Today's run was a solo. This was my second day of running towards my goal of 150 before my "Run For The Bear" on September 26.
I did some speed work and really relied on my music to motivate me. "Dog Days Are Over" by Florence + The Machine had me running a 5:35 pace....at least for a little while. If I was better at all this technology, I would find a way to play that song on my page for you all to hear. It is one of the songs in the "Eat, Pray, Love" movie trailer.
I kept thinking about how I started running and how far I've come not only in regards to running, but in life. I've always worked out in some way. Even when I was a kid, besides playing softball and riding my bike around the neighborhood, my Grandpa and one of those exercise bikes with the big fan on the front that I used to ride. In junior high I started to notice my body and would compare it to my friends'. I also noticed a difference in my weight during the summer when I was more active and if I didn't notice, my grandma was there to point it out to me.
In high school I did speech and theatre, so my athleticism was limited to gym class and the StairMaster in the workout room. Running in gym class was not something I looked forward to especially when we had to run around the football field while they were mowing it due to allergies. I would look for any excuse I could find to get out of running. Now I am looking for any excuse to run.
College brought a whole new set of weight challenges. I didn't gain the "Freshman 15" I gained the Freshman 25 since I am such an overachiever. By the end of my Freshman year I weighed as much as I did nine months pregnant. Trying to lose it was impossible until I was a junior and started to do a little more running and finally went home for the summer and dropped the extra lbs. When I came back in the Fall I did put back on some of it once put back in the world of fried food, late night pizza and beer.
It was about a year after college that I went to the Shamrock Shuffle in Chicago and walked it with some friends. I had been running a little here and there, but didn't think I could run 5 miles! Looking around at all of the runners, I got this incredible sense of inferiority. These "runners" all looked so serious and in shape. I wanted to be them.
After that day I set out to become them. I ran around a track until I couldn't run anymore and slowly I was able to run 3 miles without stopping. That May I signed up to run the Y-Me 5k for Breast Cancer (now known as Breast Cancer Network of Strength). Lucky for me I ran into a friend of mine before the race who was an experienced runner. He was kind of enough to run with me until we hit the last stretch. I may have been new to this whole thing, but I knew he probably had a personal best that I had completely taken away from him since he ran with my slow ass. I let him take off at the end and I looked at that finish line about 100 yards away and wanted to die. I hoofed it to the end and finally finished. I don't recall what my time was, but I would guess it was about 30 minutes.
I remember when I ran my first marathon a year-and-a-half later hitting the 5k mark and chuckling because I felt like I had just started the race and to think at one point I could barely get that far. This past year when I ran a half marathon I got to the point in the race where I only had 5k to go and still felt good despite the fact I had already run 10 miles. I turned to the guy next to me and said, "Just a 5k to go. No problem." Perspective is everything and the number one lesson I have learned is that running is mostly psychological.
So, my advice to anyone just starting out running is to remember
1) You can train your body to anything if you put the time and effort into it.
2) Your mind can carry you further than your legs.
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