Race Report: TRRC Freezer Five Miler

Posted on February 21, 2010 by threlkeld

This race was one of the many B or C list races I had on my calendar for the winter and spring. Unlike the four mile race I ran a couple of weeks ago, I hadn’t planned on racing this one. So why did I race it? Because it was there.

I was feeling discouraged by my debacle of a speed session on Friday, aside from suffering from a bad case of cabin fever. I did a five mile recovery run along Fox Meadow Road and Walworth Avenue in Scarsdale yesterday (reasonably flat) and was surprised to find that I felt good and wanted to run fast.

Jonathan had planned to do the five mile race and I’d thought I’d go as his driver and support. But I reasoned that I hadn’t raced in a few weeks, and the next important race isn’t until mid March. I might as well race this one for the experience and practice. Naturally, I got a terrible night’s sleep and woke up two pounds heavier than the previous day, with stiff, sore legs. I figured I’d go in with low expectations and if I felt crummy I’d turn it into a tempo run.

I should note that this race (or at least the course it’s on) has some history for me. I ran my third race ever, a cold 10K in March 2006, on this course and haven’t been back since. My average pace per mile that day was 9:04. Today it was two minutes faster per mile and the hills didn’t seem nearly as bad as I remember them.

The race was held in FDR State Park, about a half an hour north of us. It’s just north of the Donald Trump State Park, which we’ve never been to, although I always like to say that it’s probably very classy.

The course is hilly, with fairly steep ups and downs, but they are short. In some ways, it reminds me of Central Park’s terrain and I’m thinking I should race and train there more often. The races there are on the small side, probably well under 200 people, so you can hit all the tangents and easily find individual runners to work on reeling in.

Today I had an experience that was eerily similar to my last Westchester Half Marathon in October. At the one mile turnaround (an out-and-back they tack on to come up with five miles) I noted that I was ninth woman again. So I worked on passing women over the next couple of miles. I managed to get into sixth place by mile three, at which point I could only see two women I had any hope of catching.

One of them turned out to be Yukiko Nishide, a prolific local masters runner who was running my exact pace, even the up- and downhill variations the whole way, but seven seconds ahead of me. Try as I might, I couldn’t close the 20 yard gap she had on me. I did manage to catch one woman, though — last year’s winner — about .2 miles from the finish, ultimately gaining four seconds on her, which was fun. My breathing as I passed her was something straight out of a porno soundtrack; thank goodness she was wearing headphones!

My first mile was the fastest at 6:50, with the rest varying between just under 7:00 up to 7:20 for one bad hilly mile. My legs were tired going in and there was a stiff headwind in some of the tougher uphill sections, so I would have been surprised to have broken 35:00. Official time was 35:26. In any event, I got fifth overall, second in the 40-49F AG. I suspect Ms. Nishide and I would have placed higher (as would have Jonathan, 13th overall and first in 50-59M) had a vanload of 20-year-olds from West Point not turned up.

Afterwards we ran into a friendly AG rival of Jonathan’s, Takashi Ogawa, and his wife, Katsura, who races on and off but always comes to his races. We last saw Takashi nearly a year ago as the three of us were deciding not to run a 30K race in torrential rain. He was preparing for the Green Bay Marathon at the time. Neither of us had seen him since and we wondered if they’d moved out of the area. It turns out Takashi pulled out of that race at the two mile mark with a hamstring injury, which he’s been working to come back from this entire time. While I was sorry to hear that news, it was comforting to know that we weren’t the only ones who’d had a disappointing 2009, at least for marathon racing.

The race was organized by the Taconic Road Runners Club. What they lack in quantity they make up for in quality. They only have around a dozen races a year, but I’d forgotten about the great post-race food they provide: homemade cookies and banana bread, coffee cake and excellent coffee, along with beer if you wanted that at 10:30 in the morning in sub-freezing temps. There was even a roaring fire going in the outdoors clubhouse. No water stops, which was a little weird. But they had race results up in hours rather than days.

Today I did everything you’re not supposed to do. I raced 36 hours after doing speedwork. I tried new tights and shoes (Asics Hyperspeed 3’s — men’s models, no less — which were outstanding to race in). I was groggy from a Lunesta I’d taken at 2am. I had wine last night. No taper whatsoever. I ate candy (Yes, candy. I know! I’m insane!) five minutes before the start. You name it, I did it wrong. Things went okay despite all that. I’m starting to think that I need to start caring less about doing everything correctly.

