“Practice Patience: I didn’t surprise myself or my coaches at Boston [in 2011, with her 2nd place finish]. It wasn’t what other people expected, so it looked like this monstrous breakthrough. But it was just the next logical step in my career. Patience is a big part of that win. It takes years and years and you have to just keep plugging away, even when it’s not going great. You just stick with it and then it will turn around.” -Desiree Davila excerpt from September 2012 Runner’s World Article.
This past weekend I traveled to the Bix 7 Mile race in Davenport, Iowa. This was my first real competitive race since taking time off in May/early June. I’ve been logging some really good miles and workouts over the past few weeks and was excited to compete against some very good competition. Unfortunately I started cool-down after the race knowing that 15 competitors beat me. It wasn’t the top ten finish I had hoped for, nor had I run sub 35 minutes for the 7 mile race, but looking back on it in the past 24 hours I have made significant improvements over the weeks and months lately. I also learned a valuable lesson for later years when Bix hosts the US Championships – that course is hard!!!! My first two mile splits showed the difference from going uphill (5:22) to going downhill (4:37).
Start of the Bix 7 mile. From this point the first mile was straight uphill.
A big thank you to everyone at the Bix 7 for putting together a fantastic event. Even though the course was brutally hilly – the spectators that lined the course were incredible! This is absolutely a course I’d recommend every serious runner competes in at least once in their lives. The rolling course beats you up because the downhills are too steep, but the finish with a big downhill also teaches you that you can still move your legs fast when your tired.
I’m making progress in this great sport of distance running. I’d love to be typing up a blog post that’s all “fluffy bunnies” and describes a big personal best race. The fact of this sport is that sometimes you are not in personal best shape and you need to have the patience and dedication to get there.
Hope everyone had a good week of training and racing!
-Tyler