No pain, no gain...right??

I made the trek up to Dartmouth today so that I could get in an extra race in before the end of the indoor season. I also wanted to change up the scenery and race the mile, to hopefully drop my time from earlier in the season. I ran 5:33.71, which is a second faster than my mile in December. I'd be lying if I said I was pleased with the time, but at the same time I'd be lying if I didn't admit that I honestly should not have ran. So sometime last weekned my calves were getting a little achy but I just kind of pushed it to the back of my mind and iced. It wasn't anything painful until yesterday. When I finished my run, the pain was petty bad. I knew that I had shin splints. As I got ready in the morning I told myself that it's nothing to worry about, hopped in my car and made the 2 hour drive up to NH. I should have scratched, needless to add that I only had my sprint spikes with me...not helping the cause. I sucked it up, what else would a stubborn mule do, and raced the mile in the spikes...yes I hear you all reprimanding me right now. But see it's okay because I have to pay the consequences...because of my pig-headedness I have to take training off and sit on a bike for the next couple of days instead of running!! You see my friends that hurts worse than the pain in shins right now. It all could have been avoided had I just listened to the little aches and voices telling to take it easy. But seriously telling a runner to take it easy is like telling a child not touch something that they really want to touch. You know that 9 times out of 10 they're going to touch it.
So though I'm not happy with the race, I realize that external factors besides my mind contributed to my performance, therefore I can't be too upset about it and dwell on the negative. I'm working being more positive when I don't have a good race. I have the next race. This part of my training might just be more difficult than the physical part. It's a work in progress.