Filed under: central park, clothes and gear, drinking, racing, training, westchester | Tagged: , , | 8 Comments »

Spring Training: Week Five

Posted on February 9, 2010 by threlkeld

(In which, to mix things up a little, I compose my weekly review in iambic pentameter quatrains.)

Last year I felt a failure, so, this year
I have high hopes. Redemption comes out of
The blue, to my delight. A race can be
Like poetry. It flows, it whips, it reels.

The week went well for me at last. I ran
Ten times last week, with three hard days. My speeds
Increased again as well, and down my heart
Rate went. It seems I’ve got some decent wheels.

A run I skipped begat fast legs, I think.
Or was the wine the trick? Whichever way,
The drink or rest, it worked for me, oh yes.
In short, I rocked that race in sev’ral ways.

Blue bib? Not yet. Fell short this time. Next month
I’ll try again. But confidence is what
I sought and got me some in spades. So now
I sport a spritely step and cheerful gaze.

This week the miles go up again, but not
Absurdly so. I’ll run nine times with three
Hard days, to top out at eight-o. The tread-
Mill’s oiled and working well. That’s swell. That’s swell!

The snow will hit us overnight, but I’m
Prepared for that. My snowshoes beckon me
Take flight. And I’ve a toasty hat. Enjoy
Your runs, my runner friends. Run hard! Run well!

Filed under: basebuilding, central park, racing, training | Tagged: | 6 Comments »

Race Report: NYRR Gridiron 4 Miler

Posted on February 7, 2010 by threlkeld

Just a quickie report.

Fuckin-A! I finally had a good race.

I managed a 28:11 (7:02 pace). This brings my best pace in NYRR’s books down a hefty 12 seconds per mile. Perhaps more important, I know I could have broken 28:00 had I not gotten caught in the 2nd corral logjam for the first half mile, during which I was trapped at 7:27 pace. After that, things opened and I was averaging 6:58.

Other good news:

  • I clocked 4.02 in distance, which means I did a better job hitting the tangents than usual (either that or the course was short).
  • I maintained effort throughout and only really started to hurt the last quarter mile; this tells me I did a decent job of pacing myself. Perhaps I should have been hurting a little earlier, now that I look back.
  • I got 5th in my AG, and hit just under 73%, which is very good historically for me, especially at the start of a season. I’m also scraping the top end (I turn 45 in less than two months), so I’m “old” for this AG group as it is.
  • It was windy, especially heading up to and over the 102nd Street Transverse, which I figure I can also credit for taking a few seconds away from me.

So I’m within spitting distance of my sub-7:00 blue bib. I’ve registered for the NYRR 8000 in five weeks, so I can take another crack at it.

Some things of note: I did speedwork on Thursday morning, then ran just two slow runs under 5 miles on Friday and Saturday. I wonder if that (and two glasses of wine last night) helped me today.

As I wrote to Coach Kevin, it is so nice to not be in a completely foul mood after a race.

Now to go for another run and spend the rest of the afternoon and evening ignoring the Super Bowl.

Filed under: central park, coaching, racing | Tagged: , | 17 Comments »

[Goal?] Training: Week 1

Posted on January 11, 2010 by threlkeld

It’s both strange and liberating to have no goal race for this round of training.* I don’t even know when training will “end” because of this absence of a race to work toward. I’m just training for training’s sake right now. That is okay.

For my first trick, I went out and whaled through a high effort run through the hilly streets of my neighborhood, Crestwood. Yonkers, which Crestwood straddles with Eastchester, is as a whole very hilly. Yet the running path I typically use isn’t that hilly at all. It cuts through the hills all the way from Bronxville up to Valhalla (just on the uppermost edge of Southern Westchester), with a 1.5 mile break on roads along the way. So when I do run elsewhere around here, it’s always something of a shock.

So I ran up and down in the local streets since the path was iced over and I needed a break from the treadmill. Crap pace at high effort (85% avg). Bleh.

The Festival of Slowness continued through the next few days, with slow runs on the treadmill, followed by a slowspeedwork session, again inside. That was also a bummer. I was running 7:30 intervals at 92-93%. Oh, my God. Kevin used the word “nadir” to define this post-bad marathon, post-holiday, post-sitting on my ass period.

Just as I was feeling most despondent, things picked up late in the week. My resting HR finally settled down into the mid-40s again after a month of being elevated. Then my recovery pace vs. effort picked up on Saturday. Yesterday I went out to do another very hilly run in Scarsdale, again because the path is still frozen (and looks to be that way until at least Friday).

