Howdy Folks,
I've been running pretty regularly since 2007. Slightly before this, I stepped on the scale and it read 213lbs. I really wasn't satisfied with myself physically, so I tried to loose some weight. I was an athlete in high school, so nutrition and exercise was not uncommon to me, I was just out of practice. A buddy of mine turned me on to the Body For Life program. It seemed to really work for me. In about 3 months, I was down to 173lbs by doing cardio (20min/3x week) and weight lifting (40-45min/3x week.) In short, I was looking fly, or so my then girlfriend, now wife tells me.
I remember walking into my local gym one morning and noticing a 5k flyer. I thought, this would be a really fun thing to do now that I'm in shape. For those of you who don't know, a 5k is 3.1 miles. So I signed up. It was a November morning, pretty warm for November. I was excited to do the race, thinking I was in great shape and looking forward to testing my new body:) The gun went off, and so did I. I was shot out of a cannon. I ran at a pretty decent pace for about a mile. Then, I noticed something. I was starting to hurt. Bad. I made it about another half mile before I had to stop and walk - which I hated that I had to do! By the time the race ended, I was so exhausted and happy to see the finish line. At that point I thought, I want to be a better runner.
Another friend of mine told me he ran a half marathon (at the time, I didnt know how many miles a full marathon was, let alone a half.) When he told me it was 13.1 miles, I was reluctant to sign up. I thought, "13.1 miles is a lot of miles, I ran 10 once in high school, because a girl I had a crush on talked me into it and that kicked my butt." My buddy sent me a weekly running schedule that broke down the milage into 4 day increments. I looked at it and thought 13.1 was now doable!
So, I had this goal - run 13.1 miles with my buddy and cross the finish line smiling. You would think someone training for a half marathon would LOVE to run, right? Not really. I didnt LOVE running. It was something I looked forward to being done with on a daily basis. Does that sound right? Looking back now, I don't think it was, but I was blinded by my goal. I completed the half with my buddy in about 2:20 (2hrs/20min.) I LOVED to run that day. I loved the atmosphere, I loved talking and laughing with my friend, I loved the smell, the sights, the sounds, EVERYTHING. However, when I saw our time, I thought, "hmmm...that's not really good, I know I can run faster than that."
I signed up for another half that was 2 weeks after the one I had just done with my friend. It was in Ocean City, Maryland in April - and it was cold. I sized up all the other runners, some of them were tall and "runner looking," some were bigger, smaller, some were dressed in goofy outfits. The gun went off and race started. I ran hard. It was grueling. My heels were split open, my body was getting beaten up. The worst part was that you could see the last mile marker about 6 miles away. It seemed to stay 6 miles away even after about 5 miles. The last mile was over this big bridge. It was so windy that the downhill off the bridge seemed like an uphill. I ran a 1:42, but I didnt enjoy it. Even the "payoff" of seeing my time didnt last long.
I thought, OK, I could do a marathon now. So I started training for the Philly marathon which was in November of 08'. Now....you'd think someone who is training for a marathon (26.2mi) LOVES running right? No...I still didnt love running. I loved running with other people - but most of the time, it was by myself and I only looked forward to the finish. I completed the marathon in about 4 hrs and 20 min. I had a nagging injury at about mile 14. Looking back, I think wasted a lot of my experience worrying about it.
After my marathon, my buddy who I ran my first half marathon with called me up and asked me to run it again with him in 09'. I was looking forward to doing that race again. When the day came to do it, again, I had a great time! Didnt get my best time, or even tried to, but it was great noticing everything around me and enjoying a conversation with my good friend.
Which brings me (finally) to the point of this blog. I'm reading an excellent book call "Slow Burn" by Stu Mittleman. I'm in the beginning of the book right now, but Stu talks about not looking at running as a burden, but noticing all the things around you - to be part of the run and your surroundings. Pace shouldn't be what to concentrate on. So I put this theory to the test....
My goal here is to blog about my run for a week. After a week, we'll see how things are going.
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