Runner’s High

I’m on a Ragnar Relay team.

 

Whaaat?  *Wiggles finger in ear* 

 

Am I sure?  Well, yes, I am sure, I paid my deposit and everything.  Convinced Tony to do it, too… or maybe he convinced me.

 

I had a chance to do this last year.  A friend of mine has a team and was a few people short last July, about two weeks from the start of the event.  I thought about it, I really thought hard.  I was still nursing Jamie, who had just turned a year old, and I was carrying ten or so extra pounds of what I like to call “nursing weight.”  Still, I went for a five-mile run just to see if I could. 

 

One might note that I made it through labor and delivery without drugs (twice!) and therefore could probably run a marathon if I needed to.  And yes, that argument might hold water for most women.  But both of my labors and deliveries were uber-short and not terribly taxing (I know, you hate me right now).  The physical strain of giving birth was nothing compared to running for two hours straight to me.

 

So I went on that run, five miles in the July heat, and my knees hurt for days afterward.  I reluctantly called my friend and told her that I wouldn’t be a part of the team that year.  I figure that with the nursing and extra weight, there were enough hormones in my body to keep my tendons and ligaments all loosey-goosey and incapable of running great distances.

 

But this year?  Oh, this year I have psyched myself up to go for it.  I did a 10k in September, I regularly run two or three miles a few times a week, now I just have to build up to five or eight miles three times in 36 hours.

 

Holy shit.  That’s a lot of running.

 

Baby steps, right?  Or baby runs, as the case may be.  I’m planning to do the five-mile Tulip Run in April and then add another race or two between then and Ragnar.  I want to try to run three times a week at least from now until then.  This is getting increasingly tough, since tax season begins, well, now and Tony will soon be working all the time.

 

It’s so cliché, but I really never regret going for a run.  I often regret not running when I had the chance.  I’m not fast, and this is a for-fun team, but I don’t want to die, either.  So here’s a late-January resolution for me: run three times a week this year.

 

You know what sucks, though?  Cold running.  I took Buster the other day and I slipped and slid for two miles before packing it in for home.  It was like trying to go two miles on a Nordic Track – slipping with every step.  Buster was covered in frost and looked like some sort of abominable snow beast with tufts of whitened fur on his snout, mane, and tail.  I just looked sweaty and out of breath, I’m sure.  Not only am I not fast, but I am not an elegant runner by any means.  Do you want to feel pretty while you work out?  Work out with me.  The side-by-side comparison will do you wonders.

 

Now accepting all running tips and tricks.  Let me have ‘em!