Category Archives: Fitness

52 Weeks, 52 Runs. No. 20: On the rocks

Posted on May 16, 2012 | 31 comments

My relationship with running is on shaky ground this week. We are just not moving forward as a couple. I mean, we are moving forward, but not moving forward, if you know what I mean.

As much as I’d like to blame running for this situation, I know it’s mostly my fault. If I’m not willing to put in real, sustained effort, how can I expect us to develop and grow? But surely running has to shoulder some of the responsibility. If it weren’t so difficult, and if it didn’t make my lungs so angry, and my legs so burny, and my face so red, perhaps I’d be more willing to spend more time sorting through our issues. I’m starting to think maybe we need a temporary separation. Or therapy …

In case you couldn’t tell, I had a bad run this weekend.

Margaritas 5K

Runners as far as the eye can see at the Margaritas 5K in Exeter, N.H.

Margaritas 5K

The aftermath.

It wasn’t my worst time. It wasn’t my hilliest race. But I just felt lousy. And when a run called Margaritas 5K doesn’t make me happy … well, all hope is lost. My first run with a hard-liquor theme, and look what happens.

This was part of the Loco Will Run for Beer series, so naturally the event was fabulous. (Thankfully, it didn’t reflect my lackluster performance.) The only hitch came as we were lining up for our gratis drink at the end and were informed we all needed ID. You could gauge my mood at that point by the fact that I wasn’t willing to schlep back to the car to get it. It takes a lot to make me give up on free booze.

The run itself went something like this: run/stop to tie shoelace/run/walk/run/walk/walk/run/curse/run/take inhaler/run/walk/water stop/run/walk/curse/run/walk/give death stare to hubby who came to run me in/walk/run across the finish line/grimace at photographer.

Not my finest half-hour.

It was exceptionally warm though, the warmest run of the season so far. It became clear that transitioning back to hotter weather is going to be tough. I am going to put my lack of skills down to that, and not to the fact that I am heading for a break-up. Because that would be sad.

Twenty runs down, 32 to go. It’s a long, exceptionally sweaty road ahead.

Margaritas 5KThe event: Margaritas 5K
The location: Exeter, N.H.
The date: May 13, 2012
My time: 33.58 (pace: 10.58)
Hubby’s time: 21.27 (pace: 6.55)
The cause: Exeter High School track and cross-country programs
The T-shirt: Blue cotton short-sleeved
The aftermath: Chicken burritos from Margaritas. Yum! There may have been other bits and pieces, but we were too focused on the burritos.

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Once upon a timer: My first race as a volunteer

Posted on May 14, 2012 | 13 comments

I’m not up to running 13.1 miles yet (or maybe ever, but that’s another story), so when Hubby signed up for this weekend’s Twin Lights Half Marathon at Good Harbor Beach in Gloucester, MA, he suggested I volunteer. My immediate response? “Errrrrrr, ummmm, ahhhhh ……. sure.”

OK, so perhaps I am not the world’s most enthusiastic unpaid laborer, especially when it involves getting up at 6am on a Saturday. But I guess I was a teeny bit keen to take a glimpse behind the race curtain. I said teeny.  

Twin Lights Half Marathon

Runners gather for the Twin Lights Half. The beach is just beyond the grassy dunes.

So I sent off my volunteer email and asked to be assigned to an intersection directing runners. I thought that would be fun, and I would be out there on a course looking dignified for a change (albeit in a bright orange vest). I also chose “timers,” but I secretly hoped the volunteer co-ordinator wouldn’t notice that.

I got assigned to “set-up” and “timers.”

Crap.

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52 Weeks, 52 Runs. No. 19: Strengthening the corps

Posted on May 7, 2012 | 16 comments

Last week, despite my race containing many, many hills (on which I will say no more), I somehow managed to get absurdly close to running a 5K in less than 30 minutes. I am partially convinced the race clock was wrong (seriously, if you had seen me trudging along, cursing the asphalt and the trees and the clouds and … well, everything, really … you’d be doubting the veracity of the timing instruments too). But the official results say I was three seconds away from this milestone, so who am I to argue?

Hell, I thought, If I can do that well in the presence of many, many hills, just think what I can do in their absence. In your face, 30 minutes! Next time you see me I’ll be relaxing with a cold one and basking in the post-race glow …

Which brings me to this week’s run, the Boston Marine Corps Honor Run 5K at Carson Beach, No. 19 in my 52 Weeks, 52 Runs challenge.

Boston Marine Corps Honor Run

Prepping the start.

This run had huge potential. The website said so:

“This is the flattest and fastest course you will find in the Boston area. Perfect for beginner runners or for experienced runners looking for a PR!”

Huge potential. I am not really a beginner, nor am I experienced. Rather, I like to consider myself an experienced beginner. And I was definitely looking for a PR. Perfect …

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52 Weeks, 52 Runs. No. 18: By George!

Posted on May 2, 2012 | 26 comments

Since I started running last year, I’ve packed in a lot of races. So many, in fact, that you’d think one thing would be painfully obvious to me by now: There. Will. Be. Hills. I figure the fact that hills continue to elicit from me such breathless rage either means I have some unresolved hill-related issues from my past or I really need to take an anger-management course.

Looking back through some of my recent posts, I’ve noticed a pervasive “hills = evil” theme. And while they are evil, all this complaining has made me concerned that I’m turning into Stride and Killjoy.

To that end, I have decided to issue a moratorium on hilly rants. Although, this doesn’t apply if a hill is a) unnaturally steep or b) occurs at a particularly inopportune place in a run, such as right at the freaking end. Which brings me to this week’s event, the Lake George Half Marathon and 5K, No. 18 in my 52 Weeks, 52 Runs challenge.

Lake George Half Marathon and 5K

Lovely Lake George on a chilly – but thankfully still – Sunday morning.

I love how the most idyllic settings have produced, for me, some of the most challenging runs. Salisbury Beach, MA; Riverside Park in NYC, the covered bridge in Henniker, NH, and, now, Lake George, NY.

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52 Weeks, 52 Runs. No. 17: A walk/run in the park

Posted on April 24, 2012 | 24 comments

This week, the running gods decided to remind me who pulls the strings. I’d had a series of good runs, posted one PR and then another, and was feeling pretty chuffed about this whole sweaty business. (Not even the speedy bullies from the B.A.A. 5K could truly dampen my spirits, although they gave it their best shot.)

So it was clearly only a matter of weekends before things unraveled. They did, in spectacular fashion, at Sunday’s Melissa Fund Sun Run, No. 17 in my 52 Weeks, 52 Runs challenge.

It wasn’t a pretty sight.

The setting for the spectacularly un-sunny Melissa Fund Sun Run.

Actually, I lie. It was a very pretty sight. This event took place in Manhattan’s Riverside Park, which was awash in that bright new-green you only see in the first weeks of spring. Lovely. We had never been to Riverside before and were excited to see it and run somewhere new. Also, we were thrilled to benefit the Melissa Fund, which aims to eliminate skin cancer. It was established to honor Melissa Bambino, who died from metastatic melanoma at age 29.

There was certainly no sun to be seen as we milled about before the run. In fact, the weather gods looked as though they were going to unleash their soggy fury. But despite the prospect of a damp 30 minutes, I was happy. It was cool and the surrounds idyllic. What could possibly go wrong …

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