10 mar 2012

i had planned an easy run for today because i've been putting in a few extra miles lately (yay!) and soccer starts outdoor tomorrow, indoor tuesday (yay!) and i'm just trying to stay smart about not doing too much (yay!). so today was to be 6 easy miles. now, when you run as slow as i do it's not always easy to run easy, so i gave myself permission to walk. i didn't want to walk, but i told myself it was okay, not to get all mad if i did walk.

i took off from the regular parking lot and immediately noticed a couple joggers around the goose pond, so i took the sidewalk, but our paths dovetailed at the end of the pond. they were going nearly my same pace and chatting annoyingly. chatnoying. i knew i could not follow these people for six miles, so i decided that when we got to the traffic signal i'd go whichever way they did not. they went straight, i turned left. as soon as i made the turn i realised this would be a fine route because i would have plenty of sidewalk, i hadn't been this way in a while so it would be interesting, and it would be long enough.

off to a good start.

i just tootled along and things were going fine. trees budding. sunshine. light breeze. interesting construction sites and older homes and one empty lot that i swear contained a house mere weeks ago. the RR tracks were 3.1 miles, so i turned around there and headed back. la-la-la. all is good.

then around 4.5 miles, my mental state began to deteriorate. who runs this slow? you might as well be walking. what a loser! you're old, fat, weak. why don't you just walk, it's not going to make any difference. who cares? no one. no one even cares what you do. why are you even out here? give up!

ouch.

i was still jogging and coming up on a woman pushing a stroller. she was walking, pushing a stroller, and it was still taking me forever to overtake her. but, as i approached and was maybe 10ft back, she looked over her shoulder and flashed me a smile, and turned back and started talking to her baby. "hey, tyka, here she comes! here she comes, tyka! here she is! say hi, tyka! say hi! hi! hi! look at the runner, tyka! look at her go! she is strong, tyka, see how strong she is? she is a strong runner. look at her run! watch her go! go! go!"

she was like my fairy godmother and she waved her word-wand and turned me into a real runner, just like that. "strong", eh? yeah, baby!

i finished up my run with a goofy smile plastered across my heart.