The Human Race

The weather was much better this morning, sub-80 degrees and plenty of cloud cover.

Today, is the Human Race. The race that Nike has dubbed the world's largest running event, with about 1 million runners all running on the same day in different race cities, in different countries. With nikeplus technology, people could run the race even if they're not in a race city and official race course. I did the 10 K around my neighborhood.

I checked the Nikeplus website this morning around 5:30 AM. Australia, Japan, China, Korea and Singapore had already run. The average pace of runners in Mt. Fuji was 1:01'. I decided to make that my goal.

After 2 K, I was feeling the pressure. If I were to beat Mt. Fuji, I would need to keep up this pace for the next 8 K. I decided to do something I've never thought of before. I've read that people dedicate a phase of their triathlon to a person or a cause. Today, I decided to dedicate two kilometers to a person. And while I'm running that kilometer, I think about that person and let those thoughts motivate me. Hopefully, the song on the ipod fits as well, if not, I press the skip button until it does.

I'm thinking "Come on. This mile is for 'so-and-so'. We can't stop and walk now. How would they feel if they found out your pace wasn't as fast as the 2 kilometers you dedicated to the other person. I bet this person would do the same for you."

In the end, I couldn't catch up to Mt. Fuji. They had me beat by 4 minutes and 3 seconds. During the last month, my pace had been 11:10 min/miles. My 10 K two weeks ago was 11:17 min/miles. Today, I ran at 10:29. So, even though I couldn't beat Mt. Fuji, I have to attribute my time improvement not just to the cooler temperature, but to my new motivation technique.