That was a damned good run, all things considered. I kept up a 9:15 pace at avg 78% for most of the early miles, then did a few 8:50s (the last at 8:30) in the second half. Elevation up/down was 2000+ ft., to which my calves can attest today. I enjoy running this course because I get to run through some really beautiful neighborhoods. The Scarsdale 15K and 4M races go through some of these same streets, and I’ll be running one of those in April, so it’s also good practice.

I trained on these streets a lot during my buildup for my spring 2008 marathon, and I think it helped me deal with the hills in Central Park. So I’ll be up there a lot this winter and spring to prepare for my hilly races.

One annoying thing that happened: I’m running up Brite Avenue, listening to Pink Floyd, when I hear a rumbling behind me and smell exhaust. I look back and there’s a huge truck right behind me, driving on the wrong side of the street. I think, “Oh, it must be pulling over to park,” but it stays behind me for another hundred feet. I pause the music so I can hear if I’m about to get run over. I think the truck will go around me, but, no, it stays right on my tail. Now I’m getting pissed off. So I hop up on someone’s lawn and wait for the truck to go by. Then it stops 15 feet ahead of me, presumably in front of the address where it’s making a delivery. I ask the driver why he felt he had to drive right behind me along the entire street. His reply: “I had to deliver on this side. I thought if I kept driving you’d eventually go faster.” Fucking moron.

This week features a substantial, but not insane, jump in mileage and another speed session, which I hope to be able to do on the track. I think there’s some tempo work too, but I don’t have pace assignments yet.

The days are getting longer and I’m getting a little faster. These things make me happy.

*Ignore the field that says “21 weeks until race.” I’m just too lazy to update the spreadsheet.

Filed under: basebuilding, central park, coaching, racing, training, westchester | 7 Comments »

Oh, right. I remember now.

Posted on January 9, 2010 by threlkeld

I remember 2007. Or at least I remember my paces from 2007. ‘Cause that’s what I’m running these days!

This week was the first one during which I attempted anything resembling training, after four weeks’ rest and recovery from my blowup in Sacramento. I’ll post a detailed report after tomorrow, but I thought I’d do a post of early observations and random news.

Lots and lots of runners I follow are mourning their downtime-induced loss of speed. I know exactly what they’re talking about. My tempo pace is probably 30-40 seconds per mile slower than it was two months ago. 8-10K pace is about what my tempo pace used to be. Recovery runs are only a little slower than they used to be (although I always ran them on the slow side once the mileage got above 70 mpw).  I haven’t attempted much in the general aerobic range, but I’ll be dipping my toes back into that world tomorrow.

Along with speed, it seems I’ve also lost endurance. Whereas doing a 10 mile recovery run used to be easy, I’m getting tired right in the 6-7 mile range.

So I’ve got some work to do.

The weather has not exactly been conducive to good training. We’ve had the coldest winter in NY that I recall, save for my first year here (1985), in which this transplanted Californian simply couldn’t fathom sub-zero windchills. I also had not familiarized myself with wool and spent that winter freezing my ass off (because I was 20 years old and broke all the time) in $5 cotton layers purchased from the tables of Senegalese purveyors along 14th Street in Manhattan.

Anyway, it’s been cold. Plus it’s snowed, which partially melted, then refroze, leaving my beloved 11 mile running path an unrunnable sheet of pockmarked ice. Yesterday I had my first real intervals session in months scheduled. But my local rich high school’s million dollar Mondo track was covered in the morning’s fall of snow, so it was back to the treadmill again.

My first race of the season, a four miler, is in a month. After yesterday’s foray into running at 93% effort, my expectations are low. Still, since it’s in Central Park I’ll be able to use it as a good gauge of fitness. I honestly don’t expect to run sub-7:00 (the time that would gain me the coveted first corral bib qualification). Maybe I’ll surprise myself, though. How much fitness can I regain in four weeks? We shall see. Given the bad running conditions and how slow-as-shit I feel lately, I am glad not to be under pressure to train for a marathon in early May anymore.

In other News About Me…

Since I find it easier to lose fat when I’m not running 80-95 mpw, and I’m sporting more of it than I’d like, I’m once again on the wagon and keeping my chubby little mitts away from Nutella, roasted cashews and my various other calorie-dense weaknesses. This plan will partially go to hell at the end of the month, when we celebrate Jonathan’s birthday. But since we’re both sporting tight pants these days, it should be a fairly restrained celebration.

