The last mile is not the worst mile

The past 2 races I started to think about which mile is the worst of the race.  Is the first mile? The last mile? One in the middle?

I've settled on a mile in the middle.

A few weeks ago I did the Runner's Alley Redhook 5K.  I think the 2nd mile was the worst, at least it felt that way.  I am so thankful for the additional unofficial water stop after the first mile.

Last year I took the entire season off.  My mom had become ill and it was terminal cancer.  I posted a bit about it last year.  We spent several months driving out of state to visit as much as we could before she passed away.  And then I spent a few months catching up on all the paperwork that didn't happen last summer.  It was an overwhelming time, and I was not racewalking, walking or training all season.

I had a late training start for this year.  I'm determined to finish the Seacoast Road Race Series again, and might do an extra race or two.  My part-time business work schedule has exploded into more than full-time hours, so training has been sparse.

This past weekend I did the Market Square Day 10K with not a lot of prep work or training. And thinking about it today, the worst mile for me was mile 4 - just after the halfway mark.  It was a street with not a lot of shade, a gradual uphill, and I was super thirsty.  I kept seeing a cruiser following me and another runner who was both running and walking.  I began wondering if we were the last 2 in the race. Today I checked the race results and I was the 4th to last finisher, so that very well was the case.

But we both finished the race, and I'm excited for myself and for her.

It went from being a cool spring to a hot day pretty quickly.  I'm not a fan of heat, rain, or hills, and we definitely had heat last weekend.  The race was hot and there was not a lot of shade.  A few times I broke my racewalking pace and just walked.

I finished the race.

I was hot, tired, sore, sad that the post-race massage people had packed it all up, and I had to go searching for water.  But I finished.

The hardest mile for me is in the middle.  Not the first, or last, but somewhere in the middle when I'm wondering how far I've gone and how much further the finish is.

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