I'm just excited to share about today's run. It wasn't my fastest or longest but it brought back that feeling I haven't had in a while.
I felt like a runner again.
Started Thursday with a 4 mile trail run. It was the first time I've gone into a trail run voluntarily. The last time, which I swore would be the last, was at my first 5k when half of it ended up being through the woods. Thursday I met up with some local folk who I met on Facebook. I'm used to running with other people and for the past few months I've been going at it solo. Actually, every run in the entire month of March I completed on the treadmill.
The guys I ran with were there for their kid's tri practice. That's right. Kids tri practice. There must have been at least 30 kids between the ages of 6 to 12ish taking part in strength drills. I think 30 is the amount of triathletes in all of Canton. We bobbed and weaved through a local park and our first two mile lap was around 9:30 a mile. I wanted to quit at that point. Many times I held back the "you guys go ahead!" comment I'm so used to saying. The last tenth of a mile I fell back but I was able to hold my own. I'll be going back at it next week.
Today's ten mile run was pre-planned a few days back. I created the route to be on the bike course for tomorrow's Chasing Chicken Reverse Tri, the one I will be volunteering as bike captain. My plan for the run was to check out the road and make sure there wasn't any debris or issues. I woke up this morning (and once during the night thanks to my youngest wanting chocolate milk (which she did not get)) not feeling the best. It's funny how when important things are planned things seem to get in the way. I was also a good deal sore from Thursday's run (it's always two days after the work out when it hits you). The illness subsided so I got my running clothes ready, which were half unclean. I wasn't going to let anything else stop me from going out the door. Once I put on my stinky clothes I couldn't find my water bottle sleeve or sunscreen. I still wasn't going to let it stop me. I put the bottle in my hand and took my pale skin out for a run.
1.4 miles in I stopped because my phone wasn't making any noise and I wanted to know when I hit each mile. I couldn't figure it out so I kept going. Most of the run was on a road with either no shoulder or an extremely narrow one. The motor vehicle operators were courteous. They would veer away from the side of the road and I would follow that with a hand wave. When Bryce and I started running together, a while back, he asked me why I wave to people. My response was simple, "I wave to anyone who doesn't hit me".
This route had some hills:
I had an idea of the hills because I've driven the bike course a couple times, but it never matches the feeling of running. I felt like I was keeping good pace though. A while into the run I finally told myself that I was going to stop to see how far I had went. It felt like I had gone a good distance but knew that I would overshoot how far I had gone, and follow up the overshooting with some good ole fashioned depression for having a long way to go. I told myself I had only gone about 3 or 3.5 miles. What I would see next was great. 5.1 miles! Over halfway done! I would fly above the clouds for the remaining 4.9 miles!
Just kidding. The way back was good but it wasn't great. I was hilled out and on the last one I stopped halfway up. The pit stop lasted a good 5 seconds and I kept going.
Finishing the mileage was great though. The confidence build cannot be measured. Feels like I'm back.
Tomorrow is the tri. I'm sure I will post about it. It will be one of two posts:
1. The race went off well, I learned a lot about triathlons, showed the race director I was a worthy course captain, made some friends, and feel so excited that I can't wait to work another one!
2. Crash and burn
Enough optimism for now!
Thanks for reading!
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