I committed (as it were) to be an alternate on PigtailsFlying‘s team for June’s Green Mountain Relay in Vermont. Like most other things running-related this year, I’m taking a “fuck it, I’ll try that” attitude. The introvert who needs six hours of alone time each day screams “Nooooo!” at the idea of spending three solid days with a bunch of strangers, much of it in a confined (very confined) space (and mobile too, which is sure to bring out my motion sickness), during which sleep and personal hygiene are considered non-essentials.

But the same introvert who misses the moments of pleasure and surprise in spending time with strangers is bellowing from the other shoulder that this could actually be fun — if I only reoriented my perspective from one of discomfort and deprivation to one of adventure and discovery. As my sister pointed out, it’s only a few days. And good blog fodder. But, then, so is the stomach flu. Don’t I sound like a great teammate already? No wonder I’m an alternate; Pigtails has met me exactly once, but I guess that was enough!

I’ve got no signs of injury. Anywhere. Even after my faster (cough cough) running on the treadmill yesterday. Nary a niggle. Nothing. I’m wondering how long this will last. All season, if I’m careful. I hope.

Filed under: basebuilding, central park, drinking, eating, everyday life, racing, recovery, training | Tagged: , , | 8 Comments »

Spectator Report: NYRR Emerald Nuts Midnight Run

Posted on January 1, 2010 by threlkeld

I spent New Year’s Eve and day playing host and driver to another coachee of Kevin’s, Kim Duclos. Unlike me, Kim is young and fast. She just ran a 2:38 at Huntsville in mid-December and is gearing up for an even faster run at the L.A. Marathon in the spring.

Kim had been invited by NYRR to to run in the elite field of their four mile Emerald Nuts Midnight Run. She drove down from Worcester, MA for the race yesterday, hanging out at our place for a few hours before we drove in. Jonathan has a bad cold, so he skipped the festivities.

Despite the fact that I felt like I was a combination interloper/running groupie, accompanying her to the race and hanging out in the elite tent was a huge treat, as well as a glimpse into how the other half races.

NYRR required that Kim pick up her number by 11PM for the midnight race. Since I didn’t want to be responsible for missing that deadline, we left ridiculously early — 9PM for what’s usually a half hour drive to the Upper West Side. I’m glad we left early since not only did I space out and miss the Boat Basin exit, but no one knew where the elite tent was (we’d walked right by it, unlabeled). Half an hour later, we found a volunteer who knew where it was and settled in.

The conditions in Central Park were awful. A snowfall of around 1-2 inches earlier in the day had turned to icy slush. NYRR had salted the course, but it was still treacherous just walking around. We claimed a couple of chairs in the heated tent and surveyed the table of cookies, water and tee shirts. I spotted a few others who were not there to run, so didn’t feel too self-conscious in there, although I did eventually give up my chair when it started to fill up.

The highlight was when the star of the evening, Erin Donohue, appeared about 40 minutes before race start. At two feet away, this was about as close as I was ever going to get to an Olympian (unless, of course, Kim continues to get faster over the next couple of years, heh heh) and I tried not to stare. But, people, that girl is built: 5’7″ (she looks shorter in person) and around 145 pounds. Solid muscle. She’s got legs like cherry tree logs and you can see every muscle in her shoulders. She was friendly, but I sure wouldn’t want to piss her off.

Runners got the call to get ready to get their asses outside in 10 minutes. Then Mary Wittenberg wended her way through the tent for the pre-race meet and greet. I hid behind Derek Scott, who was conveniently tall, serving as a potted plant proxy. I’d told Kim that I planned to introduce myself as her “handler” if anyone asked, a term that she said had come up for her in a few interactions with race directors. I love how it makes the runner sound like a circus animal.

The race started at midnight sharp, as did an impressive show of fireworks. I watched from the start/finish in a prime spot, thanks to my elevated hanger-on status. Despite the crap weather, people were clearly having a blast. It took close to 12 minutes for the entire race field to pass the start line, and lots of the back-of-the-packers were jolly already. Good costumes, many fist pumps, and some unsteady legs!

