Runner Girl

Yesterday was another first for me. I did my first two run day.  I have been amazed that the longer I run the more things I discover about what I can do.  Yesterday I got up feeling a little better since i have been fighting this sinus infection for a week now and went for my regular morning run.  I came back sweatier than you should have to be in February at 5 AM, but that's another story, and hubby says let's do the group run at West Stride, our regular running store.  They were having a Red Brick Brewery Group run.  Three miles and then a souvenir cup with four beer pulls for $5.00 and free pizza. 

I told hubby "sounds good." I would see how I feel.  Of course in the back of my mind I am thinking "I have been sick for a week.  I hate running after work, and I just ran three miles."  A funny thing happened, all day I was thinking about going home and meeting hubby for the run.  It did not hurt that it was sunny and 58.   When I got home he was excited, "are we going?"  Now if you haven't figured it, out except for running and work, I am a real homebody.  I am not an out all night kind of girl.  To get up and run at 4:30 AM takes discipline and for me that starts with a rockin 9 PM bedtime.  But last night we went. We ran. We drank beer.  We ate pizza, and gasp, we got home at 8 PM.  I was thinking can I do this.  I have easily run this far, but I have never run in the morning and then started a second run at night.  Amazingly, when we started I felt just fine.  Maybe even a little better since I had already had a run. 

Before we left hubby was very clear 10:30 pace.  "You have already run and you have been sick."  Well we took off and ended up with a 9:30 pace.  I tried to console him with the fact I now think, except for recovery runs, that 9:30 is our comfortable pace.  I think he was fine with that.  The run was HILLY.  At around 1 3/4 mile point until 2 1/2 straight up a huge hill after already going up several smaller inclines.  It was a tough course but I felt good.  Then this morning still managed to make it out for my regular 4:30 AM run.  All of that lets me know I have gotten stronger.  I do feel like a runner.  Not because I ran my half, or because I ran twice in a day.  I feel like a runner because I love running. Because I think about it when I am not doing it, and I enjoy it when I am doing it.

Today I ordered a necklace that has a strong runner girl on it and a small medallion that say 13.1.  I am not the car sticker 13.1 girl.  I think it is fine for those who want it.  For me it was a personal thing I wanted to do.  I don't want the sticker on my car, but the strong runner girl  is really what I wanted.  I want to wear it, because for me it symbolizes achieving something I never thought I could.  I know when I look at it and I am facing a challenge it will remind me I am stronger than I think.  A reminder "that hill won't beat me either. "

What Do You Get out of This

 I love running and exercise and I see the benefits it brings me, even say, the last week when I have felt only slightly better than someone who has been run over by a truck.  Still I compare how would I feel if I wasn't running and the answer usually comes to me...worse.  So why not run?  I am not different from other people I go to work at a job that is sometimes interesting, sometimes suicidal thought inducing.  I come home to 6 forlorn kitties, who seem to forget every time I walk out the door that I came home yesterday and probably, universe willing, will today also.  I have a husband, we have a host of quirks, similarities, and differences.  I have good days, okay days, and not so okay days, some of which you may have read about on the blog.  Sometimes I feel great and invincible, and sometimes, like this week, I feel like hurling the alarm clock across the room when it goes off only five minutes after  I could finally breathe well enough to sleep.  Not so different from everyone else.  Then there is running.  We all have things we like to do.  I was with a friend today and we were saying there are things I like to do.  I said "run" she said "sleep and watch House Hunters International."  So I thought we all do these things, not because of some calling, but human nature.  Folks we do it because we get something out of it.  I mean there must be a reason I will be up at 6 AM on Saturday for the Rocks and Roots 5K and my friend will be sleeping in and then watching an HGTV Marathon.

What do I get from running?  I want to be all philosophical and high minded here but a true examination of my conscience won't allow me to lie.  So here goes my superficial, mostly about me list.

1) I like saying I am a runner.  I mean be real, who doesn't?  You have seen the look from people who say "you run?  I could never run."  It is a rush, not like a PR, but a hair flip confident walk away rush.  Ladies, you know what I mean.
2) Cute running clothes, come on.  I am not the girl who goes out in the mismatched neon outfit.  I select my running clothes for my morning run as carefully, if not more so, than my work clothes.  Please remember most of the time I run in the dark.  I did not say it was logical; I said it was what I get from running.
3) I feel powerful and accomplished.  I am pretty confident in a lot of areas of my life, but 2 years ago if you asked me what can't you do?  I would have said "run, I will never be able to run."  So every time I lace up those shoes and put on that cute outfit and run.  I feel powerful.
4) New appreciation for showers.  If you don't know what I mean you have not run hard enough during a humid Georgia Summer.  Or maybe you don't sweat like yours truly.  Try it once.  It will change the way you look at a shower.
5) Couple time.  Hubby and I could not be more different in many respects, especially career wise.  Running gave us something to share and a new way to explore together.  Plus tell me it isn't healthier than a couple's pizza eating contest.
6) My body on running.  I was always a gym girl and thought I was pretty fit.  Then I started running.  I got trim in a way I have never been, even in College.  When I lived on a can of Spaghettios and Vodka.  Now that is a diet.  Not for the faint of heart, and you better be young.
7)Running.  There it is, the last reason.  The biggest secret of them all.  I like running.  The actual act of running.  The way it feels.  The outside air, the quick steps.  The way your whole body just gets in this rhythm.  It is so zen like.  I actually like all the perks, but nothing beats the run.

That's why even though I should probably take the week off or something while I get over whatever this crud is.  I miss the run and I know all the benefits can't be wrong.  So tomorrow, up and out to enjoy a quiet morning just me and the run.  Oh, and you should see my outfit.