Fall Racing Series Feature: Katie Manga!

 Throughout this Fall Racing Series, we will be sharing the stories of the runners that make this competition. Today we are featuring Katie Manga who has been a big part of the Spewak Training team for several years. She’s coming off a great 5k in the first series and looking forward to a fun fall ahead. Enjoy her story!  CS: Why did you sign up for the Virtual Fall Racing Series? KM: Mostly, to just give myself a bit of a challenge and test and to learn from the process. Last fall, Nov 2019, I ran a marathon with the best training I had ever had. But: I got sick the week of the race and ended up running that day feeling pretty ill (thanks, kids!) I still ran a six minute PR. I was forced to just go with the flow and see what happened, and ended up with a decent race. Once I did that, I had this mental switch about my running and starting asking the question: what if I just go out there and see what happens? At least I would have some new information to apply to another race soon. That’s exactly what happened. I felt terrible the entire race. My legs felt the worst they’d felt, even compared to my highest mileage weeks. I finished and was completely depleted. But I learned that my body was capable of amazing things, including a PR under the worst conditions (oh, also, it was 45 degrees and pouring rain.)  Using that approach has gotten me out of a mindset of putting too much emphasis on a certain date or race, and instead, just going out every day and seeing what happens. Once the pandemic hit, and races were cancelled, that mindset became even more ingrained. I had to run my spring marathon - scheduled as a redemption race from the fall!- as a time trial. I ran another PR, this time by 11 more minutes and a sub 3:20. At that point I figured - well - maybe this mental model works. Let’s see what happens. It totally takes the pressure off, makes running more fun, and makes time trials just a fun way to test your abilities. That’s ultimately why I signed up- because I’m curious to see what my body might be capable of, when I put it to the test. It’s nice that time trials offer a low pressure environment to do that, but with a concrete outcome of an actual time by which you can measure progress.  CS: What expectations do you have for yourself racing in a virtual setting?  KM: None, really. That’s the beauty of it to me. There isn’t the pressure of having signed up, nobody’s really watching and there aren’t external pressures. It’s just you and your watch and what you’re capable of on that day. If it isn’t what you expected, then you get to try again soon and you walk away with new information about what to do differently for a better outcome next time. Running this way has totally changed how I think about all of my goals. It’s opened up possibilities of things I never would’ve thought I’d be capable of.  CS: You ran a big PR in your first event of the series. Can you share a little more about that race day experience? If you would’ve told me two years ago I’d be running under 20 minutes in the 5k, I would have said you were crazy and that I wouldn’t be running any 5ks at all! Saturday was really fun. I didn’t even look at the course map ahead of time (which probably annoyed Mark because then he had to explain it a bunch of times). I just showed up ready to see what I could do, on that day, and to learn something new to apply to next time. I’m really training for a half marathon right now, so I haven’t run 5k pace in a while. I ran the first mile way too fast because I felt so good. That made the last mile hurt pretty bad. It was really fun to just be out there (at a safe distance) with some friends, laugh at how stupid it was so run too fast in the beginning, and go about my day afterward. I accomplished what I set out to do- another new things learned. The PR is just icing on the cake. CS: What's the best piece of advice you have for other runners when it comes to executing these time trials at a high level? KM: I used to think that setting expectations and using others’ expectations of you as fuel is what gets you to that next big accomplishment. But I really believe, and this is a new belief for me, that if you let go of expectations others have of you (and those you have of yourself) you’ll unlock something new and different that makes running so much more worthwhile. AND, you’ll perform better. That doesn’t mean you stop setting goals or stop trying to improve your time. But it does mean changing up your approach to be focused on what you’re learning about your limits and abilities each time you race.  It becomes about learning something new each time you test yourself, and not about the time on the clock or even an official time on an official course. Don’t get me wrong: I’m so looking forward to lining up for a “real” race. But my attitude and intentions will be so different than before this pandemic. It’ll just be about what I can do that day, and what I can learn. And I’m building that new mental model with every single time trial. I think that’ll actually make “real” racing even more fun that it was before the pandemic! I also think it’ll lead to more PRs along the way.