Run like a Mother!

I’m not sure what it is about people who enjoy running…but it’s this not-so-secret little cult that I’m starting to understand more about.  They love to run, they love to talk about it, they love to read about it, and they love others who feel the same way.  They wave to each other and smile on their 6:00am weekend runs.  They talk about their shoes, their races, their pace, their training schedules and for some reason they never get bored by it.  And this is who I am writing this post for….because, quite frankly, it may sound boring to everyone else.

Or, maybe you are new to running.  Maybe you want to give it another try.  Maybe you’ve been staring at your Couch 2 5k app for months now and want to give it a shot.  Maybe you despise running with a passion {me 6 months ago} or maybe you’re just starting to fall in love with the sport like I am.  So maybe, just maybe you may have a little interest in this post too!

I just wanted to write a little about where I am at in my running journey.  I read a quote the other day that said “I may not be there yet, but I’m closer than I was yesterday”.  That’s exactly how I feel about running.  It’s constant progress.  And while there may be bad days, you are always a becoming a better runner than you were the day before.  It’s actually really amazing to witness in others and of course, see for yourself.

Six months ago my friend Ryann and I committed to running together.  It was rough.  We started C25k and off we went.  2 min walk. 2 minute run. 3 minute walk.  3 minutes running.  I remember the day the voice came over my earbuds and said “run 22 minutes straight”….I immediately thought the app was broken and didn’t listen to it because there was no way in the world I could run that long,  so I didn’t.  I rewound it back a week and went back to the run/walk schedule.  We kept at it though, and I don’t know where the turning point began, but we started to look forward to our runs.

Fast forward to this past weekend.  We decided to sign up for the 5k 4th of July Freedom run our town holds every year.  We had previously done the 5k Color Run and the 10K Camp Pendleton Mud Run but they were both for “fun”.  This was the first race that was timed, and the first race that we were running solo.  We stood together close to the start line and nervously chit chatted, because we both didn’t know what to expect.  It was crowded, the sun was starting to beat down, and we just kept fiddling with our armbands/iphones hoping our playlists and MapMyRun apps were ready to go.  The crowd took off, and we instantly lost each other in the sea of runners and never looked back.

The start was chaotic.  It was hard to get around people, it was hard to set a pace.  I have no idea what  happened but my mouth was so incredibly dry.  Like to the point that I was fixated on it and had no idea how I could keep running because it’s all I could think about.  The water gods must have heard me because they had a water station before the first mile was up and I choked down a cup and kept going.

Now keep in mind, running 3 miles has become a standard distance for me so my goal in this race was to push myself on my pace and actually RACE.  That is something I have never tried to do before and I could tell from the start how different it felt to run outside my comfort zone.  It was hard.  It was getting hot.  And the entire first 1.5 miles was a steady uphill that really made it suck.  It was so cute though because Greg knew the course, so he kept popping up with the boys right where I would need them.  It totally made my day to see them and hear them cheering for me {can you tell?}

Mile 2 brought about complete stomach muscle spasms which was awful but I tried my best to breathe through them so I could really pick up my pace downhill, then round the corner to the finish line.  They boys were there again with the last quarter mile to go and that’s where it was sprint time.  It’s so funny how that second wind kicks in and you always wonder if you could have exerted yourself earlier instead of saving it all until the end.  But there it was…the end!  I crossed the finish line and was exhausted.

I hobbled around chugging water, found my family, and turned to see Ryann just finishing too!  I could tell she just hauled some booty too so I was so excited to see our times and how we did overall.  Within a few minutes I heard them announce that they were posting the initial results.  I walked over to the board where they printed them, and didn’t even get a chance to read them since everyone was crowded around it.  I stuck my hand through, snapped a photo where I could make out my name, and walked away to zoom in on my stats on my phone.

Was I seeing things?  I placed FIRST in the 30-34 age division with a time of 24:13 and a pace of 7:48.  I was completely shocked.  The best part is Ryann walked over with the same stunned look on her face.  She came in 3rd in our same age division {there were 61 women in our age division}.  I came in 26th out of 589 women.  And 110 out of 1092 total runners.

I couldn’t have been more proud to stand up with my friend and get a gold and bronze medal in our first ever individual race.

 We have decided to add a couple of 10k races to our calendar to train for our half marathon in October.  In the meantime I’m using the momentum from this first race to keep pushing myself further in my day to day training.  I took the day off from running Friday since I was really sore, did cross-training on Saturday and then Sunday woke up early and got in my longest run to date.  It felt great to get out there, slow down my pace, and just enjoy my alone time.  I don’t get much of it, so I’ll take it in the form of a 9 mile run.

 That double digit milestone is just around the corner, and I can’t believe it’s ME actually getting there.  I can’t express enough how much I hated running.  I was terrible at it, it brought back awful middle school memories of that wretched mile run, and I just never saw why anyone would ever WANT to run if they didn’t have to.  I’m sure there are so many of you reading this that can relate {if you have even made it this far because who really wants to read about running right?}.  If you do have the slightest urge to get started the Couch 2 5K app is definitely an awesome place to start, or I also love Map My Run if you just want to map out your own course and pace.  When I first started I kept reminding myself that “No matter how slow you go, you are still lapping everybody on the couch.”.  And that was fast enough for me!