Sunday, January 9, 2011

Ididarun and running through a newbe's eyes

So when I last left you, I was feeling a bit down and was headed to the "Ididarun" which was held last night.  This is a crazy race held in a small town through a snowy trail.  4 x2 mile loops which makes for a slow 8 mile race, given the conditions.  It actually went pretty well and gave me hope that all was not lost yet in my training!  I ended up completing the course in around 65 minutes (I think 8:06 pace or so?) which was waaaay faster than last year, and I was actually really pleased with, considering this course.  Unfortunately, some crazy girl ran much faster than me, so my time was only good for second place.  I actually felt really good, and if it wasn't for my stomach giving me some...umm...trouble...the last 2 loops, I think I could have negative splitted and hit a sub-8 pace.  Again, this is not that impressive outright, but running through darkness and snowy trails makes it *slighty* more comforting to me.  So all is not lost....hopefully....

This morning/afternoon I drove back to the area where I teach (ugh 40 minutes) to meet one of my students for her "long" run.  She is training for a 1/2 marathon (her first) in Miami in a few weeks and has raised over $3000 for charity in the meantime.  As an 11th grader, I am totally impressed at her dedication and volunteered to run with her as needed.  Well, today we tackled 10 miles, her longest run ever (previously I did an 8 miler with her as her long run before break).  It was steady run-walk process that took us all over town.  Although it was cold and snowy, we made it and she finished feeling so proud/excited/pumped.  And kept commenting how "it felt like it went by so fast!"  Which made me happy because I am always worried people are totally bored with me when they are running with me because I am random and tend to ramble about stupid things (I know, shocker, if you are a blog reader you would have never guessed.....)  Anyway, the moral of the story was that it really makes me appreciate running when I see it through the eyes of someone who is experiencing it for the first time.  I get so hung up on the fact that I'm "out of shape" right now, or can only hit x:xx pace, or only run XX miles a day or week or whatever, but the truth is, running is amazing.  Hands down.  I wish I could have harnessed the feeling of satisfaction and accomplishment that she was feeling.  It was so pure and refreshing.  I'm so happy that I got to be a part of it, even if the drive time + run time ate away a pretty huge portion of my Sunday!

Now, I'm leaving the coffee shop (and internet...boo) to get ready for the week.  I'm determined to make it better, all around than last week and hoping that I finally feel better in a day or two.  Hope everyone out there has a great start to the week!  Send thoughts of working-internet my way! :)

1 comment:

  1. Just hearing you talk about your random running buddy ways makes me sit here longing to join!
    <3 the other A2 running freak

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