Back in March of this year, I ran my first one mile race in approximately 13 minutes. I thought I would die. I wanted to walk for part of it, but my buddy, Denis, talked me out of it. I made it over the finish line only to burp puke. But I felt good and I knew I would do it again.
Now it's five months later and I did my second one mile race on the fourth of July (go America!). I ran with the Grandmasters and Masters, which are the over 40s. I am not over 40, I am one year short of 40, but I wanted to run at 8 a.m. to beat the Louisiana heat. I came in close to last. I think there was a man in his mid eighties who finished after me, but I still count it a victory. I finished my mile in 9:30, which is a significant improvement. I never wanted to walk. I did struggle with the mental aspect of running, the ongoing thoughts of "this is nuts, I'm stiff, my knee hurts, what's my heart rate, my face in on fire, I could be in bed," but I also had a few shy positive voices speak up to say, "keep going, you're a runner now, you are out running on a vacation day." Then I heard my trainer Gloria's voice in my head, "you can do it. What's your heart rate? 179, that's fine for a one mile. You will die, but it won't be today." I saw the clock looming ahead and I kicked it into my high gear, I let out the last of the gas in the tank and beat that 10 minute mark. Denis and my friend Debbie were cheering for me and it means the world to have someone looking for you at the finish line.
I ran another mile with Debbie and we can in at 10:16, which was another rocking victory since her first one mile was at 14 minutes. Yeah, we were at the end of the pack, but we ran it and that's pretty damn good. I mean, there weren't that many people up at 6 a.m. on the fourth of July going to run a mile in the hot sun.
Denis ran his mile in 7:30. I guess we'll let a Canadian turned American run in our fourth of July race.
Now we all have a goal to run a half marathon in December. This means a lot of training and a lot less eating. I am setting a goal to lose 20 pounds by December. Each time I want to give up and eat over my allotted meal plan, I am going to imagine running a marathon with or without a twenty pound backpack. I think the choice will be to ditch the twenty pound backpack.
Oh, and the most awesome runner on our recent race day? The unknown guy who finished his mile in like 4:07.