Tuesday, September 10, 2013

That last half mile...

I've been running for a couple of years now and I've noticed a constant in my training...

Sometimes I don't feel my best and my pace suffers, or I cut a long run short.

Sometimes I feel pretty good and I decide halfway into my run, to add another mile or to tempo the last mile and speed things up.

Sometimes I run 3 miles, sometimes I'll run 9. (I'm still trying to work my way up to 13.1)

The constant is simply this:

When I commit to a distance, no matter how fast or slow I go, no matter how far I run, as soon as I get half a mile from my finish, I mentally shut down and I feel every ache and pain in my body. I get exhausted. I find myself glancing at my GPS every 2 seconds. I get thirsty beyond the capacity of my bottles.

In short, that last half mile kills me.

It's the hardest 5/10ths of my life.

Why is that?

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