Why Didn't You Race?

This past weekend Jer and I wanted to go and support our friends running the Austin Half Marathon. We were able to catch Liz Eder and David Fuentes run by roughly 3 times. They were both pretty much in first overall each time we saw them too! Jer and I cheered as loud as we could and took fuzzy, non-recognizable pictures of them as we caught them within the first mile, around mile 8, and finally the last 200m.

Who doesn't look that excited after PRing in the half?

David defended his title and not only did Liz PR (and win also), coming in at 1:21:55, but she also got to say she was in the same race as Joan Benoit Samuelson! How cool is that?



1st place Austin Half Marathon Winners : )



The Walking Legend Herself

 
The only beef I had was our interaction with people during and after the race. Nearly every single person Jer and I chatted with asked us "why didn't you race"?  The most important reason being because we came there to support our friends who were racing. David supported Jer, Liz, Chass, and myself a ton during our big race at San Antonio RnR in the fall and is always keeping up with how we're doing. Liz is my BF, my M.O.H, and is always there for me. It only made sense to go out there and cheer them on during an important race for them, especially when there weren't any other obligations holding us back.

I know it seems ridiculous to let a little question like this bug me, but it's really the message behind the question. Well, you did the San Antonio marathon so of course you should be doing another half or full right? When I graduated, the big question was when, not if, I was going to do a marathon. Jer got the same treatment, but of course he was already training for his first one immediately after graduating. I on the other hand hadn't planned on doing a marathon for a long time to come. Why? Because I never pictured myself running one and had little desire to do it. I didn't even want to think about doing one after graduating just to show people you can still be a great runner without having to do a half or a full marathon. Most serious runners understand this and it's the novice runners (who are making up a huge population of the running world now) that assume it's a rite of passage almost. I do think it's great that more and more people are taking up running, but they don't really care to even consider shorter races just because it's not THE MARATHON. More competitive runners know that a 14:30 5k guy is a lot more impressive than a 3:20 marathoner. Odds are that 14:30 guy worked a lot harder than the 3:20 marathoner did, but you've got to know your audience.

So now that my rant is complete, the good news is: it IS actually time to race! We have already set up a schedule of races that we wanted to run this spring, including distances from 800m all the way up to half marathon. In less than a week we'll be toeing the line of the UTSA Diploma Dash 5k! We LOVE track and road races and we LOVE setting new PR's that we weren't able to get down to in college. With shorter races the training is completely different and allows us to participate in more races.

Racing is the reason we train...not to stay thin or have something to do in our free time. The races are why we get up every morning, do it again in the afternoon, repeat the next day, and make the sacrifices we need to make. So it's great when we're able to do more of what we love by having a different schedule in the spring. I love that we focus more on longer races in the fall and shorter ones in the spring. I don't want to speak for Jer, but it allows me to regroup and stir things up in a way that keeps me happy and sane as a runner.

So let's here it for racing time! Training can be monotonous without a little reward for your efforts, and Jer and I plan on getting out there and laying it on the line OFTEN this spring. And remember, marathons and half marathons are just longer races, not the end all be all of our running existence!