dr no is nowhere to be found

11 miles. jingle bell run 5k, 1759 (official results show a slower time-i feel shocked). my plan for this race worked. the goal was to forget about time and just try to put in a stronger effort mentally. lately my legs have been unresponsive in races and workouts, which has put me in a negative mindset, so my race times have been discouraging. i figured since i did a hilly 12 yesterday, i would have no pressure to run a good time because of how tired my legs would be, and that would let me focus only on staying tough. this might seem like an odd strategy, but i tapered for the last few races and got no pr's, only disappointment. sure enough, i had some tired legs today. the only problem was that they felt about 1,000 times worse than i was expecting (ds 80,000). i noticed myself getting dropped during the warmup (we were only running about 730 pace) and i had to put an effort in to stay with the group. that is never a good sign, but i didnt let it get me down. after seeing the course (very hilly 2nd mile and windy in every direction) i wondered how much slower than 6 minute pace i was going to run. i quickly reminded myself that i was not going to care about the time. i did some strides before the race and my legs reminded me again how much they hated me for what i was about to make them do. the race started and i felt fatigued about 5 seconds in. i managed to fight through it the whole way and didnt let anyone pass me. there were a few times where i tried to put in a little extra push, but as soon as did, i felt like was going to deuce in my shorts. i had to return to my previous pace each time that happened. it turned out to be a good thing that i conserved those tiny bits of energy because i started running out of gas with a half mile to go, and i could feel myself wobbling bad. i had nothing to kick with but i was able to find enough to make it look like i was almost sort of kicking a little bit. i was surprised to see that i had gotten in under 18 minutes. my splits were 536/607/547/30. i fell off bad on the 2nd mile because of the hill, but only because of my intentional non-taper, so im ok with it cuz i didnt quit on the climb. i needed a day like this where my mind was in the race the whole time, and my legs were reacting when i wanted them to. its been about 6 weeks since i was pleased with a race, so this is definitely a good thing. i guess what im getting at is that i told dr no to suck it, and then i went out and ran hard.
in unrelated events, one of my new followers is non other than the infamous nick cash! i think its pretty cool (implied nc).