 and 2003. It's a fun little race. While I have no delusions of running a fast time, I'd at least like to see where my fitness is at. Unlike today, I'll be wearing my Brooks Pure Flow, in what will be their racing debut. I'll likely post a shoe review shortly after.
UPDATE
Here are Natalie's numbers from the race:
Time - 27:53
Overall - 35 of 159
Age Group - 4 of 22
Women - 12 of 101
Have fun racing in the flows! I just may sport them in a half marathon next weekend. As for Natalie, just a part of getting more experienced.
ReplyDeleteGood to run and encourage your daughter, it's never easy knowing when to back-off versus motivate, but knowing your heart was in the right place I'm sure you were fine. Regarding your new Flows I'd be cautious running a race in them until you've had a chance to get a few tempo miles in them! The Flows are more 'minimalist' than traditional shoes which I'm assuming you've been wearing, and as such have a lesser heel-to-toe drop. While such a shoe is often excellent for those runners who correspondingly adopt a higher cadence and a healthy mid-foot landing (versus over striding heel stride) this transition is best done in less stressful circumstances than a race, especially with your heel spur - as such minimalist shoes tend to encourage greater use of one's calf muscles. Good luck!
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