This past weekend was not as cold as last weekend so I was a happy
about the slight change of weather. I
still can’t believe I can celebrate temperatures in the 30s as great weather
having grown up in a tropical country. I
sometimes wonder who I have become since there is a time not too long ago that
I swore I would never run unless I was running for my life or even run
outdoors. Earlier in the week it was very
cold and I was talking to a colleague and she saw somebody running outdoors and
she pointed out to me and said “look at that crazy person running outside in
this cold”. I remember trying to correct
her by saying “you should not call him crazy since you know I also run outdoors
in these temperatures” and her response to me was “Oh I know and you are crazy
too. There is no way I would run
outdoors when it is very cold”. The
conversation was a reminder that running is such a mental sport and not only
physical as I had assumed before I started running. I was reminded that although I may complain
about running outdoors or even actually going out for a run whether it is
extremely cold or very hot not everybody is able to do it for various reasons.
It is amazing how we are able to control our minds and decide on what
we can or cannot do. I believe our
attitude plays a huge part in determining what our limits are or what we are
able to achieve. This could be done in
your professional life or even personal life.
This weekend I run 9 miles and spent most of the time reflecting on how
it felt like the first time I run 9 miles last year. I haven’t run the same distance since early
last year since I didn’t have any reason to run that many miles after I did my
first half marathon. I think I celebrated
finishing my half marathon and remained in recovery without doing more than 5-6
miles for the rest of the year. Just
like last year, my strategy was to divide up the miles in my head as a pie
divided up in thirds so that I don’t think about the whole number 9. I would try not to focus on how long it would
take me but think about different things a mile at a time. I decided not to run with any music on so
that I can pray, try and sing as well as try and focus on my breathing. Those who know me know that I cannot hold a
tune for more than a second so singing was going to be so much fun.
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| Different bridges a long the way |
After about half a mile I gave up on focusing on my breathing because I
didn’t like that I sounded like I was huffing and puffing to bring something
down. I decided that would be depressing
and I would end up not finishing my run.
I started singing and realized that I never know any lyrics to any
songs. I guess am one of those people
who would ask a DJ to play a song and not know the title of the song or even
the words of the song and try to sound it out.
😊 My
next thought was to focus on the first third of my pie which was my first 3
miles and count how many people I would meet along the way. For my first 3 miles I met 17 people and 2
deer. These deer stood by the trail like
they either were waiting to say hello to me or were wondering what is this
human doing this early in our area. I
had to stop and start walking with the hope that they would move but since I
don’t run that fast these animals did not move and just stood in my way. While I approached them, I found myself
coughing loudly and tried to shoo them so that I could continue on my run but
they first stood still and watched me until when I guess they realized I was
harmless then moved on. I went past wondering
if they stayed laughing at me in their deer language about how I was trying to
scare them. I was too scared to take a photo of them LOL.
The second third of my run pie which was from miles 4 to 6 did not have
as many people as the first third but I spent most of my time focusing on being
positive and determined on finishing that portion of the run because I would be
more than half way done. While I was in
my happy space and it was beginning to get a little warmer than I had expected
I realized that I was only able to see 7 people during that time. I finally met up some of my running friends
who were doing 10 miles while I was getting closer to my turn around spot which
was such a relief to see familiar faces.
While I was warm and excited, I decided I needed to remove my jacket since
I was warm and at that point my watch decided it would also take a break. The watch was able to save slight more of my first
half of the run and I was going to have to start my watch again for the 2 half
of my run back to my starting point.
Those of you who know about the challenges of gadgets know how frustrating
this can be especially when you have a rhythm.
I had no choice but to start the watch again which of course messed up
my calculations on how far I had gone with my pie and what I had left to do on
my way back. For about a mile and a
half I was just so mad and kept grumbling about my watch and how I need to have
it checked or even buy a new one until when I realized that I should not spend
too much time complaining about something that is still calculating my mileage.
Oh well!
The watch issues happened at about mile 5.5 and I had grumbled enough that
I decided to turn on some African music to keep me going until when I was
done. The joys of listening to African music
is that not only does it take me to a happy place and make me feel like dancing
it makes me stop focusing on what I can or cannot do or how hard the run. I was able to push myself and of course my highlight
at the end of the run was meeting my buddies wrapped up in their blankets still
waiting for me to arrive. I appreciate
the friendship and support that we all share during this journey. Double digits here I come even though it is a
sign that the days to the race are also getting closer.
