Lost and Found 16+ miles

So, that happened.

At less than 100 days till the Richmond Marathon I thought maybe an update would be warranted.  The last time I posted I casually announced that I (foolishly) signed up for a marathon.

Since then I’ve run, slacked off, run, gotten sick, gone on vacation, run some more.  And now I’m back.

Well, back running that is.... as a writer I’m sadly lacking much writing time these days. I have plenty to write, but I’m not making the time.

You know what I thought on my run today?

Training to run a marathon is just like riding a bike ~ it’ll all just come back to you.

Oh, except that riding a bike is fun and training to run a marathon is a lot like running 800 miles in a season that is unbearably warm in most states, and definitely dangerously hot in Virginia.

And let’s be brutally honest: that doesn’t sound fun at all.

Seriously though, I had the following internal monologue today on my run... actually my running companion du jour would likely point out that it wasn’t an internal monologue so much as a loud vocal diatribe against The Run, but let’s not bicker about the details.

“I hate running.”

“Running sucks.”

and

“Why am I out here?”

We were totally NOT lost. I knew exactly where we were.
I just wasn't 100% sure how to get to where we were going.

At least once a mile I hated running. For a minute. But I had to push through the suck and you know what?

At least ONCE a mile I loved running.

I knocked back 12 miles with a moving average of about 930, which was my plan, and then we really kicked it for the last 4 and ran just around a 9. Mile 16 was an 8:40...

Now, the actual average was slower than all that, because our coaches are all really uptight and don’t want us running through intersections and dodging cars but whatever. So yeah, we stopped to drink and we stopped for cars, and at one point we stopped because I knew that we were off course and I needed to get us turned back in the right direction. Turning L to turn R only works in Disney movies.

But today didn’t suck, even when it did because Runurse & I completely kicked ass for 16 16.5 miles. And maybe that’s because I was kinda cavalier about it. I didn't plan. I didn't worry. I didn’t over think it. 

I just did it like a NIKE commercial.

~ savor the run ~