Getting Better: My 2nd 5K Race!!

This Sunday, I ran my 2nd-ever competitive 5K. I ran the "Elf Run," which is the 2nd of 6 races in the GLM Winter Race Series (no, I'm not running all 6. I am running 4 of them; this was my first one).

In the days leading up to Sunday, I started feeling nervous. The high for Sunday was only 24 degrees! It's been a cold November, so it's not like I haven't run in cold weather yet. But never THIS cold! I wondered if it would have an adverse affect on my running that I couldn't forsee.

I was also nervous about how this race would compare to my last one. I did really well in my last 5K and got a much better time than I imagined. So, even though I made sure to not let that get to my head and to keep my expectations in check, it was tempting to just assume that this race would be even better. I keep trying to remember Pablo Coehlo's timeless novel The Alchemist, in which the protagonist at one point receives a warning about "beginner's luck": bascially, that it is an illusion that doesn't last and that he who isn't prepared for the difficulties that follow the initial beginner's luck is doomed to fail and give up. I had to remember that starting out really well doesn't mean all my races will be that way. Still, I really wanted to beat my old time, and I was afraid of feeling the disappointment of a "sophomore slump."

Well, Sunday morning was just as frigid as expected. Although clear and sunny, it was a bitter 19 degrees out. After going to the wrong building (that's what I get for assuming the SUV full of racers in front of us knew where they were going better than my directions did!), we arrived at the Expo center and picked up my sweet race bib and tshirt. I wasn't really nervous as we waited around with the crowds in the expo center, or as I bobbed up and down trying to keep my legs warm with all the other 5K runners who were crowded into the starting chute in the minutes before the race. I just kept reminding myself not to start off too quickly, to harness the energy of all the runners around me but also not to get fazed by them. And then, we were off! Finally!

The course was pretty boring - it just weaved through a corporate park area. Music is allowed in these races, so I took full advantage of that and let my running playlist pump me up. U2's "Where the Streets Have No Name" came on in the middle of my race, which has to be one of the best running songs ever.

I pushed myself HARD for that last mile. They had timers at each mile, and I remember the surge of empowerment I felt as I neared the finish line and saw myself cross it at 20 seconds earlier than my time to beat. I had done it!!

And that was just the gun time. After waiting in the freezing cold line to get my results, I was stunned to see that my net time was 28:22 - a whole minute better than my last 5K time! And that I got a whopping 17th place in my age group - out of 50 people!

Minute by minute, I'm nearing my goal of medaling in one of the GLM Winter Series races. The races in this series give medals to the top 10 finishers of each gender age group, so realistically, this is my best shot to medal in a race that doesn't give medals just for finishing. I didn't expect one at this race, and I doubt I'll be able to medal in the next one - a 5K on New Year's Eve. But my last two races in this series will be 10Ks, not 5Ks, and I really hope to medal in at least one of them. Not as many people run 10Ks so I'm hoping if I stay on top of my training this will increase my chances of medaling in one of them. Fingers crossed!

Anyway, to sum it up: WOO HOO!! It's such a great feeling that my training is paying off and I can see myself improving. I'm slowly getting better, faster, and more competitive. 17/50 is SO not bad!! If only all my days could feel as good as race days :-)

Why I Run

Ah - the classic "why I run" piece. I can honestly say I never thought I'd write one of these. First of all, I didn't even think I had any overarching reason for running. Most of the "why I run" things I read sound like they could be on a Nike commercial or a Pinterest board full of inspirational quotes. I really didn't relate to any of those because I didn't think any of my reasons for running are buried that deep, honestly. I just want to do it, I like the challenge, I like the attainable goals and the regular exercise (and, of course, the runner's high).

But this weekend, it struck me that maybe I do have a deeper reason than bragging rights and stamina improvement - something that's been motivating me all along and I never knew.

This weekend was one of those times when I was thinking about a bunch of things that are stressful at work, and it made me feel like a goldfish in a bowl: all I could think of was escape. Instead of trying to deal with the stress I just started thinking of how I can't wait until I move up in the world and have a job where I don't have to deal with what I do now. Instead of keeping myself in the present, I daydream of the future and start wondering how the heck I'm gonna get there. It was easier when I was in AmeriCorps, or working part-time, or in college, because whenever things got stressful with my job or living situation I could comfort myself with "it's only temporary, I only have X more months and then I can move on and never look back." But now that I have a full-time job and a place in this community, I can't think like that. I'm here, and I'm committed to my job and my life. I can't just check out whenever things get stressful and unpleasant, and I can't escape my adult responsibilities. So instead, I've started to channel that fight-or-flight urge into running. Instead of figuratively trying to run away, well...I do it literally instead.

