Race Day

I finally got to run the race today! I ran the prescribed 10 miles 8 days before the race and I felt great, but today I ran on a trail so I felt completely different. The trail was completely made of mud with some standing water. I felt like I was walking with tennis shoes on solid ice slipping and sliding the whole way. Even though is was really difficult to run, it took my mind off of exhaustion and I just focused on standing up. Williamsburg always provides for rainy days, but I usually run on the road so I was completely caught off guard by the sloughy mud. All in all it was a great race right by a river. I got to run the first 10 miles with my friend Jen, but from mile 2-12 my feet were asleep so I had to slow down and I let her push forward without me. I was very excited to hear the finish line and then was even more happy to see it!

I cannot really feel my legs right now, but I had a great time! I will be training for another race soon!

Hills

Running in Williamsburg is easy compared to Richmond. I never realized how many hills are around my house until I started training near the coast. Hills make me tired much quicker and I am easily overwhelmed by these small mountains. I can always get to the top of the peak, but once I am there I cannot breathe as I am coming back downhill. It usually takes me a longer time to cool myself down after running up a steep incline. I do not like that it makes my downhill experiences less enjoyable. I am SO glad that my race is near a river...meaning that I have already looked at photos from the race and they are all flat. YES!!

I still have not decided whether if I can run this full distance but now with the extra added pressure from my cousin and his wife, who will be running alongside me, I will have a push to finish faster!

Wearing a Watch

I always wear a watch. I need to know the time all of the time. I guess it is my little bit of OCD, but I strongly believe in punctuality. I have a nice bracelet watch that I wear everyday. I bought it on a trip to Switzerland in April. I also have a waterproof watch that I wore when I went to swim practices. Now, that watch is perfect for running because it can count laps. When I first went to school I could not find the athletic watch and so I ran without one. After months of this, I realized that I did not know my pace.

Once I found the watch, I started wearing it all the time to figure out my pace time. I am not sure that wearing a watch is the best thing for me though. It makes me want to know my distance at every second. I would rather run for enjoyment instead of having another scheduled event in my day. Since I have come home, I allow myself to look at the time at either the end of the run or the mileage points.

Eating Well

Since it is Thanksgiving Day I thought is was appropriate to talk about eating and running. Although the best thing about running, according to my runner friend, is “eating anything you want.” She also claims that, “I only run so I can eat [anything].” I am not sure that I agree with this theory.

After running, I feel like I have been kind to my body and therefore I need to reciprocate with healthy food. Even though it is not necessary to eat well on Thanksgiving, I find myself watching what I eat. Honestly, it is not comfortable to run, bouncing up and down, with a flopping stomach and legs. I think that because of running the appetite grows, but it needs to be healthier food.

Running Rhythm

As I mentioned in my last post, I have rhythmic breathing patterns. I remember experiencing this when I was much younger in elementary school and we had to run the mile for fitness testing. Although then I was more concerned with my time than distance, I remember concentrating on my breath.

I need to preface this by saying that I am a musician. I play the cello and I also sing. Music has always been present in my family because my parents are both musicians and my grandmother was a music teacher. Since I was raised taking music lessons, I have always been humming and counting out beats in my head subconsciously. In the fifth grade I got in trouble for humming all of the time and I never knew that I was the one humming. Now that I am in college I have continued music by taking cello lessons and singing in the Williams and Mary Choir, or for those who understand, KWAH.

A couple of days ago I was running with a friend from my dorm. She recently completed her first half-marathon this month but has a natural athletic inclination. I feel a little slow when running with her but she always assures me that I am running at a fine pace. When we were running through campus we got quiet after about a mile and she started listening to my breathing pattern. She started to laugh because she could not believe that I was bringing music into yet another part of my life. I have always had this same style of breathing but I thought that it was normal. There is a constant rhythm to taking the next step so I thought that a breath pattern went along as another rhythm. She and all of the other runner girls on my hall make fun of me now because they say I cannot leave my music behind and just run.

Blindness

Over the past couple of weeks I have been trying to coax some of my hall mates into running with me, not that I do not find the time by myself enjoyable. I just want someone else there to push me to go farther and faster. Also, I am always scared that I will fall on the trail runs. There are several reasons for this fear. Number one is that all of the leaves cover the tree roots and there is never anyone on the trails early in the morning. Number two is because I fail to wear contacts on the early morning runs. I cannot stand taking a shower with contacts on and if I put them on early in the morning, then I will have wasted an entire days worth of wear in one hour.

I have gotten mixed reviews about the thought process behind my lack of vision during runs. Many of my friends are often worried about my tripping and falling but I reassure them when I appear back in the dorm an hour later. I enjoy this temporary blindness though because it allows me to focus on running. I listen to by breathing (more on that later) and to the sounds of nature around me. I know this all sounds a little strange, but it really makes my time alone on the pavement a calming experience. I enjoy this temporary freedom from work and the stresses of college. Although at first I thought that running would give me time to sort out all of the things in my brian, I realized all running really does for me is clear my head. All that I can think about when running is nothing. It sounds strange to non-runners but I am blinded from the lack of contacts and this allows me to forget the outside world, think about nothing, and I just go.

First Courir

As a freshman at William and Mary I decided that I needed to do something monumental with all of my free time. I have always been interested in people who can stretch their physical capabilities and do amazing things. My best friend's mother became interested in running several years ago. She introduced me to running I decided to run my first 5K. It turned out to be an embarrassment since I could not run the whole thing (she was so much faster than I and I was a teenager). Since recovering from this experience I decided to give another race a try. I ran (actually ran/walked a lot) of the Richmond Marathon's 8K. I felt so accomplished after the four or so miles, but I knew that I could do better. I stayed a little after the race to watch the marathon runners finish their race. It amazed me to see the runners run that far in such a short time. I became enthralled with all of the runners and I gained such an appreciation for their persistence. I mean really, 26.2 miles!

So I recently signed up for a Half-Marathon in March of 2010. First, I need to say that I am not an athlete. Upon coming to college I decided that I could make myself an athlete since it is possible to reinvent yourself. I became consistent with by running in August because I am a scheduling nut and it was a way to keep somewhat of a schedule in college. I run a short distance every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday. I have not missed my running time at 8 am yet...except when I had swine flu. Since none of my family is athletic I wanted to document this adventure. I feel that over the past few months I have gained a new outlook on athletics. I expect a slight lifestyle change as I continue running. So this blog will explore the new lifestyle of a new runner.