Rules Are Made to Be Broken.... or something

I had an amazing race last week! First 50k! Whoo Hoo! I was overusing exclamation points and feeling like a million bucks! And then it was done. First the race was done, then the weekend was done, and then the next thing I know, I'm back to work wanting to talk about nothing but running and remembering that no one else is as into running as me. I'm feeling like Superman the day after the big world saving weekend (see post here).

After the race I was spent. And I couldn't dream of doing it again. But within hours I started thinking... well maybe. If my foot hadn't bothered me, could I have done it better? If I had started heart rate training sooner, would it have helped? And then the definitive statement:

I know I could do it better.

I'm not terribly competitive when it comes to other people. I'm not a person that really thinks about "reeling people in" and passing them during a race. Mainly because I'm so slow it rarely happens. When it does happen I mainly think, wow I probably paced myself better than they did. But I am competitive with myself. Obviously I like to challenge myself (or I would have stopped with my first predawn solo 5k in my neighborhood). I love a challenge. Through the years I have also found that I love to see what else I can do with the same idea (same race, different training or same distance, different course).

I do have a few rules. A main rule being...

NEVER SIGN UP FOR A RACE WHILE STILL ON A HIGH FROM YOUR PREVIOUS RACE!

Why do I have this rule? Because obviously it's been a problem in the past. I'm 100% guilty of coming off a high from an amazing race and wanting to keep that buzz. Kind of like a drug addict? Yikes... moving on.... But I have been guilty of immediately seeking out a way to recreate the power and magic of a successful race day. A sane person would say that each race needs to be run on it's own. Sure, a sane person would say that.

I'm sure you can see where this is heading...yep. A friend I trained with for this race mentioned another 50k. In September. And it looks awesome or horrible. Or both. I kept telling her that I didn't want to jump into signing up, because only a crazy person would do that.

Oops.... stick me in the only a crazy person would do that category. I'm signed up. It's going to be a long summer.