Channeling my 16-Year-Old Self

Baby Mama has convinced me to run a half marathon. Well, a half of a half marathon, so that's really only a quarter marathon. And if you further consider that makes the distance between 6 1/2 and 7 1/2 miles -- which was just an average day back in high school -- it seems like a perfectly reasonable goal.

Of course, I haven't run seriously since high school, if you can call the running that I did in high school "serious". I have been getting slowly more sedentary as the years have gone by. Sure, there was the Summer of Six Summits when I was in pretty good shape. But since then, injury, grad school, work, and my own essential laziness have conspired to keep me from working out. So 6 1/2 miles seems like quite a long way. I'd love to be able to bust out the full 13 1/2 miles (or whatever approximation of "busting out" my running conjures up), but I don't know if that's really doable between now and Mother's Day.

So, I just did it. I used Google Maps to mark out a 2 mile loop near my house (I love Google Maps, it was sooooo much easier than driving around the neighborhood looking at my odometer) and I started running. (Along with channeling my 16-year-old self, I am also channeling the classic Nike commercials.) I'd run until I felt like I had to give up, and I'd walk the rest of the way back -- but I was at least getting 20 minutes of aerobic exercise regardless. This started just over a week ago. And today, I ran the full two miles. Well, if you can call a 12.5 minute mile "running".

I just channeled my young self, back when I was too stupid or idealistic to know when to give up, and kept putting down the other foot. And today I also had that feeling that I'd made it past the beginning bla's and was ready to start running. How to explain?

When I hike, I feel like crap for about the first 10 minutes. I get all out of breath instantly, my chest tightens up, my muscles get all hot, and I get insanely discouraged by the task ahead of me. I just want to turn around and take a nap with potato chip crumbs stuck to my chin. But after that 10 minutes, I get my wind and can keep going for a long time. Granted, I go slowly for a long time, but I can bust out the 10-12 mile, 3500'+ hikes/climbs. That is not insignificant.

So today, I was realizing that when I was stopping during those first two miles, I hadn't even made it past the crappy feeling yet. I was just giving in before my body had a chance to get used to the elevated heart and respiration rate and settled down in something resembling submission. So, I ran through it today and lo-and-behold, I ran the two mile loop.

Maybe it was just that I started running while it was raining, and I had forgotten how much I love running in the rain. It was a light rain, but a good rain. The air was clean and fresh, my shoes shouldn't glow in the dark anymore, and running through puddles is just fun.

I figure another week of feeling OK with the (short) distance, and I can start seriously working on getting ready for a half of a half marathon.

"I like to run; it makes me smile. I think I'll go another mile."