“It always seems impossible until it’s done.” – Nelson Mandela

I haven’t been blogging very much because, bad excuse, I’ve been busy with life stuff…so I’m gonna plagiarize myself and just add to what I posted on IG for this race.

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When I signed up for the 2019 Army Run Commander’s Challenge with Lisa and Anshul way back in February, I had no idea that this was going to be my “goal race” of the year. Around May, Jim started to coach me and that was when we decided to use this as my fall goal race. The Commander’s Challenge is 5k + 21k so not the best choice for a goal race but oh well, I was attracted to the bling.

Going into the race, I was nervous and had a lot of doubt. Even though I felt really proud of all the work that I had put in during the training cycle, I knew that all the stars would have to align for me to reach my A goal (sub 1:50) because anything can happen on race day.

So my “official” race plan from Jim was to go out a bit slower for the first couple of km’s, then settle into race pace for 13km, and then go for it for the last 6km or just hang on if I wasn’t feeling great.

Here’s what actually happened…Lisa and I started the race with the 1:50 bunnies. For the first couple of km’s, instead of going out a bit slower than race pace, I went out a bit faster. I was trying to slow down but with all the energy and excitement, it was really hard to slow down. Sorry Jim…😁😉 At about 4km, I had no idea whether Lisa was still behind me and I was already huffing and puffing (oops) so i knew i had to slow down. At one point, I looked around and I was surrounded by these guys who were running much stronger than me and the negative self talk started to creep in: Joyce, what are you doing, you don’t belong in this pace group, you aren’t gonna be able to keep this up, you still have 17km to go, etc… Knowing that running is a mental sport as much as it is a physical one, I flipped the narrative and told myself that I had worked hard, I belonged with this 1:50 group, and just keep going. Whenever I passed by the aid stations or the sprinklers, I told myself that I have no excuse not to reach my A goal because all the stars seemed to have aligned. I was feeling good, well hydrated, no GI issues, and even the weather is cooperating. I just need to put one foot in front of the other.

I started reading some of the signs to distract myself. Some of them were really good: Chafing the Dream, You are the 💩, Smile if you are not wearing underwear (that one always gets me). The best was when I saw @jillamama and her kids. They were giving out popsicles but I had already run passed them when I realized it was them so I just shouted “hi Jill!”. That gave me a boost of Jill-energy, better than any popsicle in the world!

There were these 2 girls who both managed to get popsicles and they were casually runchatting away as if they were just on a long slow run. I tried to keep up with them for a bit. I later found out they are @maylululululu and @runrun_yoga_run #nuunambassador and they just met at the start line. Gotta love the running community. You can make friends anywhere!

At 15km, I really wanted to try to “go for it” but my legs wouldn’t go any faster so I just hung on and hoped for the best. The last few km’s were mentally tough but I was surprised that every time I looked at my watch, I was still within my pace range. It was tough to pick people off in the last couple of km but at least it helped to distract me as I tried.

When I approached the finish line, the 1:50 bunnies were about 30m ahead of me. By the time I crossed, the race clock said 1:50:33, my watch said 1:48:19 (i started it late) and after i crossed, i asked @nixmikhael what her time was and she told me they crossed at 1:49:30. At that moment, I realized I had really cut it close so I checked my time right away and, to my relief, my time was 1:49:56. I was 4 seconds under my A goal! I almost cried. I have been on the wrong side of my goal time before and it’s the worst to think through all the “what if” situations. I was relieved that I was under my goal time. It could have easily been over had I ran just slightly slower.
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I am so happy with the result of this race. I couldn’t have done it without @belovedrunner, @optimismninja and the whole @werunnorthyork crew.

Lisa, even though you didn’t have a great race, you still did amazing given your ankle injury and your body was probably trying to fight the cold bug that you got after the race. I’m so thankful that you agreed to train with me all those weeks. I couldn’t have done it without you.

Jim, thanks for being my coach and friend. I wouldn’t be where I’m at today had I not met you 2 years ago. Thanks for being there from the beginning.

Those from the @werunnorthyork crew, you know who you are. Thank you for showing up, for pushing hard, and for making running so much fun. We are #strongertogether.