Ha Ha! No where near as serious as Paula in Athens, but what I do remember is seeing Paula in Flagstaff on an OCT. Sunday morning that same year on the track w/ her coach/husband. I just got off the track after doing some mile reps. A person, who I now know was her coach/husband, was watching me, but really just waiting for Paula to arrive. I was leaving just as Paula was coming on. I talked with her for a minute and she said she was "just here doing a bit of training." Riley was just a few months old and the 3 of us sat in the car and watched Paula do some speed work while her coach paced her on his bike. "C'mon Paula" he'd yell. She stayed about 6" from his back wheel and hammered out a session like I've never seen. I wrote it all down, times and distances. I think I can still find the piece of paper, a receipt in the glove compartment that I wrote it on. Paula won NYC in beautiful fashion the next month. That's how I'm staying positive about this DNF. I won't win jack-crap at MMC, but I will run hard and I will run strong!I have some hip issues to deal with, but I've got a great coach that knows how to deal with this.
So the DNF was a mechanical? (the hip)?
ReplyDeleteYea, the hip as well as some other things that were creeping up due to compensating for the hip, not a good thing to do. I went through the halfway point at 2:13 without putting forth a whole lot of effort. Healthy - I think could have repeated that that time for the 2nd half. I should have dropped at the 15-16 mark, but opted to give it a little more time. Was hoping to go another 4-6 miles, but the way the course was designed I actually ran about 24; walk/jog the last 4.
ReplyDeleteSorry to hear that. Sounds like the engine is good, you just got a bum wheel.
ReplyDeleteExactly! I'm itching to go here, hopefully I can bottle it up for the next 8 weeks and do what I need to do.
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