As for the elite race, which was the only one being timed (at least for the top five in each gender field), it was pretty competitive, considering the conditions. The first man, Patrick Smyth, came in less than half a minute off the course record, and Donohue won the women’s race in a little over 21 minutes. Kim came in shortly thereafter, perhaps a minute slower than would be expected under normal racing conditions. But she was smiling as much at the finish as she was at the start, so she had a good time, which was her goal. Not falling on her ass was a bonus.

After her cooldown we wandered around, hitting the dance party and pretending we didn’t speak English when some guy started babbling to us about portapotties. But the ground was an ice slick and it was getting cold, so we headed home for some wine and other treats. Got to bed around 3:30AM, which is probably a personal record for me for New Year’s.

All in all, a great start to 2010.

Filed under: central park, coaching, elites, olympics, racing | Tagged: , , , , , | 18 Comments »

Obligatory “year in review” blog post

Posted on December 20, 2009 by threlkeld

Doing a “look back on 2009” post seems to be all the rage among running bloggers this month. Although I normally purse my lips in disapproval at such conformity, I’ll jump on the bandwagon.

Now is as good a time as any to reflect upon the past year, which from a marathon racing perspective was a disaster for me. But it was not a disaster in all areas. For one, I ran some stellar races (and workouts) at various points in the winter and spring. I almost ran a stellar 5 mile race in the fall (only to DNF at 3.7 miles with a raging hamstring). And I learned a lot, oh, yes. I learned a lot — about training in general and about myself as a unique physiological running specimen.

Here’s what I learned this year:

  • High mileage results in huge gains for me, but only up to a certain point. If I run high mileage for too long, I will eventually break down in the form of either overtraining or injury.
  • If I have injured myself, I often have a short window of faux-recovery during which I can nevertheless run a spectactular race or speed session (and fool myself into thinking I’m not really injured). But if I continue to run hard after that I will get reinjured.
  • A hot, hilly long run or race will fuck me up for weeks, if not months.
  • Doing a very long and very hilly run at the end of one or two high mileage weeks is dangerous. Depending on how long I’ve been doing high mileage, chances are good that doing one of these will push me over the edge into injury, although it can take anywhere from 7-10 days to develop. Training in Central Park is an especially hazardous prospect in these cases.
  • Extreme changes in weekly mileage are a bad idea. Going from 50 to 95 (even if I’ve recently run 95 without issue) is a great big embossed and monogrammed invitation for Injury to attend my next workout, and perhaps even bring a guest.
  • If I’m feeling very worn down and don’t want to run, I need to take the day off. A few missed runs won’t destroy a season. But too many runs that I shouldn’t have done will.

Bonus realization:

  • My right gracilis muscle does not like running in weather below 20F. My left one, however, is completely okay with this.

The above lessons are hard won. But I won’t soon forget them.

As for what happened in Sacramento two weeks ago, here’s my theory: I suspect that I was undertrained for the marathon specifically. When you look back at my training in the fall, it was constantly being interrupted by one thing or another. First it was a two+ week trip to South Africa, which involved days of travel, a large time zone change, eating and drinking a lot of stuff that isn’t on the menu for marathoners in training, and big time stress in the form of all of the above along with the added treat of being a victim of major property crime. Not to mention some terrible workouts due to poor conditions (brutal heat among them).

Then I came home and had a few good weeks only to experience the first of two serious injuries: hamstring pull followed by inflamed tendon. I didn’t give myself time to heal properly from the first, piling on 95 miles after a 52 mile injured week, and the second injury came in to take its place. All told, injuries screwed up my training for close to a month total. So out of a 13 week schedule (3 of which were taper weeks), at least 6 were heavily compromised. For you mathletes, that’s a screwup factor of 60%.

I toed the line in Folsom thinking that there was a good possibility that I might have to settle for a 3:20 or even a 3:25. I might have been able to make that time somewhere else, but not on that course on that day. The downhills chewed up my quads a la Steamtown and the headwinds were just, wow.

This was all on top of whatever was wrong with me in the spring, which for the sake of simplicity let’s say was overtraining. After an amazingly good buildup from the fall into April, I crashed in May. I was a wreck in June and July, then ran in a holding pattern in August and commenced training in September, as described above.

So that was 2009. Good riddance.

2010 will bring some changes. More on that soon.

Filed under: basebuilding, central park, coaching, eating, injury, physiology, racing, recovery, training | 9 Comments »

The More is no more

Posted on December 16, 2009 by threlkeld

Or at least it appears that way. The listing for the April More Magazine-sponsored race is shown as the More Half Marathon. No full.

