I am Running for my Life

I haven’t written a personal post in a while, because I haven’t had time to sit down and do so. Which sucks, because I’ve run two races in the last month and I had lots to say about them after the runs…but now my brain is mush and I can’t for the life of me remember most of what I wanted to say. I do know that I was thinking of how great it would be to have a twitter feed linked to my brain to record all of the ridiculous things that I think about while running races. 

The Sun Run went well. It was the first run my bf has ever done and he beat me by a minute (which would have been longer but he wanted to stay with me until we both realized I wasn’t going to be able to keep up with him). I am really happy that he accomplished his goal, and I am happy that he has found *some* enjoyment from an activity I am in love with. 

As for my run, I could tel by k4 that I wasn’t going to make under an hour. Our Province was in the middle of an election campaign and being a political nut in my other life, I was right smack in the middle of it and not getting the rest, nor proper nutrition, that would have propelled me to a better time. I came in at about 1:03, so not terrible by any means, but definitely was hoping for a better time. I think its time that I undertake some serious interval training to up my speed. That’s the next goal at least. The day was great and the atmosphere was festive as always, with memories and solidarity with Boston runners interspersed too. It felt good to be in a crowd of 40,000+ runners that day. 

The BMO Half was for sure not as successful as I would have liked it to be, for the same reasons stated above. Between April 6th and May 15th I had a total of 3 days off (2 being the 2 run days), and most days I was clocking in 10+ hour work days. I was not as hydrated as I wanted to be, nor as rested, nor was my nutrition where I was hoping it would be. So I set out with the goal of just completing the run, which I did at 2:29. Given that I was at 2:24 for the last one in November though, I was disappointed. But I also got why I was at the pace I was. I struggled at the end, the last 5k or so wasn’t as smooth as it had been in runs previous. I opted for 15,1 but should have gone 10,1; my energy levels probably would have propelled me to a faster time in that instance. 

Anyway, I finished, the race route was absolutely STUNNING, the day was sunny and warm, and I kept telling myself the honest simple truth: Keep going because there is nowhere else in the world I’d rather be right now, and there is nothing that I would rather be doing than running through my city on this beautiful sunny morning. 

Afterwards I met up with a few friends that included my regular running partner who convinced me to run the Half in the first place. I’m happy I did it but I’ve learned my lesson - no more races during election campaigns!! 

I took a few photos and will post them when I get them off of my phone. Too lazy to do that atm. 

After taking a break from running from the 6-15th, I did yoga over the weekend and then have gone on two short runs before work this week. My new summer thing is to get up at 6am every day, not just run days, and either do yoga, or some core strengthening, or something physical and active before work to get me up and going in the morning. The sun is up and its light out by that time so really I have no excuse! I ran 20 minutes on Tuesday and 15,1x2 this morning. It was a struggle to complete both so I think I just need a slow calm reintroduction to running again, giving myself time to get back on track with rest, nutrition, and hydration. 

Hopefully from here on out my run log will resume as per normal!