Getting out of a super warm bed at 5 in the morn to run in the cold, dark neighborhood is just crazy, but I love it. I always think of Clark W. Griswold when he's going to swim with Christy Brinkley, "this is crazy, this is crazy, this is crazy!"
Saturday the 5th of January Darren and I ran 6 whole miles, funny because while training for my first half marathon last September I remember saying several times, "yeah, we only have to run 6 tomorrow!" but this time it was reeeally hard! I was already sore from yoga and it doesn't help that I need new shoes too but we did it and I only felt like I was going to keel over twice, success!!! Before I continue let me back track a little, I mean I didn't just decide to run a marathon yesterday, it's been a long, tough, yet amazing process. After we ran the Go Commando half in October our running stalled quite a bit, lesson learned that is not a good idea because now that we are training for a FULL MARATHON we are hurting! We also decided it is a good idea to do some type of other training besides just running because for two whole days after the half marathon(s) I could barely walk, that's 13 miles and we are training for 26 for goodness sake!!! We had wanted to run at The Greenway which for non Clarkvillians is a very nice running trial which has two different sides, one side is 4 miles both ways and is fairly flat, the other is a little over 5 both ways and is not so flat but challenging. This didn't happen because at the time we had to leave it was 24 degrees! Nathan had rehearsal at nine so we had to leave by six to ensure we had a full hour to run, plus driving time plus stretching. Our 6 mile route consists of running out of our neighborhood, across a very busy intersection, into a not so nice area of town, past the cemetery and all the way down until the road ends and then back again. Funny, when Darren used to run without me (the nerve!) I had a really
hard time believing it was only 6 miles, seemed like so much more but sure enough my handy dandy Mapmyrun says it's so, so it's so.
The temperature when we left was a cool 37 degrees, stark contrast to the 20's like the past few mornings before, I wore a sports bra, long sleeved imitation Under Armour shirt, another short sleeved short and a sweatshirt along with yoga pants a hat and gloves. As soon my feet hit the street I knew I had overdressed, I was sooo cold the morning before so I wanted my make sure I stayed warm. I have mastered the art of "stripping" while running so as soon as we got to the cemetery my gloves and hat were off and shortly after that I was (while running) moving my Shuffle from my sweatshirt to my fake Under Armour, tying my sweatshirt around my waste while holding my arm band in my mouth, ugh, relief! I look over technologized for sure with both a shuffle and a armband with my phone. Turns out I am obsessed with my running time. This happened after my first official race which was the 2012 Queen City Road Race. It was a 5K and really hot that day, 93 I believe and it was only May! I had only been running 2 months at that point and I was already hooked! We had
to wait a long time to get started and I was jumping out of my skin! The gun didn't work so we had a sudden "go!" I was off, I wanted to sprint instantly but knew I needed to stay with Darren, after all he had been running for years and knew what he was doing. Even though we walked twice we still finished with a decent time of 29.15. I felt really bad afterwards from the heat and adrenaline. Shortly after crossing the finish line, feeling like I was going to throw up I looked at Darren and asked, "when can we race again?" He laughed and poured water on my head to cool me off. The following month we ran in the Wilma Rudolph 10K, we started really slow and at one point we were actually in last place with the police car hot on our trail! I was nervous because I had only ran 6 miles one other time before that day but I trusted Darren, and he was right because that last mile we had a lot of energy. We passed a lot of people and finished under an hour. I had already been toying with the idea of running a half Marathon but really didn't know if I could do it. Darren had already ran 3 of them and I was in total awe of him. After a lot of soul searching, prayer, and asking Darren over and over again if HE thought I could do it, I made my decision, I was going to run the Women's Half
Marathon in Nashville. I used the Smart Coach app on my iPad and followed it religiously and if I missed a day or could not run the number of miles I was supposed to it really bothered me. Darren trained with me for "a race I'm not even running in" and lost a lot of weight in the process. We were in the best shape of our lives when race day arrived, September 22 to be exact. My neighbor and friend Katy ran it with me and she did great. The night before the race I could not sleep, I tossed and turned while envisioning how the race was going to play out, as it turned out the race experience was nothing like my vision. I had butterflies the whole 45 mins we drove to Nashville. I tried to eat a little and drink a lot but it wasn't happening. When we got there I nervously tried to untangle my headphones but my hands were shaking so badly I just kept dropping them instead so Darren got me all wired up, pinned my number on me while maintaining the calmest demeanor which really helped to calm me down. Katy and I made our way to the starting line I had this awful feeling something was not right. The gun went off and so were we! We zig zagged around a couple dozen people, adrenaline surging through my veins when all of a sudden my adrenaline was replaced with shear panic, Mother Nature decided to pay me a visit during the worst possible time!!!! I motioned to Katy I would catch up with her and ducked into the first port a potty I saw and indeed my worst nightmare had come true a whole week early and shocker, i did not have a tampon stuffed in my sports bra. Tears came to my eyes as I considered dropping out of the race. Hell no! I have worked too hard to quit so I stuffed a whole roll (slight exaggeration) of toilet paper in my running shorts, said a little prayer to let that get me through the nest 2 hours or so and off I went. I now had a reason to run extra fast! I sprinted until I caught up to Katy and she carried me through until mile 10 or so when I stopped at a water station and was unable to catch up to her. I finished with a time of 1:59.56, not too shabby.
Considering a year ago I was taking pain medication because "doctors" told me I needed it for my back which is pretty jacked up and some days it hurts to get out of bed much less run but running has actually made me feel better! It sounds crazy but I really think the Hydrocodone made it worse! I drank nothing but Coke and had a nasty smoking habit. I ate a minimum of 14 Oreos a day and the rest of my diet was not much better. People thought that since I was thin I was healthy, not so much. Now the strongest meds I take are Motrin, which I admit to popping at least 2 a day. I no longer drink Cokes, just water and the occasional glass of wine. I didn't start running to get healthy or lose weight initially but because I was on the verge of literally losing it and since that's not really an option for my family I threw my some old tennis shoes on and ran around my neighborhood for 1 and a half miles. I had to stop quite a bit but afterwards I felt so much better so after my leg muscles stop throbbing I ran again. Now I run for me. It doesn't cost money to run (well races do but my mom usually helps me out with those) and it is something I do for me and it just so happens I'm not bad at it either. It's also bonding time for Darren and I.
Monday morning, the 7th we did Jillian Micheals Beginning Yoga, she's one tough chick but the next day we had that good sore, you know the kind where you feel like your muscles are ripping in half but getting tone at the same time? Love that. Tonight we are running while the girls are in dance class down Madison St. This Saturday we've got 7, not going to complain until we have to do 20, maybe.
