Journey (R)

One Day at a Time

I found myself slacking again . . . putting my run off. The plan was just to sort of lounge around the house this afternoon, and maybe, possibly, run tonight, after my meeting. I wasn’t looking forward to the run. But I read a story online about a 400lb former sumo wrestler "running" a marathon. He broke the world record for fastest time for a marathon finish for someone his size . . . hell he may even be the heaviest man/person ever to finish a marathon, period. He did it in 9 hours . . . that’s a slow walk. I’m sure he jogged part of the time, and stopped and started, etc, but he finished. And I’m young, I’m in decent shape, my body was made for running, and I just want to be lazy? No. I got my ass ready and out the door. I got excited about running. This ex-sumo wrestler "marathoner" was quoted after the race saying it was "pure hell", but he got through it. He talked about bloody, blistered feet, running in drenching rains, delirium after 10 miles, among other things. I was reminded how much I love the struggle, the sweat, the blisters, the fatigue, the weather, the journey, everything about running.

My pace was up from yesterday. Surprising, since I still felt a bit fatigued from yesterday’s run. I took my mp3 player so perhaps the music helped keep my rhythm, my pace. Or perhaps I’m just getting back into the swing of things faster than I thought possible.

Humidity was moderate, the air was warm, the clouds were puffy and white, and they moved quite fast, and the sky was a crystal clear blue . . . it was a perfect spring day, the kind of day you could just lay out under the sky and imagine what shapes the clouds are making (I used to do this when I was a little kid, LOL). It was so nice and comfortable out that I hardly broke a sweat for the first half mile. But body heat builds and by the end I was quite overheated . . . almost too warm to be running, given that I’m not heat acclimated at the moment. It was great though. There’s nothing quite like trudging on, one foot after the other, the long road in front of you, sweltering sun above you, and you can just feel a hint of delirium coming on . . . it never does, but it threatens to.  I drank a glass of water before I left, and a glass of water after I got through.  And this is spring. Wait until 90 degree runs! Ha. Fun fun.

-AR

See Route

3.54 miles (5.7 km) through Millbrook, Amelia Landing, and points north. Start time approximately 2:45 PM EDT on 03/21/2011. Total run time 31:09. Pace 8:48. Weather Conditions: Partly Cloudy/Mostly Sunny, 78F/26C, Dew Point 50F, Humidity 38%, Winds WSW 10mph, 30.19inHg/1022.0mbar and falling.