Back in March, my brother asked me if I wanted to sign up to run a 8k to support the One Love Foundation. I impulsively agreed and told myself that I would start my training that week. I had five weeks to get in shape and be able to run an 8k. To some people, this is a small task. To a former Virginia Tech Varisty Lacrosse player, this is a nightmare.
I have been an athlete my entire life. I am positive that I was on some sort of athletic field or court at least five days a week during my childhood and into my teens. During the other two days of the week and between competitive sporting events, I was running around my neighborhood playing Capture the Flag and Kick the Can. My point? I was constantly running. As I dove deeper into high school athletics, I began to trim the fat off my athletic repertoire and stayed focused on playing lacrosse and basketball. I had a brief stint on the cross country team during my sophomore year but the sheer pain on my parents faces as they had to sit through races was enough to make me throw in the towel (and the fact that I was terrible). To this day, I stand by the feeling that basketball was my passion. I was happy practicing every day and had a very anxious/nervous/excited feeling before every game. The only problem was that I sucked. Being a decent player in the "B" division of a yuppy private school conference was certainly not taking me anywhere past a trophy at graduation. I accepted the fact that lacrosse was the sport that was going to lead me to a college scholarship and after one weekend trip to Blacksburg, VA, I knew where I would be spending the next four years of my life.
As mentioned, I was never completely passionate about lacrosse, I was just above average at it. I was a mediocre player compared to the cream of the crop players that come out of Baltimore private schools. But being mediocre in this area, still gets you a sholarship to a great school. I admit though, my heart was never 100% in it. So this is me taking the blame for about 5% of my misery playing lacrosse at Virginia Tech. I attribute the other 95% to my coach.
And now we are back to running. I played lacrosse for two years at VT and this was about one year and eleven months too long. Two hour practices consisted of half conditioning (at least) and the rest lacrosse. For those college athletes reading this and thinking to themselves, "oh please it wasn't that bad," mark my words. It was ABUSIVE. By age 20 I had undergone two hip surgeries with an outlook that had me on the track for more if I continued playing. I talked to my friends at top five programs and they were appalled at the amount of conditioning we had to do on a daily basis. Fast forward eight years and I wonder why the thought of running makes me cringe....
So as I signed up to run the 8k, as usual, I put off any type of training and decided I was simply going to "wing it." The race was on a Saturday morning and the Thursday before I went out on a date to a sushi restaurant. As my luck would have it, I got food poisoning and was completely out of commission leading up to the start line at the race. I had barely eaten for two days and could only imagine how great it was going to be finishing my 8k at the same time as the half-marathoners. My brother encouraged me to pace myself and I would be fine. I was completely unaware of the concept of pacing myself. I always ran to beat someone else or to not get screamed at. I took his advice and took my sweet time. I ran the entire race (besides one giant hill) and finished in 53 minutes. I was shocked! Running was actually enjoyable?
Since that race in April, I have been running as much as possible....and verrrry slowly. I take my time, enjoy the weather, and clear my head after a long day at work. Most recently, I discovered the Nike + gps i phone app. This app is amazing! It tracks your runs for either time or distance. You can "virtually" run with other people and feel like you have a running partner without having to small talk during the run. As I said, I have been an athlete for my entire life, so I still have a competitive edge. My virtual running partner is a coworker of mine (we will call him Bromeo) and it has turned into a friendly competition each morning with who ran more the night before. If anyone else wants in on this, download the app and let me know! We could have a virutal running club.
In order to keep myself motivated during this little kick, I am going to be THAT person that posts my runs on Facebook. Trust me, I know this is lame, but it's motivational and holds me accountable to what I am saying right now. I fully expect to be "hidden" from several people.
There are a few morals to this story:
1. Do something you normally wouldn't do...running that 8k has changed me quite a bit
2. Get an i phone
