Tuesday, June 16, 2009

Hail no!

This happened months ago, but it's still a fun story...

After a grueling lifeguard training session, a nice Chipotle lunch,
and a movie, all with Things 1 & 2, I still wasn't ready to call it a
day. Since the weather was so nice(70 degrees, bright and sunny) I
decided to do some grocery shopping and other random errands I'd been
putting off.

I was on my way home, just finished fussing with my dad for wasting
the beautiful weather and not going for a run. It couldn't have been
more than 30 minutes, 45 tops, when the sky practically fell. That's
the only way to describe it. The sky went from clear blue to dark,
looming, and grey. The wind picked up and I decided there would be no
more stops, I just needed to get home before the rain.

So much for that. First, a few big drops. Then I saw a torrent of rain
making it's way towards me. All of a sudden, something hit my car
roof. A branch, I thought. But then it happened again. And again,
getting harder and more frequent. What the eff, I thought. Was my
windshield going to hold up? I couldn't decide whether to keep driving
of seek shelter. But there was none to seek! Other cars just rode by
as if nothing was happening. As usual, mom came to the rescue. I was a
block away, and even without leaves, her block gave quite a bit of
cover.

When It's All Said And Done...

I don’t know why, but it never fails to amaze me when hard work pays off. And that's how I'll summarize the Broad Street Run: all my hard work paid off. I hit my goal of coming in under 2 hours and in that, took 8 minutes off my best 10 mile time and a full 15 minutes off my worst. Granted, I still think of myself as slow, but I'll work on speed in my next phase of training.

I really didn't feel the benefits of my training until about 3 weeks before the race. That's when I started to feel strong and like my endurance ratcheted up. It was almost overnight and makes me wonder what I would have felt like if I hadn't skipped as many workouts. Would I have felt the changes 2 weeks earlier?

I was also happy that I had trained in as many different conditions as I had: Cold, rain, snow, wind, heat, you name it. And what did I get on race day? Humidity, rain, and a little cold, just for good measure. But to me, it was no biggie and I had a party waiting for me at the finish line. All through my difficult miles, I thought about my 4 brothers, who had run ahead of me, and my mom and sister, who were cheering on the side. So yeah, there was definitely pain, especially after mile 8, but I pushed through (another benefit of my training). And when I was almost spend, a quarter of a mile from the finish line, who should appear but N, my original training partner. With her encouragement, I found just a little more in me and made it across the line by the skin of my teeth.

So what's next? Triathlon! I'm registered, I have a bike, I've got a mentor. I just have to stick to the Active training plan and get used to a new pool, and I think I'll be on my way. Broad Street was definitely a boost to my athletic confidence. Now, when I go out, I feel like an athlete, who both trains and succeeds. And that's how I'm approaching my training from now on...