Thursday, June 24, 2010

Back in the Saddle

Welcome to my blog! I'm sorry that it has been about a month since my last post. I have to be honest with you--I took a small break from running. On May 30th, I ran a half marathon in the beautiful town of Hyannis, Massachusetts, and after that I just needed to...sit down, figuratively and literally, for awhile. This past week I got back into the swing of things and so now I'm back into the swing of this blog!

For your patience and dedication as a reader of Rude Runnings (thanks Mom!), I am going to give you all the positives and none of the negatives about running the half.

1. I had it in me up until mile 12 to smile and thank the volunteers handing me water. It might have been one of the scariest smiles they've ever seen, but it was a smile.

2. I learned that I love hills (yes, this IS a positive). By the end of the run, I was almost begging for more hills. That's less because I'm good at them and more because you use slightly different muscles when you climb them. But still, they were fun! And they come with a built in "instant gratification" (instant compared with the 2.5 hours it takes to finish a half marathon) --at the top of them, there is relief.

3. I spoke with an old man who was kicking my butt in the endurance and pacing game at around mile 10. He was my pacing mark for about a mile and a half and it was wonderful to see him out there doing that race. It gives me hope that I might be able to continue running the rest of my life.

4. The strip of road along the ocean. Need I say more? Breeze-check. View-check. Distraction from crazy seagulls-check.

5. The following songs: "Down" by Jay Sean, "Break your Heart" by Taio Cruz, and "I believe in a thing called love" by The Darkness. The quality of the songs is arguable (except for The Darkness--that is a fantastic song), but they get me going.

6. The high five that I got from the little girl who had just had her hands wrapped around an ice cold water bottle. Most refreshing high five ever!

7. The nifty medal I received at the end of the race that I wore proudly the rest of the day.

8. The man whose family was waiting at one of the mile markers with slices of watermelon. Seeing that man tell his son that he was going to win it (he was at the back with me--we all knew this was a joke). Then seeing that man share his watermelon slices with a random stranger. Sadly, that random stranger was not me, but it was nice to see charity.

9. And then my day ended, as all good days of hard workouts, easy workouts, and no workouts should end, with brownies.