Running gives me a way to set my sights higher, break down barriers, and continually achieve greater things - even when I feel like I have no clue how to do that in my professional life. All of us feel like our daily stresses get the better of us sometimes, and it's easy to feel like they're the end of the world even if our head tries to tell us they're not. But running isn't like that. There is no run I can't conquer, and I know that. No matter how exhausted I get mid-run, I know that I can push through and keep going and be rewarded at the end with the sweet triumph of getting it done.

So, I guess that's why I run. Running is always there for me whenever my adult life responsibilities have me thinking "I WANT OUT!" In all those goals and all of those workouts, I can channel both the frustration of feeling overwhelmed by adult life stresses, and the desire to burst out of my life and into something better. Whatever's going on at work, it can't touch me when I'm running. In running I can regain the confidence in myself when it feels like everything else is out of control.

That, and it'll be pretty sweet to get some medals.

Running and Time Management

It's been almost 2 months since I last posted here - yikes! I do feel really bad about that, but life has been a little crazy as I try to adjust to being busier with volunteer work and social stuff and taking on new projects.

You'll also note that I've rebranded and renamed the blog. Now that I like running and am setting all these goals for myself, I don't really identify with the "anti-runner" like I used to.

But the important thing is - I HAVE been running still! Don't worry everyone, I did not give up! Quite the opposite: I ran my first "real" 5K on Sunday, October 13th in my hometown of Cedar Rapids, IA. It was a beautiful, chilly day and I stunned myself by running it in 29:38!! I know that that doesn't sound like a competitive time to any other runner out there, but this is huge for me for my first ever timed 5K! I am lucky to get 2.5 miles in 25 minutes on my normal runs, so to finish a 5K in under 30 minutes was incredible!

I've been keeping up with my running since then, but today I want to talk about a big problem I'm having with training and time management. The problem? Well...it's hard. This fall, as I've joined new organizations and taken on more volunteer work, I've had weeks that are so busy I'm lucky if I can squeeze a run in during the work week (I run in the evenings). Last week I only ran ONCE in seven days (I was not pleased with myself!) because I had something going on every evening except Friday and by then I was too burned out.

This is starting to frustrate me. On the one hand, being busy and doing things in the community is important to me. It was a goal of mine to meet new people and become involved in the community instead of sitting at home and staying in my shell, and I've really worked hard and put myself out there to make that happen. But now that it is happening, I'm starting to see that it's no picnic. But the thing is, being this busy means sacrificing running time. And while my social life is important, running is ALSO important to me. And as I get closer to my half in May, it's going to be less acceptable to skip runs during the week. I want to be more focused on my training, but in order to do that I'd have to give up some of my activities, and that's hard for me. So, many weeks I feel like I'm between a rock and a hard place.

So, I'm trying to kick into problem-solver mode to see how I can reconcile these two things that compete for my time and energy. I could cut back on some of my extra curriculars. But the thing is, I already don't do much more than the essentials: meetings, important events, book club every so often. It's just busy right now and hopefully it will die down a bit after the holidays and I can focus more on training in the early months of 2014.

Another option is for me to do my running at a different time, aka, in the morning. This is possible and I often consider it, but it's problematic for a number of reasons. One: I can't get up early. I just can't. I've tried to make myself get up earlier so many times and I can never stick with it. Two: I don't want to give up evening running, because I like it. After a long day of sitting at work, I look forward to that "release" I get from running. It's theraputic and refreshing. Three: The inverse to Reason 2 - I don't like exercising before work. I don't know why, I just don't. When I run or workout, I like to reward myself by knowing that once I get through it, I have free time. Working out before I have to go to work all day just makes the workout feel like a chore instead of something that adds to my day. I just don't like having a great workout only to have to follow it up by sitting at work for 9 hours. Yeah, maybe I haven't given it enough of a chance, but even if I did, that leads into reason Four: it would make my days (and thus, weeks), longer and more tiring. Some weeks I can barely get through as it is, but having a morning workout would mean a run and possibly an event/late meeting all in the same day and just thinking about that makes me exhausted.

So anyway, that's where I'm at. I'll continue to problem-solve about my time management and try, while I'm at it, to be better at updating my blog too. Happy Friday!