Loyal readers will recall my critical analysis (and I do mean critical) of that event’s rapid growth of the half, coupled with the equally swift demise of the full. No mystery there. The Westchester Marathon followed the same, sad trajectory.

Oh, well. Another one bites the dust.

In other NYRR news, I can’t find any evidence of the Bronx Half, which usually happens in early February. The NYC Half Marathon ($79 plus $5 processing fee — are you shitting me? No. Just, no.) has been moved to March. The 15K Colon Cancer Challenge is also notably absent. I wonder if moving the NYC half from the brain-frying height of summer to spring has buggered up the rest of the race calendar now.

I’m in a criminally bad mood these days when it comes to anything running related. Evidence of race calendar monkeying is not helping.

Filed under: racing | Tagged: , | 6 Comments »

2009 CIM: Not a Race Report

Posted on December 9, 2009 by threlkeld

I got something like 700 hits to this site on Sunday, which is roughly four times what I get on a big day. So I guess lots of people were curious about how the day went (and I’m sure a fair amount of the traffic was from other participants looking for race reports from the day).

If you’re looking for a race report, I’m about to disappoint you. I don’t want to write one, not so much because I’m upset about the whole thing. Which, of course, I still am. No, a race report invites analysis and scrutiny from everyone reading it. I’m not going to attempt to analyze what happened in terms of the actual race. So I really don’t want to read others’ attempts to do so either.

The race itself was not the problem, meaning nothing “classic” in the marathoning sense went wrong. I didn’t go out too fast, or get injured, have stomach issues, etc. The race was just a natural outcome of whatever fatal flaw has been undermining my training over the past year. I don’t believe that flaw can be found in the race data.

I do appreciate a lot of the comments. Many were thoughtful, smart and full of new perspectives. I know I’ll revisit them in the coming weeks as I think about the year ahead.

I’m not making any decisions about anything at this point. But I do know that the marathon is for me, right now, like a red hot stove. I’m staying away from it for as long as my hand is still wrapped in gauze. Figuratively speaking.

Finally, just something that popped into my head during those awful two hours in which I struggled, mile by mile, along the second half of the CIM course. A few weeks ago I read the autobiography of Sonia O’Sullivan, one of Ireland’s great distance runners. O’Sullivan is famous for, among other things, having exited the 5000m final in 1996 at Atlanta — not just leaving the track but actually running out of the stadium entirely with a lap and a half to go.

As the great Irish hope that year, she was under enormous pressure to perform well. She didn’t. Her father, who was there to witness his daughter’s disaster as a tsunami of criticism toward her formed, said the best thing when a microphone was shoved in his face: “Nobody died here. It’s only sport.”

Filed under: racing | Tagged: | 10 Comments »

The singing room

Posted on December 8, 2009 by threlkeld

Imagine that you’re a singer. In your home you build a special room just for your singing. Every day you go into that room and for anywhere from 90 minutes to three hours you practice your singing. Some days are more challenging than others, with big octave shifts, trills or timber exercises. On many days, you go into your singing room twice a day.

For six months you pursue your singing, in your singing room, every day. Besides the time you spend singing, you sacrifice other things that might affect your singing. You miss those things. But, on the other hand, you love singing and you know you have the potential to get a lot better at it if you work hard and stay disciplined. So it’s worth it.

Twice a year, you get the opportunity to perform. You think about these upcoming performances each day, as you sing alone in your room. Those dates keep you going, even when the practicing gets tedious or you hit a patch when it doesn’t seem to be going that well. But overall, it’s going well. You’re getting better and sounding very good as the days, weeks and months roll on. You feel positive about that upcoming date, when you’ll take your talents and skills outside of your room at last.

Your performance date arrives and you take the stage. You’re a little nervous, but that’s normal. You’re confident and know you’re ready. You open your mouth to sing.

What emerges sounds exactly like a startled screech owl.

You’re disturbed, mystified, embarrassed. But mostly, you’re shocked. It’s like being slapped in the face by someone you love. The loss is terrible. But you get over it. Then you pick yourself up and you try again. You pick apart what may have gone wrong and try something new. Something that, while different, has you working just as hard and sacrificing just as much, every day, as you did before.

Six months later, the curtain opens, and the exact same thing happens.

—————————————————————-

Don’t worry. This post is where the self pity ends. This year was a terrible racing year and I’m writing it off. Thank you for all of the kind comments. I don’t know what I’ll do next.

Filed under: racing | 12 Comments »

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